Hi everybody,
just thought I'd share my GMAT experience as a return for many of your great beat the GMAT tips that I've benefited from
A little background
Asia-based 20 y.o. undergrad; studies are mostly in political economy, so rather unaccustomed to dealing with quant (for the last few years, at least). Never had experience with GMAT before, but thought why not do it while I can before busy times ahead. So I have a bit of free time before graduating and starting a job next month. I registered for the exam, appointment booked for today March 24th.
With two weeks of preparation and IELTS on the way, I realized this is not ideal. Although I've always been naturally good in quant and basic logic, the fact that english is my second language still worries me.
Given my lack of resources to do a tutored prep, I decided to just go ahead and do practice tests to get familiar with the testing system.
CAT scores
March 18th: 620 Q44 V32 (69th %ile)- Veritas
March 19th: 710 Q49 V38 (92nd %ile)- GMATPrep #1, IR8
March 20th: 670 Q47 V36 (83rd %ile)- Economist
March 21st: 670 Q46 V35 (83rd %ile)- Manhattan GMAT, IR5
March 22nd: 700 Q47 V39 (90th %ile)- GMATPrep #2, IR7
March 23rd: 700 Q48 V38 (89th %ile)- Kaplan, IR2
GMAT: 720 Q50 V36 (94th percentile) IR8 (92nd %ile) - March 24th
You can see that third-party practice tests are not the most accurate score predictors - Kaplan's comes closest.
To me, these tests are valuable because they can build your stamina for G-day. More importantly, you can analyze which part of the test you need to focus on the most in your preparation. Doing many tests won't do much unless you learn from mistakes you made; know and deal with your weakest areas!!
Test day
Came two hours early, I slept in the waiting room until my test schedule. Strolled through IR and finished AWA with confidence - followed the template by Chineseburned. I took the first break, had a Red Bull and an energy bar.
My Verbal percentiles had always been higher than my Quant's, so I was determined to give it all in Quant. I didn't find any unsolvable questions until the 17th. I was surprised that I was almost halfway in just about 25mins. I then tried to really take my time. Towards the end suddenly encountered a much easier question after a series of hard Qs. Finished quant; I took the second break, had a second Red Bull and another energy bar.
Verbal was OK, I felt I had had faced tougher RCs and CRs (meaning I was facing lower level of questions). SCs were much harder than ones I had practiced with.
Whew, 720 came up!! I didn't believe it at first, especially the Q50 - I had never scored this high in practice tests Quants!! On the other hand, seeing my GMATPrep performances, I definitely could and should've performed better than my V36.
Takeaways
Do practice tests to build test-day stamina
Realize early your weakest areas, isolate them
Find and Solve hard questions on the topics you're most likely to get wrong
I'm satisfied with a relatively decent score, for now. With my current score, I am interested in top MFins, or MBAs in a couple of years
Thank you BEATtheGMAT experts and members for your useful tips and inspiring stories!!!
Cheers,
your newest 700 clubber
just thought I'd share my GMAT experience as a return for many of your great beat the GMAT tips that I've benefited from
A little background
Asia-based 20 y.o. undergrad; studies are mostly in political economy, so rather unaccustomed to dealing with quant (for the last few years, at least). Never had experience with GMAT before, but thought why not do it while I can before busy times ahead. So I have a bit of free time before graduating and starting a job next month. I registered for the exam, appointment booked for today March 24th.
With two weeks of preparation and IELTS on the way, I realized this is not ideal. Although I've always been naturally good in quant and basic logic, the fact that english is my second language still worries me.
Given my lack of resources to do a tutored prep, I decided to just go ahead and do practice tests to get familiar with the testing system.
CAT scores
March 18th: 620 Q44 V32 (69th %ile)- Veritas
March 19th: 710 Q49 V38 (92nd %ile)- GMATPrep #1, IR8
March 20th: 670 Q47 V36 (83rd %ile)- Economist
March 21st: 670 Q46 V35 (83rd %ile)- Manhattan GMAT, IR5
March 22nd: 700 Q47 V39 (90th %ile)- GMATPrep #2, IR7
March 23rd: 700 Q48 V38 (89th %ile)- Kaplan, IR2
GMAT: 720 Q50 V36 (94th percentile) IR8 (92nd %ile) - March 24th
You can see that third-party practice tests are not the most accurate score predictors - Kaplan's comes closest.
To me, these tests are valuable because they can build your stamina for G-day. More importantly, you can analyze which part of the test you need to focus on the most in your preparation. Doing many tests won't do much unless you learn from mistakes you made; know and deal with your weakest areas!!
Test day
Came two hours early, I slept in the waiting room until my test schedule. Strolled through IR and finished AWA with confidence - followed the template by Chineseburned. I took the first break, had a Red Bull and an energy bar.
My Verbal percentiles had always been higher than my Quant's, so I was determined to give it all in Quant. I didn't find any unsolvable questions until the 17th. I was surprised that I was almost halfway in just about 25mins. I then tried to really take my time. Towards the end suddenly encountered a much easier question after a series of hard Qs. Finished quant; I took the second break, had a second Red Bull and another energy bar.
Verbal was OK, I felt I had had faced tougher RCs and CRs (meaning I was facing lower level of questions). SCs were much harder than ones I had practiced with.
Whew, 720 came up!! I didn't believe it at first, especially the Q50 - I had never scored this high in practice tests Quants!! On the other hand, seeing my GMATPrep performances, I definitely could and should've performed better than my V36.
Takeaways
Do practice tests to build test-day stamina
Realize early your weakest areas, isolate them
Find and Solve hard questions on the topics you're most likely to get wrong
I'm satisfied with a relatively decent score, for now. With my current score, I am interested in top MFins, or MBAs in a couple of years
Thank you BEATtheGMAT experts and members for your useful tips and inspiring stories!!!
Cheers,
your newest 700 clubber
