Falls Short of GMAT Goal, But The 700 Is A Big Improvement

Basically, I cracked under the pressure of timing (my most recent standardized test before that was a paper-based GRE taken in 1999 that I did quite well on, actually). I froze during the quant section, wasted tons of time and ended up not only guessing on about 8 problems but not even finishing the last 2 or 3.

Don’t ask me what my Q/V split was because I’ve never bothered to look at my official score on the GMAT website. I told a few family members and close friends that I had made “about a 600″. Scoring that far away from 700 was disappointing enough, but I just couldn’t bear the thought of having a sub-600 score attached to my name. That would just be uncivilized.

IMPERFECT PRACTICE: MY RIGOROUS, YET FLAWED GMAT PREP

So here are the main 2 mistakes that I made during my most recent GMAT prep:

#1 Not enough review

I made the feature image for this post a display of my GMAT shrine (shown above). It consists of:

*OG 12th Edition

*OG Quant Review 2nd Edition

*OG Verbal Review 2nd Edition

*Barron’s LSAT

*Manhattan GMAT Number Properties

*Manhattan GMAT Geometry Review

*Manhattan GMAT Word Problems

*Manhattan GMAT Advanced Quant

*Manhattan GMAT Sentence Correction

*Powerscore Critical Reasoning Bible

*9 composition notebooks full of quant problems

Based on the forum browsing that I had done (that and talking to other GMATers), these were the books that seemed to be the most critical to success.

I actually never got to the LSAT book. I purchased it because another friend of mine from undergrad (Stanford GSB ’08) said that she took the LSAT a year before the GMAT and that the verbal section of the GMAT was just an easier version of the LSAT. As a result of her Barrons prep, she scored in the 99th percentile on the verbal section of the GMAT.

Again, I never got to that book. And the reason that I didn’t get to it was because about 2-3 weeks prior to my test date I discovered that I was going through too many problems without sufficient review. This realization hit me like a ton of bricks while reading a post on BeattheGMAT.com.

So basically I was getting really proficient in one area, then moving on to the next area without enough review to really grasp all of the underlying relationships between principles. As a result, I would go back to similar problem weeks down the road (after having barreled through another 100-200+ problems plus on other topics) and I would not be as sharp as I had been. This hit me really hard when I realized that I was…

#2 Starting practice tests too late in the game

Like a fool, I took my FIRST pre-exam practice CAT just 7 days before my exam. I got a 660 (GMAT Prep – 45Q,30something V) and completely freaked out. WTH? I had made a 650 before I had ever studied at all. I was devastated–done.

Four days before my exam date, I took a second practice exam–620 (Manhattan GMAT – 30something quant, 40 V). WHAT WAS HAPPENING TO ME? I’ll tell you what. I was cracking under the pressure again because I had forgotten a TON of the critical minutiae that I would need to get to 700 land. It was all somewhere in those composition books that I had been furiously scribbling in for 3 months, but I couldn’t access it because I had not invested enough time into my review.

Two days before my exam date, I started the 2nd GMAT Prep practice test. I got a ridiculous case of test anxiety and ended the exam about halfway through the quant, utterly disgusted. I could not bare struggling through another exam and not even being within 40 points of my goal. I was sure that if I completed that exam and got the resultant score I would go through the roof and become a nervous wreck on exam day. So I tried a different approach…

MY “SCREW THE GMAT” WEEKEND

Over the past few months I’ve become good friends with a few other MBA folks to commiserate with, namely Cheetarah1980 (Booth ’14) and OhDenny (Yale SOM ’14). I tend to believe that if you want to be successful at something, your most valuable resource is someone who has recently accomplished what you are after. These two were going through this very drama a year ago and were both able to gain acceptance into solid top 10 programs.

Cheetarah1980 in particular suggested that I calm the hell down if I wanted to have any chance of doing well on this exam. “Stay away from those  %@%^ GMAT books. You aren’t going to learn anything new in 3 days”, she [basically] said. “Just relax, keep reminding yourself that you can do this and you’ll be fine. And if you need to take it again, then take it again.”

I realized that she was right, so I slammed by books shut and headed off to Pasadena for a barbecue/gathering that a friend of mine was hosting. I spent the rest of my Saturday there and had a blast. While on the freeway I declared the rest of my time before exam day as my official screw the GMAT weekend (well, the real name is a little more ghetto and gutter than that, but you get the picture).

Later that night I went to my favorite Thai Spot with a good friend and ordered my favorite dish, an Ocean’s 7. With every bite of shellfish and every sip of Zinfandel, I thought to myself: screw the GMAT.

