YOU are the next one to beat the GMATT!! Never give up!!

If a normal person like me can get a 700 (Q49 V35 AWA5) on the GMAT, I believe that everyone can get a similar or better score by simply studying hard. I will be glad if other members, especially those whose mother language is not English, who would like to beat the GMAT feel encouraged by my experience. I took the test on August 3, 2011.

Background
I am an international student (senior) from Japan and am still going to very small, unknown college in NY. My parents do not speak English, and I was raised in Japan until the age of 19. After graduating from high school, I had to go to an English school for one year to improve my English skills sufficient enough to study at college in the U.S. (English is a tough language for Japanese!!)

Material I used
GMAT Official Reviews 12th edition (dark red, blue, and green)
GMAT Official Reviews 11th edition (yellow, light purple, light green) most questions are the same in those textbooks...
Peterson's Master the GMAT (w/CD) I don't recommend this though....
Writing skills for the GRE / GMAT
GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible
Manhattan GMAT online CAT tests

My journey to beat the GMAT
December 2010(my junior year):
I felt a degree from my current college will mean nothing to employers, so I decided to go to a graduate school. After surfing the web and realizing that I had to take a test called GMAT to get into any graduate school, I downloaded a free sample test from mba.com. My very first score was something upper 400.... I felt that it would be an impossible task to get a 700 or higher on the GMAT. Since I did not know anything about the test, I randomly picked up a book, Peterson's Master the GMAT (w/CD), from online and started flipping the pages. Even though I bought the book, I felt I needed to build my vocabulary and writing skills, so I spend the whole winter break for memorizing new words, reading good essays, and writing 10 essays in each week. lol

January-May 2011:
When school started, one of my friends told me about this website. I was very impressed by several successful stories.
What I tried to do during the semester were two things.
1. Write at least 5 essays each week
2. Finish the GMAT Official Review 12th edition (the dark red one) and Peterson's Master the GMAT (w/CD)
One of my friends was really good at writing, so I had him evaluate all of my essays. Before the end of the semester, I took three online tests that came with Peterson's Master the GMAT. I do not remember the scores clearly, but all of the three scores were somewhere around 550. I tried the second test from mab.com right after the semester and got 560 or 570. With disappointment and despair, I flew back to Japan.

May-August 2, 2011:
I bought the previous edition of GMAT Official Review textbooks (yellow, light green, and light purple), GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible, Writing Skills for the GRE and GMAT, and did them all. I worked on the textbooks in this order:
1. The ORs 12th edition
2. GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible
3. The ORs 11th edition
(Writing Skills for the GRE and GMAT whenever I need it)
I scrutinized them all and reviewed each question carefully even when I got a correct answer. Since I am not good at writing, I kept writing essays (two essays everyday) along with the ORs and GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible until the end of June. I bought online tests from Manhattan GMAT when I finished the ORs 12th edition and GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible to get used to computer adaptive tests. My six scores were.....
6/28 640 I can't remember how many times I wished GMAT were in Japanese...lol
7/6 690 Quite happy when I saw this score and start having a hope to get over 700.
7/19 660 Got depressed...
7/22 700 I was seriously happy.
7/26 680 Started doubting that previous score was due to luck.
8/1 700 Happy but anxious about the fluctuation in my scores.

August 3, 2011:
I went to the test center one and half hours before the starting time to do little math exercises at a nearby cafe.

9a.m. August 3, 2011:
I wrote two essays and did not like them at all. I felt my examples were not strong enough to convince the reader, and in my essays, there were not flows that good essays have. But I could anticipate a bad start, so I could easily shift my mind onto the next section. I did not take a break, for I was afraid of losing concentration. The real test was more challenging than I thought, but throughout the test, I just tried to enjoy it and give my best shot. When I clicked the final button and saw a 700, I stroke a small victory pose in front of the computer.

Never give up! Whenever you are tempted to do something else other than studying for GMAT, picture youself having a score report showing a 700+!!!

"Lasting regrets result from the things we fail to do, not those we do."
-Thomas D. Gilovich-

After graduating from a grad school and working a couple of years, I will take the test again to improve the score as much as possible so that I can get into a B-school. I am so looking forward to seeing some of you at an Ivy-League B-school in the near future!!!!

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