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Struggling with GMAT and need a solid game plan!

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Struggling with GMAT and need a solid game plan!

by cmcwong » Tue Apr 14, 2015 3:46 pm
Hello Beat the GMAT Community-

I'm writing in mainly for advice, but could also use some motivation! Admittedly my GMAT journey has been a long drawn-out process and it continues to be the "dark cloud" over my head. I've taken the test three times starting in '08 and most recently in Mar '15 and unfortunately scored worse than the previous two times after a considerable amount of study (see results below).

However, I have made a commitment to apply to school this Fall. Appreciate any advice and/or breakthrough success stories that could offer tangible action items to make drastic improvements. Thanks much in advance!

Main questions:
-What realistic rigorous study plans have helped you to make quick gains?
-I'm considering a private tutor--have any of you had good luck with MGMAT or Veritas tutors? I have plenty of study materials (however, curious to know how old is too old)...
-At what point does it make sense to leave my score as is and consider an "alternate transcript" (where I take one or two courses such as Accounting at a local college)? A couple friends who have their MBAs encouraged me to leave my GMAT be (they don't know my actual latest score) and focus on other areas of the application. However, my fear is that because the first two scores have expired, schools will only see the Mar '15 score! And my gut is telling me I need to try at least once more to improve my score quite a bit.

Some background on my GMAT experience:
I'm a little embarrassed to share the actual scores, but here it goes:
-Aug '08- 490 (V25, Q32, AWA5.5) [after taking a Kaplan course]
-Mar '09- 530 (V30, Q32, AWA5) [after taking a MGMAT course]
-Mar '15- 460 (V25, Q28, AWA5) [after 6 months of self-directed study, admittedly with some interruption due to work travel]

Target career: Brand Management
Target schools: Cal, Duke, University of Indiana (Kelley), UCLA, University of Michigan, and Northwestern.

My profile:
Asian American Male
Graduated 2006 from UC Davis
Undergrad GPA: 3.16
Majors: International Relations & Spanish

Work Experience:
-1 year teaching English in Madrid, Spain at bilingual elementary school
-2 years in Online Advertising at online technology publisher
-2 years in Marketing Communications and Promotional Partnerships at Educational toy producer
-3+ years in Sales/Marketing at top wine producer (a lot of international exposure and usage of Spanish skills) + international travel.

Other experience:
To show my true interest in Brand Management I have found opportunities outside of work to expand my Marketing skills in related areas. Additionally I stay active in the community:
-Selected to participate in Millennial Advisory Board for major ice cream brand producer. Involved trip to company headquarters and an intense 3 day summit with R&D and Marketing teams.
-5 years Volunteer Spanish interpreter for school district.

If you've read this far, I sincerely appreciate it.
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by [email protected] » Tue Apr 14, 2015 3:59 pm
Hi cmcwong,

Your prior scores have already expired, so your current score (460) is the one that Business Schools will see. Your background/'story' looks interesting, but given the list of Schools that you'd like to apply to, a higher GMAT score is almost certainly a requirement.

Your GMAT scores are 'in range' of one another, so the way that you "see" (and respond to) the GMAT puts you in the high-400s, low 500s score range. The way with which you studied on any given attempt hasn't impacted your performance that much. This likely means that you have a number of 'bad habits' that are either built in to how you study or that show up on Test Day (or both).

When you took these GMATs, did you have trouble finishing any of the sections on time? Did you have to rush through a bunch of questions just to finish and/or leave any questions unanswered in the Quant and Verbal sections?

Thankfully, you have plenty of time to continue studying before the Fall application deadlines. While it might now seem obvious, the GMAT is a predictable, standardized Exam, so you CAN train to score at a higher level.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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by gmatprofparis » Wed Apr 15, 2015 2:34 am
Hi,

I thought I'd chime in. I've met a few people for whom the GMAT just isn't quite an exam that works out in the end. There are many things to consider when you set out to study for it, such as how long and how great your changes in score were previously, how much your previous grades were reasonably impacted by non-topic based factors such as stress and timing, and how many of the official materials you have already gone through (secondary materials are often, but not always, far beneath official materials in quality and do not not contribute to grade improvement, especially in the verbal section).

Now, is it possible to pull out an amazing score at this point? Sure. Is it the safest bet? Perhaps not. I've counseled successfully a lot of students in your situation (long and unsuccessful studies for the GMAT) to switch from the GMAT to the GRE. The exams are very similar, but the GRE is a far less stressful exam. If both are accepted by the same program and you can do better on the latter, wouldn't it be worth a shot? Does it mean you won't have to study for the GRE in that case? Of course not. But, if you can get higher results in a shorter span of time, why not do so?

