After a long struggle and a failed exam in November (680 - Q49/V33) today I finally beat the monster and am very happy about it.
First of all, thank you guys for everything. Had it not been for you and this fantastic forum, I would have never reached my dream score. If I ever get into B-School and finish it, you can say, this is because of you. I will not say it is not.
It’s a bit hard to describe the plethora of feelings that rushed me now that I have finally won over my long-time arch-enemy, the GMAT. I have envisaged many times this moment, but now actually living the reality of having an acceptable score is really something else. I know the battle is really over. There will be no more frustrated moments of finding out that what I though of as a 750 is 580 indeed and that my verbal score is once again under 35.
Since my feelings are not important to anyone but me and you – just like me once – read this forum to get ideas about this dreaded exam, which really is a wicked piece of work, that’s exactly what I’m gonna give to you.
I. First, some general things to consider (warning: some of these things will be highly unorthodox, but they helped me to achieve my score, if only one of them helps you, you already make my day):
1, Don’t let anxiety overcome you. This is my most important advice. Think about the GMAT as the hated relative who comes over to the Christmas Dinner and will surely make a scene. You know this will happen. And since it will happen, there is absolutely nothing you can do to avoid it. So embrace the idea of actually liking this stupid relative. Embrace the GMAT. Let it become the sluggish, unresponsive relative. You don’t like relatives like these, but they are relatives, anyway. You’ll know when to let go and to severe family ties, anyway .o).
2, Don’t think you can’t do it. You surely can. If I could, anyone can. My verbal score improved from 25 to 41 (including an 8 point increase during last month) and I don’t speak English better than before (I am not a native speaker) and have absolutely no more knowledge about English grammar. I know a lot more about the GMAT, though and this helps.
3, Don’t think about time as a barrier. 75 minutes are a lot of time and you can play my strategy. Hide time. Don’t let it boost your anxiety. Don’t calculate all the time how many minutes you have left per question, whether your statistics have become better over the course of the last 10 questions or not. You’re not there to make statistics, GMAC doesn’t give you any points for that, you are there to answer the questions. The time-hiding strategy applies naturally only if you can finish the test in time during you practice sessions. Then, there’s absolutely no use getting all jittery about time issues. You can concentrate on the questions better.
4, If you can afford it and like to travel, make the exam in a foreign city. Although everyone says it is better to stay home, for me, this really helped a lot. I am on vacation now and vacation is good. Oh, did I just finish the GMAT? Who cares? I am not home and this gives me a lot of extra energy. There’s a lot to explore out there and I don’t have to watch the familiar faces.
5, A little magic can’t hurt. My best friend’s mother is an astrologist and she provided me with times to leave home, arrive at the test center, etc. Does this sound like rubbish? It might be, but it provided me with one thing. A determination. A belief that what I do is right. Isn’t this a great feeling? It surely is and it alleviates anxiety. Do whatever you can to make this happen. You will wonder what makes all the other people at the test center so fricking nervous. Smile and know that you came to win.
6, Don’t overlearn. For my first exam I learned 2 weeks non-stop (2 complete tests/day), following the 2 months phase with 2 hours of daily learning,. I was so tired in the end that I hardly knew my name. This time, I did something else. I learned less, but my days and hours were more concentrated. It really helped.
7, Know your weaknesses. If you are great at Critical Reasoning, then don’t practice it as hard as you practice for example geometric Data Sufficiency questions. Don’t try to boost your score in areas where it’s high. Even though this sounds trivial, it isn’t. People – including me – happen to practice those tasks that they do well., Why? Because it gives them the dubious feeling of success. But this success is clearly faulty.
8, There are eggs and then there are eggs. No two problems are the same. They can be similar but they are not the same! Always read the whole question, the whole sentence and the whole paragraph. There might be a hidden “not” somewhere that reverses the whole meaning and then you’re trapped. That’s what the test writers expect. Fall short of their expectations! Don’t let them defy you!
