-
elliott_wu
- Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Sat Aug 14, 2010 10:12 pm
I know I know, there are much better scores out there. But I'm still psyched.
When I first decided I would take the GMAT, I started stumped by 90% of all the verbal questions, and just taking too long with all of the math questions. In short, I was a total mess and was not ready to take the test at all. I got some books, (OG 10 used), a book on CR and a book on SC. The rest I supplemented with online material. (Honestly, the online material sometimes feel even more solid)
A month went by, and I found myself improving drastically, relearning skills that I had long forgotten. I decided it was time to do a diagnostic and see how far I've come along. 610. Okay, not bad. It's better than last time, and I really wanted my 710. I didn't quite feel ready yet though, so I pushed the exam back by 1 month and gave myself an ultimatum. Come the day, I'm taking the exam no matter what. Can't back down from the exam too many times or else it'll become meaningless.
I continued to study and just voraciously went through every single test I could get my hands on. At this point, I've started to exhaust the online resources that's readily available, and I was able to answer most of them with a fairly high accuracy.
I figured it was time to take a second diagnostic. This time, I got 640. A little frustated, but not terribly so. I mean, it's progress right? But then I was starting to wonder what's going on. How could I not be finishing everything correctly? I took another diagnostic and tried to see if this score stuck. 610 this time. Wait, how did I go back down? What's going on?
Little did I realize, this is where the going was getting tough. Improvements were incremental at best at this point. I wasn't able to just power through that barrier. I wondered what I had done wrong. I mean, I was getting all the study questions correct, so what's wrong? Well, as it turns out, I wasn't doing 700 level material. The Material I was working with were all "easy" questions, or at least, far easier than the diagnostic material.
So I made it a mission to go out and hunt down as many 700+ level questions as I can, and just drilled in those. In the mean time, I went online and decided that I would read other people's experiences to get some perspective. I came to realize that this is actually quite common and that a lot of people hit that barrier and then must decide whether or not to go on. That actually helped immensely for me, because it harden my resolve to push through. Sure, I might not get the score I want on the first go, but I can always just try it again. (BTW, one of the success stories was this guy who started out at 700 and went up to 780. That dude? I wanted to punch him in the face)
anyway, I forged on, getting up night after night after my daughter went to bed to study my 700+ questions. My rate was awful, hitting maybe 2/5 of the questions I encounter.
One last diagnostic test. This time, a 650. I've made peace with the fact that I might have to take it all again. It's okay.
But then last week, something magical happened. Something clicked in my head. I don't know if it's all the guides I've been reading, or all test questions are starting to sink in, or maybe I was just staying up too much and I started to go crazy. But somewhere, somehow, I was able to engage each of the 700+ questions, and disarm them. And I was able to do it in not GREAT time, but decent time.
Of course, by this point, I knew that a diagnostic test would not do me any good anymore. I didn't have the time to do one nor did I feel there was a point. I was prepared to take the test again anyway, and I just wanted to get this over with so I can at least move on and stop making my wife crazy.
The last two nights were surreal for me. I didn't study at all. I decided that no amount of last minute cramming is going to help me now, and that I really should just try to get some rest. So instead of studying last night, I did the one thing I hadn't done in almost 3 months - I booted up my playstation 2, and just played Dynasty Warriors for a couple hours, and then went to bed next to my daughter.
This morning, I was nervous as hell. A part of me was already thinking about how I'm going to study after I get my obligatory 650-ish score. The other part of me strained to relax and focus. I got there, and saw 3 other people at the test center waiting for the same thing. Two of them had their heads in the books, still trying to do some last minute studying. The other gentleman was just waiting, just like me. I decided that I wanted to help myself relax. so I struck up a conversation with him and just tried to take our minds off of the test. No use getting all worked up over it, right? We talked about our work, our families, etc. (he's a credit check agent for a major bank, single but with girlfriend. Nice guy)
Finally, it was time. I did the palm scan, took my picture, went through the motions of checking my stuff in, and off I went. I was on fire. My essay? It just flowed out of me.
My first 8 minute break came around. Okay, make this count. I read that mental fatigue can kick your ass, so I decided to make a concerted effort to forget EVERYTHING I just did and empty out my brain so I can go into the next one with a bit more freshness. I closed my eyes, just breathed for until the test proctor came to get me.
Second section, quantitative. I was lucky, the questions I had real problems with I didn't run into. I manged to get through the whole thing, ending with me getting questions that reminding me of the 700+ questions I was using. Good sign there.
Second 8 minute break. I can feel my brain started to get tired. Must try to regain some strength. I tried again to just close my eyes and breath. This time, I just kept envisioning a blank oil canvas. But this time it didn't work. I started thinking about sentence corrections, argument strengthening, and all sorts of other GMAT related stuff. I went into the next section a little jittery. It was also at this point, I started to feel the fatigue. My mind was unable to focus at certain points and I had a hard time guaging if the questions I was looking at were the hard questions or the easy ones.
And I totally was unable to pace myself. I finished the whole section with 17 minutes to spare.
I thought this was it. I thought I tanked the second section, and that I was going to see a 600 again. No big deal, I thought, I'll take it again. But I need to know where I am, or else I won't know how I can improve more. I clicked on "report score" and held my breath.
710. 92nd percentile
I blinked twice, rubbed my eyes, and read it again.
710. 92nd percentile
I cannot believe this. I almost cried right there. Sometime during the beginning when I was really frustrated, I told my wife that I've been a B student my whole life, and that I hope this is where I broke that pattern. And today, though only by a slim margin, I did. I broke through the barrier, even if just the skin of my nose. I made it.
