I just Beat The GMAT!

Just got back from the test center.

Materials: OG12, online forum and questions
Cat prep: MGMAT free test plus a number of other free CAT, GMAT Prep (Range 670-730 Q43-49 V34-44)
Study duration: 2-3 months, part-time
Applying to: NUS, NTU (Singapore) ; HKUST, HKU (Hong Kong)

Following my preparation I was pretty confident (if anyone remember seeing my 'false confidence' thread in this forum) and was expecting probably 690-720 range. I was so disappointed when I saw my results.

Initially I was a bit concerned for my AWA because I didn't really prepare all that much. I just wrote a few essays a couple of days before the test. The topics I had during the exam turned out alright, though the Issue essay tripped me a little bit. Ended up I only wrote 4 para for the Issue essay.

The Quants were FREAKIN' hard!!

I almost had a panic attack when I found myself guessing way too many questions and time was running out. By the time I finished the quants and had my break, my heart was pounding like crazy. I knew I messed up...

The Verbal was a little bit tricky, but overall ok. At the back of my mind I was still trying to recover from the quants, so I ended up taking a little too much time for most of my verbal questions. I knew a good verbal score will be able to save me so I tried hard to calm myself. In the end, I felt I did pretty well for my verbal and I thought it would be enough to salvage my score...

until I saw it....670 Q45 V36....

V36?? What the...

I was surprised by both my quants and verbal...I was expecting low 40s, even 30s for quant and closer to 40 for my verbal. If I had gotten closer 40 with my verbal I reckon I could have gotten closer to 700.

Well, what's done is done...I'm not planning to retake because I'm hoping to get in 2010. Gonna give myself a few days to recover from the shock then begin working on the admission essay...sigh~ more verbal...

Congrats on your score!! That's a wise decision to start application process. I don't think NUS or NTU demands more than 670.

papgust wrote:Congrats on your score!! That's a wise decision to start application process. I don't think NUS or NTU demands more than 670.

Thanks for the encouragement. It's more of my overall application I concerned about, compared against other candidates. I don't have a who's who list of recommenders and what's what list of working experience. So I thought I could have leveraged on a high gmat score....

man...I still can't believe I got such a low verbal score...the high prep scores I got towards the end of my preparation really had me took my feet off the pedal a little bit...

I think that generally most people would score above 45 for their quants, but it's the verbal that tips the scale.