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ImNotCreative
- Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2011 8:32 am
Hey so I just wanted to share my experience and maybe ask one or two questions in the meantime.
I took my GMAT and scored 740 (Q47/V44). The funny thing is that I'm German and not a native speaker. I have spent 3 months in an internship in London, 4 months studying in the U.S. and I went for 6 months to a school in Canada. I have always been very strong verbally (self-taught reader before going to school; speak 4 languages fluently and all that stuff) so I guess that's much more important than 100% proficiency in the English language.
I spent c. 3 weeks preparing while I was going to uni. I first bought the GMAC practice book (the big red one) and worked on some of the questions for 2 days. Then I decided to take a GMATPrep test and immediately scored 740. I was very relieved. As my verbal score was in the 99th percentile, I decided not to study for the verbal part at all. But I knew I could still improve on the quant score. I bought the MGMAT books and they are one huge letdown. Basically their whole concept is much too focused on theory. I mean the theory on the GMAT is very simple and all you have to know is explained in the GMAC practice books. Still, I decided to work through the complete quant books. Then I did another GMACT test and scored 720. Then I took a MGMAT test and scored only 610! I was in a really loud place and the questions were much more theoretical then expected. For some reason I had bombed the verbal section. I decided to take 2 more MGMAT tests and twice scored 720. Then I did the quant section of the third test and got a great score (89th percentile). Until here I had always had problem with the timing on the quant and would have to pace through the last 10 questions, while guessing some.
Two days later I took the GMAT.
I really didn't give a shit about AWA, as nobody else does and as it is super easy. I really enjoyed the essays though, because I could use some real-life experience to answer the questions. It was a good warm-up for the quant section. I took my 8 minutes break. Then it was on. The questions seemed fairly easy and I was really quick. Every once in a while I checked the watch, but I was always ahead in time. Twice I caught myself nearly pressing the "Next" button, only to realize that I had forgotten to do one last step. Luckily I had realized my mistakes in time. Then I started getting some really crazy questions, which I thought was great since it's a CAT test. I decided not to spend too much time on this and took some very educated guesses for the hardest ones. By the end of the section the questions got ridiculously easy and I kinda freaked out. But at least I was sure again that I was right. I finished two minutes ahead of time. This had NEVER happened before to me in the quant section.
Then I took another 8 minutes break. I had a great feel for the quant section and knew that the verbal part, my strength, was still ahead of me. I was not 100% sure for the first couple of verbal questions. For a lot of them I felt like more than one choice seemed well-suited. But then it got better. Unfortunately they kept throwing more and more SC questions in my face, which made me a little uncomfortable since I'm not a native English speaker. I finished 5 minutes ahead of time - as always in this section.
Before my score appeared my best guess would have been 760, with a stronger than usual showing in quant and strong, but worse than usual, performance in the verbal part.
Then I got my results. First of all, I was very happy with 740 (97th percentile). But I feel like my quant score could have been much better than in the 76th percentile. I must have gotten some tough experimental questions right, plus I tend to do careless mistakes. Maybe the whole pacing strategy was not right? Still verbal killed it for me again (97th percentile).
I'm quite happy and I hope this is enough for all the schools that I have in mind. Master in finance at a target uni or master in management at a target uni in Europe (LSE/St. Gallen/HEC etc.)
I took my GMAT and scored 740 (Q47/V44). The funny thing is that I'm German and not a native speaker. I have spent 3 months in an internship in London, 4 months studying in the U.S. and I went for 6 months to a school in Canada. I have always been very strong verbally (self-taught reader before going to school; speak 4 languages fluently and all that stuff) so I guess that's much more important than 100% proficiency in the English language.
I spent c. 3 weeks preparing while I was going to uni. I first bought the GMAC practice book (the big red one) and worked on some of the questions for 2 days. Then I decided to take a GMATPrep test and immediately scored 740. I was very relieved. As my verbal score was in the 99th percentile, I decided not to study for the verbal part at all. But I knew I could still improve on the quant score. I bought the MGMAT books and they are one huge letdown. Basically their whole concept is much too focused on theory. I mean the theory on the GMAT is very simple and all you have to know is explained in the GMAC practice books. Still, I decided to work through the complete quant books. Then I did another GMACT test and scored 720. Then I took a MGMAT test and scored only 610! I was in a really loud place and the questions were much more theoretical then expected. For some reason I had bombed the verbal section. I decided to take 2 more MGMAT tests and twice scored 720. Then I did the quant section of the third test and got a great score (89th percentile). Until here I had always had problem with the timing on the quant and would have to pace through the last 10 questions, while guessing some.
Two days later I took the GMAT.
I really didn't give a shit about AWA, as nobody else does and as it is super easy. I really enjoyed the essays though, because I could use some real-life experience to answer the questions. It was a good warm-up for the quant section. I took my 8 minutes break. Then it was on. The questions seemed fairly easy and I was really quick. Every once in a while I checked the watch, but I was always ahead in time. Twice I caught myself nearly pressing the "Next" button, only to realize that I had forgotten to do one last step. Luckily I had realized my mistakes in time. Then I started getting some really crazy questions, which I thought was great since it's a CAT test. I decided not to spend too much time on this and took some very educated guesses for the hardest ones. By the end of the section the questions got ridiculously easy and I kinda freaked out. But at least I was sure again that I was right. I finished two minutes ahead of time. This had NEVER happened before to me in the quant section.
Then I took another 8 minutes break. I had a great feel for the quant section and knew that the verbal part, my strength, was still ahead of me. I was not 100% sure for the first couple of verbal questions. For a lot of them I felt like more than one choice seemed well-suited. But then it got better. Unfortunately they kept throwing more and more SC questions in my face, which made me a little uncomfortable since I'm not a native English speaker. I finished 5 minutes ahead of time - as always in this section.
Before my score appeared my best guess would have been 760, with a stronger than usual showing in quant and strong, but worse than usual, performance in the verbal part.
Then I got my results. First of all, I was very happy with 740 (97th percentile). But I feel like my quant score could have been much better than in the 76th percentile. I must have gotten some tough experimental questions right, plus I tend to do careless mistakes. Maybe the whole pacing strategy was not right? Still verbal killed it for me again (97th percentile).
I'm quite happy and I hope this is enough for all the schools that I have in mind. Master in finance at a target uni or master in management at a target uni in Europe (LSE/St. Gallen/HEC etc.)
Last night at the book store, I paged through the MGMAT quant books (a couple of them anyhow). And I agree with your assessment of them. I am going to hold off on those, at least for now. And at this point in time I think the big red book is going to be enough. I will just start working through the problems, and take a test or two to see where things stand.
