-
arvinds.m5
- Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Wed Jun 23, 2010 1:21 pm
Hi Guys,
Here is my wonderful GMAT experience. I haven't got the best score to be excited but felt satisfied after just 2 weeks of serious prepartion.
After having worst winter, sweden has ever experienced (2009), on my birthday i.e. May 5th, decided to give GMAT. The plan was not new, it was floating in my mind for two years and finally fed up and want to get rid of it. I targeted June 23rd. The pace intially was too bad and continued the same until end of May with freaky parties on weekends and just spending 2 hours per day (I know not good enough, 1st mistake).
The pace was little improved after 2 weeks with 3 hours preparation on week days and ofcourse parties continued on weekends. It's damn good summer in Sweden and really missed each day and felt jealous when people (esp girls) were partying in sun with scarce clothes. I was too selfish to spend money on GMAT material and GMAT mock tests (2nd mistake) and mostly depended on free stuff from Internet. After having a wonderful party on june 5th, decided to be particularly serious for the next two weeks without any fun and parties.
Then the ideal pace started, 3 hours on weekdays and 8 hours on weekends. I was giving most of the free tests from Internet (believe me it's no good) and my score was just hanging around 600. Still I have motivated myself and tuned my brain to stay focused. I have four good mock tests with me(3rd mistake, will explain later on), 2 from old GMAT powerprep and 2 from new GMATPrep. My plan was to give these tests on each day starting from 4 days prior to D-day. So, I have started with 1 old test (including essays) on June 19th and ended with floppy show (don't wanna reveal the score). 20th scored 580. I surfed through the web and really got scared by seeing the scores published by other aspirants (mostly 680 to 750). 21st I have un-installed the GMAT powerprep and installed GMAT prep and seriously prepared to start the test. When I saw the AWA session, they were the same arguments from previous test, quickly skipped to find quants questions also repeating. I was very confused and realized that I have messed up with the softwares and the one which I have installed was the GMATPrep version 2, the the previous one which I presumed to be poweprep was gmatprep version 1. I got to know that the GMATPrep has two versions only from this forum. No real big difference between version 1 and 2. So the final drawback was, I couldn't assess my real stand on the GMAT preparation. Though I was very confident, targeted only 680. I was simply revising on the last day and watched football matches and slept off early. Do some work out atleast once in a week during the preparation, it really helps to rejenuvate the nerves.
After having good 8 hours sleep, got up at 6.30 and had quick shower and good breakfast (very imp, refrain from eating too much, it will make you drowsy), Packing my bag with some chocolates and red bull, headed to exam center. Such a small building and it looked like a ghost house with most of the rooms deserted. Finally made to the examination room with a pumping heart and noticed 2 invigilators (Not ghosts
). With no time to relax, I had to start the test right away though my scheduled time was 30 minutes later. So, motivated myself for 5 mins in the toilet, thanks to spacious toilet and especially the big mirror. By the time I came back there was one other guy (only 3 for the test) who has started the test before I did.
The first few mins was horrible since the other guy was banging the keyboard. Unfortunately, my center didn't provide ear plugs. It seems the provision will differ from center to center. I closed my ears and tried to concentrate, first 5 mins gone without nothing. I got some good points and started writing the essay. Argument was a letter from CEO to HR blaming the HR department for the poor profits since the new recruitments were not fruitful and the company is not getting the best minds compared to 5 years back when they were having good profits with new recruitment of new best minds. The issue was also easy, Preserving natural resources is the responsibility of the individual, not the government. 8 mins break is very little time to manage so many things like using the restroom, motivating yourself, eating chocolate, drinking red bull....but I have managed anyway. The Quants started with pretty simple question in inequalities and there was negligible increase in difficulty level until 5th question. 6th question was tough and took some time to solve. As you might already know, Please concentrate much in first 10 questions even though you take some acceptable extra time. The quants part ended without much satisfaction but in time.
