-
rkucher
- Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Tue Feb 28, 2012 11:42 am
- Thanked: 5 times
- GMAT Score:700
First off, thank you all for posting, answering questions and your motivating stories. They helped me and I hope this helps you one day.
A little about myself. I grew up in the U.S.. Obtained my bachelors and masters degree's in Civil and Structural engineering, respectively. So Quant was definitely a strong suit. But the GMAT is not about designing buildings, so I had to brush up on a lot of my math skills. Let me start by saying when I started I thought the GMAT was a piece of cake. Until I took a practice test and barely squeaked out a 580. That really woke me up and brought me back down to earth. So here it is.
I decided engineering is cool, but not something I want to do for the rest of my life. So at the ripe old age of 23 I started studying for the GMAT. Goal has always been either Kellogg or Booth, since I live in Chicago. So I knew I needed at least a 700 to have a decent shot to get in.
After doing some research I liked Manhattan GMAT, so I bought all of their Study Guide Books on Amazon. Honestly, the books were awesome. I read through them. Felt pretty good about everything and did some MGMAT CAT's. Below are some of my scores.
Took actual GMAT without studying too much, just brushing up on concepts:
GMAT #1: 600 (Q46 v27) November of 2011.
Obviously that was a failure. So practice MGMAT's are below.
MGMAT CAT1: 650 (Q44 V35)
MGMAT CAT2: 640 (Q43 V34)
MGMAT CAT3: 670 (Q45 V36)
MGMAT CAT4: 640 (Q44 V34)
MGMAT CAT5: 630 (Q46 V31)
I figured 5 tests was good enough. I took the actual test a second time.
GMAT #2: 570 (Q45 V25) End of March 2012.
This was devastating. This almost brought me to tears and I really don't cry that often. Up to this time I really thought I could wing the GMAT without being that great at grammar. I didn't have time to learn grammar. I have a loving wife and 2 yr old kid with whom I enjoy spending time with. I also have a lawn that is not going to cut itself. Long story short, I was working about 50-60 hours a week as a Structural Engineering and trying to not be a horrible husband/father while studying for the GMAT.
Luckily my wife encouraged me to take the test again. I took about 2 months off and did not even think about the GMAT. Around May of 2012 I realized that I need to work on my grammar and such for the SC portion. I started from scratch. Literally from 'what is a verb'. I bought the SC GmatPill. It was ok overall, but not earth shattering. In all fairness my conversational English was just fine, but my proper/GMAT English could use some work. Either way, the MGMAT SC Book was pretty awesome. I also bought the PowerScore for CR. Also very solid. I kept doing a lot of OG problems. Using an error log. Tracking the time for each questions. Really slowing the process down and getting QUALITY OVER QUANTITY! This is huge!
I signed up for all the daily problems from every possible website. I lived and breathed with my GMAT study books. At first I wanted to take the GMAT a third time before the IR change, but realized that I needed some more time. I'm very glad I waited.
Eventually I've done all of the Verbal OG questions twice. and taken the MGMAT CAT's again. Below are some of the score.
MGMAT CAT6: 700 (Q47 V39) (I was pumped!)
MGMAT CAT1A: 660 (Q44 V36)
MGMAT CAT2A: 620 (Q45 V31) This was 5 days before the exam!
I was again devastated. I took the GMAT Practice tests with their software and was consistently getting about 660. Nothing spectacular.
So with 5 days to go I start stressing out. My wife is out of town, so I have some free time. Took a day off of work and just put in like 8-10 hrs. Just piles of practice SC problems. Used any and every problem I could get my hands on. Dissected the solutions until I started seeing doubles of everything. Also I went back to all my MGMAT tests and wrote down the formulas/concepts for all the math problems I got wrong. Which was only Probability, Combinatorics and some Standard Deviation stuff. I went back to the MGMAT Guides and reread those sections (all within the last 5 days). I really felt even more confident in Quant. So then came test day.
Test Day:
Left 4 hours before the test (trip is approx. 1 hr) Got stuck in major traffic (this never happens at 10am) and started freaking out. Of course this would happen on test day. Test was at 2pm. Got there with 2.5 hours to spare. Started reviewing all of my notes of questions I missed furiously. Almost forgot to eat. Got some food. Walked over to test center, said a quick prayer and walked in.
Testing folks were great, no problems there. Signed in and destroyed the AWA Essay. That CEO had no chance. Now I never practiced any IR at all. But it seemed relatively straightforward. I feel pretty good about how I did there, guess I'll find out in a couple days. Took my first break.
