-
whatjrohwants
- Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2011 3:14 pm
- Thanked: 3 times
First of all, thank you so much beatthegmat.com and fellow users who put very useful info and discussion online. I told myself today before stepping out for the exam, 'I wish I could come home excited and post my score on beatthegmat.com'....and it's actually happening!
Here's my brief history of my gmat adventure.
08/2009 decided to study, and started MGMAT class
01/2010 took the first test and got 620. Teacher advised me to retake the test after a month
02/2010 took the second test and got 580.
in 2010, I applied for biz schools but it was not so successful.
02/2011 decided to study again for the GMAT, started my second MGMAT class at a discounted rate.
from 06/2011 when the class finished, weather was getting too good and I was not motivated enough to take the test. This continues until 11/2011
12/2011 decided to really focus again and re-did the entire OG12 problems.
01/2012 in 3 weeks, I took four MGMAT practice tests, and two GMATprep tests, and here are the results
mgmat1 650(Q45 V34)
mgmat2 660(Q47 V33)
mgmat3 720(Q49 V39)
mgmat4 720(Q51 V37)
gmatprep 660
gmatprep 670
For me what helped the most was the intense studying in a short period of time. MGMAT advised me to stop taking a practice test a week before the exam, but this time I kept taking the test so that I get used to the time pressure and the seemingly never ending 4 hr test. I was studying until three hours before the exam today. This really made my brain running and made me feel comfortable when I was confronted with the real problems.
English is not my first language and I know, verbal section can be really challenging for non-native speakers. I knew that I couldn't be fully prepared with verbal in a short period of time, competing with those who spoke the language for 20 plus years. For this reason, I didn't really try hard to improve my RC score. Reading and comprehending the whole passage well enough in 3~4 minutes to be able to solve questions in time? I thought it was not wise to spend so much of my time to get few more RC questions right. Instead, I really dove into SC and CR.
I tried so hard in the beginning to nail down SC by studying the grammar in general. I remember reading a post on here, which suggested studying grammar book to understand the logics behind each question. THAT WAS DUMB. My last MGMAT teacher really helped me on this. She told me to look at SC problems like math problems. There are only few grammar issues that GMAT wants you to look at. And you don't even have to understand the sentences in SC, you just need to locate those few grammar issues that GMAT tests on you! To do that, you really need to solve a lot of SC questions. Same for RC. I kept solving and reviewing questions until I get comfortable figuring out what's wrong and why.
My last advice would be... to really use this website. Don't just look at posts, but reply with opinions, questions, and answers even though you're not 100% sure. I didn't do this much but I found it extremely helpful recently.
I hope this will help somebody out there struggling. Now it's time for me to go out and celebrate. Thank you!
Here's my brief history of my gmat adventure.
08/2009 decided to study, and started MGMAT class
01/2010 took the first test and got 620. Teacher advised me to retake the test after a month
02/2010 took the second test and got 580.
in 2010, I applied for biz schools but it was not so successful.
02/2011 decided to study again for the GMAT, started my second MGMAT class at a discounted rate.
from 06/2011 when the class finished, weather was getting too good and I was not motivated enough to take the test. This continues until 11/2011
12/2011 decided to really focus again and re-did the entire OG12 problems.
01/2012 in 3 weeks, I took four MGMAT practice tests, and two GMATprep tests, and here are the results
mgmat1 650(Q45 V34)
mgmat2 660(Q47 V33)
mgmat3 720(Q49 V39)
mgmat4 720(Q51 V37)
gmatprep 660
gmatprep 670
For me what helped the most was the intense studying in a short period of time. MGMAT advised me to stop taking a practice test a week before the exam, but this time I kept taking the test so that I get used to the time pressure and the seemingly never ending 4 hr test. I was studying until three hours before the exam today. This really made my brain running and made me feel comfortable when I was confronted with the real problems.
English is not my first language and I know, verbal section can be really challenging for non-native speakers. I knew that I couldn't be fully prepared with verbal in a short period of time, competing with those who spoke the language for 20 plus years. For this reason, I didn't really try hard to improve my RC score. Reading and comprehending the whole passage well enough in 3~4 minutes to be able to solve questions in time? I thought it was not wise to spend so much of my time to get few more RC questions right. Instead, I really dove into SC and CR.
I tried so hard in the beginning to nail down SC by studying the grammar in general. I remember reading a post on here, which suggested studying grammar book to understand the logics behind each question. THAT WAS DUMB. My last MGMAT teacher really helped me on this. She told me to look at SC problems like math problems. There are only few grammar issues that GMAT wants you to look at. And you don't even have to understand the sentences in SC, you just need to locate those few grammar issues that GMAT tests on you! To do that, you really need to solve a lot of SC questions. Same for RC. I kept solving and reviewing questions until I get comfortable figuring out what's wrong and why.
My last advice would be... to really use this website. Don't just look at posts, but reply with opinions, questions, and answers even though you're not 100% sure. I didn't do this much but I found it extremely helpful recently.
I hope this will help somebody out there struggling. Now it's time for me to go out and celebrate. Thank you!
