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Silent Observer for a Year...Need Help

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Silent Observer for a Year...Need Help

by cneal4 » Thu Mar 25, 2010 8:34 am
Hey, its very refreshing to see so many of you experience so much success on this exam. I've taken the exam 3 times already the first two last year, and the last exam today (March 25) almost a year from my last date.

I took a prep course at my college from my teacher who claims to take the test every other year and can almost make a perfect score.

I just knew this time I would do much better (Im sure many of you can see where Im going with this). I studied since July with me doing about 5 hours a day from February until this week. I understand all the basics of math and have worked to improve my verbal. I completed the the OG and understood all the math problems. I studied Sentence correction and downloaded the flash cards. I completed the GMATPrep practice test and understood what I got wrong. I actually did less than I did a year ago when I took the exam after all this preparation.

Have anyone else experienced this? Its so discouraging....Im almost ready to quit after struggling with this exam over a year. I did well in my major (finance) getting all A's but this one test is holding me back.

Any insight would be appreciated as Im not sure what to do at this point? :(
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by David@VeritasPrep » Thu Mar 25, 2010 7:58 pm
You know you are just the type of person that I think we most want to help. It is clear that you certainly do want to attend business school as you have had plenty of opportunities to quit.

Let's discuss the test a little bit... and why the test is there... and what your scores mean in regards to business school. The GMAT is designed with only one thing in mind - the one thing that everyone with an MBA is supposed to be able to do regardless of the specific job they take - Make Decisions. Each section on the GMAT is really about decision-making. In fact, the two "signature sections" of the GMAT, the portions not found on other tests, Sentence Correction and Data Sufficiency are the most clearly oriented toward decision making.

Data Sufficiency is a test of your ability to decide when you have enough information to be able to make a decision (see today's article "Enough is Enough" by Brian Galvin https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/03/ ... -is-enough.) Sentence correction is a test of your ability to see through the clutter that is placed in the sentences in the form of prepositions and modifiers. If you can get around that clutter you can focus on the portions of the sentences that will allow you to choose between answer choices.

The other three sections Critical Reasoning, Reading Comp and Problem Solving are tests of your reasoning ability. Please do not listen to anyone who refers to the quantitative reasoning section as "Math." Certainly math is involved and is required but it is simply the language that is used to test your reasoning.

I think you have an opportunity here to learn more about yourself and about business school than many people who apply. Take some time just analyzing the five main types of problems on the test and look at each of these through the eyes of an admissions committee at a business school. Why is coordinate geometry (just for example) tested? This is certainly not a part of standard MBA curriculum. It is test or your ability to focus on the correct information, to be very careful with details and to not make careless errors or assumptions. These are all useful characteristics for an MBA to have. Look at each question type this way - if you see why they are asking the question then you can also see the path of least resistance provided by the folks who write the GMAT. This is how we have analyzed each section at Veritas and you can try this for yourself.

And there is one other thing that has helped my students improve their scores tremendously, sometimes literally overnight. Do not think of the test as 78 questions - but rather as 1 verbal question and 1 quant question. Namely - how many answers can I get right in 75 minutes? Think strategically about the way that you allocate your time. And remember that you should be focused on getting a certain number of questions right and really working on those problems that you can get right rather than fearing that you might get some wrong. Everybody misses some questions.

As to your score going down - this is not uncommon for someone that has studied as much as you have. Over the past year you have learned so much information that this might actually account for your score going down. Perhaps you ran low on time or tried to apply everything you knew to lots of questions.

The MBA may still be the degree for you despite your three tests, but to get there you will need to see the GMAT for what it is - a test of decision-making. If you can do that then you certainly belong in business school and your GMAT score will reflect this.

By the way, if you post some additional information - such as your timing (did you have to guess at questions at the end of each session) and perhaps what you think went wrong on test day we can provide more information.

Hope this helps!
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by cneal4 » Fri Mar 26, 2010 9:08 am
David,

Thank you sooo much for the feedback. After I posted this, I read through and saw countless others whom are struggling like myself on these boards. As you mentioned, I could have quit but I do not want too. Quitting is not an option. Yesterday I was highly depressed and agitated. But when I analyzed it, you are absolutely right. I had to guess on the last 8 questions because I ranned out of time. I focused a lot of energy on sentence correction. On the GMAt practice test, I got 13 out of 15 correct.

I think I have a solid understanding of the fundamentals. Im going to leverage the past fews weeks I have really studied hard and continue to study.

Whenever I get an answer wrong, I am able to understand the explanations of those like yourself on these boards. But I should begin to not look at it as math, and look at it as an opportunity to test my reasoning ability. That's a very interesting perspective.

I believe Im going to re-register to take the exam again in six weeks. This time focusing on working problems only and looking at it from a different view point.
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by cneal4 » Fri Mar 26, 2010 9:12 am
Someone mentioned working the practice exam on GMATprep over and over again once a week to get an understanding on the timing. Im going to figure this out. Its kinda like poetic justice...High school was easy, college was easy, business and real estate were easy, so I can't expect everything to be handed to me on a silver platter.

I was meeting with a recruiter today who told me the hardest part about business school is getting into it. My prep teacher said GMAT is the hardest grad school entrance exam out there. Even harder than the MCAT since it tests subjects people have been studying for the past three years.

So thanks for your feedback....Im in the library now back on the saddle...*sigh* LOL...
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