Spirit for my GMAT preparation

Sit back, close my eyes, think about the past year what I have been doing to prepare for MBA application, and I feel the time is flying. It has been almost one year since January I started to prepare GMAT exam. All the energy I have now is from the GMAT result and the procedure of my GMAT preparation. It is worth for me to write it down for someone else who has age above 30 to prepare GMAT.

For the person like me with non-English speaking background, GMAT is the most critical thing. And I treat it as the first thing before I apply. Because after leaving school for 10 years, with so so job title in the US because of the complicated immigration procedure, the confidence has to come from the good GMAT score. I didn't even want to try this although it is my dream. But I didn't think I was good enough to get a good score since my TOFEL in 2001 only 500 and my first mock GMAT exam is only 500 also last year. I should say all the thanks to my husband. Without his encouraging, I will never make this move at all in my life.

Briefing myself a little, having been ranked first since elementary school until college and being the leader of the student council since the first year enrolled into the school day, I had a big big dream before college and have been the proud of my hometown. But some unfortunate thing happened on me during the first year of college, which broke my path of excellence and I fell to the lowest point in my life. Since then, I have been struggling to get back to where the normal people were and I never imagine today I could be back on the track and want to apply top B School again. Although I have some excellent high managerial job experiences in China, I never gave up my American dream. So I am here in the US to continue rebuild myself...What I wanted to do back years ago was just wanting to be a normal person and forget about those frustration and spiritual torturing. Forgive me I did not want to mention the sad broken heart story which turned my life around from one extreme to the other extreme. I cannot imagine how I survived from that experience, but I did with my special strength and my life got better and better. But deep in my heart, I still lost and regretted..sometimes, I just sat under the stars and let all the tears down on the face. I kept asked myself "What if that thing never happened, what am I now? and what am I doing differently?" I have no answer for this. I did what the other normal person do such as finding a job in a US company, filling the Green card for US residence, staying with company for long waiting for the approval of immigration. If you ask me, am I happy with what I have now..Yes, I can say that, a husband and a cute body. But deep in my heart, I know I am still lost in my dreams.


Not sure why, but my husband kept push me for GMAT and MBA since we married in 2004. Once you have family, kid and a good job, a few friends and church activities hanging around with normal people, it is hard to pull you out of these suddenly for a totally unknown future. I wasn't confident since my TOFEL was only 597 in 1998 and 500 in 2001. Worse!! paper exam versus computer exam. We argued and fought for my study. I cannot believe why my husband had that strong wish for me to do all these. All the other men like has a wife to stay home. But he is just totally different. I still didn't devote for GMAT until this year January. He left home for angry and dropped a sentence said" I am disappointed in you! Forget about it, I will never ask you about your GMAT again!!" This was crazy words, which stimulated my energy. I then started to plan from 1/15, my 3 months preparation plan with a full time job. He found a job in the other city, left me alone at home. we sent our boy back to China because he wanted me to focus on GMAT last year. I found myself suddenly devoted into GMAT after he threw out the anger to me.


I continued study 4-5 hours per day. The first mock exam, I only got 500. I disappointed, but since I was also angry with what my husband said to me, I decided to last to the exam day. I registered the exam earlier so I had to go for it. The exam was on 4/28. only 3.5 months left. A long pain journey began. Same with other persons, I just use the official guide and did again and again about 4-5 times. sometimes, I studied between my work during lunch hours and I stayed late in the night to 2AM every day. I studied every weekend. My husband didn't even come home at all. At that time, I still had to take care of two houses and 6 tenants, collecting rent etc. And I just also launched a charity organization to help Katrina in 2005. Many things came at the same time. I found myself have high efficiency when I was under high stress. And I did well under such situation. Everything went well. Like my rental business, we have 98% occupied rate during a year. My charity also went well and I received a lot of donations and support from friends and unknown people. And my GMAT started to get better like 650, 680 etc. two months later, my mock exam stayed at 680. I figured this might be my level. I still continued to wait to see if some miracle happened. People said miracle will happen after persistent efforts. I continued for 2 months every day, slept 5 hours, work plus study full day. The motivation was that I put screen saver as my boys pictures. Every morning, when I arrived office, I saw his picture on my pc screen. I missed him badly, he was only one year. But i knew I could not see him until i got a score higher than 700, that was my husband said. Whenever I thought of my boy, my heart was pain, and then I went into my study again. Two weeks before the exam, I suddenly did a mock exam 750. I felt strange. I guess it was because I did too many times. Then I did again one week before exam, still 750. I guess this was what people called miracle. The day before the exam, one tenant didn't pay rent, I was running everywhere to get the rent on time. I didn't rest well. My husband later said if you didn't go for that rent, you should get 750.^_^ ..Anyway, I got 740 (math full score), and I was satisfied. 3 and half month part time preparation started from low score as 500. What did I expected? just above 700. My eyes sights went down 100 degree during these three months. I have been kept the same sights for over 20 years. So you can see how much hard work I put into this. I had to immediately go to my eye doctor to adjust my contact lens, otherwise I cannot see clear.

From this GMAT preparation journey, I found some confidence back and it was a fundamental thing made me think I should try the top school again to see if i can fulfill my childhood dream. If not, then not. I have tried my best.

So anyone has age over 30, so so English background, do not worry, as long as you be persistent and put enough hours, you should get a good score. I wish this can encourage someone else as I was always looking for encouragement myself if I got bad result. This long preparation process need physical and spiritual strength. Don't you agree with me? you should be able to sleep much less to handle all the full time work and other family fairs while still studying. I kept exercise every other day to keep physical health. It works! and I think it is important.

After GMAT exam, I went back to deal with some family stuff and started the essay preparation from July. I am glad that I have my son with me now. Still keep my spirit up. My son is cute. When I asked him to go to bed, he was listening to me and said " mom, go to study". Can you believe he was only 20 months and can understand how important of my study?:) The photos on this page is my boy when he was 6 months old last year. Is he cute?