-
jaymw
- Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
- Posts: 144
- Joined: Sun Aug 29, 2010 9:17 am
- Thanked: 40 times
- Followed by:4 members
- GMAT Score:760
Hello everyone,
in the following excruciatingly long post about my GMAT journey, I will walk you through my preparation, my thoughts on the test and some recommendations.
Let me first tell you a little bit about myself, though. I am a 24 year old male who was born and raised in Germany. About three months ago, I graduated in International Business (B.A.) with highest honors from a rather unknown German university. I am currently living in China, which is where I moved after graduating. I am regularly taking Chinese classes here and work as a Business English teacher on occasion. Furthermore, I see myself as someone with an entrepreneurial spirit, so that once the right idea comes along, I might not even pursue a masters degree.
All I know for sure is that in case I want to do a masters degree, I want it to take place at a great university. A little research quickly revealed that there really was no way around taking the GMAT if I was serious about getting into a good B-school.
Let's skip to today.
Today I gave the GMAT and scored a 730 (96th percentile) with
Q 49 and
V 41.
As indicated by the title, I am not 100% satisfied with the results. Let me explain why: I wanted a 760.
Right now, I feel a little like having advanced to the finals in some sports competition, but then having lost to someone else. Had somebody told me before I started studying that I would get a 730, I would have been satisfied. But now that I know what I am capable of doing(GMATwise; more on that later), I feel I could not entirely live up to my potential. Nevertheless, I hope that I will get happier with this score over the next couple of days.
I have never studied for anything like I have for this particular test. But I don't believe that my study methods were completely appropriate, otherwise I would have certainly gotten the desired score. A couple of days ago, I read an (excellent) article by Stacey Koprince (https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/04/ ... -760-score) on what distinguishes a 700 scorer from a 760 scorer. Especially the ability to almost immediately identify what you are asked to do by any one question struck me as something I had not yet mastered. But I figured that in the short time that was left, I would never be able to acquire this skill, so I focused more on staying relaxed. Probably a good decision after all.
The Day Before Test Day
The day before the exam, I did NOT study at all, which I think was wise. Instead, I tried to find the test center in Beijing, which, as it appears, can be a tough challenge. When I arrived at the place of description, there were a couple of skyscrapers and I really had no idea which one it was. Asking people about the ENGLISH name of the place did not get me any further, either, because there are still few people here who speak English. And even if they do, why would they bother learning a second name for every place they can already describe in Chinese. Long story short, it took me a full hour to figure out where exactly I would have to go on test day. Had this journey happened ON test day, I would have lost it! Takeaway: CHECK OUT WHERE EXACTLY THE TEST CENTER IS BEFORE YOU TAKE THE TEST!
Test Day
When I got seated, I felt a little more nervous than expected. Anyway the argument essay went fine (used myohmy's awesome template, which really anyone should use!). The issue essay proved to be a little tougher, but I felt confident while doing it as well. Don't have the scores yet so I won't make any assumptions as to what people should and should not do on their essays. Again, this goes with the exception of using the above-mentioned template, which will be helpful to almost everyone here!
Then I had a short break, in which I ate some honey melon. Honey melons are awesome because they do not only taste great but they are also healthy and contain enough sugar to keep you awake. Had a sip of water and felt confident for tackling whatever the computer would throw at me in the quant. section. The first three questions were fine, the fourth one, however, proved to be difficult and I could not decide for an answer. I thought to myself how stupid I must be because it is only the fourth question and therefore really can't be all that hard. Needless to say, this attitude didn't get me any further, so I just ended up losing a couple of minutes. But then I could regain my confidence on the next 10-15 question which I solved with ease. Then it started to get more difficult which I perceived as a good sign. As far as the last 10 questions are concerned, I was not sure about many of them, but forced myself to stick to the 2 minute per question 'rule'. With 3 questions to go ,I faced an extremely tough one, thought f*** it, and moved on about 10 seconds in. Unfortunately, the next question did not prove to be any less annoying. I thought, I would not be able to figure it out in time, so I moved on to the final Q question with 5 minutes on the clock. And, as you may have already guessed, I could not find a way to solve that one either (might have been because a lot of silent swearing that was going on in my head had taken away a lot of my brain capacity). Anyway, I tried to keep a positive attitude because even if I did not have any clue about the last 3 questions, I knew for sure that they would not have appeared on any complete idiot's screen.