Had my granola bar. Downed a Starbucks coffee. Did about 30 push ups. I was pumped for the Quant. Went back in and was doing good. At about question 20 I may have finally missed a question, but was still ahead as far as timing goes. But the quant didn't feel bad, until question 25 or so. Man, the GMAT gods struck with a vengeance. Crazy geometry. Obscure inequality/absolute value data sufficiency. Just an absolute nightmare. I was glad I was ahead on time. I finished with about 39 seconds to spare. Felt wiped out, but knew I did well. Took my second break.
Had a few more granola bars. Did 30 more push ups. Got my blood pumping and back in to do Verbal. First 20 were fine. Couple weird SC's, some vague and confusing articles but I took detailed notes on RC articles and really forced myself to actually care about them. There were a few tough CR questions, but nothing unmanageable. Around question 30 I started to lose it. I knew the test was almost over. My heart started beating really fast. I lost my concentration and was falling apart. I was ok on the timing, even 3 minutes ahead. So I stopped completely and for 60 seconds, closed my eyes and just did some breathing exercises. This helped calm me down. Finished the last couple questions, probably got them wrong and didn't feel too confident in my Verbal score. Went through the bs demographic questions and boom: 700.
GMAT #3: 700 (Q49 V38)
Double fist pump in the air. I felt about 20 lbs lighter. I was so happy to have this over with.
Some general thoughts/tips.
1. Don't let the test consume you. Breathe. Exercise. Do whatever you need to be in control.
2. Timing is KEY! If you are behind and guess it's ok. But do NOT under any circumstances spend 4-5 minutes on a math problem. It will destroy your timing and is not worth it. I strongly believe that with time and a good foundation one can easily score 660-680.
3. Don't give up. I have to say that I am by far one of the worst standardized test takers. When I tell my friends how I do on standardized tests they do not believe me, because the scores are so low. I suck at them! They are horrible! They give me nightmares. If you are like me, then all I can say is that there is hope. But it requires a lot of practice. Like so much practice that you start understanding how and why the GMAT writers give you certain options on the SC and what they are trying to trip you up with. So much practice that when you Data Sufficiency problem and you want to select C (both 1 and 2) you realize that it's a trick question and you're falling for their trap. Practice is not overrated. Studying works. If you think it doesn't then you haven't studied hard enough.
Do I wish I got higher than a 700? Of course. But getting a 700 is good enough at this point. My ROI to get a 720 or so is simply not worth it.
If you have any questions feel free to message me.
The GMAT is a tough test. If anyone ever tells you otherwise then challenge them to actually take it. The GMAT will humble you and bring you down to your knees. But with enough practice you can beat it!
So happy studying to all of you. Hope this helps. Now I'm off to write some essays.
A little about myself. I grew up in the U.S.. Obtained my bachelors and masters degree's in Civil and Structural engineering, respectively. So Quant was definitely a strong suit. But the GMAT is not about designing buildings, so I had to brush up on a lot of my math skills. Let me start by saying when I started I thought the GMAT was a piece of cake. Until I took a practice test and barely squeaked out a 580. That really woke me up and brought me back down to earth. So here it is.
I decided engineering is cool, but not something I want to do for the rest of my life. So at the ripe old age of 23 I started studying for the GMAT. Goal has always been either Kellogg or Booth, since I live in Chicago. So I knew I needed at least a 700 to have a decent shot to get in.
After doing some research I liked Manhattan GMAT, so I bought all of their Study Guide Books on Amazon. Honestly, the books were awesome. I read through them. Felt pretty good about everything and did some MGMAT CAT's. Below are some of my scores.
Took actual GMAT without studying too much, just brushing up on concepts:
GMAT #1: 600 (Q46 v27) November of 2011.
Obviously that was a failure. So practice MGMAT's are below.
MGMAT CAT1: 650 (Q44 V35)
MGMAT CAT2: 640 (Q43 V34)
MGMAT CAT3: 670 (Q45 V36)
MGMAT CAT4: 640 (Q44 V34)
MGMAT CAT5: 630 (Q46 V31)
I figured 5 tests was good enough. I took the actual test a second time.
GMAT #2: 570 (Q45 V25) End of March 2012.
This was devastating. This almost brought me to tears and I really don't cry that often. Up to this time I really thought I could wing the GMAT without being that great at grammar. I didn't have time to learn grammar. I have a loving wife and 2 yr old kid with whom I enjoy spending time with. I also have a lawn that is not going to cut itself. Long story short, I was working about 50-60 hours a week as a Structural Engineering and trying to not be a horrible husband/father while studying for the GMAT.
Luckily my wife encouraged me to take the test again. I took about 2 months off and did not even think about the GMAT. Around May of 2012 I realized that I need to work on my grammar and such for the SC portion. I started from scratch. Literally from 'what is a verb'. I bought the SC GmatPill. It was ok overall, but not earth shattering. In all fairness my conversational English was just fine, but my proper/GMAT English could use some work. Either way, the MGMAT SC Book was pretty awesome. I also bought the PowerScore for CR. Also very solid. I kept doing a lot of OG problems. Using an error log. Tracking the time for each questions. Really slowing the process down and getting QUALITY OVER QUANTITY! This is huge!
