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610, 4th time GMAT. Is it time to let go?

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taneja.niks Rising GMAT Star Default Avatar
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Post Wed Dec 28, 2011 2:58 am
Hey buddy nice to see this:-) cograts trust me i was done after my 2nd try and had that thing to beat it but ws lacking courage ur results have again shown me the light I need to again go and fight I know:-)

Do share what changed it this time..... really happy for u on this:-)

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imsmartani Just gettin' started! Default Avatar
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Post Wed Dec 28, 2011 12:00 pm
Hats off to you and your determination!! Are you applying anywhere this year in the round two? All the best for your applications now!

eladshush Just gettin' started! Default Avatar
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Post Fri Jan 27, 2012 6:43 am
Dear friends,

Sorry that it took me long time to share my 5th GMAT story. It was mainly because I was overloaded with writing my applications to business schools. At least the whole effort paid off when this week I was notified that I got an interview to Ross. So exciting. So this post is dedicated to all the members in this forum that encouraged, supported, and inspired me along the way. I admire you. Let's start:

My GMAT story is a nightmare. Starting from the end, I took the GMAT exam five times in two years. I endured repeated setbacks and by persevering ultimately conquered the exam, while growing and learning much about myself along the way.

I don't want to describe again all my previous attempts, but I will rather refer to them when comparing my 5th exam's approach with my previous exams' approaches. Before I kicked off my preparation for my 5th exam, I wanted to understand deeply my two major problems: anxiety and my low score on the Verbal (even though I consistently scored high on simulations). This time, for the latter, I decided to do study differently. I wanted to come to the test after I made some changes in the way I think, in the way I approach the exam, and in the way I solve questions. Please note that I am not going to talk about the Quantitative section because I never had problems with it and I scored 50,48,49,49. I only had difficulties with the Verbal section. Having said that, here is a list things I've changed before my last attempt:

    1. First and foremost - I contacted the best Verbal private tutor - Irene - who has 25 years of experience preparing students for the Verbal Section and most of her students are beating the 700 score. She is a very interesting woman - a musician who travels around the world for 6 months every year to compose and spread her music, and in the rest she teaches the Verbal section privately. (If anyone is interested send me a private message and I will connect you with her). Although Irene teaches via Skype, I preferred to meet her face to face because I wanted her to witness my approaches in action and analyze what I am doing wrong (plus - we live in the same city). At first, she gave me few SC questions to solve and asked me to write detailed solutions with everything that I know. She immediately realized my weaknesses and strengths and decided to customized her course so that it will fit my knowledge base. I can't express how much I value her, so let's summarize that she is just amazing. period.


Now some real insights on the exam. Some she taught me, and some I've figured out myself:

    2. Treat the exam as if you don't have the time limitation. In my previous attempts and following many advises by top GMAT tutors here, I tried to answer ALL the questions. Irene told me that this is a WRONG approach especially for international students that don't process English as native speakers, without mentioning even the reading speed. It's more important to answer the first thirty something questions (about 34) with as many correct answers in a row as you can (I can say almost without wrong answers), rather than check the clock all the time and randomly guess questions to meet some timing strategy. I was very skeptic about this approach but after I used it few time in GMAT Prep, I've realized that it actually works. Working on questions without having the time limitation significantly reduced my stress. The last few questions still need to be guessed, but if you follow that approach and you answered most questions correctly, your score won't drop to less than 35. Take a simulation exam without looking at the clock, and leave 2 minutes at the end to guess the last questions left. If you reached question 33-35, you are ready to take the exam. If you reached only 30 - keep practicing the concepts to gain more confident (the speed will come with it).


    3. Understand how the GMAT works. For that I used this rule of thumb:
    * Easy questions = huge fine, small bonus.
    * Hard questions = small fine, big bonus.

    This means that if you don't answer the easy questions correctly, especially at the beginning, you are going to get a huge fine. i.e. no 700 for you. You have to answer the easy and medium level questions correctly in order to start getting hard ones, otherwise the GMAT won't trust your ability and challenge you with difficult questions. Answering correctly the easy questinos is more important than answering the hard questions correctly. On the contrary, if you approached the hard level of questions, and you answered them correctly, you will get a huge bonus. If you happen to answered them wrong - not big deal - you will get a small fine.

