I just Beat The GMAT!

Although many of the posts here and even this very site's name regard the GMAT as an adversary that needs to be conquered, I agree with tennisdiva in her latest post where she wrote that we need to "love the gmat." While I didn't end up loving my GMAT, I did come to a mutual understanding and respect for it. I had spent the last eight weeks of my life studying for this test and the most important days were these last few days where I found the mental edge I needed to succeed. Thanks to all those who gave me advice so readily here on this forum. I posted some of my prep stuff on the strategy forum but I'll repost my practice test scores here to provide a full debrief.

The Prep

I recently realized that since I'm getting older (recently turned 29), this is probably my last chance to go get an MBA before my wife and I start a family. Signing up for a GMAT prep class and the exam is my way of forcing me to make a decision about it once and for all. Having not taken an admission exam since the SAT's in high school (which I aced), this has been a humbling and nerve wrecking experience. I have taken many CATs for professional certification purposes over the last few years so I do understand the demoralizing nature of those exams. With that said, here's what my prep looked like.

I signed up for the Princeton Review prep course because it's offered through my employer in mid-March. Since then, I've used exclusively the Princeton Review: Cracking the GMAT manual, OG 12, Princeton review's online resources, and GMATPrep/PowerPrep. I only did the AWAs for the Princeton Review CATs since they're graded.

3/15 PR CAT #1: 640 (V39/Q39) AWA 4/4
4/3 PR CAT #2: 610 (V33/Q42) AWA 5/6
4/11 PR CAT #3: 690 (V41/Q44) AWA 5/3
4/17 GMATPrep CAT #1: 710 (V39/Q48)
4/26 PR CAT #4: 670 (V40/Q43) AWA 5/6
5/1 GMATPrep CAT #2: 720 (V40/Q48)
5/2 PowerPrep CAT #1: 710 (V41/Q47)
5/8 PR CAT #5: 640 (V39/Q39) AWA 6/6
5/9 PowerPrep CAT #2: 730 (V39/Q50)

While I was happy to see some scores around my target of 700, I was extremely nervous that I would be right on the edge based on what I read here about the correlation between GMATPrep and the actual exam. These last few days were torture because I really didn't know what to focus on and I was trying to keep from over testing myself. I ended up doing all the problem solving questions in the OG and I spent time skimming through the MGMAT Sentence Correction book and the Beat the GMAT flashcards. I also skimmed through Spidey and Sahil's grammar notes.

The problem is that while I am a good writer and I have strong reading comprehension skills, I have no grammar foundation. I took creative writing classes in college and I don't remember learning any grammar past second grade. Even after all this time preparing for the GMAT, I cannot tell you what a participle, hanging modifier, or past perfect is. When my Princeton Review classmates all were nodding knowledgeably about VPIMPS (Verb Tense, Pronouns, Idioms, Modifiers, Parallelism, Subject-Verb Agreement), I stared blankly at the board. When they shouted out what the subject and object were, I... stared blankly at the board. I simply didn't have the foundation to succeed at sentence correction in the standard way. Since we all know that our ear can only identify accurate grammar about 60% of the time, my goal was to up this magically to 80% by training my ear to filter out non GMAT friendly sentences. Even now I don't know how I do it. I see my instructor shaking her head every time I answer and sentence correction problem. It's basically me staring at the sentences, while crossing off choices because they "sound stupid." I don't recommend this method.

The Test

The night before the test, I went to bed around 1 am after trying to mentally prepare myself for the day ahead. I imagined the GMAT as something that was my friend and this friend was going to open doors for me. I was trying to mentally get myself excited about taking the GMAT rather than scared. The next morning, I awoke around 9 am, ate breakfast, and took a shower. I then changed into comfy clothes (including a new sweater that my wife had gotten me and which she assured me was lucky). I then ran into the bedroom and jumped around excitedly shouting "GMAT, GMAT, GMAT!" while my wife looked at me as if I were a crazy person. I was trying to force myself to get excited and dare I say happy about taking this test. I packed myself some mini cliff bars and a drink and popped a caffeine pill at 10:00 am. My test was at 11:30 am so I was precisely timing my caffeine intake based on years of personal experience.

Sitting in my car about to leave for the testing center, I cued up my ipod to "Say it Aint So" by Weezer and put it on repeat. I'm an avid kayaker and this is my song that I listen to before I run any challenging whitewater. The mellow intro eases my anxiety and the crunchy hook gets my adrenaline flowing in a positive way. I figured taking this test was mentally the same as running a tough river although the consequences are much milder in that there is little chance that I'm going to die taking this exam. The sun was shining and singing at the top of my lungs as I drove to the testing center, I knew I had found my happy place.

My testing center is actually located at the Pearson Vue headquarters building so it took a little while to find the right room. I immediately asked where the restroom was so that I could see how much time it would take me to get there and back during my breaks. Fortunately it was just down the hall. After going to the bathroom (I have a small bladder and I didn't want that on my mind at all), I checked in at the desk. I gave the camera a goofy smile as my picture was taken and before I knew it, I was sitting in front of a computer screen picking the schools that I would be sending my scores to. It seemed unreal to see those names in front of my eyes: Stanford, Harvard, Northwestern, MIT, and Dartmouth. Those were schools that growing up I had placed on an unreachable pedestal and I was now starting my journey to attend one these schools.