After finsishing the Quants, Please do not try to revise If not satisfied. Instead use the 8 minute break effectively to motivate yourself and score good verbal score to compensate the Quants. I love the verbal part so much because we don't know How bad we have answered unless we see the score. The red bull from break didn't work out as such, slowly the letters on the screen were dancing as they danced for Darshil in Taare Zameen Par movie. Really do your best to concentrate, every second is important. Take a deep breath when ever you see the RC. Please do not relax atleast for few seconds beacause you get mostly easy questions at the end and you don't have time to answer (4th mistake). The best way to solve RC is grasp the meaning as much as possible, though it is tough it helps a lot. Out of three RCs, two were really big and wasted good chunk of time. So, I had to guess for the last 5 questions though they seemed to be easy. And it costed me dearly in verbal score. The final score flashed on the screen and I was little depressed since I didnt reach my target score.
I went and got my report and invigilator commented that it was the highest score in this center, the average score of the Swedish is 560. Sorry Sweds, I don't want to be mean to you. One reason might be that the center was opened just 4 months ago. Even though I was depressed a bit, I gave a gentle smile but some how she understood my fake smile and looked at my colleges. She realised that I was not applying for swedish institutes. I came out of my center and lit a cigarette lost in my thoughts, thinking whether it was good score. Then called my Mom and she asked me to feel better and happy since this is the best score for just two weeks of preparation, felt little relaxed after this. And you can imagine aftermath of GMAT exam, beer cans packed in the car, went to beach with my friend and boozed until late night.
----------------------------------------------------------
Sorry for boring you with long story. Now hit me back with your suggestions by seeing my profile
* Graduate in BE, Computer science from Madras University with 72 %, Dont know how much is the GPA
* Joined as trainee in Cognizant and quickly moved up to two levels in 3 years
* Having total 5.5 years of exp in Cognizant by July - 2010
* currently in Sweden for 1.5 years now, planning to go back to India next month
* Curretly working as Application Service Manager at client base Astrazeneca, though not really a good management role.
* When I go back to India I am not sure about my role, but I expect to be in some project lead role.
* Applied to HEC, Cambridge, IESE, Carnegie-Mellon and Queens
* Not so much into extra curricular activities. This is my target for the next few months
1. Do I need to re-take the test ?
2. Will I get admission to one of the univ mentioned above ?
3. Any other good univs for this score.
4. Any suggestions to tune my profile
Here is my wonderful GMAT experience. I haven't got the best score to be excited but felt satisfied after just 2 weeks of serious prepartion.
After having worst winter, sweden has ever experienced (2009), on my birthday i.e. May 5th, decided to give GMAT. The plan was not new, it was floating in my mind for two years and finally fed up and want to get rid of it. I targeted June 23rd. The pace intially was too bad and continued the same until end of May with freaky parties on weekends and just spending 2 hours per day (I know not good enough, 1st mistake).
The pace was little improved after 2 weeks with 3 hours preparation on week days and ofcourse parties continued on weekends. It's damn good summer in Sweden and really missed each day and felt jealous when people (esp girls) were partying in sun with scarce clothes. I was too selfish to spend money on GMAT material and GMAT mock tests (2nd mistake) and mostly depended on free stuff from Internet. After having a wonderful party on june 5th, decided to be particularly serious for the next two weeks without any fun and parties.
Then the ideal pace started, 3 hours on weekdays and 8 hours on weekends. I was giving most of the free tests from Internet (believe me it's no good) and my score was just hanging around 600. Still I have motivated myself and tuned my brain to stay focused. I have four good mock tests with me(3rd mistake, will explain later on), 2 from old GMAT powerprep and 2 from new GMATPrep. My plan was to give these tests on each day starting from 4 days prior to D-day. So, I have started with 1 old test (including essays) on June 19th and ended with floppy show (don't wanna reveal the score). 20th scored 580. I surfed through the web and really got scared by seeing the scores published by other aspirants (mostly 680 to 750). 21st I have un-installed the GMAT powerprep and installed GMAT prep and seriously prepared to start the test. When I saw the AWA session, they were the same arguments from previous test, quickly skipped to find quants questions also repeating. I was very confused and realized that I have messed up with the softwares and the one which I have installed was the GMATPrep version 2, the the previous one which I presumed to be poweprep was gmatprep version 1. I got to know that the GMATPrep has two versions only from this forum. No real big difference between version 1 and 2. So the final drawback was, I couldn't assess my real stand on the GMAT preparation. Though I was very confident, targeted only 680. I was simply revising on the last day and watched football matches and slept off early. Do some work out atleast once in a week during the preparation, it really helps to rejenuvate the nerves.
