GMAT Strategy

Hi all,

This is my inaugurate post in here and sadly not a happy one. Now that it's been a few hours the pain subsided somewhat, and I am done feeling sorry for myself and trying to figure out who/what to blame for this, I've decided instead to come on here and try to make a difference.

My background: I born outside the US and came here to get my undergrad degree in Business Admininstration. I've always been very analytical when it comes to both numbers and arguments, enjoy math and challenging problems, and also feel my English is at a relatively high level. I think you can see where I'm headed with this - on top of the fact that I had less than four weeks to prepare, I approached this overconfident. In my defense, I am applying to a masters of accounting program that requires ~550 to get in and the fact that I scored a 600 on MBA.com's first CAT didn't make it any better for me. I suppose I should've started getting worried when my subsequent scores were 570 and 550. Never in a million years did I think I'd get hit with a 480! Anyway, this post doesn't contain anywhere near the valuable information that people post when they achieve the scores they desire, so I'll wrap it up. The main reason for my post is, and I should've probably started off with it, is that I have never felt worse in my life about failing a test, ever. I want you guys who are considering taking the GMAT to never go in overconfident and cut corners. I did a lot of things wrong and feel like a major failure. But once I wiped off the tears, ok maybe one, but it didn't roll down, anger took over. But it's "good" anger, if there's such a thing. I am so pissed off at myself, that I have made a commitment to BEAT THIS STUPID TEST. I am now obsessed with scoring very high on it and I will do whatever it takes to get over 700. It has become personal at this point. In fact, I will approach this as if I am planning on becoming a GMAT tutor one day. I know I have it in me. So this is for all of you that are discouraged and down after having done bad on test day, let's keep encouraging each other and make a positive difference for each other and the rest of the members. I don't care how long it takes, I'll get there.

sorry to hear
lot of us have been thru such exp.
good to know ur not giving up or loosing ur confidence.
im sure u can do it too
Just make a plan and hit it.

Good luck

NotinFresno wrote:Hi all,

This is my inaugurate post in here and sadly not a happy one. Now that it's been a few hours the pain subsided somewhat, and I am done feeling sorry for myself and trying to figure out who/what to blame for this, I've decided instead to come on here and try to make a difference.

My background: I born outside the US and came here to get my undergrad degree in Business Admininstration. I've always been very analytical when it comes to both numbers and arguments, enjoy math and challenging problems, and also feel my English is at a relatively high level. I think you can see where I'm headed with this - on top of the fact that I had less than four weeks to prepare, I approached this overconfident. In my defense, I am applying to a masters of accounting program that requires ~550 to get in and the fact that I scored a 600 on MBA.com's first CAT didn't make it any better for me. I suppose I should've started getting worried when my subsequent scores were 570 and 550. Never in a million years did I think I'd get hit with a 480! Anyway, this post doesn't contain anywhere near the valuable information that people post when they achieve the scores they desire, so I'll wrap it up. The main reason for my post is, and I should've probably started off with it, is that I have never felt worse in my life about failing a test, ever. I want you guys who are considering taking the GMAT to never go in overconfident and cut corners. I did a lot of things wrong and feel like a major failure. But once I wiped off the tears, ok maybe one, but it didn't roll down, anger took over. But it's "good" anger, if there's such a thing. I am so pissed off at myself, that I have made a commitment to BEAT THIS STUPID TEST. I am now obsessed with scoring very high on it and I will do whatever it takes to get over 700. It has become personal at this point. In fact, I will approach this as if I am planning on becoming a GMAT tutor one day. I know I have it in me. So this is for all of you that are discouraged and down after having done bad on test day, let's keep encouraging each other and make a positive difference for each other and the rest of the members. I don't care how long it takes, I'll get there.

I dig your motivation, but if I could offer some constructive criticism...You really have to work on your writing man- organizational structure, using paragraphs, outlining your ideas. Maybe tanking the AWA messed with your confidence for the rest of the test?

Thanks to both of you guys.

Ashim, I have to admit that I always skipped the AWA when taking my CATs due to my time constraints and I did feel uncomfortable while writing the essays at the test center. But honestly once I was done, it was like I never did them in the first place, they didn't influence me at all during the quant and verbal. I appreciate the criticism and I'd also ask you to PM me with more detail if you wouldn't mind. I really didn't bother separating paragraphs because it's a post, but as far as the rest of the stuff, I thought it was pretty good. Thanks.