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LizardFace
- Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Sun May 15, 2011 6:07 pm
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Hello,
I've been browsing through this forum for advice and insights on the GMAT for less than 3 weeks and with only 1 post, I don't think I've really established myself as part of the 'community'. But I feel like I had kind of a weird run around with practice test scores before I took the real exam and maybe, well, if you are in a similar boat this can put your mind at ease.
I started preparing on April 4, 2011 by taking a Princeton Review course and I took the real GMAT on May 21, 2011. The course ended May 17, 2011. Between the online practice content TPR has and the OG 12 exercises, I took a total of 7 practice exams, 2 of which were from the official GMAT Prep software:
TPR Test 1: 570 (35Q, 34V, taken with no previous prep)
TPR Test 2: 610 (48Q, 26V)
TPR Test 3: 640 (45Q, 33V)
Official Test 1: 650 (45Q, 35V, I took this at the end of April)
TPR Test 4: 590 (42Q, 30V, taken 5/14)
TPR Test 5: 560 (36Q, 31V, taken 5/15)
Official Test 2: 640 (45Q, 34V, I took this 2 days before the real exam)
Well you can see that my scores had gone up consistently throughout April and I had the feeling that the TPR CATS were pretty accurate. But it wasn't until a week before the exam that I did a bunch of prep and took TPR's Test 4 only to get a low score. I was frustrated and determined to prove to myself that I was capable of a higher score, so I reviewed Test 4 and took Test 5 the following day, scoring even lower than what I did before I did ANY prep.
Thats when I felt like I hit a mental brick wall. You can see that here:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/6-days-to-th ... 83027.html
In that previous post I actually mentioned that I would do a bunch of practice problems between that Sunday, May 15 up until I took the 2nd GMATPrep practice test on May 19. Turns out I hardly did squat. Other than the last TPR class session on May 17 I kind of just took a step back from GMAT, business school and career direction. I didn't really panic or get too upset about it, but I didn't really feel that confident. Up until Thursday evening when I finished the second practice test I was almost mentally preparing myself to take the real exam a 2nd time. But that score jump back to what I had consistently been doing was a big confidence booster.
On the day of the exam I felt a little nervous but overall things went pretty smoothly. I'm grateful I got a decent noteboard and markers. During my prep I only wrote full essays once, a bunch of other times I just made a quick outline of what I was going to write. But I was able to finish writing both essays on the real exam with a good 5 minutes to spare on the Argument and Issue section. On the math I didn't really feel like there were problems that were ridiculously difficult, just some problems that were a little challenging because it took me a while to solve them. Verbal was a little bit of a relief because I felt like the first problem I got, an SC, was something I was able to confidently answer. Later on there were a few questions I felt like were very challenging in the verbal section. But I took that as a good sign that I was doing well.
I reached the last problem on the math section with just under 2 minutes to spare and the last problem on the verbal section with about 5 min to spare. When I got to the point where I could see my score this is what I saw:
Quant 48 - 82nd percentile
Verbal 38 - 83rd percentile
Total 710 - 92nd percentile
I actually looked away from the monitor when I clicked "Next" to reveal my score. When I saw the 710 on the screen I almost yelled out "YESS!!!" in the middle of the test room lol.
As far as exam strategy, the only thing I want to point out is that I took every opportunity to take a break. Even though I finished both Essays early I waited for the timer to run down to kind of mentally relax so I wouldn't feel like I'd lose focus. During the first break between Essays and Math and the second break between Math and Verbal I just took a good 5-6 minutes to think of problems I had done during practice that I knew I got right. I never actually got up and left my desk. I felt that during my practice exams I would kind of rush into a section, screwing up a few problems in the beginning. Only to find out after I finished a practice test that I could have easily gotten the first few problems right had I just been more focused.
Well I didn't mean to make such a long debrief. I'll probably post more stuff about schools I'd like to apply to and requests for business school advice later on since I'm hoping to start a full time MBA program in either Fall 2012 or Fall 2013. Anyways, I'm glad I found this active pre-B school forum, reading about other people's experiences has been pretty motivational.