As I started writing my essays, I realized that this particular GMAT had the essays in reverse order from what I was used to. This threw me off a little but I think I did them fairly well. My examples were not as strong as I would normally have liked so I'm guessing I may get a 5 on them instead of a 6. We'll see. After the essays, I took a bathroom break and had a drink. Now the fun was about to start. I tried really hard to stay in the moment although my mind was racing. I didn't really pay attention to the time but in my head I kept pushing myself to go faster. A few problem solving questions took too long to answer but quickly made up for those on data sufficiency questions which I usually can get through in less than a minute. I had plenty of questions from my weakness areas (exponents and factors) but fortunately there was maybe only on probability/combination/permutation question which is my weakest area. Overall, I felt that I had done similar to the GMATPrep in terms of math performance. I had to guess on a few questions but I knew that I was on pace to hit my goal score of 700.

At the halfway point, I exchanged my writing pad for a new one and I replaced one of the markers which was running dry. I actually had plenty of pad left for the verbal section since I rarely write anything down (since I don't know what I'm doing), but I wanted a fresh start. I took another bathroom break, ate a mini Cliff bar, and had a drink. I also brought some eye drops with me to the testing center because I didn't want my eyes to get too fatigued from staring at a computer screen. The first few verbal questions struck me as pretty hard. They were sentence corrections with idioms that I didn't remember. I made educated guesses and I moved on. The reading passages were short and the critical reasoning were pretty easy to figure out. The difficulty definitely is similar to the GMATPrep test. I did find myself going at a fairly quick pace but that was because I really didn't know what was going on. I would look at a question, scan the answers, make my choice after crossing off a few obviously poor choices, and I moved on before I had a chance to second guess myself. I tend to be an instinctual test taker and I trust my instincts much more than I trust my judgment after over-analyzing a problem. Before I knew it, I had 20 minutes to go and only 3 problems left. I can tell you that those 3 questions were the longest 3 questions in my life. They were 3 sentence correction questions and I couldn't even read them because I knew that three clicks later, I'd have my score. Doubt began to creep in as I analyzed my performance in my head. I started thinking about every scenario and had to really focus to finish the test. It took me 10 minutes to finish 3 sentence correction questions.

When I was done and after I checked my demographic information, I was presented with the question to see the score or cancel. There was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to see the score for better or for worse. I hadn't come this far to chicken out. In my head, I felt that I had scored a 710 based on how I felt I did on the two sections. When the score flashed 750, my heart skipped a beat. The 48 on quant was what I was expecting but the 45 on verbal was just crazy. I average around a 39 or 40 on verbal and I have never scored higher than a 41. To jump up to a 45 was beyond anything I could have possibly imagined. It was a Christmas miracle... in May.

I raised my hand signaling that I was done with the test and the proctor escorted me out. The administrator at the desk handed me my printouts with a smile. She had seen my score and asked me if the test was everything that I expected. I smiled and said that the testing center was very comfortable and that I had more fun taking the test than I expected. I didn't comment on the score at all and I didn't outwardly display any excitement. I walked from the testing center into the elevator and there, alone in a steel box, I punched the air victoriously. I had done it.

Very entertaining read! Congratulation! I need to go get myself a lucky sweater/sweatpants, or maybe even the entire lucky outfit down to the boxers.

good read, but I don't like the fact that the secretary at the front has access to your scores
the last thing I need after a bad score is for a secretary to give me the long face

next time I test I'm going to tell the secretary don't give me no reaction at all regardless of my score

Wow, Eskimoroll that truly was a great read, very descriptive and humourous. You did amazing on the test, 750 with v48 and q45 is excellent and I'm sure you are very proud. It seems the way you approached the test worked perfectly.

eskimoroll wrote:I actually had plenty of pad left for the verbal section since I rarely write anything down (since I don't know what I'm doing), but I wanted a fresh start.

But I have to say you are too modest! You clearly do know what you are doing otherwise you would not be able to hit such a high score on the GMAT. And the mere fact that you don't use your pad all that much is even more impressive. Do you do the majority of your calculations in your head? I'm sure I would faint if I didn't have a pad to scribble on.

eskimoroll wrote:Before I knew it, I had 20 minutes to go and only 3 problems left. I can tell you that those 3 questions were the longest 3 questions in my life.

I think this also confirms your skill level. The fact that you can finish a test such as this one with about 15mins remaining (for argument's sake - clearly those 3 sentence corrections only took longer because you realised you had so much time left so you made the most of it) and get a 750 is pretty damn impressive.

Do you think it was your intelligence that contributed most to this score or your ability to judge questions and answer choices better than most? Regarding the latter you seem to indicate that you normally select your answers using a process of elimination: "I would look at a question, scan the answers, make my choice after crossing off a few obviously poor choices, and I moved on before I had a chance to second guess myself." If this approach benefits you the most do you think you could elaborate a little on it as I would love to speed up my response times.

Thanks again for posting that excellent debrief!

