I took GMAT here in North America at the beginning of March. Here GMAT is offered earlier than in China. My score is 740, 98%; Verbal 40,90%; Quantitative:50, 97%.
This score has significant meaning not only to me, but also to all my friends who have suffered from the 2000 December disaster in China. I am among one of the victims. My score was exactly 100 points lower than this one. No use to complain, but I have refused to rewrite GMAT, until, recently, I was rejected by top B-schools, clearly indicating that I have to improve my verbal to at least 50%.
Everyone undergoing the hardship preparing GMAT will picture how hard a decision it is for me to rewrite a GMAT. I have left all my materials in China. Here, I only got one CD, from a friend. Trying to book the earliest possible, I only got 2 weeks for preparation.
First, I thank my friend for lending me this valuable CD,swheresKeplan guides me through the preparation; Secondly, I feel grateful for all the websites, such as YANG YANG DE JIA, tigtag, myetang, and etc. I follow all the suggestions from the high-score takers. I do exactly what they propose. The key message is in tigtag, when Yang Jing, a Yale MBA with GMAT 790, has said that it is most important that you have to form your own GMAT GUAN(1). It is much worthwhile than any schools, or teachers. Believe in yourself!
I am lucky that I have left all the New Oriental materials in China. Otherwise I can not concentrate myself in Keplan, LSAT. They teach me much more than what I have learned in that school. I don’t want to say nasty words about anybody, but I really doubt about the effectiveness of their teaching method. FEI FEI is good at math, but I don’t believe the complicated CR methods have any usefulness. I admire BAI Yong for his courage and profound thinking (he really got something in his mind!), but I am always frustrated by his unwillingness to explain deeper about the grammar points. If he is working harder, I believe he can do better in this job. Anyway, his English is good. As to SUN JJ, I only follow his course in TOEFL. I really dislike his dirty tricks, such as "when you see A, select B". I doubt he can add any valuable points in test preparation, not to mention his repetatively-expressed willingness to take test for anyone paying him money! He even asked his students to invite him as cheaters! I don’t understand how he views his role as a teacher...
The real teacher is Wang Kun Song. I always remember what he says: when reading, keep at a higher position. Try to grasp the line of the article, not let the article lead you to the details. This is the only trick in GMAT reading. It is a pity that it is not a quick pill that we eat, and then we can. Instead, it requires hard working, patience, practice, which we usually don’t like, but always the truth in life.
Honestly speaking, I don’t believe in any quick pill in GMAT, nor in life. My first suggestion is: give up any superstitions about any so-called teachers, schools, rather, believe in yourself! Work out a plan by your own, and visit the websites to download every useful material.
Have you noticed that nearly all the high-score takers from December on are working by themselves, rather than attending any schools? When ETS sent letter to schools, asking them to pay attention to TOEFL and GRE scores for Chinese students, have you thought of why ETS did not mention GMAT? It proves my ever-lasting doubt that New Oriental school is not as effective in GMAT as in GRE.
In addition, there are more DA XIA in websites than in that school.Be careful, there are some Pretended DA XIA as well.
I don’t have any books, so I can not judge those by Liu Zhen Min or Qian Yong Qiang. But I believe them to be helpful. It is important to get a book on SC, because in my test, I discover that this part has changed a lot, much more difficult than all other simulations. Once more, besides reading others, try to use your own minds to think, summarize and reflect.
CR is key in Verbal portion. LSAT is extremely good for CR preparation. You can download it from tigtag. I spent most my time in these two weeks working on CR, and then the day before the test, when I taking free test in 800score, I can make the CR part all right! It has been a big encouragement for me. In the test, I met 2 boldface, 1 evaluate, 1 or 2 problem solving. Don’t believe boldface to be any sign for high score. I met more in last December. It is a kind of test, just it! CR has changed a lot from the previous BI SHI TI. Even for assumption, weaken, usually you can not find what you expect after reading the argument. So, please do work hard on this part, well prepared! Keplan is good in analyzing the reasoning lines. You may use it to guide you through to build basic reasoning ability. But, to be sure, the questions in Keplan are far from the real test.