Oh and of course, thanks to hcueva for responding to my original post!
I've been browsing through this forum for advice and insights on the GMAT for less than 3 weeks and with only 1 post, I don't think I've really established myself as part of the 'community'. But I feel like I had kind of a weird run around with practice test scores before I took the real exam and maybe, well, if you are in a similar boat this can put your mind at ease.
I started preparing on April 4, 2011 by taking a Princeton Review course and I took the real GMAT on May 21, 2011. The course ended May 17, 2011. Between the online practice content TPR has and the OG 12 exercises, I took a total of 7 practice exams, 2 of which were from the official GMAT Prep software:
TPR Test 1: 570 (35Q, 34V, taken with no previous prep)
TPR Test 2: 610 (48Q, 26V)
TPR Test 3: 640 (45Q, 33V)
Official Test 1: 650 (45Q, 35V, I took this at the end of April)
TPR Test 4: 590 (42Q, 30V, taken 5/14)
TPR Test 5: 560 (36Q, 31V, taken 5/15)
Official Test 2: 640 (45Q, 34V, I took this 2 days before the real exam)
Well you can see that my scores had gone up consistently throughout April and I had the feeling that the TPR CATS were pretty accurate. But it wasn't until a week before the exam that I did a bunch of prep and took TPR's Test 4 only to get a low score. I was frustrated and determined to prove to myself that I was capable of a higher score, so I reviewed Test 4 and took Test 5 the following day, scoring even lower than what I did before I did ANY prep.
Thats when I felt like I hit a mental brick wall. You can see that here:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/6-days-to-th ... 83027.html
In that previous post I actually mentioned that I would do a bunch of practice problems between that Sunday, May 15 up until I took the 2nd GMATPrep practice test on May 19. Turns out I hardly did squat. Other than the last TPR class session on May 17 I kind of just took a step back from GMAT, business school and career direction. I didn't really panic or get too upset about it, but I didn't really feel that confident. Up until Thursday evening when I finished the second practice test I was almost mentally preparing myself to take the real exam a 2nd time. But that score jump back to what I had consistently been doing was a big confidence booster.
On the day of the exam I felt a little nervous but overall things went pretty smoothly. I'm grateful I got a decent noteboard and markers. During my prep I only wrote full essays once, a bunch of other times I just made a quick outline of what I was going to write. But I was able to finish writing both essays on the real exam with a good 5 minutes to spare on the Argument and Issue section. On the math I didn't really feel like there were problems that were ridiculously difficult, just some problems that were a little challenging because it took me a while to solve them. Verbal was a little bit of a relief because I felt like the first problem I got, an SC, was something I was able to confidently answer. Later on there were a few questions I felt like were very challenging in the verbal section. But I took that as a good sign that I was doing well.
I reached the last problem on the math section with just under 2 minutes to spare and the last problem on the verbal section with about 5 min to spare. When I got to the point where I could see my score this is what I saw:
Quant 48 - 82nd percentile
Verbal 38 - 83rd percentile
Total 710 - 92nd percentile
I actually looked away from the monitor when I clicked "Next" to reveal my score. When I saw the 710 on the screen I almost yelled out "YESS!!!" in the middle of the test room lol.
As far as exam strategy, the only thing I want to point out is that I took every opportunity to take a break. Even though I finished both Essays early I waited for the timer to run down to kind of mentally relax so I wouldn't feel like I'd lose focus. During the first break between Essays and Math and the second break between Math and Verbal I just took a good 5-6 minutes to think of problems I had done during practice that I knew I got right. I never actually got up and left my desk. I felt that during my practice exams I would kind of rush into a section, screwing up a few problems in the beginning. Only to find out after I finished a practice test that I could have easily gotten the first few problems right had I just been more focused.
Well I didn't mean to make such a long debrief. I'll probably post more stuff about schools I'd like to apply to and requests for business school advice later on since I'm hoping to start a full time MBA program in either Fall 2012 or Fall 2013. Anyways, I'm glad I found this active pre-B school forum, reading about other people's experiences has been pretty motivational.
Oh and of course, thanks to hcueva for responding to my original post!
.
