-
MichelleW1982
- Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
- Posts: 30
- Joined: Wed Sep 03, 2008 6:50 pm
- Location: Boston MA
Hi everyone,
This it the first time I post here, except a few setence correction questions I had a while back. Thank you all for sharing your experience. They helped me a lot.
I am not an english speaker and had bad grammar before starting GMAT (still do!). I scored a 740 (97% percentile) on my first attempt. I am relatively happy about the score, but honestly I don't know if it is enough to make up for my low GPA (3.2) --aiming for a top program. Anyone can shed some light on this?
Here is my rambling about nothing and everything....
Exam day: I scheduled the exam at 4pm, which was quite stupid. I had to work during the day, so it was the only way to go. 4pm is bad mainly because my dinner time is during the exam, not a huge deal, but i do believe in going to the exam with good energy but not overstuffed stomach. I had a coffee right before the exam. Everything was smooth during my writing section. The topics were relatively current, and I decided my position and key points within almost 15 seconds for each essay.
I took all breaks that were given, because during my practice exam i found that it is difficult to concentrate toward the end of the exam without any break. I brought a protein shake and a banana for my break.
Math section went quite awful I felt....I couldn't concentrate. Every time a person came into the room, I looked at them. For many questions...I was reading the words but somehow they were not registered in my brain...so i had to read it again...I honestly don't know why. I got extremely nervous around question 18, because the questions were very easy, to a point I couldn't believe it...So i had to re-read many time to make sure it wasn't a trick question. Well, It wasn't! And that got me even more nervous coz I thought i had done horrible before them..... From the score I got from math, I can only assume that those questions were sample test questions they stick into the exam. So, if you see easy questions, don't panic or think too much, just solve the problem and move forward, trust yourself!
I really felt awful after my math section, and decided to fully concentrate on my verbal. I told myself I could still get more than 700 if I perform well in verbal. I ate some food, but that actually caused bad stomach pain at the end of my exam
Verbal section: I felt great doing the verbal part. Traditionally it is my weakness. I was sure for most of the questions. One reading was extremely difficult. It was a very long science piece about space. Overall, i felt great during verbal until my stomach pain kicked in. I lost my concentration during the last 5 questions and finished right on time.
Got the score: 740. not so bad...but i was very surprised that i got 50 on math, and 41 on verbal....totally opposite of what i thought. I don't quite understand how they score anyways. I don't know what 50 means, what 41 means...but i know 740 is not so bad.
My practice scores:
Diagnostic test: 540
GMAT prep I: 690
Manhattan CAT 1: 680
Manhattan CAT 2: 720
Manhattan CAT 3: 680
Manhattan CAT 4: 730
GMAT Prep II: 740 (4 days before the rest test)
All the material I used:
OG 11 (did Sentence correction 3 times, math twice, reading and C.R once)
Kaplan 800 (only did a few questions selectively....to get a taste of hard questions)
A sentence correction course by test prep school in my native language (mainly because after i read OG's explanation in grammar, most of them didn't make sense to me. I knew I had to find a study material tailored to non-native speakers).
These are all the things I used actually. I didn't bother to buy more OG, because I felt I had enough material to work on...who knows, maybe if i used OG 12 and OG 10...I could have scored 760+?
As you can see, my original score 540 was not very good. I believe GMAT can be improved by studying, although the range of improvement may be limited. E.g, I don't hold much hope that i'll get to the 780-790 level even with 2 more months of studying. (just personal opinion).
Some other thoughts are:
1. Manhattan CAT exams are very good. I believe in their scores. Math section is a bit more difficult than the real test.
2. GMAT prep exam is accurate in predicting the real test scores.
3. Treat GMAT as a challenge, instead of a hurdle to get over.....I think it was a good mentality to employ during the exam day. Because you are of course nervous...but if you think: i am ready and i will tackle this challenge...then you feel more excited about the exam than nervous.
4. Focus on weakness: I spent 1 month studying sentence correction. From the practice exam, I can say that grammar was actually my strength in verbal. Of course, this is probably the only section that you can see huge improvement by studying.
5. Don't burn yourself - I studied in total about 3 months for the exam. During these 3 months, I worked full time 10 hrs everyday, I worked out 3-4 times a week, and I volunteered once a week for 4 hours in the evenings. As a result, my study was not very intense. I gave myself necessary breaks. This worked for me, but found your rhythm according to your own style.
6. Finally, I cant stress enough that studying strategy is critical. Don't just dive in and start memorizing grammar rules and practice test questions...really think about your strength and weakness. Also, be flexible with your study plan, if you find justified reason to study less, don't feel guilty, if you find justified reason to switch focus, dont worry about the area that you decided to drop.
