Scored 5.5 on GMAT AWA

Got my score report for the exam and I managed a 5.5/6 on the AWA section. Once again just as with my GMAT score I was pretty emotionless on seeing this score as its just about a par score for the top 25 B-Schools.

Last week I was trying to understand the implications of my GMAT score on my apping process. Gradually I have developed a feeling of disappointment on my score. I always wanted to be an active test taker and target something in excess of 750 (specially given that I scored a 720 on GMAT Prep1 with 0 prep and my weak areas were clearly defined/identified). Somehow, my prep veered off a bit, inexplicably, in the last 10 days leading to the test – my GMATPrep2 score is an indicator. My advice to all prospective GMATters would be to maintain a high intensity level on the days leading to the test.

However, the last thing on my mind is a re-take. Will focus on selling my acads, work-ex and extra-curricular activities better and on writing kick-ass essays.

My GMAT experience: 720 (Q50, V38)

Today was my G-Day. Am done with this monster, nothing to brag about the score though. I feel its a par score to apply to any of the top 20 B-Schools. I was a tad disappointed with my verbal score as I was consistently clocking 40 in my practice tests. All in all, the kind of prep I did for about 2 months, I think 720 is just reward.

When I first decided to take a crack at GMAT in Jan this year, I drew confidence from the fact that I did well on the GRE about 7 years ago and I could refresh those verbal skills and could prepare for Sentence Correction – the only addition in GMAT. Hence my prep centered on SC and taking practice tests from Manhattan GMAT.

Prep Material:

(1) Kaplan Premier program book – 2009

(2) Priceceton Review book

(3) Compilation of all the posts on SC by Erin and Bob 800 from TestMagic and Beat the GMAT forums. These excerpts are worth million $. I recommend these gentlemen’s posts strongly for SC.

(4) Manhattan GMAT SC guide – on and off

(5) Manhattan GMAT – 6 practice tests package.

(6) OG 11 and GMATPrep

My Practice test scores:

GMATPrep 1 – 720
MGMAT1 – 690
MGMAT2 – 720
MGMAT3 – 760
MGMAT4 – 690
MGMAT5 – 760
MGMAT6 – 750
GMATPrep2 – 710
GMAT – 720

See the correlation

I never bothered to take CATs from other prep companies as their scoring algos or their questions seemed bogus. However I have to mention the free CAT from Knewton GMAT here. Though the scoring algo is very poor ( I got 47 in quant when the only question wrong was the last one), the questions are good and built on the OG11 model.

What I did today:

Didnt sleep that well yesterday night. Today morning, I worked out some SCs and CRs from GMATPrep for warm up. However, I felt a bit undercooked going into the exam and somewhere there was that sinking feeling that I might get whipped (normall I am very calm before exams). The center was at Anson Road, Singapore and I was given a small room with a computer. The view of Singapore from 30th floor was amazing and fired me up. The test center staff were very cordial and nice. AWA and Quant sections came and went. When verbal turned up, I started aggressively and finished first five items in a jiffy probably not being too sure of some answers When an abstract RC turned up – I could no make head or tail of what was happening in that – I thought “This is cheating. I am going home” and from that point on Verbal seemed to be down hill.

I thank my parents, my wifey, sis, Gannu and Tandur for all their support. I would like to end by saying that instead of giving the monster a tight slap, I ended up giving a polite handshake.