II. Now, about the specific parts of the test:
The analytical writing can be intimidating at first, but believe me, it is not that bad! This is where you can say what you think. And it will be heard. Yes, you can start your sentences with “I” and you’re expected to do so. By the argument part be sure to damn all the assumptions of the writer. You are there to criticize it, after all. By the issue part, you should concentrate on telling your real opinion about the issue. Don’t try to be someone else. Remember: the schools you apply to get your little essays and even though no-one will read them thoroughly at GMAC, your literary work will be read by the admissions officers, so you might put some humor in it and be yourself. They might find out if you’re mimicking somebody else. You surely don’t want that, do you? Think about this as if you were writing a play or a little novel. Make up a story and defend it. Your essays will be convincing.
The math part didn’t give me a lot of headaches (I used to be a high school math teacher once), but then again there are some important things to consider, even if you’re good at math. Practice can’t hurt, but this time I didn’t practice math at all, yet reached 48. And I’m happy with it. I used Kaplan’s GMAT 800 for the math part. It had the hard questions I needed to have for my practice. I completed the Official Guide as well, but it was too easy for me. Only the last 20-30 problems were a bit harder than the rest.
1, Problem Solving: read everything twice. Or three times. Always know which parts are compared. Always take a look at the question another time. Is it dollars or cents? Cubic meters or cubic centimeters? Tons or kilograms? These are the easiest traps and many people fall for them. Don’t rush. Rushed answers are bad answers and you don’t want to lose 10 points because you did the calculations right but the answer is still bad, because you just calculated the incorrect thing. Nobody gives you points for your calculations. Sadly.
2, Data Sufficiency: it’s not as hard or bad as it seems to be. Remember, don’t solve the problems! Find out whether you can solve them or not. And remember, no is also an answer. A good answer! It is hard to train the mind to accept this and know that a good answer to a DS question can be a no, but it surely can.
The verbal part was the real monster for me. I am not a native speaker but English is like my second mother tongue. Against all these things it seemed nearly impossible to even get close to 40 points. I started from 25 in August and reached 33 in November with very hard work. Whatever I did, I failed and my mood started to sink. There was no motivation left when after each exam I learned that from the 41 questions I got 15-20 wrong. Then I started to apply new methods during the past four weeks and boy, did they wonders for me! Today, I reached 41 points and didn’t suffer a bit trough the exam.
1, Sentence Correction: for me, the hardest part was forgetting what I like and learn what is right. I like lengthy sentences and wordy constructions, we are polar opposites with GMAC. One strange tip for all of you out there: if you have to choose between two answer choices, always choose the shorter one. You’ll be right at about 75% of all cases. That’s better than the 50-50 you get by random choosing. SC is the easiest of the three tasks and with a lot of practice, you can master it relatively easy and it comes repetitive after a while. That’s good, because it doesn’t drain your brain on the real exam, you can get through the usual ones (modifiers, parallel constructions) in 15-20 seconds and earn valuable time. I used PowerScore’s SC Bible, it is a rather good book.
Another piece of good advice in SC format:
A, If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it!
B, If they are broken, don’t fix me!
C, If we aren’t broken, then they fix them!
D, Had they been fixed, we wouldn’t be broken!
E, Fix me, I’m broken. )))))
2, Critical Reasoning: CR was my nemesis for a long time. I simply never got it right and couldn’t find the logic behind all these stupid arguments. But then, the CR Bible helped me out. It is worth its weight in gold. In about 2 weeks everything fell into its place and since then GMAC really has to get a nasty assumption question to make me sweat. But even those can be mastered. The Official Guide is also very important at this point and I also ordered the extra Verbal Guide and did all the questions in that one, too.
Good advices for CR: scope, scope and scope. Don’t fall for what your mind is telling you! If the argument states that small green men have taken over the management of the plumbing in Manhattan and the mayor is nervous because their productivity is falling because of their frequent telespheric phone calls to Mars, you have to believe all this rubbish and think about it as true. If it is a weaken question, look for the answer that tells you that they can communicate without phones and you have just found the right answer. If the argument is stupid, you have to be stupid, too. Don’t try to be clever, it doesn’t pay off.