Of course, people react to the GRE differently. Some, in fact, find it harder than the GMAT. But you won't know until you've tried it. Luckily you can download two GRE examinations (on the PowerPrep program) from the official ETS website, and see how you do on one. If you take an exam and share the percentiles, I'll be glad to give some further advice.
Last edited by gmatprofparis on Fri May 01, 2015 5:41 am, edited 5 times in total.
GMAT instructor and MBA admissions coach in Paris, formerly in NYC. Glad to help where I can.

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by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Wed Apr 15, 2015 4:03 am
Some more questions to consider: how many practice exams did you do in your preparation, and how do your official exam scores compare to your practice test scores? If you'd been averaging, 600+ on practice tests, we can probably conclude that test-day anxiety is the primary culprit. If you simply hadn't taken many practice tests, it's possible that you just hadn't quite mastered the timing and strategy of the CAT format. The best strategy going forward will depend on whether the main issues are content-based or involve psychological factors.
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by Rich@EconomistGMAT » Wed Apr 15, 2015 5:54 am
Hi cmcwong,

I'm curious to know more about which areas on the GMAT you struggled with most (which you can determine by going over your previous practice exams). I'm also curious to know if this fall is an absolute deadline for yourself, and if so, the reasoning behind it. You'll need quite a bit of time to get the GMAT score that will make you a more competitive applicant for the schools you listed, so it would be helpful to hear more about why this fall is your cutoff.

Best,
Rich
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by cmcwong » Wed Apr 29, 2015 11:02 am
Many thanks for the thoughtful responses here! Admittedly have unplugged from GMAT to try and regain motivation (procrastination=dangerous, I know).

Answering several of the questions:
-@[email protected]: regarding finishing sections on time: I did not end up in the situation of having to guess on multiple questions at the end. Rather, I think the main thing that I noticed is that there were multiple questions that came up where I had seen the content before, but knew that I would struggle answering the question in the time needed. By the way, I will try to keep your mantra in mind: "GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made"--this is great!
-@gmatprofinparis: Appreciate the suggestion of the GRE--your rationale makes a ton of sense, however, I fear that this could be opening up another can of worms and cause additional stress. But to your point, I lose nothing by taking a practice GRE just to see if I perform better. I will see if I can schedule in a practice exam this weekend and then share scores.
-@DavidG@VeritasPrep: I did a couple of practice tests during my prep, but finally read some advice online to not burn out taking so many. Perhaps bad advice as maybe my stamina was not strong enough during the actual test.
-@Rich@EconomistGMAT: I would say naturally that I am stronger at verbal than quant, but from my scores, you'll see that neither are stellar. Regarding Fall being my "absolute" deadline, I suppose it isn't, but more as a commitment I've made since I've been considering b-school for a long time now. Now also "feels right"

Just sat through a Stratus Prep seminar and they suggested using their services of 5 CAT exams to help customize studies. Is private tutoring the answer? Also, made it evident that if plan to proceed with Fall 2016 admissions I need to start working on both the application and GMAT simultaneously--yikes!

Thanks again all,
Chris
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by Rich@EconomistGMAT » Thu Apr 30, 2015 7:44 am
Hi cmcwong,

Before you opt for a private tutor, I'm curious to know about the online resources you've already exhausted. Most online resources offer free trials, which you should definitely take advantage of. Feel free to use the trials to shop around a bit and determine if any work well for you. If so, you might end up saving a bit of money while still getting the help you need.

To help you get started, here's a link to sign up for a free trial of Economist GMAT Tutor: https://bit.ly/1bPAHuW

Best,
Rich
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by [email protected] » Thu Apr 30, 2015 9:58 am
Hi cmcwong,

Given your overall goals and the general timeline that you've described, you're going to have to make some significant changes to how you study. You have to learn new ways to deal with the GMAT and then TRAIN heavily to master them.

I'm not sure that a tutor will necessarily impact your performance since a tutor can only meet with you for so many hours during any given week. Most of the time, you will be working on your own. Historically, you haven't appeared to make any big strides using various courses, which means that either your approach to your studies was problematic, your reaction to Test Day itself was problematic, or both.

You need a significant amount of study time, some new study material and a militant devotion to training for the task at hand.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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