Yeah, I'm not an A+ guy yet. But that's okay. I set out to achieve something, and I did it. And it feels pretty damn good.
When I first decided I would take the GMAT, I started stumped by 90% of all the verbal questions, and just taking too long with all of the math questions. In short, I was a total mess and was not ready to take the test at all. I got some books, (OG 10 used), a book on CR and a book on SC. The rest I supplemented with online material. (Honestly, the online material sometimes feel even more solid)
A month went by, and I found myself improving drastically, relearning skills that I had long forgotten. I decided it was time to do a diagnostic and see how far I've come along. 610. Okay, not bad. It's better than last time, and I really wanted my 710. I didn't quite feel ready yet though, so I pushed the exam back by 1 month and gave myself an ultimatum. Come the day, I'm taking the exam no matter what. Can't back down from the exam too many times or else it'll become meaningless.
I continued to study and just voraciously went through every single test I could get my hands on. At this point, I've started to exhaust the online resources that's readily available, and I was able to answer most of them with a fairly high accuracy.
I figured it was time to take a second diagnostic. This time, I got 640. A little frustated, but not terribly so. I mean, it's progress right? But then I was starting to wonder what's going on. How could I not be finishing everything correctly? I took another diagnostic and tried to see if this score stuck. 610 this time. Wait, how did I go back down? What's going on?
Little did I realize, this is where the going was getting tough. Improvements were incremental at best at this point. I wasn't able to just power through that barrier. I wondered what I had done wrong. I mean, I was getting all the study questions correct, so what's wrong? Well, as it turns out, I wasn't doing 700 level material. The Material I was working with were all "easy" questions, or at least, far easier than the diagnostic material.
So I made it a mission to go out and hunt down as many 700+ level questions as I can, and just drilled in those. In the mean time, I went online and decided that I would read other people's experiences to get some perspective. I came to realize that this is actually quite common and that a lot of people hit that barrier and then must decide whether or not to go on. That actually helped immensely for me, because it harden my resolve to push through. Sure, I might not get the score I want on the first go, but I can always just try it again. (BTW, one of the success stories was this guy who started out at 700 and went up to 780. That dude? I wanted to punch him in the face)
anyway, I forged on, getting up night after night after my daughter went to bed to study my 700+ questions. My rate was awful, hitting maybe 2/5 of the questions I encounter.
One last diagnostic test. This time, a 650. I've made peace with the fact that I might have to take it all again. It's okay.
But then last week, something magical happened. Something clicked in my head. I don't know if it's all the guides I've been reading, or all test questions are starting to sink in, or maybe I was just staying up too much and I started to go crazy. But somewhere, somehow, I was able to engage each of the 700+ questions, and disarm them. And I was able to do it in not GREAT time, but decent time.
Of course, by this point, I knew that a diagnostic test would not do me any good anymore. I didn't have the time to do one nor did I feel there was a point. I was prepared to take the test again anyway, and I just wanted to get this over with so I can at least move on and stop making my wife crazy.
The last two nights were surreal for me. I didn't study at all. I decided that no amount of last minute cramming is going to help me now, and that I really should just try to get some rest. So instead of studying last night, I did the one thing I hadn't done in almost 3 months - I booted up my playstation 2, and just played Dynasty Warriors for a couple hours, and then went to bed next to my daughter.
This morning, I was nervous as hell. A part of me was already thinking about how I'm going to study after I get my obligatory 650-ish score. The other part of me strained to relax and focus. I got there, and saw 3 other people at the test center waiting for the same thing. Two of them had their heads in the books, still trying to do some last minute studying. The other gentleman was just waiting, just like me. I decided that I wanted to help myself relax. so I struck up a conversation with him and just tried to take our minds off of the test. No use getting all worked up over it, right? We talked about our work, our families, etc. (he's a credit check agent for a major bank, single but with girlfriend. Nice guy)
Finally, it was time. I did the palm scan, took my picture, went through the motions of checking my stuff in, and off I went. I was on fire. My essay? It just flowed out of me.
My first 8 minute break came around. Okay, make this count. I read that mental fatigue can kick your ass, so I decided to make a concerted effort to forget EVERYTHING I just did and empty out my brain so I can go into the next one with a bit more freshness. I closed my eyes, just breathed for until the test proctor came to get me.
Second section, quantitative. I was lucky, the questions I had real problems with I didn't run into. I manged to get through the whole thing, ending with me getting questions that reminding me of the 700+ questions I was using. Good sign there.
Second 8 minute break. I can feel my brain started to get tired. Must try to regain some strength. I tried again to just close my eyes and breath. This time, I just kept envisioning a blank oil canvas. But this time it didn't work. I started thinking about sentence corrections, argument strengthening, and all sorts of other GMAT related stuff. I went into the next section a little jittery. It was also at this point, I started to feel the fatigue. My mind was unable to focus at certain points and I had a hard time guaging if the questions I was looking at were the hard questions or the easy ones.
And I totally was unable to pace myself. I finished the whole section with 17 minutes to spare.
I thought this was it. I thought I tanked the second section, and that I was going to see a 600 again. No big deal, I thought, I'll take it again. But I need to know where I am, or else I won't know how I can improve more. I clicked on "report score" and held my breath.
710. 92nd percentile
I blinked twice, rubbed my eyes, and read it again.
710. 92nd percentile
I cannot believe this. I almost cried right there. Sometime during the beginning when I was really frustrated, I told my wife that I've been a B student my whole life, and that I hope this is where I broke that pattern. And today, though only by a slim margin, I did. I broke through the barrier, even if just the skin of my nose. I made it.
Yeah, I'm not an A+ guy yet. But that's okay. I set out to achieve something, and I did it. And it feels pretty damn good.
