I took my GMAT this morning. I am very relieved that it’s over, but also a little torn about where to go from here.
Let me back up. I took the advice given to me to relax the day and night before the test, and not to study too much. I reviewed my notes and things that I had already seen, and avoided new material completely the day before. I watched a movie (Sex and the City!) last night, tried to keep my mind off the test, and had everything ready to go so I could wake up and go.
My appointment was at 8am so I got up at 6am so I could shower and wake myself up, have some coffee and breakfast, and get to the test center nice and early. I did arrive at about 7:20a, which was only 10 minutes before they say to arrive, so I sat in my car for a few minutes. I arrived, went through the check-in and security process, and got settled at my station. The earplugs that they provided were SO helpful!!
I felt good through the AWA section. The Analysis of an Issue prompt threw me slightly, but I was able to take a side and come up with some points and examples to put together.
I took my break, had a bit of my Coke and granola bar, and went back for the Quant section. It went pretty well, and there weren’t any questions that I was clueless on. I did feel a little rushed at the end because the questions got tough and required a few steps to answer. I took my other break, had the rest of my snack, and headed back to finish up with the Verbal. Then it was time to see my score…boy, those seconds while the computer calculates are stressful!
I got a 710. 44V/44Q, which ended up as 97th% verbal / 70th% quant. I’m happy, but I was really hoping to break that 80th% quant barrier. I just did a quick review of the stats of the schools that I’m hoping for (Chicago/Wharton/Kellogg/MIT/Cornell) and 710 is more or less the mean for all of them (except Cornell).
I’m trying to decide if it’s worth it to give studying quant a second go to see if I can get above that 80th% percentile. My undergrad degree is business, so not super quant-heavy but also not completely lacking, and I also took a business calc class post-undergrad and got an A. My other glimmer of hope is that my job function inherently has some math to it (I’m an underwriter), so I have that background as well.
At this point, I think I’m going to go with what I’ve got. I’m going to visit a few of the schools next week, so if I get a chance to ask questions, I may ask what they think about the importance of the 80/80 split. Who knows, I may change my mind and decide to go for it again later after I haven’t just studied like crazy for a few months, but for now, I think I’m good with my 710.
Read the full article: And…Done. Maybe.