3, Reading Comprehension: RC is the part you can improve most. I have to admit that I hate most of GMAT topics (let’s be honest: who likes them?), but I learned to embrace them. If it was molecular biology, I let a little TV screen run in my mind with the National Geographic logo. If it was history, I always envisaged the leaders the passage was about. I always created pictures in my mind and these pictures helped me a lot. I tried to read the passages as if I was enjoying them. I became an RC pervert and this boosted my scores.
Inference and suggestion questions: don’t infer and don’t suggest anything! This is really important. Be narrow-minded, behave like the colleagues you hate most because they are so stupid that it hurts. Your investment will be rewarded with precious GMAT points.
III. Other things:
Learning material:
Official Guide 11th Edition
Official Verbal Workout 11th Edition
PowerScore Critical Reasoning Bible
PowerScore Sentence Correction Bible
Manhattan GMAT Reading Comprehension Guide
Kaplan GMAT 800
Princeton Review’s GMAT2009
My practice exams:
690 (Q49/V35) – GMAT practice CD test #1
640 (Q47/V31) – MGMAT practice #1
680 (Q47/V35) – MGMAT practice #2
640 (Q48/V31) – MGMAT practice #3
710 (Q49/V38) – MGMAT practice #4
760 (Q50/V41) – GMAT practice CD test #2 – this really helped, this was the day before yesterday and it gave me a lot of self confidence
MGMAT practice tests are really great, but the math part is remarkably harder than the official one, nevertheless they are the best practice material available on the market.
The real exam:
720 (Q48/V41)
This is the end of my debrief. For all those out there, with GMAT still to complete, know that you can succeed and you can do it. GMAC might be clever but people working together, like on this forum, are cleverer.
Good luck everyone,
Marcell
720 (Q48/V41) - I finally beat the monster :o))))
- MarsellusW
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Freedom comes when you learn to let go,
Creation comes when you learn to say no.
Creation comes when you learn to say no.
- logitech
- Legendary Member
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Marcell
You are one amazing person! And I hope I will sit in the classroom in my MBA program with people like you.
Well done master.
Good luck at your applications,
You are one amazing person! And I hope I will sit in the classroom in my MBA program with people like you.
Well done master.
Good luck at your applications,
LGTCH
---------------------
"DON'T LET ANYONE STEAL YOUR DREAM!"
---------------------
"DON'T LET ANYONE STEAL YOUR DREAM!"
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Amazing De-brief!!!
And I must say that the above words are so not true!!! Your written English skill is Awesome.I don’t speak English better than before (I am not a native speaker) and have absolutely no more knowledge about English grammar
- MarsellusW
- Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
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Thank you for the kind words, guys!
I just got up and put my GMAT books in a paper bag that will be left behind in my car in Vienna. A strange feeling indeed. But I won't need those books on my trip to Paris
Keep up the good spirits, drink a lot of spirits (it can't hurt, can it? ) and I wish you all good luck, but most of all a happy new year!
I just got up and put my GMAT books in a paper bag that will be left behind in my car in Vienna. A strange feeling indeed. But I won't need those books on my trip to Paris
Keep up the good spirits, drink a lot of spirits (it can't hurt, can it? ) and I wish you all good luck, but most of all a happy new year!
Freedom comes when you learn to let go,
Creation comes when you learn to say no.
Creation comes when you learn to say no.
-
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MarsellusW wrote:Thank you for the kind words, guys!
I just got up and put my GMAT books in a paper bag that will be left behind in my car in Vienna. A strange feeling indeed. But I won't need those books on my trip to Paris
Keep up the good spirits, drink a lot of spirits (it can't hurt, can it? ) and I wish you all good luck, but most of all a happy new year!
I hope you can enjoy Lido or Le Moulin Rouge
I just enjoyed it in the summers and still looking fwd to one.
