I just Beat The GMAT!

Guys, with an attachment with this forum for a long period, I have learnt lot of things. This forum has helped me in my preparation of GMAT. Thanks a lot to Eric especially for his effort to maintain this forum. The other members like Hopefully, Samir, Suyog, Calista and many more became very close to me while taking the preparation. And aboveall Stuart has made a lot of contribution towards this forum. He is so experienced and helpful that in every problem he has directed a very good way to approach a problem.
But today I am going for the test. Feeling little bit tensed. God knows what will happen! GMAT and getting admission to a good B-School are big dreams in my life. But god knows what will happen! Request you guys - please pray to god for me! Please! I will let you know about my experience after I give my exam.
Guys sorry for being so much emotional and sentimental. Please bear with me. Ha ha ha! You see how much unbearable and low-spirit I am now ...
However I will let you know about my experience shortly.

------------------------------------------------ A SAD STORY BEGINS ----------------------------------------------------------
Guys, I have been beaten by GMAT. Scored - 610 (Q: 48 - Percentile: 85; V: 26 - Percentile: 42). I am ruined now. Really I had very high dream about GMAT and getting admission in business school. But I failed to meet my goal. God knows what will happen!
However, regarding my study plan - Started preparation from September, 2007. Consulted books - Princeton Review, Kaplan 800, OG-10 and OG-11. Mock test I appeared - PrincetonReview - TEST1 - 585, TEST2 - 650 and GMATPrep - Test1: 630, Test2: 600. I admit that my verbal section is week. But while attempting GMAT Qs, I found the Qs are not so tough. May be, I was over-confident at that time!
Guys, here I need a suggestion from your end. Do you think with this score I can apply to LBS, INSEAD, MIT-SLOAN or HBS? May be my question appears to you little awkward as a guy is trying to reach to moon with nothing in his hand! But really I don't have any idea about this.
A long sad story, right? Ha ha ha! However. I have planned for appearing GMAT again. I will start preparation for that. But in the meantime, I wish to apply to colleges with my current GMAT score. Guys , do you think I am on the track? Is it feasible to apply for top colleges with such a low score.

Good luck!

All the best !!!!
Do your best and leave the rest
Just stay focused and crush the gmat

Good Luck Amitava. Come post your success story.

~R

Amitava,
Better luck next time! There is a sense of Deja vu when I read your post. Seems like reading my experience with GMAT!! I too felt extremely confident on the Verbal section and was totally stunned when I saw my score. Im still unsure if it was SC, RC or CR that screwed me over.

One of the mistakes I did was that I peaked too soon... I felt I was in the best frame of mind about 3 weeks before the actual test, after that point it was a gradual downhill, where I used to practice daily but it never added any value. This time around, I will book my test with about 2 weeks notice, and do it in a short burst rather than a prolonged exercise as my 1st attempt.

Another problem was I was a bag of nerves in the quant part of the test. So, all strategies went flying out and I started solving problems like a school boy and in the end started randomly guessing for about 4 - 5 questions. Still I managed 48. So, I feel if I stay calm I can easily top 50.

You seem to be excellent in Quant, so 48 does not look right, perhaps you have atleast a few points to gain there.

I took a 2 week break, recharged my batteries and ready for another attempt.

Hey Amitava,

I feel for you man. I definitely think you deserve a better score. I dont know about what the average scores are for the schools you have mentioned so i am not going to comment on it. Have you thot abt reappearing for the GMAT.

Guys,
I have thought of reappearing GMAT. I was looking into INSEAD's official site - They say that they are looking for 75 percentile in both sections for a candidate; though they will give emphasis on candidate's application, work experience and reco.
My brother is in Singapore and while taking preparation for reappearing, my brother told me that he will try for me in NUS, Singapore. I checked in FT that NUS is nearly upper 80 ranked university.
Though my brother is trying for me, I have a plan to reappear for the test again.

