standardized testing

I took the gmats this morning. I had to sign my life away stating that I wouldn't share any details of the actual questions so I hope you'll forgive me if I don't tell you all about the thrilling (yawn!) reading comprehensive short essay questions.

The test was what I expected: two short essays, 37 math questions and 41 verbal questions. The test is interactive; the questions you get are directly related to how well you did on the previous question. If you find toward the end of a section the questions are incredibly hard you are doing well and if you find that the questions are really easy than you aren't doing very well. The math questions seemed to stay at about the same level the whole time while the verbal questions did seem to get harder, particularly those pesky sentence correction questions.

I studied for this test, particularly the math section. A lot. It feels like there's a lot riding on how well I do on the gmat. I went to an open house at my second choice school this week and they said they wouldn't even look at someone's application if their gmat wasn't at least 500 (the max gmat score is 800, essays are scored separately). This made me nervous to hear. I bought a great study book that I studied religiously and took the book's accompanying four online tests. On the four online practice tests (to show of some of my newly remembered algebra skills) I got: X, X, X - 50, X + 40. I knew what kind of score I was looking at, knew what types of questions to expect on the test. I was right on both accounts. My official score from this morning said I was in the 89th percentile on the verbal test and 29th percentile on the math test. 29the percentile!! I am torn between being really disappointed in myself and being so frustrated that so much weight is put on the gmat by business schools.

I understand that schools need an equalizer. Applicants come from all different backgrounds, have vast differences in work experience, education, work industry, etc. I am being compared with someone fresh out of undergrad school with no experience and someone who currently works in the business world with only 3 years of experience. There had to be a way to compare everyone in a basic way and the gmat is it. It's frustrating because it's sort of common knowledge that the only thing that the gmat tests is how well you can take the gmat (I've seen this printed on business school websites). If it's so useless, then why use it?? Why make everyone go through a painful four hour test when it doesn't mean anything??

I always enjoyed math is school. I took geometry, algebra 2, pre-calculus and calculus in high school. I had a couple of great teachers in high school who were really patient with me, really cared if I was getting the material, gave partial credit on test answers and allowed us to use calculators. Under these circumstances, I did pretty well in math. I was always a little behind in comprehension and it used to take me a long frustrating time to do my homework, but I did ok. I have not needed to use this kind of math again since I was 17 years old and for those of you keeping track, this was a loooong time ago! I think I've done pretty well in my career without having to use algebra and geometry. And it's pretty unlikely that my employability with a newly minted mba is going to rest on whether I can figure out an area of a rectangle in terms of y if the perimeter is y and the length is four times the width! If this is what is required to work at a certain company, I'll take myself out of the running now! I have had to re-learn every math concept that I had a tenuous grasp on from high school in a month. It was a very frustrating!!! Before I even started the practice tests I bought a "math from a to z" book to help me review my very rusty math skills. It all sounded so logical in the lessons but once I got to the questions, the tricky gmat asked things a little differently or maybe I still didn't really understand the question and I was flummoxed. The whole time while I was studying I felt like it was stuff I "should" know. The last piece of advise I got before the test was that the gmat tested high school math and if I did ok in high school math I should be fine. I did ok in math in high school but 29th percentile on the math section doesn't seem to reflect that.

I shouldn't get worked up about this. It's over. I have a score that is fully in the average range of scores at my top choice school. I am not planning on shelling out another $250 for the honor to taking the test again - heaven forbid I get a worse score! I need to put this test past me and concentrate on getting the rest of my applications in tip top shape. But it's so hard because I was just so confounded by all of the math, even though I understood what every question was asking, and had an idea of the kind of answer was needed, I just couldn't get there.

Believe it or not I am actually a LOT calmer about this than I was at noon. After the test I drove into the city and walked along the river for a couple of hours to get my frustration at myself and at the test out. It was a beautiful, breezy fall day so the walked helped tremendously. The other thing that helped was discovering that a certain cupcake place has gluten-free cupcakes!!!! YAY!!! Would I have rather scored in the 50th percentile in math over having a treat?? Yes!! But will I settle for being able to eat a treat like any other normal person can without worrying that I am going to be sick all night long. Yes. Ha! Take that gmat!!