Redemption

This was a post back on 7/19/14.  Not sure why I mentioned all the specifics on the exam when at this point I already had gone through all the work to apply into Chicago Booth in May of 2014, and was accepted shortly after. Regardless, here are my thoughts about my final GMAT exam.

I can't believe I haven't written in this blog since taking my GMAT on May 1st, because so much as happened since then.

First of all, I took the GMAT which should be an entry all by itself.  Let me start off with some pre-test activities.
Since my exam started at 2pm, and I took this day and the day before off so that I can focus just on the exam.  I spent those days going over formulas and my flash cards which included content/questions that I frequently encountered while doing practice problems, but still had a hard time mastering. The morning before the exam, Joann made me a nice breakfast, and then we when to the gym to shoot hoops.  I think this will be my new routine anytime I have such an important day with high stakes, because I felt very awake and alert while taking the test and my stamina was also strong.

After I felt all ready to go, Joann drove me to Pearson Vue in Bloomington, which is where I took my first GMAT exam almost a year ago and bombed.  But that didn't stop me from choosing this location again since it's the closest center to my home and the facilities are nice.  Plus, every time I drive to church, I am see this building and wonder if I would ever give myself a second chance to redeem myself.

Test began with the IR portion, which felt pretty comfortable for as I was taking the test since the questions I encountered all seemed manageable.  But then the unthinkable happened, I ran out of time and completed only 8 of 12 questions!!  This was a good wake up call, because right then and there I realized that my time management will have to be more disciplined until the I'm done with the test.

Next was the writing portion, which was low stress for me since I know I just needed an average score to show the admissions committee that my ability to write a good application essay is at the same level as I demonstrated during my GMAT writing portion.

After I completed these first two sections, I took a water break to prepare for the Verbal and Quant sections, which are the only two sections that determine my score.

Quant goes first, and as always I find this section to be difficult. Even though I got a 790 on SAT math, GMAT Quant has always been challenging for me.  The questions are a lot trickier to solve in the amount of time given.  The one thing I learned from all my prep is that I need to be fast at determining if I have a chance in answering a question correctly and quickly, and if not guess and move on.  There two questions that I felt I should have known, but couldn't quite figure out in time and so I had to guess and move on.