-
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Hey,
U r one amazing guy and thanks for the points.
I will surely take note of your suggestions.
and
Congrats and have a fun and successful 09
U r one amazing guy and thanks for the points.
I will surely take note of your suggestions.
and
Congrats and have a fun and successful 09
- ronniecoleman
- Legendary Member
- Posts: 546
- Joined: Sun Nov 16, 2008 11:00 pm
- Location: New Delhi , India
- Thanked: 13 times
that was one inspiring debrief!!!
thanks and congrats!!!
thanks and congrats!!!
Admission champion, Hauz khaz
011-27565856
011-27565856
MarsellusW wrote:After a long struggle and a failed exam in November (680 - Q49/V33) today I finally beat the monster and am very happy about it.
First of all, thank you guys for everything. Had it not been for you and this fantastic forum, I would have never reached my dream score. If I ever get into B-School and finish it, you can say, this is because of you. I will not say it is not.
It’s a bit hard to describe the plethora of feelings that rushed me now that I have finally won over my long-time arch-enemy, the GMAT. I have envisaged many times this moment, but now actually living the reality of having an acceptable score is really something else. I know the battle is really over. There will be no more frustrated moments of finding out that what I though of as a 750 is 580 indeed and that my verbal score is once again under 35.
Since my feelings are not important to anyone but me and you – just like me once – read this forum to get ideas about this dreaded exam, which really is a wicked piece of work, that’s exactly what I’m gonna give to you.
I. First, some general things to consider (warning: some of these things will be highly unorthodox, but they helped me to achieve my score, if only one of them helps you, you already make my day):
1, Don’t let anxiety overcome you. This is my most important advice. Think about the GMAT as the hated relative who comes over to the Christmas Dinner and will surely make a scene. You know this will happen. And since it will happen, there is absolutely nothing you can do to avoid it. So embrace the idea of actually liking this stupid relative. Embrace the GMAT. Let it become the sluggish, unresponsive relative. You don’t like relatives like these, but they are relatives, anyway. You’ll know when to let go and to severe family ties, anyway .o).
2, Don’t think you can’t do it. You surely can. If I could, anyone can. My verbal score improved from 25 to 41 (including an 8 point increase during last month) and I don’t speak English better than before (I am not a native speaker) and have absolutely no more knowledge about English grammar. I know a lot more about the GMAT, though and this helps.
3, Don’t think about time as a barrier. 75 minutes are a lot of time and you can play my strategy. Hide time. Don’t let it boost your anxiety. Don’t calculate all the time how many minutes you have left per question, whether your statistics have become better over the course of the last 10 questions or not. You’re not there to make statistics, GMAC doesn’t give you any points for that, you are there to answer the questions. The time-hiding strategy applies naturally only if you can finish the test in time during you practice sessions. Then, there’s absolutely no use getting all jittery about time issues. You can concentrate on the questions better.
4, If you can afford it and like to travel, make the exam in a foreign city. Although everyone says it is better to stay home, for me, this really helped a lot. I am on vacation now and vacation is good. Oh, did I just finish the GMAT? Who cares? I am not home and this gives me a lot of extra energy. There’s a lot to explore out there and I don’t have to watch the familiar faces.
5, A little magic can’t hurt. My best friend’s mother is an astrologist and she provided me with times to leave home, arrive at the test center, etc. Does this sound like rubbish? It might be, but it provided me with one thing. A determination. A belief that what I do is right. Isn’t this a great feeling? It surely is and it alleviates anxiety. Do whatever you can to make this happen. You will wonder what makes all the other people at the test center so fricking nervous. Smile and know that you came to win.
6, Don’t overlearn. For my first exam I learned 2 weeks non-stop (2 complete tests/day), following the 2 months phase with 2 hours of daily learning,. I was so tired in the end that I hardly knew my name. This time, I did something else. I learned less, but my days and hours were more concentrated. It really helped.
