Di blog post ini saya akan list tempat kursus GMAT yg saya ketahui, dan bila anda tahu tempat-tempat kursus lainnya, atau bila anda salah satu penyelenggara kursus GMAT, silahkan isi comment section di bawah atau email saya di tridjito (at) yahoo.com.

Jakarta

Lembaga Pendidikan Sastra Mandiri / Kaplan Test Prep & Admissions
Plaza Kelapa Gading, Ruko Inkopal
Jln. Boulevard Barat Raya Blok C No 33
Jakarta, Indonesia 14240
Courses offered at this location:

SAT, GMAT, TOEFL, IELTS
For inquiries or to enroll:

Phone: 62-21-4585-1201
Fax: 62-21-4585-1179
Email: directinfo@directenglish-id.com

PT. Pacific Educom / Kaplan Test Prep & Admissions
World Trade Center, 10th Floor
Jl. Jend. Sudirman Kav. 29-31
Jakarta, Indonesia 12920
Courses offered at this location:

SAT, GMAT, TOEFL, IELTS
For inquiries or to enroll:

Phone: 62-21-521-1588
Fax: 62-21-521-1550
Email: directinfo@directenglish-id.com

My first GRE score was lower than 1000 and I was so devastated. I’m blessed enough to have family and friends who supported me to retake the exam, and believed that I could score much higher than the first result. I took it and the score was 1340 (Verbal 550 & Quantitative 790). I can’t say that my second GRE score was exceptional, but it really made me happy and encourage me to proceed to apply for computer science school in USA.

This GRE debrief was written two days after I took the exam so it is as accurate as possible to what helped me to achieve that score.

GRE Debrief

Finally, after four straight months of GRE study, it all end very well, too good to be true rather for me. Only by God’s grace and help I could got the score of 550V and 790Q. Winston Churchill is right, “if you’re going through hell, you better keep going.” Oh, GRE is really one of a hell alright.

Quantitative

I will start with quant first, because this is really my main focus since I plan to take Master in Computer Science. GRE Quant is really sick math! It is designed to take you (at least me..) at your knees.

If your major is mathematics or any course that are really heavy on math, maybe you won’t had so much hard time here though.

All I can say is GRE Quant can be cracked by constant practice, and memorizing math shortcuts.

You only have 1 minute time to calculate the answer, so the better option is always… DON’T CALCULATE!

Many GRE quanti questions can be solve just by simple looking and estimation, for example is this question:

A
0.999
—–
0.998

B
1.002
—–
1.001

Calculating the result will at least take more than a minute. Using estimation, however, the problem can be solved in less than 15 seconds.

So if you’re still confused on how to increase your GRE quant score, do these:
1. Practice as many variative questions as possible.
2. Find the fastest way to solve them. If you need more than two minutes to solve a question, then it’s not the “right” way to solve it.
3. Develop speed. Try to do 30 questions in 30 minutes.

Verbal

For someone from a non-English speaking country like me, GRE verbal is a nightmare. The words are so out of this world and are never normally used in any popular publications.

So don’t waste the reading comprehensions section questions, they are your best help to increase your score. You should manage to perfect them because all of the answers are there. Unlike antonyms and logical reasoning sections where if you don’t know the word meaning then your chance of getting the answer right is greatly reduced to 20%.

There is no shortcut for verbal. You’ve really got to increase your vocabulary with GRE words. There are several ways to do this:
1. Brute force memorization
2. Games
3. Stories
4. Mnemonic

Essay

Read the Arco’s GRE Essay Answers, get familiar with how a perfect essay response look like, and practice writing them.

I find argument question as the easier compared to the issue question because we just need to be overly critical and pessimistic. Issue question is a bit more challenging because you got to find supporting reasons for your position.

Practice writing essay until you feel natural to write both issue and argument essays without any pressure.

Review Length

Time needed to review for GRE varies greatly. I need at least 4 months cause I still had my full-time job as a programmer, with the last month I reviewed more than 3 hours daily.

Review Materials

Quantitative

1. Start with Nova Math Prep Course Book, it has great discussion for those who need to refresh their basic math skills.
2. Practice the Korean Big Book, time yourself, and do the 30 questions in 30 minutes to build up speed.
3. Memorize and practice math formula shortcuts from TestMagic forum.

Verbal

1. Start building vocabulary with the Barron’s 300 GRE words, and find the meaning from dictionary.com. Oxford dictionary maybe fine but not for all words.
2. Try to memorize these GRE words everyday until test time.
3. Practice with Big Book, time yourself too.
4. There are some logic in solving reading comprehension and sentence completion, practice till you master them.

Essay

1. Arco Essay book is a must.
2. GRE Official Essay guide is also indispensable.

Last Advice

Do GRE Prep till you drop.

I know your scores will eventually not a true reflection because you might have remember some of the questions. But if you cannot get the score you wanted in GRE Prep (read: perfect 1600) even with repeated questions, there is little chance you will get it on the real test.

I do GRE Prep every week on the last four weeks also.

Final Word

That’s all there is regarding my GRE experience guys. If you have questions or comments, please feel free to write them on the comment section below. For all of you who are going to take GRE exam, good luck and God bless!

Walaupun GMAT bukanlah satu-satunya faktor yang menentukan sukses tidaknya seorang kandidat untuk diterima di sebuah sekolah, bila nilai GMAT seseorang tidak mencapai standard sekolah tersebut maka kemungkinan sangat besar orang itu tidak akan diterima.

Mengapa sekolah-sekolah Bisnis, terutama MBA, ternama mengharuskan calon murid untuk mengambil ujian GMAT? Jawabannya adalah untuk mengetahui kemampuan calon-calon muridnya berdasarkan sebuah standardized test. Karena latar belakang pendidikan tiap calon murid berbeda-beda, sangat sulit bagi sebuah sekolah untuk mengetahui secara pasti kemampuan calon-calon muridnya tanpa test yg sama.

Contohnya, apakah seseorang yg mendapatkan IPK 3.5 di sebuah sekolah universitas biasa lebih pintar daripada seseorang yang mendapatkan IPK 3.0 dari sebuah universitas negeri favorit?

Dengan GMAT, tiap calon murid dinilai berdasarkan test yg sama sehingga sekolah bisnis dengan mudah mengklasifikasikan kemampuan calon-calon muridnya.

Kursus GMAT pada umumnya meningkatkan nilai maksimal yang seseorang bisa capai dengan memberikan informasi-informasi penting tentang ujian GMAT dan tips-tips dari pengajar yg sudah pernah mengambil ujian GMAT.

Dengan mengikuti kursus, kita juga bisa saling bertukar pikiran dan pengalaman dengan sesama peserta kursus. Berdasarkan pengalaman, hal ini bisa memberikan semangat dan motivasi lebih kepada seseorang yg akan mengambil ujian GMAT dibandingkan dengan seseorang yg tidak mengambil kursus GMAT.