i re-took the gmat a couple weeks ago, but i decided to share my story now so that other people can be inspired and know that with hard work, getting a good score is possible!
a brief background: i work in advertising, i'm a few years out of college, and i've always hated standardized tests. okay, maybe hate is a strong word, but i just never really "got" it when it came to the sat and all those tests. i did well enough to get into a good college, but i was hoping that i'd never have to worry about it after that. fast forward a few years, and i decide to start preparing for the gmat. i take a diagnostic test, score an abysmal 480, and know that i need to put in some serious work. i started on my own, did some manhattan gmat/veritas/kaplan books, watched some videos, did most of the OG, and took the test in september, 2013. in hindsight, that was a bad idea. i didn't feel prepared, and that was reflected in the 540 score i got. but i'm not a quitter, so i started studying again, and this time, i decided to do it right. first, i hired erfun geula as my gmat tutor (his website is www.gmatcompass.com). he was hugely helpful. within the first hour of our first session, he had my weaknesses pegged down, and saw things that i was never aware of. we realized that i had two fundamental issues: my approach toward the questions and my knowledge of the content. bit-by-bit, we worked together to address both of these areas, and my score slowly started to climb. after a few months of tutoring and hundreds of hours of studying, i re-took the test, and hit a 660. i know that a lot of the people on this forum would be disappointed with that score, but i'm very happy with it, and i'm really proud to know that through hard work, i was able to achieve my goal. i won't be applying to schools until round 1, but it's a huge relief to know that the gmat hurdle is finally out of the way. thank you to everyone on this forum. good luck.
a brief background: i work in advertising, i'm a few years out of college, and i've always hated standardized tests. okay, maybe hate is a strong word, but i just never really "got" it when it came to the sat and all those tests. i did well enough to get into a good college, but i was hoping that i'd never have to worry about it after that. fast forward a few years, and i decide to start preparing for the gmat. i take a diagnostic test, score an abysmal 480, and know that i need to put in some serious work. i started on my own, did some manhattan gmat/veritas/kaplan books, watched some videos, did most of the OG, and took the test in september, 2013. in hindsight, that was a bad idea. i didn't feel prepared, and that was reflected in the 540 score i got. but i'm not a quitter, so i started studying again, and this time, i decided to do it right. first, i hired erfun geula as my gmat tutor (his website is www.gmatcompass.com). he was hugely helpful. within the first hour of our first session, he had my weaknesses pegged down, and saw things that i was never aware of. we realized that i had two fundamental issues: my approach toward the questions and my knowledge of the content. bit-by-bit, we worked together to address both of these areas, and my score slowly started to climb. after a few months of tutoring and hundreds of hours of studying, i re-took the test, and hit a 660. i know that a lot of the people on this forum would be disappointed with that score, but i'm very happy with it, and i'm really proud to know that through hard work, i was able to achieve my goal. i won't be applying to schools until round 1, but it's a huge relief to know that the gmat hurdle is finally out of the way. thank you to everyone on this forum. good luck.
