The 1.5 months of studying I allotted myself was an ample amount of time to prepare. Leading up to my test day on 11/20/2010, I had been doing fairly well. I was consistently scoring between 700-750 on my practice exams and was pumped going into the testing facility. On test day though, I had a couple of bad runs of questions and ended up with a 660. Damn it! That was way below what I felt I was capable of so I went home and scheduled another test day.
Quick tip #1: Always give yourself two shots to take the exam. I took the exam in November so that if I needed to, I could take the exam one more time before R2 applications were due. To give myself more time to study and research schools I wanted to go to, I took a month leave of absence from work. Going back and forth from researching schools to drilling problems was a lot more work than I anticipated. Quick tip #2: Don't overload yourself, push too hard and work too hastily. As a result of applying to seven schools (wtf was I thinking) and studying for the exams, I barely skimmed the surface when I was doing my research and although my GMAT improved, my application presentation was atrocious.
I felt like this everyday:
and I ended up doing a very poor amount of research when it came to looking at schools. As a result, I ended up with very superficial essays that lacked depth. Quick tip #3: Take researching schools seriously. Look beyond the website and really learn about why schools would be a good fit and if the school can take you to where you want to be. Applying to school is a soul searching process and you definitely learn a lot more about yourself and what you want to do.
Ultimately, the key lesson I learned was to not rush through this process. Take the time to look at your profile at every angle and fill in the holes. Applying to business school is a marathon, not a sprint. If you push yourself too hard, you burn out and don't end up finishing strong. Results of my labors to be in the next installment.
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