-
mpavlisak
- Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2009 11:05 am
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- GMAT Score:710
Long-time listener, first-time caller here. I took the GMAT this past weekend and I scored a 710 (50Q, 35V) and 6.0 AWA. I will give a quick rundown of my preparation and my test experience.
I decided in October that I would get serious and start studying to take the GMAT. I enrolled in the Veritas Prep online GMAT course and scheduled the GMAT for December, 18th. That gave me about 2 1/2 months to really prepare for the test. I took a GMAT prep exam and scored a 690 prior to enrolling in the Veritas Course.
My major in college had a lot of math (operations research), so I was comfortable that I would do well on the quantitative section. My nemesis, however, was the sentence correction aspect of the exam. The Veritas online course consisted of 14 lessons (two a week) split between quantitative and verbal sessions. I elected to go with a prep course because I knew it would force me to study, or I would have thrown $900 down the drain. My instructor, Jeff Lev, was a phenomenal teacher who really helped me understand what the GMAT really tests: the ability to think critically (not to do unnecessary calculations or understand alluvial deposits).
Using the 14 lessons with Veritas and the OG 12, and the Verbal and Quantitative Reviews, I had more than enough practice problems to study for those 2+ months. Additionally, the course provided 13 more practice exams to test the fundamentals we learned and build stamina and confidence for the real exam. Upon completion of the course I took two GMATprep exams (750, 760) and two GMAT powerprep exams (770, 750), and I felt I was indeed ready for the exam.
The materials I used in preparation:
Veritas Prep lessons (14 books)
OG 12
OG Verbal Review
OG Quantitative Review
GMAT Online Quantitative Diagnostic Tool
GMATWrite (practiced 2 x each essay with official scoring algorithm)
198 700+ quantitative problems from BeattheGMAT
Day before test:
Drove to the test site and found the Pearson Vue room so I could backwards plan what time I should arrive. I did not study anything at all, but I did draft a template for the AWAs which I will talk about later. Watched some movies (A-Team and Town) and basically just vegged out.
Test Day:
Woke up at 6:00 AM, had a light breakfast, and took some Monster drinks, Snickers, and a Gatorade to the exam center. I arrived at 7:30 for the 8:00 test and I did the check in procedures (read the agreement, gave them my license, took a photo and a palm vein print). Upon completion of the check in procedures, I immediately started the exam.
The Test:
You have five (5) minutes to read through the administrative notes prior to the first AWA. I used that time to construct my AWA outline that I drafted the day before. Here I used the template that Veritas provided - Analysis of an Argument (5 paragraphs, transition words I would use, etc. and Analysis of an Issue (6 paragraphs, transition words, cited evidence that I made up, i.e. - "a recent survey published in the Wall Street Journal").
The Analysis of an Argument prompt was very easy to write about, and using the outline I was able to finish with 5 minutes to spare, and I was very confident that I nailed a 6.0. The Analysis of an Issue proved more difficult, and I found myself scrambling for time, finishing with seconds to spare (I did not even click next to submit essay). I thought the computer might give me a 5 or 6, but I was certain the human graded would give me a much lower score - I do not even think my essay made any sense when I finished.
I took the eight (8) minute break and proceeded with the quantitative section. The first three questions were easy problem solving questions, so I nailed them and took the time to make sure I did the calculations correctly. Then I had some easy DS questions. I was moving along great until I ran into a question around 25 or 26, a rather easy question that I froze up on. It probably took me 5-6 minutes (far too long) and it screwed me for the rest of the section. I was running low on time toward the end and I had to rush through the last 4-5 questions and guess on 2-3 of them. Looking back the questions I saw were easy enough to solve, I just did not leave myself enough time to solve them (I know for sure I missed two of them). I probably could/should have gotten a 51Q if I did not waste precious time on the one problem I encountered.
