Hi guys,
So I have been coming here a lot the past few month, mostly reading and hoping to only have to post once... a I just beat the GMAT story. I think that it is a good time to seek advice from you. I know that the community can be harsh sometimes with bold statements such as "you'll never get in" / "you won't have time to improve, there is no way" but some of you are more incline to post some words of encouragement. I guess I am mostly looking for that and ways to improve.
A little bit about me. I am a 25 years old, French guy with 2.5 years of experience so far at 2 large companies from completely different sectors (US Investment bank and leading e-commerce company). I know that it is a good time for me to go to business school in America for professional and personal reasons.
To go where I want to go I need a score of at least 700 at the GMAT to compensate for my limited work experience.
My first try was in August, I scored a 650 (Q45 and V35 - 79%), while this score is alright it is clearly not enough. I am retaking the test at the beginning of October with the idea that if I fail again I could retake the test one last time before the second round is due on 11/9 for my target school.
I have done many prep tests, the results were as follow:
MGmAT
1: 630
2: 650
3: 700
4: 670
Gmat prep: 630
5: 620
Gmat prep 2: 660
6: 640
retake1: 660
retake2: 650
retake3: 630
My last test was a little bit demoralizing and that is probably why I am coming to you guys. I believe I have the wrong mind set, I am pissed off every time I get a question wrong and assume that I was not concentrated enough and did a silly mistake. I rarely review thoroughly the mgmat math questions, so I guess I could review them all to try to improve.
What I am doing right now:
1 - Redoing every single question of the OG Purple and Green (Math) - I am doing all the questions and then I will start reviewing why I got them wrong. I downloaded the excel spreadsheet from the website to see how my % I got right: I am around 75% for both normal questions and DS.
2 - I will start the review of those questions tomorrow.
3 - Wednesday I will establish where I need improvement and go through the corresponding MGMAT books again.
4 - I have never worked on the verbal part, regularly got a 75% to 85% in MGMAT so assumed I was okay. I had a disappointing 35 at the real test so I will need to spend extra time on SC/RC as well. How many hours to you think I should spend on SC (I can work after work for 3hours every day and 6hours/day during the remaining 3 week ends)
My questions:
- Do you think that my strategy is appropriate for the limited time left?
- Can you see any area of improvement? (For example I am redoing the easy questions as well to improve my speed, but am I wasting time when I do this?)
- How relevant is it to work on RC when I had a 45 in math at the actual test, shouldn't I spend all my time on math to try to get it up to a 48/49?
I know you don't have a of details on how I work to help me improve but maybe some of you can have a few ideas.
I look forward to here from all of you.
Take care!
So I have been coming here a lot the past few month, mostly reading and hoping to only have to post once... a I just beat the GMAT story. I think that it is a good time to seek advice from you. I know that the community can be harsh sometimes with bold statements such as "you'll never get in" / "you won't have time to improve, there is no way" but some of you are more incline to post some words of encouragement. I guess I am mostly looking for that and ways to improve.
A little bit about me. I am a 25 years old, French guy with 2.5 years of experience so far at 2 large companies from completely different sectors (US Investment bank and leading e-commerce company). I know that it is a good time for me to go to business school in America for professional and personal reasons.
To go where I want to go I need a score of at least 700 at the GMAT to compensate for my limited work experience.
My first try was in August, I scored a 650 (Q45 and V35 - 79%), while this score is alright it is clearly not enough. I am retaking the test at the beginning of October with the idea that if I fail again I could retake the test one last time before the second round is due on 11/9 for my target school.
I have done many prep tests, the results were as follow:
MGmAT
1: 630
2: 650
3: 700
4: 670
Gmat prep: 630
5: 620
Gmat prep 2: 660
6: 640
retake1: 660
retake2: 650
retake3: 630
My last test was a little bit demoralizing and that is probably why I am coming to you guys. I believe I have the wrong mind set, I am pissed off every time I get a question wrong and assume that I was not concentrated enough and did a silly mistake. I rarely review thoroughly the mgmat math questions, so I guess I could review them all to try to improve.
What I am doing right now:
1 - Redoing every single question of the OG Purple and Green (Math) - I am doing all the questions and then I will start reviewing why I got them wrong. I downloaded the excel spreadsheet from the website to see how my % I got right: I am around 75% for both normal questions and DS.
2 - I will start the review of those questions tomorrow.
3 - Wednesday I will establish where I need improvement and go through the corresponding MGMAT books again.
4 - I have never worked on the verbal part, regularly got a 75% to 85% in MGMAT so assumed I was okay. I had a disappointing 35 at the real test so I will need to spend extra time on SC/RC as well. How many hours to you think I should spend on SC (I can work after work for 3hours every day and 6hours/day during the remaining 3 week ends)
My questions:
- Do you think that my strategy is appropriate for the limited time left?
- Can you see any area of improvement? (For example I am redoing the easy questions as well to improve my speed, but am I wasting time when I do this?)
- How relevant is it to work on RC when I had a 45 in math at the actual test, shouldn't I spend all my time on math to try to get it up to a 48/49?
I know you don't have a of details on how I work to help me improve but maybe some of you can have a few ideas.
I look forward to here from all of you.
Take care!












