I just Beat The GMAT!

Hi,

First of all, let me say big thanks to this community for sharing gmat material, experience, tips so generously.

I retook the GMAT in December '13 and scored 750 with a very poor score of 48 on quant. Here is the breakdown Q48+V46+IR4+AWA5. I studied for about 1.5 months. All I studied was for quantitative section. I used the following material:
1. OG 13 (did verbal section only once but repeated quant questions I got wrong)
2. OG for quant review 2nd edition
3. GMATPrep Question Pack1 (finished only quant questions)
3. GMATPrep 1, 2, 3 (I could not get to Test4)
4. Magoosh (loved the video lessons)

Overall I solved more than 1500 gmat quant questions. I chased down each question I got wrong: studied the explanation given on BTG, gmatclub and manhattan club forum and really tried to understand where I went wrong and how I would not commit the similar mistake again. After so much of hard work I was totally crestfallen to see 48 on my quant section. I took the gmat first time in 2008 and my gmat score was 710 (Q48+V39). That means my quant score has not budged one bit with all my efforts. What's more frustrating is that my undergrad was in mechanical engineering. So I don't think fundamentals is my problem. However here are few areas I really struggled with:

1. Silly mistakes: I am guilty of Real brain farts- calculating that A is bigger on note pad and picking B as an answer instead on the screen, not counting no. of columns properly in DI questions, answering Sam's age whereas Mandy's age was asked, writing down a number in such sloppy hand-writing that it looks 35 instead of
31, not switching signs while flipping the inequality, or not distributing the negative sign properly, making a mistake while trying solving the entire quadratic equation in the head etc etc..
2. I hate writing with the note pad and pen given at the test center. As if my handwriting is not despicable enough all ready, now I need to deal with this evil stationary. Believe me, writing down the calculations is the most stressful experience for me during the test. Has anyone faced the similar problem? Will it help buying Manhattan's note pad and pen?

I am just sick and disgusted at my inability to figure out GMAT math. So absolutely any advice will be really appreciated -

- what books, testprep company material I should try?
- Whether I should memorize tables up to 30, certain squares, cubes, square roots, cube roots etc etc
- Whether I should create flash cards for math formulae?
- Any exam or test strategies I should follow?


I am not a perfectionist but really need to retake the GMAT to improve my quant score. I just got rejected by every single PhD Finance program in top75. I need to up the quant score at least to 50. I have spoken with professors on the adcoms and they told me that without 50 on quant it is just an auto reject.

Thank you

[email protected] wrote:Hi mensanumber,

To start, a 750/Q48 is a score combo that most Test Takers will NEVER score in their lives, so you should have a bit more pride in your accomplishment. Calling your Q48 "very poor" makes you sound silly. It's clear that you want to score higher than that, and you *think* that you need to, but some of what you wrote in this post hint at a different problem with your applications.

As to the immediate issue, unless a school/university representative specifically tells you to retake the GMAT because your GMAT score is too low, then there's no reason to retest. If you were rejected by a school that you applied to, then you should call and ask WHY you were rejected. They'll probably tell you. Be professional (you might be applying there again some day) but academic - you're asking them to give you information on how they evaluated you.

Now, if you receive specific advice from the schools themselves to retake the GMAT, then you've clearly identified your "problem" - silly mistakes. As an aside, I would think twice about giving my money to any Financial Expert who makes lots of silly mistakes (especially when he does math in his head). Most silly mistakes occur because a Test Taker doesn't take ENOUGH notes; if you put your energy into fixing this problem then you'd be amazed how easy it is to pick up points.

Now on to your applications:
1) How many programs did you actually apply to? Be honest. PhD level programs are remarkably competitive - and the Officers who decide which applicants to invite nit-pick the ENTIRE application and not just the GMAT score. If they can deduce (during an interview, for example) that you're applying to lots of Finance programs without a specific reason to attend any one in particular, then you probably won't be chosen. Business Schools are looking for amazing applicants who have shown a strong desire to attend their program because it will fit a specific career goal that the School can help to accomplish. There's a decent chance that your GMAT score had nothing to do with your rejections.

