I just Beat The GMAT!

Hi,

I wanted to share my Gmat experience just because I did the exam being sick and I think that I made some right decisions that I thought may be helpful for anyone facing the same situation.

Before the exam

I took Gmat in July and got 690.

I decided to retake it and started studying in mid September after scheduling the exam for mid October. I had so many problems during this period and couldn't study properly. I had 5 days vacation before the exam and thought that if I studied hard during those days I could make up for the lack of study of the previous month. However, the bad luck that had been with me during that month hadn't gone away and I got sick just one week before the exam. The sickness was like having flu but without fever: horrible headaches and so weak, I just wanted to stay in bed all day.

I figure out that the most important thing was to get to the exam in good health, so during those days prior to the exam I just studied a couple of hours a day.

The day of the exam

I woke up feeling like shit. My roommate told me that I looked worse than the previous days. I had the exam scheduled for 5pm. I spent all day in bed till 2 pm and after lunch I took a hot bath. This helped me relax (I would advice it to anyone taking Gmat). I didn't take any medicine during the whole day.

When I started the AWA I decided that I needed to save my energy for the Quant and Verbal part so I just completed the essays without struggling too much to find the best arguments or to find the nicest words.

During the brake after AWA I took an Ibuprofen (painkiller). I knew that it would start its effect after 30 minutes and that the effect would last about 2 hours. So I would be 'free' of headache from the minute 20 of the Quant part to approximately the minute 55 of the Verbal part.

Quant started well. In the 19th question I still had 36 minutes left- so 2 minutes per question...good. Don't know what happened but in the 29th question I had only 12 minutes left. So 12 minutes for 9 questions. I freaked out and started guessing most of the questions left. I did spend some time in the questions I thought might be faster to respond.

In the next break I was quite sad cause I thought that I had screwed it in quant. After washing my face and hands, I put my self together and I decided that it was worth it to give it a try.

Verbal started well too. However, when there was still half an hour left I felt so weak and tired. The headache was back and I had no energy. I even thought of giving up: "What a fuck am I doing here? Just wasting 4 hours and getting even sicker". Again, I decided that I had to fight till the end.

When I saw 720 I couldn't believe it, but there it was, the result of persistence and hard work. I can also tell you that this score gave me such a boost that the sickness went away soooooo faaaaast.

In summary, the advices I would give are the following:

- If you are thinking to retake the exam...JUST DO IT. With little study you can be sure you'll improve your score

- If you are sick before the exam, take it easy. It is more important to be healthy in the exam than to do too many exercises and CATs

- If you are sick the day of the exam do not waste too much energy in AWA and set that energy aside for Quant and Verbal. Plus, take your painkiller/medicine in the first brake.

- If you are thinking to give up. DO NOT DO SO. This is a computer adaptive exam, you never know how well it has gone so far

Material used: Official Guide 12th Edition, OG Review (Q and V), Manhattan SC, CR Power score Bible, BtG Flash-cards, Manhattan Fash-Cards, Gmat Prep 1 and 2, Manhattan Free CAT, Kapplan Free CAT, and so many articles and forum research from BtG. Pretty cheap and efficient (bought 3 books only)

Finally, thank you so much BtG for all the good advices I have received from this website

and...

good luck to everybody!!!

July700 wrote:Hi,

I wanted to share my Gmat experience just because I did the exam being sick and I think that I made some right decisions that I thought may be helpful for anyone facing the same situation.

Before the exam

I took Gmat in July and got 690.

I decided to retake it and started studying in mid September after scheduling the exam for mid October. I had so many problems during this period and couldn't study properly. I had 5 days vacation before the exam and thought that if I studied hard during those days I could make up for the lack of study of the previous month. However, the bad luck that had been with me during that month hadn't gone away and I got sick just one week before the exam. The sickness was like having flu but without fever: horrible headaches and so weak, I just wanted to stay in bed all day.

I figure out that the most important thing was to get to the exam in good health, so during those days prior to the exam I just studied a couple of hours a day.

The day of the exam

I woke up feeling like shit. My roommate told me that I looked worse than the previous days. I had the exam scheduled for 5pm. I spent all day in bed till 2 pm and after lunch I took a hot bath. This helped me relax (I would advice it to anyone taking Gmat). I didn't take any medicine during the whole day.

When I started the AWA I decided that I needed to save my energy for the Quant and Verbal part so I just completed the essays without struggling too much to find the best arguments or to find the nicest words.

During the brake after AWA I took an Ibuprofen (painkiller). I knew that it would start its effect after 30 minutes and that the effect would last about 2 hours. So I would be 'free' of headache from the minute 20 of the Quant part to approximately the minute 55 of the Verbal part.

Quant started well. In the 19th question I still had 36 minutes left- so 2 minutes per question...good. Don't know what happened but in the 29th question I had only 12 minutes left. So 12 minutes for 9 questions. I freaked out and started guessing most of the questions left. I did spend some time in the questions I thought might be faster to respond.

In the next break I was quite sad cause I thought that I had screwed it in quant. After washing my face and hands, I put my self together and I decided that it was worth it to give it a try.

Verbal started well too. However, when there was still half an hour left I felt so weak and tired. The headache was back and I had no energy. I even thought of giving up: "What a fuck am I doing here? Just wasting 4 hours and getting even sicker". Again, I decided that I had to fight till the end.

When I saw 720 I couldn't believe it, but there it was, the result of persistence and hard work. I can also tell you that this score gave me such a boost that the sickness went away soooooo faaaaast.

In summary, the advices I would give are the following:

- If you are thinking to retake the exam...JUST DO IT. With little study you can be sure you'll improve your score

- If you are sick before the exam, take it easy. It is more important to be healthy in the exam than to do too many exercises and CATs

- If you are sick the day of the exam do not waste too much energy in AWA and set that energy aside for Quant and Verbal. Plus, take your painkiller/medicine in the first brake.

- If you are thinking to give up. DO NOT DO SO. This is a computer adaptive exam, you never know how well it has gone so far

Material used: Official Guide 12th Edition, OG Review (Q and V), Manhattan SC, CR Power score Bible, BtG Flash-cards, Manhattan Fash-Cards, Gmat Prep 1 and 2, Manhattan Free CAT, Kapplan Free CAT, and so many articles and forum research from BtG. Pretty cheap and efficient (bought 3 books only)

Finally, thank you so much BtG for all the good advices I have received from this website

and...

good luck to everybody!!!

Congrats... Mate,

Its inspiring that you nail it with preparation of 5 Days... Awesome...

- If you are thinking to retake the exam...JUST DO IT. With little study you can be sure you'll improve your score

- If you are thinking to give up. DO NOT DO SO. This is a computer adaptive exam, you never know how well it has gone so far

Material used: Official Guide 12th Edition, OG Review (Q and V), Manhattan SC, CR Power score Bible, BtG Flash-cards, Manhattan Fash-Cards, Gmat Prep 1 and 2, Manhattan Free CAT, Kapplan Free CAT, and so many articles and forum research from BtG. Pretty cheap and efficient (bought 3 books only)

Thanks a bunch.this is really inspiring.I am taking the GMAT in ten days and it feels like i dont know anything and thinking of giving it up or rescheduling.Your email has put me back on track and i am gonna do it.

thank you and good luck with your applications
Rine x

Damn WHILE SICK!? You must be a genius. Congrats!