I took the GMAT today with the intention of improving from my previous score of 540. I breezed through the essay section (my background is in journalism and English teaching), but then the math section hit me like a brick wall. Unbelievably I was stumped by the first few questions, which were completely new concepts to me. And I knew I had done poorly when, around question 34, I had a quadratic equation!
I was so discouraged by my obvious failure that I cancelled my test without even starting the verbal section. I felt all the more discouraged knowing that I've spent the last two months, every Saturday, studying math at the Princeton Review. I'm not trying to knock on Princeton Review, but the actual GMAT questions seemed very unfamiliar to what I studied. I bombed the test, and my self-esteem was reduced to dirt.
However, I just had one of those "light-bulb" moments, like a paradigm shift. This test has become a personal demon of mine, and I've decided I'm going to take this test as many times as I need to succeed. I'll take it ten times if I have to, and that will relieve the pressure to have to absolutely succeed the next time around. I know that's alot of money to fork out, but there's no cost to beating your personal demon! Plus, it can't be as bad as that Korean woman in the news who failed her drivers license test 775 times.
I'll take this test once a month this year until I reach something around a 700. I'll be known at the test center as the "local," the 31-year-old who turned down dates to study math, but come hell or high water I'll get that grade. Plus, once I get a 700, I doubt schools will be asking why I had to take it so many times. And if they do, maybe they'll view me as positively persistant.
I was so discouraged by my obvious failure that I cancelled my test without even starting the verbal section. I felt all the more discouraged knowing that I've spent the last two months, every Saturday, studying math at the Princeton Review. I'm not trying to knock on Princeton Review, but the actual GMAT questions seemed very unfamiliar to what I studied. I bombed the test, and my self-esteem was reduced to dirt.
However, I just had one of those "light-bulb" moments, like a paradigm shift. This test has become a personal demon of mine, and I've decided I'm going to take this test as many times as I need to succeed. I'll take it ten times if I have to, and that will relieve the pressure to have to absolutely succeed the next time around. I know that's alot of money to fork out, but there's no cost to beating your personal demon! Plus, it can't be as bad as that Korean woman in the news who failed her drivers license test 775 times.
I'll take this test once a month this year until I reach something around a 700. I'll be known at the test center as the "local," the 31-year-old who turned down dates to study math, but come hell or high water I'll get that grade. Plus, once I get a 700, I doubt schools will be asking why I had to take it so many times. And if they do, maybe they'll view me as positively persistant.