DAYNE wrote:good read, but I don't like the fact that the secretary at the front has access to your scores
the last thing I need after a bad score is for a secretary to give me the long face

next time I test I'm going to tell the secretary don't give me no reaction at all regardless of my score

Actually she was one of the two testing administrators. Of course they see the scores. They see everyone's scores before they print them. On other types of tests that I've taken where I haven't done as well, they never made any sort of comment. I don't think you have anything to worry about that they'd give you a long face.

JGoode wrote:Wow, Eskimoroll that truly was a great read, very descriptive and humourous. You did amazing on the test, 750 with v48 and q45 is excellent and I'm sure you are very proud. It seems the way you approached the test worked perfectly.

eskimoroll wrote:I actually had plenty of pad left for the verbal section since I rarely write anything down (since I don't know what I'm doing), but I wanted a fresh start.

But I have to say you are too modest! You clearly do know what you are doing otherwise you would not be able to hit such a high score on the GMAT. And the mere fact that you don't use your pad all that much is even more impressive. Do you do the majority of your calculations in your head? I'm sure I would faint if I didn't have a pad to scribble on.

eskimoroll wrote:Before I knew it, I had 20 minutes to go and only 3 problems left. I can tell you that those 3 questions were the longest 3 questions in my life.

I think this also confirms your skill level. The fact that you can finish a test such as this one with about 15mins remaining (for argument's sake - clearly those 3 sentence corrections only took longer because you realised you had so much time left so you made the most of it) and get a 750 is pretty damn impressive.

Do you think it was your intelligence that contributed most to this score or your ability to judge questions and answer choices better than most? Regarding the latter you seem to indicate that you normally select your answers using a process of elimination: "I would look at a question, scan the answers, make my choice after crossing off a few obviously poor choices, and I moved on before I had a chance to second guess myself." If this approach benefits you the most do you think you could elaborate a little on it as I would love to speed up my response times.

Thanks again for posting that excellent debrief!

Thanks for the kind words. One clarification though, I use tons of paper when doing the quant section but I use little when doing the verbal section. For verbal, I don't know what the 2/3 split is at least consciously so I just put a/b/c/d/e on the sheet and I cross things out. For reading comp and critical reasoning, I don't right anything out at all.

It's definitely not my intelligence but I think it's my ability to not mentally crack under pressure. For both my SATs (10 years ago) and this particular exam, I actually did better on the real test than any practice test I think largely because I enjoy the experience. Over the course of our studies, we all learn what a gmat question looks like and which answers the test like (including the traps). For most of us, going to the testing center and seeing the question on the screen makes our mind go blank for a second. What I did constantly during the test was I forced myself to accept the moment and have fun with it. When the weight of what I was doing would creep into my mind, I forcefully pushed it away and imagined I was just at home working through problems.

For speeding up the Quant section, I do the standard plugging in the answer and other tricks to get through problem solving. For data sufficiency, don't write anything down as you read the prompt. Figure out what its asking for first because most times, you can figure out what is needed to answer the question without writing anything down at all. From there its the standard a-d or b-c-e analysis. For speeding up verbal, I don't know since I just read the question and answer it. I know what I'm doing on quant but in verbal, I just try to relax and not get too much in a rush to finish.

Ah right, that makes sense! Doing the quant section without the pad would be an immense feat.

I definitely agree with you about highlighting the importance of not cracking under pressure. I will use your approach when I am taking the test for real and try to imagine that I am in my room at home just having a beer and going through a few questions. Ok, not that casually but at least I will try to trick my mind into thinking that there is nothing to panic about.

Good luck with your MBA apps Eskimoroll, I'm sure you will get the place you want. Thanks for the tips!

Just a small update... I got my official scores today (that was quick!) and I got a 6 on my AWA.

congratulations excellent debrief

what are you target schools?

Hey congrats for the good results and more importantly for the great positive attitude.

I am 29 as well and and my exam is in less than a month away. My idea is the same that now is the best time to pursue MBA because with family the priorities will change at lot.

GMAT makes you really to stretch and pay attention to details.

Good luck,
Slavi

sh00nya wrote:congratulations excellent debrief

what are you target schools?

Thanks! My target schools are Stanford, HBS, Kellogg, Sloan, and Tuck in that order.

lordspace wrote:Hey congrats for the good results and more importantly for the great positive attitude.

I am 29 as well and and my exam is in less than a month away. My idea is the same that now is the best time to pursue MBA because with family the priorities will change at lot.

GMAT makes you really to stretch and pay attention to details.

Good luck,
Slavi

Thanks lordspace. Yeah, having kids will definitely change my priorities. I'm excited about pursuing an MBA but a little bummed that I won't have kids for a couple years. My wife and I would love to start a family soon.

Great score! I completely agree with the "cross out the stupid sounding answers" method. That's what I used for sentence correction, it was a whole lot easier than memorizing all the grammar rules.

Wow, this is a blast from the past! As you guys can see, it's been over a year since I last posted in this thread. Thanks havok for the bump!

Since that time, I've gotten into b-school and I will be starting this fall. The GMAT was the first step (and an important one) in the long application process so best of luck to all of you!

Alex