Hi Guys,
I just wrote the GMAT this morning, and like many others, felt the need to give back to this awesome community. It isn't much, but here is my debrief.
I decided I wanted to apply in December, and by January knew the crunch was on and if I wanted to have a second shot at it, I should trying writing the test sooner then later. As I have a heavy part-time self employed job, and am in my final semester of full-time studies, finding the time to study was difficult. I had 3 weeks or so between the time I registered and the time I first wrote the test. I bought the Kaplan GMAT book, but didn't go through too much of it before finding the GMAT prep software. I wasn't able to find the time to take a practice test until the day before the test, when I did test 1 and scored a 650. I studied diligently until about 1 AM, and wrote the test the next morning at 12, scoring a 640.
When on one of my breaks, I didn't realize that my time was up, and wasted a few minutes. I expected the administrators to let me know when my break was up, but i suppose that is your own responsibility - indeed if you want to make sure no time is wasted. I didn't finish my Quant, and knew I could do better. I hadn't studied too much, and only found this website in the days before the test, and so I was confident with some preparation I could do better.
Being so busy made it difficult to find time to prepare for a second test, and the program in particular that I am applying for only has a 610 average GMAT score, making the score I had above average. The school also takes into consideration your full cumulative GPA, and my first year of undergrad was a dive, and so I put aside this past weekend and studied my ass off.
12 hours Friday, 12 hours Saturday, practice test each day at the end of the day. Began Saturday by going over the questions I got wrong on Friday, and Sunday by going over Saturdays... I took Sunday evening off, getting to all the things I neglected over Friday and Saturday.
7 AM this morning, went for breakfast at a local diner. Coffee. 8:30 arrived at the testing center, wasn't even open. 8:45, let in. 8:59, earplugs in. 9AM writing the test.
I didn't have time to finish my second essay, and I remember that my conclusion sentence was just "something something and so the importance is huge." Pretty bad but ohh well haha. Almost wasn't able to finish the sentence.
When doing the quantitative I felt as if I was doing horribly. I knew on one DS question that I pressed next with the wrong answer selected and was beating myself up about the lost marks. Then, as I have on every practice test, and the first test I wrote, I didn't finish the section. The last 3 questions I just had to guess on. Quant is my weakness. I go too slow.
This break was horrible. Felt as if I was bombing it. Told myself to do my best on the verbal regardless - get through it as best I could.
Wrote the verbal, ended about 12 minutes early. Got my answer, almost fell out of my chair.
750 - 98th percentile. (45 Q, 50 V)
Remarkable improvement is possible. Focus on identifying your weaknesses, and making them your strengths. Practice questions are great, but I ran across quite a few non-official questions that I didn't like, and immediately put aside anything but those GMATPrep ones that come in the download-able software. Though there aren't answer guides for every question, you can just type the first 5 or 6 words of the question followed by "GMAT" into Google, and you will undoubtedly find an excellent breakdown and discussion on this or any of the other great GMAT forums.
Thanks for reading my debrief. Best to all of you and good luck from up here in Canada.
Cheers,
I just wrote the GMAT this morning, and like many others, felt the need to give back to this awesome community. It isn't much, but here is my debrief.
I decided I wanted to apply in December, and by January knew the crunch was on and if I wanted to have a second shot at it, I should trying writing the test sooner then later. As I have a heavy part-time self employed job, and am in my final semester of full-time studies, finding the time to study was difficult. I had 3 weeks or so between the time I registered and the time I first wrote the test. I bought the Kaplan GMAT book, but didn't go through too much of it before finding the GMAT prep software. I wasn't able to find the time to take a practice test until the day before the test, when I did test 1 and scored a 650. I studied diligently until about 1 AM, and wrote the test the next morning at 12, scoring a 640.
When on one of my breaks, I didn't realize that my time was up, and wasted a few minutes. I expected the administrators to let me know when my break was up, but i suppose that is your own responsibility - indeed if you want to make sure no time is wasted. I didn't finish my Quant, and knew I could do better. I hadn't studied too much, and only found this website in the days before the test, and so I was confident with some preparation I could do better.
Being so busy made it difficult to find time to prepare for a second test, and the program in particular that I am applying for only has a 610 average GMAT score, making the score I had above average. The school also takes into consideration your full cumulative GPA, and my first year of undergrad was a dive, and so I put aside this past weekend and studied my ass off.
12 hours Friday, 12 hours Saturday, practice test each day at the end of the day. Began Saturday by going over the questions I got wrong on Friday, and Sunday by going over Saturdays... I took Sunday evening off, getting to all the things I neglected over Friday and Saturday.
7 AM this morning, went for breakfast at a local diner. Coffee. 8:30 arrived at the testing center, wasn't even open. 8:45, let in. 8:59, earplugs in. 9AM writing the test.
I didn't have time to finish my second essay, and I remember that my conclusion sentence was just "something something and so the importance is huge." Pretty bad but ohh well haha. Almost wasn't able to finish the sentence.
When doing the quantitative I felt as if I was doing horribly. I knew on one DS question that I pressed next with the wrong answer selected and was beating myself up about the lost marks. Then, as I have on every practice test, and the first test I wrote, I didn't finish the section. The last 3 questions I just had to guess on. Quant is my weakness. I go too slow.
This break was horrible. Felt as if I was bombing it. Told myself to do my best on the verbal regardless - get through it as best I could.
Wrote the verbal, ended about 12 minutes early. Got my answer, almost fell out of my chair.
750 - 98th percentile. (45 Q, 50 V)
Remarkable improvement is possible. Focus on identifying your weaknesses, and making them your strengths. Practice questions are great, but I ran across quite a few non-official questions that I didn't like, and immediately put aside anything but those GMATPrep ones that come in the download-able software. Though there aren't answer guides for every question, you can just type the first 5 or 6 words of the question followed by "GMAT" into Google, and you will undoubtedly find an excellent breakdown and discussion on this or any of the other great GMAT forums.
Thanks for reading my debrief. Best to all of you and good luck from up here in Canada.
Cheers,
