GMAT Strategy

Greetings everyone.

Today I took my real GMAT exam and score a deplorable 410 (Q18 V27 IR8). I thank GMAT Prep Now for helping me with the IR! I didn't even have to do any practice exercise for that section and scored well on it.

I can't help but be disappointed at myself. After all, I did study religiously for almost 4 months (summing up to 312 hours of study time and averaging 3 hours of study time per day).

Now I'll basically have to defer my master application to May 2017.

The good news is (I'm trying to look at the bright side of things) that now I have time to properly prepare for the exam, and depending on how my progress goes I can even aspire for an elite score (700+). Why not?

Since I have the Manhattan books and the Kaplan Premier 2016, I'm planning on signing up for the '60-Day GMAT Study Guide' plan, and make a self-assessment at the end of that period. Obviously, my plan now will be to really break down each section of the GMAT and only move on to another topic if I feel and have proof(data) that I have completely mastered it.

If at the end of the 60 day plan I am still not satisfied with my results, I'll have to consider other options such as Target Test Prep for example.

Please, let me know if you think that my plan sounds reasonable.

Thanks!

Past results:

Economist - 1st CAT - 380 - (Q22 V23 IR N/A) - January 23rd, 2016
MGMAT - 2nd CAT - 460 (Q27 V27 IR2.4) - March 26th, 2016
MGMAT - 3rd CAT - 450 (Q25 V28 IR2.26) - April 9th, 2016
MGMAT - 4th CAT - 450 (Q25 V28 IR2.4) - April 23rd, 2016
GMATPrep - 5th CAT - 450 (Q27 V25 IR2) - May 9th, 2016
Actual GMAT - 410 (Q18 V27 IR8) - May 13th, 2016

Past Thread

Hi Diego.

That's a freaky score for you given that you had always scored higher than that and after getting those higher scores prepared even more, but whatever, freaky things happen before people attain their target scores.

Regarding the 60 Day Study Plan, I wonder whether that plan really makes sense for you. It's basically a plan for beginners, with some time toward the end for focusing on areas at your discretion. You have already covered much of the GMAT material, and now need to do topic by topic work to drive your score up.

I think you have to customize what you do going forward to fit exactly what YOU need to do in order to hit your score goal. You may even have to spend something along the lines of 60 days on ONE QUESTION TYPE.

Hmm, I think I that actually I have convinced myself that your doing the 60 Day Study Plan would be almost a complete waste of time.

You need to do in depth work on quant concepts, and so yes, Target Test Prep might be a good resource for you.

Also, you have to learn to consistently get right answers. So whatever resources you use you have to work slowly on questions and on topics to develop the form necessary for getting right answers.

Meanwhile, given the dichotomy between your language skills and your verbal score and given the pattern of your scores in the face of significant and energetic preparation, there is a significant likelihood that you have some kind of psychological block preventing you from scoring higher on the GMAT. So probably you should look into that possibility as well.

So hit this thing hard and do whatever it takes to drive your score up, and eventually you will.

Hi Marty,

Thank you for your reply - What I plan to do now is to really take a systematic approach so that I can mastered each topic or concept. I will only move to another topic once I have mastered the current one and my accuracy on the exercises is above 85%.
As for the verbal part, I believe I lack strategic reading skills and I am not fully comprehending what I read, so I need to figure it out how to fix that. For instance, there was one RC passage on test day that I just couldn't get it, even though I gave 100% of my concentration to it.

Building my foundations, I am certain that is what I need to do.

Hi Rich,

Answering to your questions:

1) What did you do in the 3 days before your GMAT?

On the last day before the exam I checked the AWA and IR parts and watched some videos, totaling about 3 hours of study time in the morning.
On the other 2 days I was focusing my energies on verbal so I dedicated around 6 hours each day for exercises.

2) How did you sleep the night before your Test?

I had a very good night of sleep and slept for more than 8 hours without interruptions.

3) How long was the ride to the Test Center from your home?

The Test Center happened to be in front of my work place, so it took 40 min to get there.

4) Were there any distractions at the facility or during the Test?

There were people coming and going as the facility handles other tests. Plus, there were people starting their GMAT tests at different times. One person who sat by my side even bumped into my chair.

5) What did you do during the two 8-minute breaks?

I drank water and had a snack. The person who was handling the check in and out was supper slow and she was not at the reception when I needed her. Also, the 8-min break went by super fast and I lost 3 minutes in the quant. However, I didn't let that get into my head. The same thing happened before the verbal and I lost 1 min.

6) Did you finish any sections early?

I did not finish any section early.

7) Did you have to rush to finish any sections (and guess on questions just to finish on time)?

I did that in the quant. Approximately for the last 10 questions.