7, Know your weaknesses. If you are great at Critical Reasoning, then don’t practice it as hard as you practice for example geometric Data Sufficiency questions. Don’t try to boost your score in areas where it’s high. Even though this sounds trivial, it isn’t. People – including me – happen to practice those tasks that they do well., Why? Because it gives them the dubious feeling of success. But this success is clearly faulty.
8, There are eggs and then there are eggs. No two problems are the same. They can be similar but they are not the same! Always read the whole question, the whole sentence and the whole paragraph. There might be a hidden “not” somewhere that reverses the whole meaning and then you’re trapped. That’s what the test writers expect. Fall short of their expectations! Don’t let them defy you!
II. Now, about the specific parts of the test:
The analytical writing can be intimidating at first, but believe me, it is not that bad! This is where you can say what you think. And it will be heard. Yes, you can start your sentences with “I” and you’re expected to do so. By the argument part be sure to damn all the assumptions of the writer. You are there to criticize it, after all. By the issue part, you should concentrate on telling your real opinion about the issue. Don’t try to be someone else. Remember: the schools you apply to get your little essays and even though no-one will read them thoroughly at GMAC, your literary work will be read by the admissions officers, so you might put some humor in it and be yourself. They might find out if you’re mimicking somebody else. You surely don’t want that, do you? Think about this as if you were writing a play or a little novel. Make up a story and defend it. Your essays will be convincing.
The math part didn’t give me a lot of headaches (I used to be a high school math teacher once), but then again there are some important things to consider, even if you’re good at math. Practice can’t hurt, but this time I didn’t practice math at all, yet reached 48. And I’m happy with it. I used Kaplan’s GMAT 800 for the math part. It had the hard questions I needed to have for my practice. I completed the Official Guide as well, but it was too easy for me. Only the last 20-30 problems were a bit harder than the rest.
1, Problem Solving: read everything twice. Or three times. Always know which parts are compared. Always take a look at the question another time. Is it dollars or cents? Cubic meters or cubic centimeters? Tons or kilograms? These are the easiest traps and many people fall for them. Don’t rush. Rushed answers are bad answers and you don’t want to lose 10 points because you did the calculations right but the answer is still bad, because you just calculated the incorrect thing. Nobody gives you points for your calculations. Sadly.
2, Data Sufficiency: it’s not as hard or bad as it seems to be. Remember, don’t solve the problems! Find out whether you can solve them or not. And remember, no is also an answer. A good answer! It is hard to train the mind to accept this and know that a good answer to a DS question can be a no, but it surely can.
The verbal part was the real monster for me. I am not a native speaker but English is like my second mother tongue. Against all these things it seemed nearly impossible to even get close to 40 points. I started from 25 in August and reached 33 in November with very hard work. Whatever I did, I failed and my mood started to sink. There was no motivation left when after each exam I learned that from the 41 questions I got 15-20 wrong. Then I started to apply new methods during the past four weeks and boy, did they wonders for me! Today, I reached 41 points and didn’t suffer a bit trough the exam.
1, Sentence Correction: for me, the hardest part was forgetting what I like and learn what is right. I like lengthy sentences and wordy constructions, we are polar opposites with GMAC. One strange tip for all of you out there: if you have to choose between two answer choices, always choose the shorter one. You’ll be right at about 75% of all cases. That’s better than the 50-50 you get by random choosing. SC is the easiest of the three tasks and with a lot of practice, you can master it relatively easy and it comes repetitive after a while. That’s good, because it doesn’t drain your brain on the real exam, you can get through the usual ones (modifiers, parallel constructions) in 15-20 seconds and earn valuable time. I used PowerScore’s SC Bible, it is a rather good book.
Another piece of good advice in SC format:
A, If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it!
B, If they are broken, don’t fix me!
C, If we aren’t broken, then they fix them!
D, Had they been fixed, we wouldn’t be broken!