I signed up for all the daily problems from every possible website. I lived and breathed with my GMAT study books. At first I wanted to take the GMAT a third time before the IR change, but realized that I needed some more time. I'm very glad I waited.
Eventually I've done all of the Verbal OG questions twice. and taken the MGMAT CAT's again. Below are some of the score.
MGMAT CAT6: 700 (Q47 V39) (I was pumped!)
MGMAT CAT1A: 660 (Q44 V36)
MGMAT CAT2A: 620 (Q45 V31) This was 5 days before the exam!
I was again devastated. I took the GMAT Practice tests with their software and was consistently getting about 660. Nothing spectacular.
So with 5 days to go I start stressing out. My wife is out of town, so I have some free time. Took a day off of work and just put in like 8-10 hrs. Just piles of practice SC problems. Used any and every problem I could get my hands on. Dissected the solutions until I started seeing doubles of everything. Also I went back to all my MGMAT tests and wrote down the formulas/concepts for all the math problems I got wrong. Which was only Probability, Combinatorics and some Standard Deviation stuff. I went back to the MGMAT Guides and reread those sections (all within the last 5 days). I really felt even more confident in Quant. So then came test day.
Test Day:
Left 4 hours before the test (trip is approx. 1 hr) Got stuck in major traffic (this never happens at 10am) and started freaking out. Of course this would happen on test day. Test was at 2pm. Got there with 2.5 hours to spare. Started reviewing all of my notes of questions I missed furiously. Almost forgot to eat. Got some food. Walked over to test center, said a quick prayer and walked in.
Testing folks were great, no problems there. Signed in and destroyed the AWA Essay. That CEO had no chance. Now I never practiced any IR at all. But it seemed relatively straightforward. I feel pretty good about how I did there, guess I'll find out in a couple days. Took my first break.
Had my granola bar. Downed a Starbucks coffee. Did about 30 push ups. I was pumped for the Quant. Went back in and was doing good. At about question 20 I may have finally missed a question, but was still ahead as far as timing goes. But the quant didn't feel bad, until question 25 or so. Man, the GMAT gods struck with a vengeance. Crazy geometry. Obscure inequality/absolute value data sufficiency. Just an absolute nightmare. I was glad I was ahead on time. I finished with about 39 seconds to spare. Felt wiped out, but knew I did well. Took my second break.
Had a few more granola bars. Did 30 more push ups. Got my blood pumping and back in to do Verbal. First 20 were fine. Couple weird SC's, some vague and confusing articles but I took detailed notes on RC articles and really forced myself to actually care about them. There were a few tough CR questions, but nothing unmanageable. Around question 30 I started to lose it. I knew the test was almost over. My heart started beating really fast. I lost my concentration and was falling apart. I was ok on the timing, even 3 minutes ahead. So I stopped completely and for 60 seconds, closed my eyes and just did some breathing exercises. This helped calm me down. Finished the last couple questions, probably got them wrong and didn't feel too confident in my Verbal score. Went through the bs demographic questions and boom: 700.
GMAT #3: 700 (Q49 V38)
Double fist pump in the air. I felt about 20 lbs lighter. I was so happy to have this over with.
Some general thoughts/tips.
1. Don't let the test consume you. Breathe. Exercise. Do whatever you need to be in control.
2. Timing is KEY! If you are behind and guess it's ok. But do NOT under any circumstances spend 4-5 minutes on a math problem. It will destroy your timing and is not worth it. I strongly believe that with time and a good foundation one can easily score 660-680.
3. Don't give up. I have to say that I am by far one of the worst standardized test takers. When I tell my friends how I do on standardized tests they do not believe me, because the scores are so low. I suck at them! They are horrible! They give me nightmares. If you are like me, then all I can say is that there is hope. But it requires a lot of practice. Like so much practice that you start understanding how and why the GMAT writers give you certain options on the SC and what they are trying to trip you up with. So much practice that when you Data Sufficiency problem and you want to select C (both 1 and 2) you realize that it's a trick question and you're falling for their trap. Practice is not overrated. Studying works. If you think it doesn't then you haven't studied hard enough.
Do I wish I got higher than a 700? Of course. But getting a 700 is good enough at this point. My ROI to get a 720 or so is simply not worth it.
If you have any questions feel free to message me.
The GMAT is a tough test. If anyone ever tells you otherwise then challenge them to actually take it. The GMAT will humble you and bring you down to your knees. But with enough practice you can beat it!
So happy studying to all of you. Hope this helps. Now I'm off to write some essays.
