Just got my official scores did pretty bad, the sad part is my undergrad was in mechanical engineering and I do engineering work for a fortune 10 company. I'm 100% domestic US bred from the US public education system but I'm just not a good test taker, for instance I got a combined score of 800 out of 1600 for my SATs (the older version) back in high school. Still managed a 3.7 GPA at Virginia Tech... hardly got into the school was kind of lucky with such poor SATs. Nevertheless, I've been out of school for the past 3 years and wanted to get my MBA so that when the opportunity comes to climb that corporate ladder I'd be ready but I totally bombed the GMAT which is a component of the application process.
During the actual exam I wasn't nervous at all and I felt pretty confident. The AWA sections were a breeze since I'm a pretty proficient writer (I can BS most of that stuff fairly quick). I felt I did worst on the quantitative portion than the verbal but the outcome was reversed since I scored lower on the verbal portion. I had to guess on about 5 questions on both Quant/Verb sections because I was spending too much time on those problems so I made an educated guess and moved on.
My study plan was 3 hours a day M-F right after work and pretty much 10 hours Saturday/Sunday going over problems, for about 3 months non-stop. I used the OG version 9, 10 (9 and 10 were basically the same thing except for a few different problems) and 11, doing the problems and going over them but I guess my problem was I never studied under the clock. I plan on taking it again no doubt because I'm not a quitter, my goal is somewhere in the mid 600s. I have the OG 9-11, all MGMT books (didn't have time to take the online practice tests), Kaplan GMAT 800 and a bunch of LSAT reading books. GMAT quant/verbal books (didn't have time to go over these). I recently acquired a stopwatch to help my timing. Also, on the GMATPrep I & II got around 550. I took the GMATPreps only once each the week before the exam and went over what I did wrong.
I am confident that I can improve and definitely was bummed because it showed that there was a flaw with my studying. I stopped studying after 3 weeks after taking the exam (felt kind of burnt out not being able to enjoy most of the spring/summer) going on my fourth but will resume next month. Anyone have some tips on what I should or should not be doing?
Thank you for taking your time to read my story.
During the actual exam I wasn't nervous at all and I felt pretty confident. The AWA sections were a breeze since I'm a pretty proficient writer (I can BS most of that stuff fairly quick). I felt I did worst on the quantitative portion than the verbal but the outcome was reversed since I scored lower on the verbal portion. I had to guess on about 5 questions on both Quant/Verb sections because I was spending too much time on those problems so I made an educated guess and moved on.
My study plan was 3 hours a day M-F right after work and pretty much 10 hours Saturday/Sunday going over problems, for about 3 months non-stop. I used the OG version 9, 10 (9 and 10 were basically the same thing except for a few different problems) and 11, doing the problems and going over them but I guess my problem was I never studied under the clock. I plan on taking it again no doubt because I'm not a quitter, my goal is somewhere in the mid 600s. I have the OG 9-11, all MGMT books (didn't have time to take the online practice tests), Kaplan GMAT 800 and a bunch of LSAT reading books. GMAT quant/verbal books (didn't have time to go over these). I recently acquired a stopwatch to help my timing. Also, on the GMATPrep I & II got around 550. I took the GMATPreps only once each the week before the exam and went over what I did wrong.
I am confident that I can improve and definitely was bummed because it showed that there was a flaw with my studying. I stopped studying after 3 weeks after taking the exam (felt kind of burnt out not being able to enjoy most of the spring/summer) going on my fourth but will resume next month. Anyone have some tips on what I should or should not be doing?
Thank you for taking your time to read my story.
