GMAT Exam - Debrief

Get a drink.... a snack... sit back and enjoy!

So... now that exam day is over and I've had time to take a step back and relax aka get totally wasted on Saturday, I feel that I can purge my brain of the experience. I'm going to swallow my pride here and be very candid with everyone. I hope this can help someone somewhere...

As many of you know I took the MGMAT in-person 9 week class. Prior to taking the class it's recommended that you take a practice CAT. I did this and got a 590. Now let me say that this class is a TON of work. I remember towards the middle of it I had to take a break and not look at any GMAT material because my head was spinning. I won't go too much into my classroom experience because I'm sure it's documented somewhere in my blog... I want to get more into exam day.

The Sunday before my exam I took a practice exam and scored a 520! Yeah that's a terrible blow to the confidence! That was by far my lowest score ever. So then I started freaking out because I got 12 out of 14 SC's correct, but only 4 CR's correct. Up until that point CR had been my strong point so I was at a loss for words. I took monday off of work to study. I ended up sleeping until 1pm but told myself that it would be better to start getting lots of sleep. That night I studied CR and RC - clearly it didn't do me any good. Tuesday -> Friday I didn't do any hardcored studying. I reviewed old exams...

One good thing that I did.. and I think this is clever haha... I generated the MGMAT assessment of all of my CAT exams. I clicked into Verbal... sorted by question type... I wrote down all of the idioms that I had missed since the first CAT exam... I recorded them on my iphone... and played it back to myself while at work... while on the subway... I will never forget that the idiom is "Think of X as Y" amongst others.

So exam day... I woke up at 9:30 and showered and went to the Dartmouth Tuck event @ the Kaplan center. It was great that this event was from 11am-1pm because it kept my mind off of the exam at 4pm. After the event I went home... took another shower - to kill time... reviewed the basics to writing the essays. Did 2 SC's... 2 CR's...a couple geometry problems and random quant problems. I didn't even look at the answers because I didn't want to be discouraged going into the exam. I just wanted to get my brain working again.

It was a nice day outside... and I walked to the testing center. As planned I avoided Times Square! I had my headphones on and I was rocking out to some dance remixes. When I got to Rockefeller center I started feeling nervous. It was very weird because I felt like I was walking to the torture chamber or electric chair. Everyone was walking by my and I was saying to myself "Doesn't anyone realize where I'm going right now and what this exam means?" So I get to 500 5th Avenue and go into a zone. Nothing was going to throw me off once I walked through those doors.

I hand the security guy at the desk downstairs my ID. I walked through the same turnstile and took the same elevator that I took during my dry run. I got into the testing center, which felt like a doctors office and the woman began to give me instructions and told me to read some papers. After that I asked her where the bathroom was and went in. When I got back I sat down to have my picture taken - now this is the funny part... As I'm sitting down having my picture taken, a Woman/Girl must have been about 25/26 comes in with her Longchamp bag slung over her shoulder, huffing and puffing. She starts talkign loudly asking me questions as if I'm the administrator. I just smiled and nodded. Then she asks the administrator what she can bring into the exam with her and the administrator of course said "nothing but your ID and your locker key". The girl said - "I CAN'T EVEN BRING IN MY CALCULATOR?" The look on the administrators face when she said that was absolutely priceless and I will never forget it. I had to laugh when I heard this, because it was just that comical. It was a little refreshing to get in a laugh.

So I took my picture... she did the palm vein scan thingy... and I went to take the exam. I sat away from the door and I didn't have ear plugs I had those huge aviation headphones lol. I kept them on during the essays because people were typing, but I took them off during the Quant section because they were a little cumbersome and I could hear myself breathing lmao.

The essays were intuitive... they were more like a hiccup in the exam. I wrote the intro... 3 examples - one offering a suggestion... and then the conclusion bringing everything together. I used about 3 minutes to set up each essay just jotting down notes...After both essays I took my 8 minute break.

Again here I went into a zone because I had practiced time and time again. I went to the bathroom... got my Gatorade... got my crackers.. and sat down and had a conversation with the administrator. While I was out there another girl came out and just sat down. I'm like "wait.. people don't bring snacks? and something to drink?" I guess we're a rare breed. So I went back in with about 3 minutes to spare... sat down... took a deep breath and said.. "Ok remember to watch the time!"

I did pretty well on time and finished the Quant section with about 1:30 to spare then I took my next break. I had to go to the bathroom again which is rare, but oh well it happens. I got back.. went to my locker.. got my crackers and Gatorade and sat down for about 5 minutes. Then I did some stretching before going back in. I felt very confident about tackling the verbal section. Now let me talk about this verbal section if I may...

