-
wangzy2012
- Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Wed Nov 07, 2012 5:22 pm
- Thanked: 2 times
Just done with GMAT today for the 2nd time, and the last one is 6 weeks ago in mid Dec. 2012, with a score 670. I am so exciting and satisfied, and the whole journey is really wonderful.
Overall: 730
Quant: 50
Verbal: 38
Background:
I'm from China and definitely not a native English speaker, but I worked for a US owned international company in high-tech industry for over 10 years, so English is more a daily communication language. Well, I truly didn't realize my English is not that good as I thought when I decided to take GMAT...
I scored 580 with two sections - IR and verbal - unfinished in the 1st GMAT prep sample test in early Nov. 2012, when I first started the preparation, and my test is scheduled on Dec. 18, 2012: only 5 weeks left. What a problem! But I did encouraged by the posts in this forum and decided to write the test on schedule, given the hope that I could catch round 2 deadline. btw, I plan to pursue a full-time MBA in US business schools in 2013 to advance my professional career. But the reality that I was only scored a disappointed 670, which can hardly support me to be admitted by a top business school. Thus I decided to re-try though I would miss the round 2 deadlines, considering I would still have a chance in round 3, hopefully!
Preparation:
I'm a self-paced leaner and more relies on the official materials: OG and prep questions, plus some guide books from a Chinese test prep company. To be honest, the official materials are essential to beat GMAT, because all of other simulation questions are either too simple and away from the GMAT style, or too complex with more tricky choices such as Manhattan's, per my experiences when trying some free sample tests. But, I admit, if you can master the tricky questions as those from Manhattan, you can definitely beat the GMAT. Anyway, with limited resources (I can hardly get Manhattan or Princeton books in China because it will take too long time or it is too expensive for international shipment.), and limited preparation time, I tried my best to learn from the official materials, plus experience sharing from forums, and it works!
For Quant, it is not a problem for me in general, considering my engineering background in computer science. So, I just learned the math vocabulary and the test taking strategy for DS questions. Of course, the key is that you must be careful enough to avoid all of the potential traps and calculation errors - it is hard and it takes time to build the sense.
For verbal, my dearest verbal, I really hate it because I would have to start from the scratch: building vocabulary, studying grammars, and learning the way of active reading, because all these seem be strangers to me. However, the good thing is, it is not that difficult, and I did learn some appropriate strategies from this forum, "Beat the GMAT". My two cents on verbal are
1. start from SC because SC is the foundation for your reading and writing. Moreover, you can't get a 700+ score if you don't beat SC - SC questions are the most among all 3 types in verbal section;
2. then conquer CR and build your thinking logic, which is also helpful for you to answer RC and IR questions, as well as AWA. but my understanding is the logic of CR is somewhat similar to math, a logic more relies on your intuition;
3. and go to the last one, RC: the key is active reading and outline.
My weakest part is AWA because it's really hard for me to think and articulate clearly in such a short time frame, especially when you're not a native speaker and never trained to write such a formal essay, although writing emails is my daily job...
Test Day:
In my first test, I was trying to keep with the general pace that recommended by lots of people, but the result is not that good because this strategy gave me much pressure and missed several questions in the middle. So in the 2nd attempt, the pace was just for reference, and I focused more on the 1st half of the questions, even though I was so slow that I had to rush my last 10 verbal questions in 12-13 minutes. Well, the result is surprisingly good, and it seems the rush doesn't impact my final score much!
In sum, per my understanding, GMAT is more a training for me to prepare for an academic journey in a business school than to get admitted to a school. A score over 700 does not only means you have a ticket to enter a school, but more demonstrates you have master the required skills to survive in the challenging academic life. Perhaps this understanding is not true for all of the people, but it is true for me, a non-english speaker from a very different education system.
my sample test scores for reference:
Princeton, 01/25, 650
Manhattan, 01/28, 680
GMATprep1, 02/02, 710
GMATprep2, 02/04, 770
Official GMAT, 02/06, 730
This is the first time I post on this forum, and I would like thank all of the people from whom I got help for no matter the strategy or tips or anything relevant. Sharing is a good thing and I do hope my two cents in this post can help someone as well.