After that, I followed my planned honey melon routine again, gathered my strength and went back to my seat. I was really happy with the first couple of SC questions and the first RC passage, which I considered 'easy'. However, the second RC question turned out to be a real b**** (sorry for cursing so much, but only that way you will know how I felt). I did not grasp anything in this particular passage, no meaning, no structure, my mind simply went blank. Here, my biggest fault was trying to solve the questions even though I knew I would not stand a chance. I ended up picking answers that I knew where wrong (don't ask me why I did that, now that I read it I realize even more how silly that was). The rest of the verbal section went okay, with the caveat that I was a little pressed for time at the end. I decided to rush through the last ten questions, rather than take my time and guess on the last 2 or 3 ones. Don't know if that was appropriate but anyway I was happy when the exam was over. I knew before I had my scores reported that I had done worse than in my last practice tests, but there was really no good reason to cancel the scores. And after the annoying questions about my personal background (seriously, why is this torture? You can do all this stuff online before the test!) I received my score: 730 (96th percentile). I can't exactly say I was happy because I had aimed for more. Anyway, the nice Chinese lady at the checkout handed me my report with the words 'feichang score', which accurately translated means 'very score'. I guessed that what she meant to say was that my score was good, so I thanked her and left.
How I Studied
I started studying about two and a half months ago, with the last month practicing really hard. On my first (cold) prep exam, I got a confusing 570. The score was not confusing because it was low, but because I disagreed with the software (I posted this in some forum here). I scored high on Q and ridiculously low on V (22nd percentile), however, my analysis revealed that I had answered 19 out of 30 questions correctly, which no matter how easy or difficult the individual questions, can NEVER be 22nd percentile! I was so upset with this that I attempted another PowerPrep exam 2 weeks later, only to find the same flaw in the programming. At this point, however, I was really questioning my own abilities, so I did an MGMAT exam the next day and scored a 650, which I believed to be a lot closer to my actual status at the time.
I really focused on verbal in my prep then and bought the following books.
MGMAT SC
Good one! Gave me a sound understanding of what was tested. The SC question bank that came with it was of high quality but unfortunately a little too small for my taste. So most of the SC questions I tackled were from the OG.
MGMAT RC
Good one as well, especially because I totally HATED RC at the beginning. I am still amazed by GMAC's skill to come up with such incredibly boring passages that really make it hard to stay focussed. But hey, this is what they are testing, too, in the end.
Critical Reasoning Bible
Although I am not overly religious, I believe it deserves the name bible. Really opened my eyes to some of the question types and made me a lot better in dealing with CR questions in general.
For Q, I used the OG mostly, and the two workbooks by EZ Solutions, which contain a variety of rather high quality practice problems. In addition to that, I also used the OG Quant, because I believed that it couldn't hurt to do as many 'real' GMAT problems as possible.
As an aspiring student, I also bought Kaplan 800, but did only the quant part. Found it to be too easy, or at least easier than my last three Q questions today. However, chances are that my own weirdness makes me feel that way and that those questions weren't that difficult after all. Generally, I loved the explanations in this books, which makes it worth the purchase. Can't say anything about the V section in it because didn't do it.
The last, but most significant part of my studies, contained LOTS of practice exams from various sources. In the last two weeks before test day, I did one exam every 2 or 3 days. I also forced myself to not skip the essays any more (I had done that in my first prep exams). Below, you will find a list of my Prep scores.