I did not think that the questions were anything like the ones I saw in the MGMAT SC guide. I went through that guide about 4 times and thought I had everything nailed down. Considering I got 12/14 correct in my last practice exam I thought I was on track. The two questions I got incorrect were idioms so my SC confidence level was very high. I did see some SC questions with 3/2 splits, but that's not what threw me off. The language was different. I don't even think the SC was anything like the SC in the beginning pages of the OG or the Verbal Review guide. Something was off and it's hard to explain. I think I studied the SC guide TOO much. I studied it so much that the language in the book became second nature and I probably thought I knew more than I did.

The CR and RC sections didn't seem to much different than what I had seen before. It's funny how with RC you can talk yourself into an answer whether it be right or wrong. I got one Resolve the Paradox question in CR and I smiled because I like those for some odd reason. I may not get them all correct but I like seeing them, I'm weird.

So anyway... I finished the verbal with 2 minutes to spare and then had to answer those questions at the end. You know.. address... undergrad institution... blah blah who cares? Then I got to the "do you want to see your score" screen and my heart was pounding out of my chest. I put my hands over my eyes as if I was at a scary movie, which I don't even do anyway, and then I clicked YES. I thought my heart was going to come out of my chest - hands still over eyes. Then I started peeking through my fingers to look at the last two numbers. I knew that if I saw an 80 or 90, then my score would be a 580 or 590. I knew that if I saw a 20 or 30 then I might have been able to end up with a 620 or 630. Unfortunately, I saw an 80 so then I uncovered my eyes and saw the 580.

I looked at my split and wasn't surprised by the 36Q because all in all the questions were too simple. Now you may be thinking "well if they were so simple why did you get them wrong?" well... You know when a question is simple or difficult. There were too many simple questions so I was making stupid errors. I was surprised by my Verbal score of 34. I was devastated more because I haven't seen an increase in my Verbal score even though I was going at that hard. There's no reason why I cannot get 40+ in Verbal. I need it to click before my next exam. I'm willing to do whatever... this is crazy!

Now here are some tips that I would like to address that I've heard but didn't take to heart:

1. When people say that you're ready to take your exam when you've hit your target score on your last 2/3 practice exams. BELIEVE THEM! IT'S TRUE. I should not have been surprised by my score at all. I went into the exam thinking "maybe this time it will be different!" Let me help you out... IT WON'T for most of us... yes there are some anomalies out there, but don't put yourself in that position. I think people who have been scoring maybe 700/710 can surprise themselves with a 720/730 sure... but to everyone out there scoring SUB 600 on their practice exams... I say this with love, learn from my mistake... you will NOT surprise yourself with a 650. No... it won't be different for you... listen to those who have come before you!

2. Writing the essays before practice exams... DO THIS...period! I started doing this towards the end of my studies... it helps with stamina during the exam. I did not feel that the exam was too long because I did this.

3. Do NOT just go through as many books as possible just to go through them. Trust me.. it doesn't help that much. I have all of the MGMAT guides, OG Guide, Verbal Review, Quant Review, PowerScore CR, PowerScore SC, that 350 page Quant PDF, an Algebra Book, and a Geometry Book. I've been through them all and still got a 580. The QUALITY is 100% better than QUANTITY. Unfortunately for me these books have been exhausted and I'm tired of looking at them to be honest haha.

4. Memorize as many idioms as possible. There's nothing worse than encountering a SC problem and narrowing down the answer choices and you see that the only difference between two remaining answers is a stupid idiom. You will beat yourself up over it and spend too much time. Memorize these! I have 3 poster boards on my bedroom wall with Idioms on them. So yes when I'm getting dressed I'm staring at Idioms. I know that "rather than" is more formal than "instead of" ;-) Who wants to sit down an memorize idioms anyway? Just put it on your wall... you'll get it.

5. Something else that I didn't do which I now know is UBER important... you should spend some time... I won't say as much time... but SOME time reviewing the correct answer choices and why they were correct from CAT exams you took. Why? Well... I know when I took CAT exams I would have to guess on some answers...well some of those I inevitably got correct, even though I may not have known the reason. Then when looking at my exams, I would only focus on the questions I got wrong. Well what about the ones I guessed on because I didn't know how to do? At the very least, mark which questions you don't know, so that if you get them right you can still go back to check.

All in all... this exam is beatable and after having experienced the whole thing once... I'm more dedicated to beat it! This 580 will be nothign compared to my next score. Hope this helps at least one person out there... and if you've gotten this far I commend you... sorry I tend to ramble!

- Richard