I took the second eight (8) minute break and dove right into the verbal section. The first three questions were easy SC questions, followed by an average length RC passage. I was doing very well in my opinion until the midway point (I would have been surprised if I missed more than one question up until this point). Then I encountered the mother of all RC passages. The extremely long passage was coupled with extremely long prompts and extremely long answers and I soon found myself very far behind on time. The next thing I knew I had 1 minute for my last six (6) questions, and I had to just randomly guess the last 5 questions as time expired. Regardless, until that point I was confident that I nailed the section. When I pressed, next I expected to see a score between 700-740, and 710 popped up.
My goal when I started was to achieve a 700, so I should have been happy; however, with my much higher scores on the practice tests, I was actually disappointed. I knew that my score probably dropped significantly by missing the last 4 or 5 questions in a row. At any rate, I checked out and received my unofficial score report from the center and left. Four days later (today), I received an email with my power report information confirming that I scored a 710, with a 6.0 AWA.
Looking back, I cannot emphasize enough how important timing and simulating test conditions are when taking practice exams and doing practice problems.
I have been going back and forth for the last 4 days whether I would apply and take the exam a second time (if I did not have to wait 31 days between tests, I would have taken it again already). Knowing that the GMAT is only a small piece of the pie that B-schools look for is little comfort at this point, because pride is a son of a gun. At any rate, I am still considering taking the test in 4 weeks, brushing up on my SC and RC, and taking one last stab at the GMAT.
I would like to hear what any admissions experts (come on Stacy, you know you want to come out of retirement to respond) have to say about my chances for admission to the following schools - Wharton, Harvard, and Tepper. I plan on attending B-School in Fall of 2013 or 2014.
3.45 undergrad GPA from the United States Military Academy (major operations research)
Currently Active Duty Military (8+ years), with a ton of leadership experience (three deployments, company command of 165+ Soldiers)
710 GMAT, 50Q, 35V, 6.0 AWA
Strong Recommendation Letters from supervisors (academic and military)
Some extracurriculars (somewhat limited because of job demands)
Awesome personality
Thanks to the BeattheGMAT community, Veritas Prep and the makers of Dr. Pepper for making this score possible, whether I attempt again or not.
Thanks Again
I decided in October that I would get serious and start studying to take the GMAT. I enrolled in the Veritas Prep online GMAT course and scheduled the GMAT for December, 18th. That gave me about 2 1/2 months to really prepare for the test. I took a GMAT prep exam and scored a 690 prior to enrolling in the Veritas Course.
My major in college had a lot of math (operations research), so I was comfortable that I would do well on the quantitative section. My nemesis, however, was the sentence correction aspect of the exam. The Veritas online course consisted of 14 lessons (two a week) split between quantitative and verbal sessions. I elected to go with a prep course because I knew it would force me to study, or I would have thrown $900 down the drain. My instructor, Jeff Lev, was a phenomenal teacher who really helped me understand what the GMAT really tests: the ability to think critically (not to do unnecessary calculations or understand alluvial deposits).
Using the 14 lessons with Veritas and the OG 12, and the Verbal and Quantitative Reviews, I had more than enough practice problems to study for those 2+ months. Additionally, the course provided 13 more practice exams to test the fundamentals we learned and build stamina and confidence for the real exam. Upon completion of the course I took two GMATprep exams (750, 760) and two GMAT powerprep exams (770, 750), and I felt I was indeed ready for the exam.
The materials I used in preparation:
Veritas Prep lessons (14 books)
OG 12
OG Verbal Review
OG Quantitative Review
GMAT Online Quantitative Diagnostic Tool
GMATWrite (practiced 2 x each essay with official scoring algorithm)
198 700+ quantitative problems from BeattheGMAT
Day before test:
Drove to the test site and found the Pearson Vue room so I could backwards plan what time I should arrive. I did not study anything at all, but I did draft a template for the AWAs which I will talk about later. Watched some movies (A-Team and Town) and basically just vegged out.