PowerPrep 1 (Sep 1) Q44 V21 T570
PowerPrep 2 (Sep 16) Q49 V23 T600
MGMAT 2 (Sep 17) Q44 V35 T650
MGMAT 3 (Oct 11) Q45 V39 T690
Princeton 1 (Oct 20) Q51 V33 T680 (started doing the essays here)
Gmat Prep1 (Oct 25) Q49 V40 T720
Gmat Prep1 (Oct 30) Q48 V42 T730 (skipped essays, saw many repeats, was upset with the score)
MGMAT 4 (Nov 1) Q43 V41 T700
Kaplan 2 (Nov 3) Q47 V40 T690 (I knew about Kaplan's scoring algo, so I really didn't care)
MGMAT 5 (Nov 5) Q48 V40 T720
Kaplan 1 (Nov 8) Q53 V44 T740 (again, something was off here because there is no 53 for any of the sections)
MGMAT 6 (Nov 10)Q48 V42 T730 (almost freaked out during Q because construction workers tried out their cool new power drills in the room next to mine...)
Gmat Prep 2 (Nove 12) Q50 V40 T750
And that last one was good enough for me to be confident wihtout any further practice. After each test, I reviewed my mistakes (and only my mistakes) to see where I went wrong. I was often annoyed with the question design rather than interested in how to solve the problem properly. In the end, I believe that it was precisely this unhealthy attitude that kept me from getting the score I wanted.
Things I Recommend Doing
Practice tests! Do them. It will build stamina and make you familiar with the question design (although some companies do this a lot better than others). Furthermore, prep exams will give you an idea of were you stand and of what you need to improve in order to take it up a notch.
Ichi more! Most awesome energy drink I've ever had. (I really don't work for this company, tho.) If you live in China, try it. As far as I know it's not available anywhere else yet. It tastes a little like Fanta mixed with Red Bull and will keep you awake for a looong time. Helped me trough some rough study sessions!
Do things other than study! Sounds like a no brainer, but when I got to the test center today, there were seriously some people reading GMAT books 5 minutes prior to the exams. I believe that this approach cannot be anything other than counter-productive. If you really aim for a great score, then spend some time with your friends every once in a while or do other things that make you happy.
That was pretty much it. If there are any questions, I will be happy to answer them!
in the following excruciatingly long post about my GMAT journey, I will walk you through my preparation, my thoughts on the test and some recommendations.
Let me first tell you a little bit about myself, though. I am a 24 year old male who was born and raised in Germany. About three months ago, I graduated in International Business (B.A.) with highest honors from a rather unknown German university. I am currently living in China, which is where I moved after graduating. I am regularly taking Chinese classes here and work as a Business English teacher on occasion. Furthermore, I see myself as someone with an entrepreneurial spirit, so that once the right idea comes along, I might not even pursue a masters degree.
All I know for sure is that in case I want to do a masters degree, I want it to take place at a great university. A little research quickly revealed that there really was no way around taking the GMAT if I was serious about getting into a good B-school.
Let's skip to today.
Today I gave the GMAT and scored a 730 (96th percentile) with
Q 49 and
V 41.
As indicated by the title, I am not 100% satisfied with the results. Let me explain why: I wanted a 760.
Right now, I feel a little like having advanced to the finals in some sports competition, but then having lost to someone else. Had somebody told me before I started studying that I would get a 730, I would have been satisfied. But now that I know what I am capable of doing(GMATwise; more on that later), I feel I could not entirely live up to my potential. Nevertheless, I hope that I will get happier with this score over the next couple of days.
I have never studied for anything like I have for this particular test. But I don't believe that my study methods were completely appropriate, otherwise I would have certainly gotten the desired score. A couple of days ago, I read an (excellent) article by Stacey Koprince (https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/04/ ... -760-score) on what distinguishes a 700 scorer from a 760 scorer. Especially the ability to almost immediately identify what you are asked to do by any one question struck me as something I had not yet mastered. But I figured that in the short time that was left, I would never be able to acquire this skill, so I focused more on staying relaxed. Probably a good decision after all.