Thank you for all the sharing on this site, and good luck.
For now, I think I am done with GMAT.
This it the first time I post here, except a few setence correction questions I had a while back. Thank you all for sharing your experience. They helped me a lot.
I am not an english speaker and had bad grammar before starting GMAT (still do!). I scored a 740 (97% percentile) on my first attempt. I am relatively happy about the score, but honestly I don't know if it is enough to make up for my low GPA (3.2) --aiming for a top program. Anyone can shed some light on this?
Here is my rambling about nothing and everything....
Exam day: I scheduled the exam at 4pm, which was quite stupid. I had to work during the day, so it was the only way to go. 4pm is bad mainly because my dinner time is during the exam, not a huge deal, but i do believe in going to the exam with good energy but not overstuffed stomach. I had a coffee right before the exam. Everything was smooth during my writing section. The topics were relatively current, and I decided my position and key points within almost 15 seconds for each essay.
I took all breaks that were given, because during my practice exam i found that it is difficult to concentrate toward the end of the exam without any break. I brought a protein shake and a banana for my break.
Math section went quite awful I felt....I couldn't concentrate. Every time a person came into the room, I looked at them. For many questions...I was reading the words but somehow they were not registered in my brain...so i had to read it again...I honestly don't know why. I got extremely nervous around question 18, because the questions were very easy, to a point I couldn't believe it...So i had to re-read many time to make sure it wasn't a trick question. Well, It wasn't! And that got me even more nervous coz I thought i had done horrible before them..... From the score I got from math, I can only assume that those questions were sample test questions they stick into the exam. So, if you see easy questions, don't panic or think too much, just solve the problem and move forward, trust yourself!
I really felt awful after my math section, and decided to fully concentrate on my verbal. I told myself I could still get more than 700 if I perform well in verbal. I ate some food, but that actually caused bad stomach pain at the end of my exam
Verbal section: I felt great doing the verbal part. Traditionally it is my weakness. I was sure for most of the questions. One reading was extremely difficult. It was a very long science piece about space. Overall, i felt great during verbal until my stomach pain kicked in. I lost my concentration during the last 5 questions and finished right on time.
Got the score: 740. not so bad...but i was very surprised that i got 50 on math, and 41 on verbal....totally opposite of what i thought. I don't quite understand how they score anyways. I don't know what 50 means, what 41 means...but i know 740 is not so bad.
My practice scores:
Diagnostic test: 540
GMAT prep I: 690
Manhattan CAT 1: 680
Manhattan CAT 2: 720
Manhattan CAT 3: 680
Manhattan CAT 4: 730
GMAT Prep II: 740 (4 days before the rest test)
All the material I used:
OG 11 (did Sentence correction 3 times, math twice, reading and C.R once)
Kaplan 800 (only did a few questions selectively....to get a taste of hard questions)
A sentence correction course by test prep school in my native language (mainly because after i read OG's explanation in grammar, most of them didn't make sense to me. I knew I had to find a study material tailored to non-native speakers).
These are all the things I used actually. I didn't bother to buy more OG, because I felt I had enough material to work on...who knows, maybe if i used OG 12 and OG 10...I could have scored 760+?
As you can see, my original score 540 was not very good. I believe GMAT can be improved by studying, although the range of improvement may be limited. E.g, I don't hold much hope that i'll get to the 780-790 level even with 2 more months of studying. (just personal opinion).
Some other thoughts are:
1. Manhattan CAT exams are very good. I believe in their scores. Math section is a bit more difficult than the real test.
2. GMAT prep exam is accurate in predicting the real test scores.
3. Treat GMAT as a challenge, instead of a hurdle to get over.....I think it was a good mentality to employ during the exam day. Because you are of course nervous...but if you think: i am ready and i will tackle this challenge...then you feel more excited about the exam than nervous.
4. Focus on weakness: I spent 1 month studying sentence correction. From the practice exam, I can say that grammar was actually my strength in verbal. Of course, this is probably the only section that you can see huge improvement by studying.
5. Don't burn yourself - I studied in total about 3 months for the exam. During these 3 months, I worked full time 10 hrs everyday, I worked out 3-4 times a week, and I volunteered once a week for 4 hours in the evenings. As a result, my study was not very intense. I gave myself necessary breaks. This worked for me, but found your rhythm according to your own style.
6. Finally, I cant stress enough that studying strategy is critical. Don't just dive in and start memorizing grammar rules and practice test questions...really think about your strength and weakness. Also, be flexible with your study plan, if you find justified reason to study less, don't feel guilty, if you find justified reason to switch focus, dont worry about the area that you decided to drop.
Thank you for all the sharing on this site, and good luck.
For now, I think I am done with GMAT.