On Sunday, I slept in until I was good and damn ready to get out of bed. Since I’m a very early riser, “sleeping in” for me is anything past 6am. I must have gotten up at around 7, but it felt like noon; and I felt great. I did 45 minutes of cardio at the gym and came home to shower and make my usual power breakfast–egg whites, a sprouted-wheat bagel, berries and Yogi green tea (all from Trader Joes, of course).

I watched Youtube videos until about 10am, at which time I made a long overdue pilgrimage to Korea town for a Korean massage (the best). After I woke up from dozing off on the table I thought quietly to myself, screw the GMAT. On the way home I picked up a six pack of ice cold Stella Artois and enjoyed them while re-watching the last game of the NBA Finals (go Heat!) on DVR.

Later that evening I watched a DVR marathon of True Blood and Game of Thrones. I answered neither phone calls nor texts, except a last minute “well wishes” call from Cheetarah. Oh Denny had left me a good luck voicemail and Linda Abraham fromAccepted.com sent me a very nice email. It’s great to be surrounded by such supportive people.

EXAM DAY ARRIVES

On exam day I woke up refreshed and ready to go. I had successfully gone 36 hours without obsessing about the GMAT and it had made a world of difference in my disposition. I hit the gym for another 45 minutes of cardio and then came home to shower before getting a nice clean shave with a brand spanking new Gilette Fusion razor–I love those things.

I avoided eating anything heavy and basically just snacked on fish and berries throughout the morning (I head read somewhere that berries keep you alert and help your brain to function well). I also drank plenty of water.

I arrived at the test center an hour and 45 minutes early. On the way there I kept repeating to myself: “Remember, every question on this test can be answered in 2 minutes or less; and there is no problem on this test that isn’t similar to something that you’ve answered correctly before.”

I stuck to my usual exam day ritual of wearing power lifting shoes. I think its because I feel kinda unstoppable in them, like I’m about to squat 400.

As it turns out, the testing center is on the northern border of my old sales territory from when I worked in big corporate, so I didn’t need to do a practice drive there earlier. I was all prepared to go to the Starbucks across the street for a coffee, but the center was in an office campus that had a cafeteria, so I went and got a cup there and downed it while listening to Tupac, Lil Wayne and Drake on my iphone (ghetto, I know, but it puts me in a beast-like state of mine with predator-like focus; also notice that I’ve finally upgraded from Blackberry to iPhone to prevent a future Berkeley incident).

I ended up starting my exam an hour early and appreciated the folks at Pearson Vue for not making me wait for that hour in agony before allowing me to begin. I packed my personal belongings, a stash of berries and an emergency bottle of 5 hour energy (just in case I got sleepy before the verbal section) in my assigned locker, took my seat and got started.

THE AWA SECTION

When the test began I immediately noticed that I was full of energy, but not jittery. I had gotten my plenty of rest/light food/water/berries/coffee/time of day balance just right.

I had also made sure to schedule my exam on a Monday. I had read a comment by a Stanford GSB student on Quora that Monday is the best day to take the exam because you are coming off of a weekend of rest instead of a week of work. That made sense to me, since my infamous 590 during ACT 1 came after working about 5 1/2 hours on a Thursday before rushing across town in traffic to take the exam.

The AWA section was pretty straightforward.  I was able to identify several weak assumptions as well as counterarguments to the argument at hand. I also had several ideas of what could strengthen the argument with several examples to boot. If anything, I got TOO carried away with counterarguments and examples and wrote like a 600-800 word passage that was too long to fully edit in time. I ran out of time just as I was noticing that I had spelled the word “initiative” wrong in the last paragraph. Oh well.

THE NEW INTEGRATED REASONING (IR) SECTION

I have several issues with the new IR section of the GMAT. First of all, its irritating. The reading is less interesting than watching paint dry and it wears down some of your energy between that and having to interpret graphs. Additionally, the way that some of the questions are asked came across as convoluted.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I admit that I did zero prep for this section. I had planned to spend my last week reviewing it but when I began having problems with my GMAT practice tests I panicked and the final days of my prep strategy were derailed. Plus I knew that although it would behoove me not to bomb the IR, a less than perfect score would not be held too strongly against me since its a new section and schools have yet to decide how they are going to “integrate” it into their current admissions algorithms. I finished it in time but was glad that it was over.

HOW MY EGO COST ME ON THE GMAT QUANT SECTION

During my 1st break I grabbed a few swigs of water, ate some berries and came back to my seat. Quant started out pretty well. I felt much more relaxed than I had before. In my head, I thought that if I could just match the quant from my GMAT Prep CAT (45) and my verbal from my MGMAT CAT (40), that I should at least make the minimal threshold that I would need to feel ok about all of this.