Btw, last but not least, the flashcard from BeatTheGMAT is very good and helpful for your review before the test day, especially the SC tips, which are those most essential things to beat SC. Also, the flashcard is quite convenient to use on your iPhone.
Overall: 730
Quant: 50
Verbal: 38
Background:
I'm from China and definitely not a native English speaker, but I worked for a US owned international company in high-tech industry for over 10 years, so English is more a daily communication language. Well, I truly didn't realize my English is not that good as I thought when I decided to take GMAT...
I scored 580 with two sections - IR and verbal - unfinished in the 1st GMAT prep sample test in early Nov. 2012, when I first started the preparation, and my test is scheduled on Dec. 18, 2012: only 5 weeks left. What a problem! But I did encouraged by the posts in this forum and decided to write the test on schedule, given the hope that I could catch round 2 deadline. btw, I plan to pursue a full-time MBA in US business schools in 2013 to advance my professional career. But the reality that I was only scored a disappointed 670, which can hardly support me to be admitted by a top business school. Thus I decided to re-try though I would miss the round 2 deadlines, considering I would still have a chance in round 3, hopefully!Preparation:
I'm a self-paced leaner and more relies on the official materials: OG and prep questions, plus some guide books from a Chinese test prep company. To be honest, the official materials are essential to beat GMAT, because all of other simulation questions are either too simple and away from the GMAT style, or too complex with more tricky choices such as Manhattan's, per my experiences when trying some free sample tests. But, I admit, if you can master the tricky questions as those from Manhattan, you can definitely beat the GMAT. Anyway, with limited resources (I can hardly get Manhattan or Princeton books in China because it will take too long time or it is too expensive for international shipment.), and limited preparation time, I tried my best to learn from the official materials, plus experience sharing from forums, and it works!
For Quant, it is not a problem for me in general, considering my engineering background in computer science. So, I just learned the math vocabulary and the test taking strategy for DS questions. Of course, the key is that you must be careful enough to avoid all of the potential traps and calculation errors - it is hard and it takes time to build the sense.
For verbal, my dearest verbal, I really hate it because I would have to start from the scratch: building vocabulary, studying grammars, and learning the way of active reading, because all these seem be strangers to me. However, the good thing is, it is not that difficult, and I did learn some appropriate strategies from this forum, "Beat the GMAT". My two cents on verbal are
1. start from SC because SC is the foundation for your reading and writing. Moreover, you can't get a 700+ score if you don't beat SC - SC questions are the most among all 3 types in verbal section;
2. then conquer CR and build your thinking logic, which is also helpful for you to answer RC and IR questions, as well as AWA. but my understanding is the logic of CR is somewhat similar to math, a logic more relies on your intuition;
3. and go to the last one, RC: the key is active reading and outline.
My weakest part is AWA because it's really hard for me to think and articulate clearly in such a short time frame, especially when you're not a native speaker and never trained to write such a formal essay, although writing emails is my daily job...
Test Day:
In my first test, I was trying to keep with the general pace that recommended by lots of people, but the result is not that good because this strategy gave me much pressure and missed several questions in the middle. So in the 2nd attempt, the pace was just for reference, and I focused more on the 1st half of the questions, even though I was so slow that I had to rush my last 10 verbal questions in 12-13 minutes. Well, the result is surprisingly good, and it seems the rush doesn't impact my final score much!
In sum, per my understanding, GMAT is more a training for me to prepare for an academic journey in a business school than to get admitted to a school. A score over 700 does not only means you have a ticket to enter a school, but more demonstrates you have master the required skills to survive in the challenging academic life. Perhaps this understanding is not true for all of the people, but it is true for me, a non-english speaker from a very different education system.
my sample test scores for reference:
Princeton, 01/25, 650
Manhattan, 01/28, 680
GMATprep1, 02/02, 710
GMATprep2, 02/04, 770
Official GMAT, 02/06, 730
This is the first time I post on this forum, and I would like thank all of the people from whom I got help for no matter the strategy or tips or anything relevant. Sharing is a good thing and I do hope my two cents in this post can help someone as well.
Btw, last but not least, the flashcard from BeatTheGMAT is very good and helpful for your review before the test day, especially the SC tips, which are those most essential things to beat SC. Also, the flashcard is quite convenient to use on your iPhone.