2) Who specifically told you that you need a Q50 to get into a PhD program? And were you told that IF you scored a Q50 that you would be let in? That seems like an overly simplistic idea to come out of a major PhD Finance program. If that really was the case, wouldn't the PhD program website listing state that you needed a Q50 just to apply?

3) At the PhD level, there's no such thing as an "auto reject" because every applicant has something going for him/her. This is another overly-simplistic idea, so I have to ask WHO gave you this advice? Certain applicants are clearly stronger than others, but it's because of the OVERALL application (not any one piece of it).

You may have received some vague advice from one person (or even a couple) who told you (conversationally) that a Q50 was a requirement. If it truly is a requirement, then you wouldn't need an Admissions Expert or a Professor to tell it to you; the schools Admissions Office would put it in writing.

My thought is that there's something else in your application that's holding you back. Maybe the essays, maybe the interview. Maybe you're an amazing applicant, but everyone else just looked a bit better.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Hi Rich,

Thank you for your comment. Thanks also for your encouraging words. I would never think of writing the GMAT again if I was applying for MBA.

I knew that I was running the risk of sounding 'silly' when I wrote that my score of 48 was very poor. But for my specific situation (i.e. how hard I worked to improve my score) and in the context of PhD finance admissions, it is not quite as silly as it sounds especially on an 'mba forum'. In fact on a PhD econ/finance forum such as urch nobody would be surprised.

Yes- youre quite right that it would be silly to decide to retake the GMAT based on just one guy's advice. Here is how I arrived at the decision that I need to retake the GMAT to improve the math score:
1. I have received feedback on my rejection from 3 PhD programs so far. They all think that it would help to improve the quant score. Moreover, 3 other admission committee members I know personally gave me the same advice.
2. There are about 90 schools that offer PhD in finance in the US (Im not counting econ). I have visited admission FAQs pages of almost everyone of them. PhD programs ranked as low as 60-70 will also clearly state that they would like to see +90% on quant to be considered seriously for the admission.
3. If I have to quote top tier programs- Wharton mentions average gmat for last entering batch of PhD students as 762. As this average includes gmat scores for all streams including marketing, OB, strategy, finance, I would not be surprised if the avg GMAT for only finance students was +770-780. Columbia, Berkeley, Yale and all other top schools mention in admission FAQs that competitive candidates score +90 on ALL sections which indirectly implies +50 on quant and +740 overall. I can literally go on and on to provide more evidence on how cruel is the world of PhD Finance/Econ admissions and how heavy is the emphasis is on math (gpa and gmat/gre) but i think this one post sums up it all quite well- https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalr ... e_lev.html
It discusses 'Could Steve Levitt (famed economist and author of freakonomics) get into a top Ph.d. program today?'

About interviews: that was not much of a problem with me. I managed to get interview calls from 4 schools that were outside top 75 and I converted everyone of them. But I am not sure if I would like to join anyone of them anymore. Consequently, I definitely want to retake the GMAT and reapply next year.


So I have a solid research to back my decision to retake the GMAT. But I am still curios to know what do you mean when you say- "but some of what you wrote in this post hint at a different problem with your applications." Please could you elaborate.

Ok now onto retake advice. You say taking enough notes should help. That's my biggest problem. My handwriting is abysmal and I have always hated writing with pen and paper. I struggle even more with the laminated pad and pen provided at the test center. (Thats why Verbal section for me is such a fun part of the GMAT as I don't write a single word on the note pad throughout the entire verbal section. ) So it is possible to do well on the quant section while taking minimal notes? Or it is something I will have to get used to in order to ace the math section? Will it really help to buy Manhattan's test simulated booklet and practice with it?

Apart from silly mistakes, I also struggle with Data Sufficiency questions especially those ones that involve inequality and absolute values. Any advice there?

Thanks,