E, Fix me, I’m broken. )))))
2, Critical Reasoning: CR was my nemesis for a long time. I simply never got it right and couldn’t find the logic behind all these stupid arguments. But then, the CR Bible helped me out. It is worth its weight in gold. In about 2 weeks everything fell into its place and since then GMAC really has to get a nasty assumption question to make me sweat. But even those can be mastered. The Official Guide is also very important at this point and I also ordered the extra Verbal Guide and did all the questions in that one, too.
Good advices for CR: scope, scope and scope. Don’t fall for what your mind is telling you! If the argument states that small green men have taken over the management of the plumbing in Manhattan and the mayor is nervous because their productivity is falling because of their frequent telespheric phone calls to Mars, you have to believe all this rubbish and think about it as true. If it is a weaken question, look for the answer that tells you that they can communicate without phones and you have just found the right answer. If the argument is stupid, you have to be stupid, too. Don’t try to be clever, it doesn’t pay off.
3, Reading Comprehension: RC is the part you can improve most. I have to admit that I hate most of GMAT topics (let’s be honest: who likes them?), but I learned to embrace them. If it was molecular biology, I let a little TV screen run in my mind with the National Geographic logo. If it was history, I always envisaged the leaders the passage was about. I always created pictures in my mind and these pictures helped me a lot. I tried to read the passages as if I was enjoying them. I became an RC pervert and this boosted my scores.
Inference and suggestion questions: don’t infer and don’t suggest anything! This is really important. Be narrow-minded, behave like the colleagues you hate most because they are so stupid that it hurts. Your investment will be rewarded with precious GMAT points.
III. Other things:
Learning material:
Official Guide 11th Edition
Official Verbal Workout 11th Edition
PowerScore Critical Reasoning Bible
PowerScore Sentence Correction Bible
Manhattan GMAT Reading Comprehension Guide
Kaplan GMAT 800
Princeton Review’s GMAT2009
My practice exams:
690 (Q49/V35) – GMAT practice CD test #1
640 (Q47/V31) – MGMAT practice #1
680 (Q47/V35) – MGMAT practice #2
640 (Q48/V31) – MGMAT practice #3
710 (Q49/V38) – MGMAT practice #4
760 (Q50/V41) – GMAT practice CD test #2 – this really helped, this was the day before yesterday and it gave me a lot of self confidence
MGMAT practice tests are really great, but the math part is remarkably harder than the official one, nevertheless they are the best practice material available on the market.
The real exam:
720 (Q48/V41)
This is the end of my debrief. For all those out there, with GMAT still to complete, know that you can succeed and you can do it. GMAC might be clever but people working together, like on this forum, are cleverer.
Good luck everyone,
Marcell
Awesome! Thank you.
-
- Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
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What a pleasure reading your de-brief. People like you are born to succeed - I know you will have great apps, and go to the B school of your choice! You have the mind, the spirit and more importantly so the attitude.
Waiting to hear which school was lucky enough to get you
All the best,
-ngufo
Waiting to hear which school was lucky enough to get you
All the best,
-ngufo
People Never Fail ... They just Give Up
- MarsellusW
- Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
- Posts: 21
- Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2008 6:15 am
- Location: Budapest, Hungary
- Thanked: 1 times
- GMAT Score:720
Thanks for these kind words , I'm really not worthy of them, they give me the false sense of being a good guy I actually submitted 2 out of the 3 applications yet on the day following my triumph over GMAT and I hope to see an answer in a week or two. I can hardly wait for them.ngufo wrote:What a pleasure reading your de-brief. People like you are born to succeed - I know you will have great apps, and go to the B school of your choice! You have the mind, the spirit and more importantly so the attitude.
Waiting to hear which school was lucky enough to get you
All the best,
-ngufo
Now I can see why I've been told so many times that this is not a short journey for the faint-hearted. The GMAT is already very, very far away now... and the human mind is so deceptive... the biggest setback and the hardest exam seems now as if it was nothing. I moved on. But then again, it's time to concentrate on other things and it's application time.
Best luck for all, whatever you do at the time,
Marcell
Freedom comes when you learn to let go,
Creation comes when you learn to say no.
Creation comes when you learn to say no.