Test Day:
Woke up at 6:00 AM, had a light breakfast, and took some Monster drinks, Snickers, and a Gatorade to the exam center. I arrived at 7:30 for the 8:00 test and I did the check in procedures (read the agreement, gave them my license, took a photo and a palm vein print). Upon completion of the check in procedures, I immediately started the exam.
The Test:
You have five (5) minutes to read through the administrative notes prior to the first AWA. I used that time to construct my AWA outline that I drafted the day before. Here I used the template that Veritas provided - Analysis of an Argument (5 paragraphs, transition words I would use, etc. and Analysis of an Issue (6 paragraphs, transition words, cited evidence that I made up, i.e. - "a recent survey published in the Wall Street Journal").
The Analysis of an Argument prompt was very easy to write about, and using the outline I was able to finish with 5 minutes to spare, and I was very confident that I nailed a 6.0. The Analysis of an Issue proved more difficult, and I found myself scrambling for time, finishing with seconds to spare (I did not even click next to submit essay). I thought the computer might give me a 5 or 6, but I was certain the human graded would give me a much lower score - I do not even think my essay made any sense when I finished.
I took the eight (8) minute break and proceeded with the quantitative section. The first three questions were easy problem solving questions, so I nailed them and took the time to make sure I did the calculations correctly. Then I had some easy DS questions. I was moving along great until I ran into a question around 25 or 26, a rather easy question that I froze up on. It probably took me 5-6 minutes (far too long) and it screwed me for the rest of the section. I was running low on time toward the end and I had to rush through the last 4-5 questions and guess on 2-3 of them. Looking back the questions I saw were easy enough to solve, I just did not leave myself enough time to solve them (I know for sure I missed two of them). I probably could/should have gotten a 51Q if I did not waste precious time on the one problem I encountered.
I took the second eight (8) minute break and dove right into the verbal section. The first three questions were easy SC questions, followed by an average length RC passage. I was doing very well in my opinion until the midway point (I would have been surprised if I missed more than one question up until this point). Then I encountered the mother of all RC passages. The extremely long passage was coupled with extremely long prompts and extremely long answers and I soon found myself very far behind on time. The next thing I knew I had 1 minute for my last six (6) questions, and I had to just randomly guess the last 5 questions as time expired. Regardless, until that point I was confident that I nailed the section. When I pressed, next I expected to see a score between 700-740, and 710 popped up.
My goal when I started was to achieve a 700, so I should have been happy; however, with my much higher scores on the practice tests, I was actually disappointed. I knew that my score probably dropped significantly by missing the last 4 or 5 questions in a row. At any rate, I checked out and received my unofficial score report from the center and left. Four days later (today), I received an email with my power report information confirming that I scored a 710, with a 6.0 AWA.
Looking back, I cannot emphasize enough how important timing and simulating test conditions are when taking practice exams and doing practice problems.
I have been going back and forth for the last 4 days whether I would apply and take the exam a second time (if I did not have to wait 31 days between tests, I would have taken it again already). Knowing that the GMAT is only a small piece of the pie that B-schools look for is little comfort at this point, because pride is a son of a gun. At any rate, I am still considering taking the test in 4 weeks, brushing up on my SC and RC, and taking one last stab at the GMAT.
I would like to hear what any admissions experts (come on Stacy, you know you want to come out of retirement to respond) have to say about my chances for admission to the following schools - Wharton, Harvard, and Tepper. I plan on attending B-School in Fall of 2013 or 2014.
3.45 undergrad GPA from the United States Military Academy (major operations research)
Currently Active Duty Military (8+ years), with a ton of leadership experience (three deployments, company command of 165+ Soldiers)
710 GMAT, 50Q, 35V, 6.0 AWA
Strong Recommendation Letters from supervisors (academic and military)
Some extracurriculars (somewhat limited because of job demands)
Awesome personality
Thanks to the BeattheGMAT community, Veritas Prep and the makers of Dr. Pepper for making this score possible, whether I attempt again or not.
Thanks Again