8) Since you were scoring in the mid-400s, but your score goal was/is 600+, why didn't you push back your Test Date so that you could continue studying?

I couldn't push back my test since the deadline for application for my program was on Sunday the 15th, and the last possible date I could take the test was on Friday 13th.

Hi

As we can see from your mock test performance data, you did better on your mocks than the actual test. Moreover, as you said, you spent months studying religiously for the test. However, it did not work out well for you on test day. This is very common amongst test takers. We believe, the answer to this is having the right strategy to ace the GMAT. That's why we started Strategy4GMAT (www.strategy4gmat.com) to help candidates reach their target score on the test. In our experience, a sound strategy can help improve your score by up to 100 points (keeping prep level constant). You may start a 7 day FREE trial of our services wherein we will share proprietary tools and frameworks to help you achieve success on the GMAT. Visit the page below to start your FREE trial.

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Regards,
Team Strategy4GMAT

I've just taken the GMATPrep n. 2 and the result was disastrous. I feel like I made zero progress after taking the real GMAT.

360 (Q24 V16)


I did feel nervous during the practice test, more so during verbal. After the question 25 in quant I had to start guessing because of lack of time. The same for verbal after the 30th question.

- I don't believe the V16 represents my true Verbal aptitude. But I may have gotten out of shape in the past 6 months because I focused the majority on my time in quant. I was feeling a bit cold and had to use to toilet (obviously, I didn't stop because I wanted to replicate the test day experience)
- I took the 8 min break
- I skipped the AWA and IR (I won't be doing those as they are not required for the programs I'm targeting)
- I used TTP for the past 6 months and completed more than 50% of it's exercises and completed 100% of the lessons.

I will start dissecting the results later after I chill my mind a bit.

Any feedback would be highly appreciated.





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Hi Diego.

A score of 360 does not come close to representing the level of the quantitative and verbal skills that you use constantly outside of the GMAT venue. The whole situation looks even more incongruous when one considers along with your quantitative and verbal skills how much you have done in preparing for the GMAT. So, something is very wrong with both how you perceive the GMAT and how you are going about preparing. Likely even by changing your timing strategy alone you could score significantly higher than 360.

Meanwhile, while pausing the test is not realistic, I don't think that losing time by leaving the test without pausing the test is realistic either. So, while you have learned a lesson about using the bathroom before you start the test, I don't think that you got an accurate sense of your current score level by proceeding as you did.

Overall, it seems likely that you have dug yourself into some kind of psychological hole related to the GMAT and that getting your score to increase is going to require addressing that along with making your conception of the test more accurate and changing what you are doing to prepare in order to make it effective.

Hi Marty,

I couldn't agree more with your comments. After analysing the situation I believe the issue is psychological.
In my mind, the GMAT is this beast standing between me and my goal, and I have made a big deal out of it. I need to find a way to dig myself out of this hole.

Math is still challenging but I am more confident with it. I'm sure that if I manage to control my nerves, I will work better and see results during the test.

I have been meditating for a while. Not consistently, though. I think that's why I have seen little benefit. Going forward I will take 20 minutes everyday out of my study time just to practice mindfulness meditation.

Also, I was thinking of skipping hard (700 level) quant exercises all together from my practice so that I can focus on the ones that I need to get right and reach my target score (>= 600). Does it make sense?

Again - I have not done any verbal exercises from the OG yet and have just recently completed my RC studies. That practice is due now since I believe I have covered all the GMAT theory.

diegocml wrote:Math is still challenging but I am more confident with it. I'm sure that if I manage to control my nerves, I will work better and see results during the test.

Much of doing that will likely come down to learning to focus on getting answers while riding out emotional waves. Riding out the waves is more effective than seeking to control the waves. As you learn to ride out the waves, they will become less powerful.

Another way to look at it is that you can be so busy working on getting answers that you don't even have time to be nervous.

I have been meditating for a while. Not consistently, though. I think that's why I have seen little benefit. Going forward I will take 20 minutes everyday out of my study time just to practice mindfulness meditation.

Great idea.

Also, I was thinking of skipping hard (700 level) quant exercises all together from my practice so that I can focus on the ones that I need to get right and reach my target score (>= 600). Does it make sense?

I think skipping 700 level questions wholesale may not work, as you may skip learning things that you could apply to getting the answers to less challenging questions.

I also think that this idea plays into maintaining your current psychological state, as in you seem to have a tendency to underestimate your potential, which is unlimited actually. Anyway, my point is that you seem to be running from the challenges as if you feel that you can't handle them, and in so doing, you seem to affirm things that are not beneficial to your mindset.

So while not working much on certain types of more challenging questions may make sense, avoiding all 700 level questions does not seem to. That's my call anyway.

Keep at it. Don't shy away from the challenges. Go at them, understanding that you can score whatever you want to score.