After having good 8 hours sleep, got up at 6.30 and had quick shower and good breakfast (very imp, refrain from eating too much, it will make you drowsy), Packing my bag with some chocolates and red bull, headed to exam center. Such a small building and it looked like a ghost house with most of the rooms deserted. Finally made to the examination room with a pumping heart and noticed 2 invigilators (Not ghosts
). With no time to relax, I had to start the test right away though my scheduled time was 30 minutes later. So, motivated myself for 5 mins in the toilet, thanks to spacious toilet and especially the big mirror. By the time I came back there was one other guy (only 3 for the test) who has started the test before I did.The first few mins was horrible since the other guy was banging the keyboard. Unfortunately, my center didn't provide ear plugs. It seems the provision will differ from center to center. I closed my ears and tried to concentrate, first 5 mins gone without nothing. I got some good points and started writing the essay. Argument was a letter from CEO to HR blaming the HR department for the poor profits since the new recruitments were not fruitful and the company is not getting the best minds compared to 5 years back when they were having good profits with new recruitment of new best minds. The issue was also easy, Preserving natural resources is the responsibility of the individual, not the government. 8 mins break is very little time to manage so many things like using the restroom, motivating yourself, eating chocolate, drinking red bull....but I have managed anyway. The Quants started with pretty simple question in inequalities and there was negligible increase in difficulty level until 5th question. 6th question was tough and took some time to solve. As you might already know, Please concentrate much in first 10 questions even though you take some acceptable extra time. The quants part ended without much satisfaction but in time.
After finsishing the Quants, Please do not try to revise If not satisfied. Instead use the 8 minute break effectively to motivate yourself and score good verbal score to compensate the Quants. I love the verbal part so much because we don't know How bad we have answered unless we see the score
. The red bull from break didn't work out as such, slowly the letters on the screen were dancing as they danced for Darshil in Taare Zameen Par movie. Really do your best to concentrate, every second is important. Take a deep breath when ever you see the RC. Please do not relax atleast for few seconds beacause you get mostly easy questions at the end and you don't have time to answer (4th mistake). The best way to solve RC is grasp the meaning as much as possible, though it is tough it helps a lot. Out of three RCs, two were really big and wasted good chunk of time. So, I had to guess for the last 5 questions though they seemed to be easy. And it costed me dearly in verbal score. The final score flashed on the screen and I was little depressed since I didnt reach my target score.I went and got my report and invigilator commented that it was the highest score in this center, the average score of the Swedish is 560. Sorry Sweds, I don't want to be mean to you. One reason might be that the center was opened just 4 months ago. Even though I was depressed a bit, I gave a gentle smile but some how she understood my fake smile and looked at my colleges. She realised that I was not applying for swedish institutes. I came out of my center and lit a cigarette lost in my thoughts, thinking whether it was good score. Then called my Mom and she asked me to feel better and happy since this is the best score for just two weeks of preparation, felt little relaxed after this. And you can imagine aftermath of GMAT exam, beer cans packed in the car, went to beach with my friend and boozed until late night.
----------------------------------------------------------
Sorry for boring you with long story. Now hit me back with your suggestions by seeing my profile
* Graduate in BE, Computer science from Madras University with 72 %, Dont know how much is the GPA
* Joined as trainee in Cognizant and quickly moved up to two levels in 3 years
* Having total 5.5 years of exp in Cognizant by July - 2010
* currently in Sweden for 1.5 years now, planning to go back to India next month
* Curretly working as Application Service Manager at client base Astrazeneca, though not really a good management role.
* When I go back to India I am not sure about my role, but I expect to be in some project lead role.
* Applied to HEC, Cambridge, IESE, Carnegie-Mellon and Queens
* Not so much into extra curricular activities. This is my target for the next few months
1. Do I need to re-take the test ?
2. Will I get admission to one of the univ mentioned above ?
3. Any other good univs for this score.
4. Any suggestions to tune my profile