Reading is not difficult, as said by others. The 80-line one is extremely easy, and I understood it after only reading once. Be careful about the shorter ones. The first one (40-line) I met is about business topics. I have thought it was to my advantages. But, it turns out very difficult. Try not go to details. Try to stand upper...
Math is usual. I got 97% for these two times. There is no difficult items. Don’t be frightened by the extreme difficult questions on website. I don’t believe they are from real test. I met several probability, median, mean, but they are very very easy. I am sure everyone can make it with decent carefulness. Sorry, I don’t know how they seem to WEN KE SHENG. But, don’t indulge in the extremes. ETS is not testing for Olympic math test. Take it easy. Work hard on DS. Don’t allow any holes in your reasoning.
When I entered the test room, I met a Chinese guy just finishing his test (here GMAT is offered two sessions every day, and I chose the afternoon session). He got 540, and he told me Verbal was extremely difficult. He has frightened me. I felt my heart pumping hard, my hands shaking, making it difficult for me to blind type. This is one reason I may fail in the writing. Last time, although I only got 640, my AWA is 5.0 . But this time, I wonder if I could secure such a score. SUN Yuan’s new AWA book is extremely wonderful. At least for me, it works well. I often regret notshavingsit here. I don’t like the sample articles in 800score, or the book written by foreigners. I feel what Sun Yuan has written as topic sentences are much more useful. Maybe it’s because I am English majored, I am not looking for sample essays. I am looking for ideas. But the problem is that I can not grasp the idea in those articles written by foreigners. They may not help us because, as a non-native speaker, we can not imitate what they are writing there. Then, it’s better for us to get the idea and then elaborate by ourselves.
Last time, I went through all the SUN Yuan’s topic sentences for 200 more questions. I even remembered his idea when I met the ISSUE NO. 11 at the test. Sometimes we have to modify his ideas. Some of them are Chinglish. This time, I nearly devote no time for AWA. So, I make great BOO BOO in Issue writing. My shaking hands always typed wrong words, and I even don’t have time to go through the whole essay when the time is out. I have found out a lot "shool" instead of "school". But, I don’t have chance.
I always admire the person who nearly listed all his math problem after test. I don’t have this extraordinary ability. Maybe due to my great nervousness, I forgot everything after the test. All through the test, I was extremely nervous. I feel my mind is not working, at least not working as well as during the simulation test. I am greatly pressured because the school is just waiting for my score. This forthcoming score will immediately decide my application. Eveyone can picture how hard it is to overcome nervousness. But my final score is still higher than simulation. My simulation in Princeton tester is all around 710-730, but I have never score more than 730, except in PP3 I got 770, and 780. They are all the previous records. This time, I only took Keplan simulation. And the results are lower than in China, around 640.
Comparing this two experience, I don’t believe in simulation test, unless you can successfully overcome the nervousness in real test. I am not used to the CAT situation. I still like the Pen Test environment. But we have to adapt to ETS.
Before I come to the end, I have to express my thanks to all my friends here. A new comer in a completely foreign country, without their encouragement and help, I might not make such a painful decision to rewrite.
I also want to say good luck to all my friends, who have suffered from the December low scores. Bad luck is that all our plans have been ruined by some unknown reasons, but there is a good point in it -- we have to be positive--, i.e., the second success is much more happier than the first one, because through the first failure,we have learnt some valuable lessons in life.
I begin to realize that there is bad luck in life. In the past, I always consider those unsuccessful people to be not working hard enough, but after my failure in GMAT, I begin to understand that there is bad luck in life, nothing to do with personal efforts. I understand that we are better off today, not only because of our outstanding efforts, but also because of our better luck! Feel thankful for GOD, for life itself! I wish all the best to you!