Then it happened. I came across some stupid number line problem. It was NOT a hard problem at all, but my adrenaline had me launch into the problem the wrong way. For instance, instead of seeing “RS” as a line segment between two points I read it as “the variable R times the variable S”; ugh. Once I realized this I started the problem over, already 2min+ in the hole. I should have guessed and moved on (since that is what I ended up doing anyway) but my ego would not allow me to LET IT GO.

As a result, I wasted valuable time and went from a time surplus to a deficit. I also couldn’t let another problem or two go and fell further behind. I practically guessed the last 4-5 questions (made very quick determinations without fully hashing out the logic) and probably sent a Q48-Q50 right down the drain.

GMAT VERBAL: BUSINESS AS USUAL

Other than my abysmal 30something verbal on the GMAT Prep CAT, I’ve gotten used to about a 90% verbal. I could feel during this part of the exam that my performance was about par for the course; and that is basically what I got. It was nothing sexy or spectacular, but I held the line; hey, defense wins championships. I also could plainly see where having gotten to the LSAT book may have helped me add an additional 20-30 points to my score with an increased raw verbal score. I’ll seriously need to look into that during my retake prep (yes, a retake is likely).

THE UNVEILING

After finishing the last verbal question with just :30 on the clock (I got hung up on a question or two and fell behind in this section as well, resulting in a mad dash on 4 of the last 5 questions. I got to the final question with just over 2 minutes left and took my time to make it count.

I zoomed through the demographic information, pleased that they had saved my previous answers from ACT 1.That saved me a good deal of aggravation. I also made sure to UNCHECK the boxes where you authorize the GMAC marketing partners to send you emails. I’m pretty sick and tired of getting daily spam from Podunk State University’s ”top ranked” (in what?) MBA program (yes Cheetarah1980, I have stolen your term).

ON TARGET

So, what does all this mean? Well, this GMAT score definitely puts me comfortably within the 80th percentile ranges for all of my target schools (more comfortably for some than others), meaning that there are plenty of people enrolled in each of these programs who are in the middle 80% of the class with a lower GMAT score than I’ve earned. Check.

I also wanted to make the 80/80 split that most top programs look for. I missed it by a hair on Quant but exceeded it measurably in verbal, which balances this out. All in all, its a solid score and some would reason that I don’t need to take it again.

ELATION, THEN MIXED EMOTIONS

While no GMAT score is good enough to guarantee anyone a spot into a top tier program (people with 800s get turned down all the time), I really would like to get an additional 30/40 points behind me before I rest on the GMAT. Initially, I was uber excited just to hit 700 and no longer have the pressure of hitting this mark hanging over my head. No matter what I ultimately decide, that in and of itself feels pretty friggin good.

At the same time, this is a high stakes game and I plan to leave nothing to chance. I’m also not waiting on my URM (under represented minority) status to “get me in” either because A) quiet is as kept, that contingent is becoming more and more competitive thanks to programs like MLT and B) I’ve just never been the type to think like that anyway. I would never want anyone to have a reason to question whether or not I deserved to have something that I know I damn well earned.

WHAT COMES NEXT

So, moving forward I will officially be shifting my focus to my letters of rec, apps and essays. I will still do regular GMAT review in the background and take a periodic CAT exam.

If my CAT exams get into the 720-750 range, then I will retake this exam in hopes of  achieving the 30 point gain that most admissions consultants suggest that you achieve to justify the logic of retaking the exam when you already have a solid score. And if I don’t make that kind of improvement, then I will move on to continue to accentuate the other components of my application.

For now, however, I’ll be enjoying the rest of my evening by polishing off these wings, having a few glasses of this malbec and invoking my childhood with a few hours of finger mashing on my favorite video game, God of War III on PS3.

*Grabs a garlic parmesan wing, pours a glass of red, and gets ready to do serious damage to Hades*

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MBAOver30 offers the perspective of a 30-something, California-based entrepreneur who is applying to Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, MIT, Northwestern, Berkeley, UCLA and the University of Southern California. He hopes to gain acceptance to the Class of 2015 and blogs at MBAOver30.

Previous posts on Poets&Quants:

How I Totally Overestimated The MBA Admissions Process

Musings on MBA Failophobia

Letting Go Of An MBA Safety School

When A Campus Visit Turns Off An MBA Applicant

Yale, Tuck and Booth: The Next Leg of My Pre- MBA Research

 My Countdown: Less Than 30 Days To The GMAT

From Suits To Startups: Why MBA Programs Are Changing

Why I’m Not Getting Either A Part-Time MBA or An Executive MBA

Preparing To Sit For The GMAT Exam