YOLO GMAT Method, how managing expectations got me a 700!

I'm not a US citizen and therefore my exposure to standardized testing is quite limited. This is something I realized after 6 GMATs without hitting the 700 mark.

My record for GMAT testing had been the following:
GMAT 1: 530
GMAT 2: 610
GMAT 3: 600
GMAT 4: 590
GMAT 5: 650
GMAT 6: 660

My 6 GMATs got me nowhere. I did apply to different programs and ended up on the waitlists of both Booth and Tuck. When I got feedback from both of them, they basically said: "You've got what we are looking for, your only problem is the GMAT". A 660 is not even within the 80% range of any school in the top 10 list. Being an international and a bit low on the experience side (I applied with 2 years Work Experience), I needed a boost in my app.

Therefore I decided to retake the GMAT... for a 7th time... Its too much, but giving up has never been an option.

I purchased the exam for 2 months after this decision.

I started to study quite hard and got 720's and 740's in my practice tests. This was something that was happening ever since I got my 650 in the GMAT. Nonetheless, my performance during the exam was not optimal because, as I said starting this post, I am not good at standardized testing.

One day talking to my Boss in my current job, he gave me one of the greatest piece of advice I've got during this GMAT journey. He talked to me about a movie called "The Fan". In this movie a baseball player starts to have performance issues during the games and therefore starts losing his place as the top player in the team. After several bad performances, he decides to not care about the game anymore and just do it for the fun of it. When this happened, he started to out-perform his peers and regains his status as the top player of the team. He told me I should try not caring that much about the exam, and just doing it.

I'm not sure if this actually happens in the movie, what I do know is that it makes sense for me. I tend to do well in the exam when not having high expectations. So I thought... what the hell... lets give it a try...

So I focused on work and on a girl I was seeing quite often. One thing led to another and just about 1 week before the exam I got one of those "It's almost time to take your GMAT" emails. I realized I hadn't really studied, so I thought... Its one thing not to care, its a very different thing not to care AT ALL!!! So I decided to change the date for the exam. When I realized, the cost of changing the exam a week before is the same as purchasing a brand new exam. I thought... it's not cost efficient to change this exam... so what the hell... take it...

As it was a week before the exam, there is not really much you can learn by then. So hell... I partied and got drunk. Sunday evening I did a practice test. In this test I got a 730 and did quite well in the verbal section. This gave me high hopes because I realized... the fact that I had not studied, made me more open to new problems. This happens because the more you study, the more you tend to think some problems may only be solved one way and therefore you stick to that method. But when you know your concepts (myself I studied the Princeton Review Crack the GMAT book, the official guide and took a GMAT class) and you are open to all the different issues that can arise inside one single GMAT problem, I think you are ready to go!

Monday morning, the day of the exam, I woke up, got there early, did about 10 quant problems and got on to it. After several hours of nonfrustrating, relaxed GMAT taking I got my 700!!!

I do have to admit... I did cry. But hell... 7 exams later, it gets to you...

Do get me wrong... it took me 2 years to get there. I studied a lot during this time. I was quite committed. I had all the concepts reviewed and I understood what constituted a wrong answer (which leads to a correct answer using the elimitation method). Nonetheless, it was a relaxing and a bit careless exam taking that led me to the performance I needed to get the number I wanted.

If you don't do well in standardized testing, I suggest to loosen up a little and have fun. Who knows... maybe a YOLO GMAT may take you where you want...[/u]

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