Sankruth, I agree with you. May be I have taken more time in preparation than usual because I believe that I was in peak form in Jan, 2008. But I planned to take more preparation and this idea did not do any good for me. Sankruth, I also expected to get 50 or something like that in Quant but some how messed up the things there.
Guys another point I would like to mention that though in mock test, I generally finished Quant section before 5-7 min, in actual exam I had nearly 2 minutes left in my hand to complete. And in verbal, I did not have enough time in my hand and I made some wild guess for the last 4-5 Qs. I finished those Qs in 2-3 minutes with some wild guess. These things really did not work for me. But I will say that this was a nice(?) / bitter experience in appearing for the test. I did not appear for ant online test before and GMAT was my first experience to appear for any online test. I will prepare more for reappearing and I have thought to take Manhattan guide for verbal section. In verbal, I was confident about SC and CR but RC was my negative point.
May be I messed up totally in verbal otherwise such a low score is noway possible. Guys its true that I am really desperate to do my MBA from some good colleges but let's see what is in my future!

Guys a little update! I have received my AWA score- Its 4.5. Here I am having a question - Guys, tell me one thing - In which category do u guys put this score - Bad, So-so, Good or Excellent? I want to judge my AWA score - and that's why I wish to know u peoples' view, here ...

hi amit,

no need to be so sad...
life is a long journey and gmat is a very small part of it .. So chill...

I am sure ur next attempt will overshadow this one ..

but it has to be well planned .. as i see that ur actual score is similar to ur mock score it shud not be tough to find where you lack...

u knew that u r not doing that good in verbal thruout ur preparation but still went for the exam... u need to be honest to urself... u cud hv postponed exam by a few days..

there are lot of strategies and good notes available on BTG and they should help you given that u use them in a proper way ..

tracking mistakes is a must ... there are lot and lot and lot of practice questions available on internet and books .... and practice makes a man perfect ...

also dont drain urself out during preparation ... take breaks in between and avoid appearing for any mock tests before actual gmat ....

dont lose heart and give it ur best shot this time ...
all the best

Hey hopefully, long time back man! Nop! I agree with u that I could postpone my test date. However this time I am trying to concentrate on the verbal more and more. This time I have to crack the GMAT. By the way, ur suggestion is really adding some value to my motivation. I will certainly follow what u have suggested.

sankruth wrote:Amitava,
Better luck next time! There is a sense of Deja vu when I read your post. Seems like reading my experience with GMAT!! I too felt extremely confident on the Verbal section and was totally stunned when I saw my score. Im still unsure if it was SC, RC or CR that screwed me over.

One of the mistakes I did was that I peaked too soon... I felt I was in the best frame of mind about 3 weeks before the actual test, after that point it was a gradual downhill, where I used to practice daily but it never added any value. This time around, I will book my test with about 2 weeks notice, and do it in a short burst rather than a prolonged exercise as my 1st attempt.

Another problem was I was a bag of nerves in the quant part of the test. So, all strategies went flying out and I started solving problems like a school boy and in the end started randomly guessing for about 4 - 5 questions. Still I managed 48. So, I feel if I stay calm I can easily top 50.

You seem to be excellent in Quant, so 48 does not look right, perhaps you have atleast a few points to gain there.

I took a 2 week break, recharged my batteries and ready for another attempt.

Sankruth,
I am kind of feeling the same way. My gmat is in 9 days and I really feel like I peaked out around 10 days ago. I feel like I am forgetting things now. I dont even feel like solving anything anymore. Do you have any suggestions for me. Should I take a break for a few days and revise everything just 2 days before the test. But what if i really forget everything by then? Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.

goal700! ha ha ha! I can share my feeling - gained from recent experience - with you. Just kidding! Hey man, jokes apart. Look the first I believe is to take rest for 2-3 days before the test. Forget everything about the preparation, Math, Verbal section - if possible, about GMAT itself; then start making a quick revision of ur studies. Attempt for GMATPrep mock test. But try to ignore the score what u will get. If it is good or according to ur expectation, then it is fine but if it is something below ur expectation level, u will be depressed and this can swept ur GMAT itself. So be careful, try to be bold and confident.

Good Luck camitava for your future.