The Day Before Test Day
The day before the exam, I did NOT study at all, which I think was wise. Instead, I tried to find the test center in Beijing, which, as it appears, can be a tough challenge. When I arrived at the place of description, there were a couple of skyscrapers and I really had no idea which one it was. Asking people about the ENGLISH name of the place did not get me any further, either, because there are still few people here who speak English. And even if they do, why would they bother learning a second name for every place they can already describe in Chinese. Long story short, it took me a full hour to figure out where exactly I would have to go on test day. Had this journey happened ON test day, I would have lost it! Takeaway: CHECK OUT WHERE EXACTLY THE TEST CENTER IS BEFORE YOU TAKE THE TEST!
Test Day
When I got seated, I felt a little more nervous than expected. Anyway the argument essay went fine (used myohmy's awesome template, which really anyone should use!). The issue essay proved to be a little tougher, but I felt confident while doing it as well. Don't have the scores yet so I won't make any assumptions as to what people should and should not do on their essays. Again, this goes with the exception of using the above-mentioned template, which will be helpful to almost everyone here!
Then I had a short break, in which I ate some honey melon. Honey melons are awesome because they do not only taste great but they are also healthy and contain enough sugar to keep you awake. Had a sip of water and felt confident for tackling whatever the computer would throw at me in the quant. section. The first three questions were fine, the fourth one, however, proved to be difficult and I could not decide for an answer. I thought to myself how stupid I must be because it is only the fourth question and therefore really can't be all that hard. Needless to say, this attitude didn't get me any further, so I just ended up losing a couple of minutes. But then I could regain my confidence on the next 10-15 question which I solved with ease. Then it started to get more difficult which I perceived as a good sign. As far as the last 10 questions are concerned, I was not sure about many of them, but forced myself to stick to the 2 minute per question 'rule'. With 3 questions to go ,I faced an extremely tough one, thought f*** it, and moved on about 10 seconds in. Unfortunately, the next question did not prove to be any less annoying. I thought, I would not be able to figure it out in time, so I moved on to the final Q question with 5 minutes on the clock. And, as you may have already guessed, I could not find a way to solve that one either (might have been because a lot of silent swearing that was going on in my head had taken away a lot of my brain capacity). Anyway, I tried to keep a positive attitude because even if I did not have any clue about the last 3 questions, I knew for sure that they would not have appeared on any complete idiot's screen.
After that, I followed my planned honey melon routine again, gathered my strength and went back to my seat. I was really happy with the first couple of SC questions and the first RC passage, which I considered 'easy'. However, the second RC question turned out to be a real b**** (sorry for cursing so much, but only that way you will know how I felt). I did not grasp anything in this particular passage, no meaning, no structure, my mind simply went blank. Here, my biggest fault was trying to solve the questions even though I knew I would not stand a chance. I ended up picking answers that I knew where wrong (don't ask me why I did that, now that I read it I realize even more how silly that was). The rest of the verbal section went okay, with the caveat that I was a little pressed for time at the end. I decided to rush through the last ten questions, rather than take my time and guess on the last 2 or 3 ones. Don't know if that was appropriate but anyway I was happy when the exam was over. I knew before I had my scores reported that I had done worse than in my last practice tests, but there was really no good reason to cancel the scores. And after the annoying questions about my personal background (seriously, why is this torture? You can do all this stuff online before the test!) I received my score: 730 (96th percentile). I can't exactly say I was happy because I had aimed for more. Anyway, the nice Chinese lady at the checkout handed me my report with the words 'feichang score', which accurately translated means 'very score'. I guessed that what she meant to say was that my score was good, so I thanked her and left.
How I Studied
I started studying about two and a half months ago, with the last month practicing really hard. On my first (cold) prep exam, I got a confusing 570. The score was not confusing because it was low, but because I disagreed with the software (I posted this in some forum here). I scored high on Q and ridiculously low on V (22nd percentile), however, my analysis revealed that I had answered 19 out of 30 questions correctly, which no matter how easy or difficult the individual questions, can NEVER be 22nd percentile! I was so upset with this that I attempted another PowerPrep exam 2 weeks later, only to find the same flaw in the programming. At this point, however, I was really questioning my own abilities, so I did an MGMAT exam the next day and scored a 650, which I believed to be a lot closer to my actual status at the time.
