Saturday, September 08, 2007

D-Day - GMAT Experience

I took my GMAT appointment at 8 AM and i never gave a single test at that time. Many people said that give at least one test at 8 but i didn't listen. I believe, Its all in the mind I gave all my mock tests between 10-2PM. Actually i had to go to library to give the tests.Also before the exam i only slept for 5 hrs. Somehow didn't get sleep till late Anyways, i reached my centre at 715 AM and waited will 730 to enter the center. Those 15 minutes i used for self motivation Entered the exam room at 750AM after completing all the formalities.

Selected the schools and then started with AWA. I had the format to write the essays, wrote the essays in that format and was able to put in good ideas in them. All in all was very satisfied with my performance here, given that i had put only 2 days of prep for this section. Took a 10 minute break in which i had 1 Red bull. Again motivated myself for the real test now.
Then started with Quant. Initially Quant questions were easy and i was rechecking all the answers till Q10, but after Q10 difficulty level started increasing and questions were taking lot of time. I had to speed up after Q 17 and didn't recheck any of my answers after that. I got some 2-3 probability questions in between which i was able to answer. Overall the difficulty level was same as that of GMATPrep. For the last question i had 2 minutes and i started it leisurely. It involved some large calculations and finally when i came with answer, it didn't match any of the choices, and only 15 seconds were left. I had to guess this one. I knew that i will not be able to hit 51 in Quant. Anyways, my aim was only 50, not 51. I knew with 50 in Maths i can still do well. So i was satisfied.
Now took another 10 minutes break. I took another red bull . Looked into the mirror, said to me that here starts the most imp 75 minutes test. It all depends on these 75 minutes whether i will make it or not, so just motivated myself to have confidence and give my best shot.

Started verbal with 2 SC's, average difficulty level. Then came an easy CR.Got my first RC at Q3 which i marked comfortably and i was confident of my accuracy till now. Then came a series of SC's and CR's. SC's were getting difficult. At Q 10 gt my second RC of 4 questions. It was a large RC but i handled it well. After this there were 3-4 SC's in line, some of which were difficult and took time. Then at Q24 got my third RC which was small but a difficult one. At Q33, git my last 4th RC, average length and avg difficulty. After Q31 it was getting difficulty for me to concentrate because the feeling of result kept coming in my mind. Tried hard and was able to concentrate for some more moments, but i had increased by speed now to complete the test ASAP. Also after 15 th question my speed reduced due to difficulty, so i had to increase my speed after 28th question to bring it back to 2 minutes per question. This is imp because last questions are imp and you should have time for them. Finally i had 12 minutes for last 5 questions. took my time for these question. Also now i was worried since i didn't get any bold face CR till now. So again i felt difficult to concentrate. Finally Q40 was a bold faced huge CR which was very difficult and i took 3.5 minutes to mark it. Then for last question i had 2.5 minutes still left. Marked it in 1/2 minute and clicked on next with 2 minutes still to go.

Now, i could hear the beat of my heart and was feeling very tense. The bad thing is you have to fill an 8 page survey after the verbal section and i was getting very tense while filling it .Finally i got the screen to accept / reject scores. And clicked on report scores. The page hanged to calculate my score and for me the whole world hanged in those 5 seconds. I knew had done well but still i was very nervous. I knew i couldn't have scored below 740 and somehow thought that my score should be 760.

I Closed my eyes and prayed. When i opened my eyes, i saw 770 ( 50, 45) - was shocked for 2 minutes. I couldn't utter a word just kept looking at the screen. Months of hard work just splashed in front of my eyes. Thanked God, looked out of the window to check if everything is real and called the test admin. She asked me to click next. Didn't want to get past that screen but clicked on End test.Took print out of the score, switched on my phone and already my friends were calling me :)

9 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Glamour Girl said...

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!

hslam said...

I went through the whole process too so I can understand your joy :)

My day was a bit strange that I was the ONLY GMAT candidate in the whole test centre. But... there are loads of 17-year old kids sitting for the driving theory test. Yes, I was the minority, the only one who was NOT taking the driving test in that centre, and I was the only one who needed to take finger print and a photo before the test. I felt quite weird when I was asked to take a picture in front of all the kids who didn't need to do that.

I sit alone in a separate room during the whole test. I didn't feel tired or anything, so I didn't use any of the 10-minute breaks. Just kept going and going until the end.

I felt that the maths problems in the real test were WAY easier than GMATPrep, different from your experience. And I felt confident in verbal too. So when approaching the end I already knew roughly my score, and thank god no surprise at the end. :)

kpmg said...

beautiful score man

well done, you're up there with the best... :)

EndlessMind said...

Hey,
I am taking my GMAT on 27th September. Let's keep in touch.
Take care

Anonymous said...

Yo! Congratulations. Brilliant score. Funny, the moment I ended the test, I felt I was going to get a 770. I was so sure of it and then ended up with a 720! Looking back at it, it had to be those Sentence Corrections.

But congratulations again!

Anonymous said...

Well written article.

GMAT Test said...

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Diego said...

i seem to have similar experience with GMAT to that of yours. thanks for sharing it