I really focused on verbal in my prep then and bought the following books.
MGMAT SC
Good one! Gave me a sound understanding of what was tested. The SC question bank that came with it was of high quality but unfortunately a little too small for my taste. So most of the SC questions I tackled were from the OG.
MGMAT RC
Good one as well, especially because I totally HATED RC at the beginning. I am still amazed by GMAC's skill to come up with such incredibly boring passages that really make it hard to stay focussed. But hey, this is what they are testing, too, in the end.
Critical Reasoning Bible
Although I am not overly religious, I believe it deserves the name bible. Really opened my eyes to some of the question types and made me a lot better in dealing with CR questions in general.
For Q, I used the OG mostly, and the two workbooks by EZ Solutions, which contain a variety of rather high quality practice problems. In addition to that, I also used the OG Quant, because I believed that it couldn't hurt to do as many 'real' GMAT problems as possible.
As an aspiring student, I also bought Kaplan 800, but did only the quant part. Found it to be too easy, or at least easier than my last three Q questions today. However, chances are that my own weirdness makes me feel that way and that those questions weren't that difficult after all. Generally, I loved the explanations in this books, which makes it worth the purchase. Can't say anything about the V section in it because didn't do it.
The last, but most significant part of my studies, contained LOTS of practice exams from various sources. In the last two weeks before test day, I did one exam every 2 or 3 days. I also forced myself to not skip the essays any more (I had done that in my first prep exams). Below, you will find a list of my Prep scores.
PowerPrep 1 (Sep 1) Q44 V21 T570
PowerPrep 2 (Sep 16) Q49 V23 T600
MGMAT 2 (Sep 17) Q44 V35 T650
MGMAT 3 (Oct 11) Q45 V39 T690
Princeton 1 (Oct 20) Q51 V33 T680 (started doing the essays here)
Gmat Prep1 (Oct 25) Q49 V40 T720
Gmat Prep1 (Oct 30) Q48 V42 T730 (skipped essays, saw many repeats, was upset with the score)
MGMAT 4 (Nov 1) Q43 V41 T700
Kaplan 2 (Nov 3) Q47 V40 T690 (I knew about Kaplan's scoring algo, so I really didn't care)
MGMAT 5 (Nov 5) Q48 V40 T720
Kaplan 1 (Nov 8) Q53 V44 T740 (again, something was off here because there is no 53 for any of the sections)
MGMAT 6 (Nov 10)Q48 V42 T730 (almost freaked out during Q because construction workers tried out their cool new power drills in the room next to mine...)
Gmat Prep 2 (Nove 12) Q50 V40 T750
And that last one was good enough for me to be confident wihtout any further practice. After each test, I reviewed my mistakes (and only my mistakes) to see where I went wrong. I was often annoyed with the question design rather than interested in how to solve the problem properly. In the end, I believe that it was precisely this unhealthy attitude that kept me from getting the score I wanted.
Things I Recommend Doing
Practice tests! Do them. It will build stamina and make you familiar with the question design (although some companies do this a lot better than others). Furthermore, prep exams will give you an idea of were you stand and of what you need to improve in order to take it up a notch.
Ichi more! Most awesome energy drink I've ever had. (I really don't work for this company, tho.) If you live in China, try it. As far as I know it's not available anywhere else yet. It tastes a little like Fanta mixed with Red Bull and will keep you awake for a looong time. Helped me trough some rough study sessions!
Do things other than study! Sounds like a no brainer, but when I got to the test center today, there were seriously some people reading GMAT books 5 minutes prior to the exams. I believe that this approach cannot be anything other than counter-productive. If you really aim for a great score, then spend some time with your friends every once in a while or do other things that make you happy.
That was pretty much it. If there are any questions, I will be happy to answer them!