    Keep in mind - you have to answer the easy questions correctly.


    4. Focus issue - this is one of the best advises I've heard from Irene which I've completely ignored - after the Quant section and the break, the mind loses its focus and your concentration level drops. So when starting the Verbal section, it takes time to gain your focus back. Now, it happened to me in 2 stages of the exam: at the beginning immediately after the break, and around the 12-14 question. This resulted always in wrong answers that dropped my score. Irene told me to just dedicate extra 30-60 seconds to read few times the question and review the answer when I enter this state. Like magic - it solved my careless errors in those stages.


    5. Study material - thanks to ronaldramlan and Irene, I've realized that the practice questions of ALL prep companies (yes yes, including Manhattan GMAT, Knewton, MasterGMAT, etc) are crap! The questions format, mainly in SC and RC, is very different from the real GMAT questions, and when you practice with them, you starting to get used to recognize those patterns, even though they don't appear on the real thing. There are specific patterns according to which the real GMAT SC and RC questions are written (believe me I've analyzed thousands of questions). Irene taught me to work according to specific huge set of rules which helped me gain confidence in my knowledge answer more than 90% of the SC questions correctly. This gave me a huge advantage on the GMAT - usually SC questions considered to be more easy, so I didn't fall on easy questions. So practice only GMAT Prep or official guide questions.


    6. Let's drill down a bit:

    My approach to SC questions:

      Before my 5th try, I used to read the entire question and tried to identify the errors and figure out the meaning, etc.

      After: A big change here - I read ONLY the underlined part and immediately compared it with
      other answer questions to identify the errors tested. I was very skeptical about this
      approach and it took me long time to get used to it, but I've learned that more than 90% of
      the answer choices of GMAC GMAT questions can be grammatically eliminated, before jumping
      into meaning, etc. Be very suspicious about each word location and function in the sentence. You won't believe how man answer choices I've eliminated based on pronoun ambiguity or use of adverb instead of adjective.


    My approach to RC questions:
      Before my 5th try, I used to read the entire passage and MAP it in my mind (main idea, author POV, purpose, etc). Then I approached the questions and jumped back to the passage to validate my answers or search for information. I didn't write anything during RC question and RC was my toughest area for me to improve.


      After: my tutor told me the following sentence: after 2 hours of exam and under huge pressure do you really trust your brain to remember tons of unimportant details and understanding everything after reading once a really complex passages? So here another big change - apparently GMAT RC passages have tendency to pose the important information of every paragraph in the first sentence or two (I have to give credit for MasterGMAT that are using this approach, but I didn't listen to them back then). So, I quickly created a table and distilled the important information from the first sentence of each paragraph (not more than few words), and then skimmed the rest of the paragraph to find important transitions/specific information and filled the table with it. General questions - I answered based solely on my table. As for specific questions: I located the relevant area to look for in my table, and moved to read the text accordingly. This way your brain remains fresh and not filled with a lot of unnecessary information. You won't believe how many questions of RC passages focus only on one paragraph, so why spend all your time reading it all?? Again, it took me forever to master this approach, but eventually it really worked.


Lastly - I worked on myself as an individual, adapting steps in my life emphasizing relaxation and tranquility. After my 4th attempt - I was beyond devastated. My friends and family, who supported me along the way, tried to convince me to let go. But I believed in my abilities and I was determined to study an MBA in a top school next year. So I didn't let go, and neither you.

In summary, it was a long journey. I am happy to finish with it and I am happy to share it.
I will finish with the words of Napoleon Hill that said: Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.

Feel free to ask any question. I promise to do my best to answer.
eladshush

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graciacy Just gettin' started! Default Avatar
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Post Thu Feb 02, 2012 10:50 am
eladshush

I would like to thank you for sharing your GMAT story, especially at the moment I was very frustrated with my 3rd attempt for GMAT. I got 570(Q45,V23), the lowest score in my 3 attempts.
I took first attempt around one and half years ago and I got 640(Q49,V27), at that time I was shocked and believed it must be an accident--I did Prep test and got 710 and 690 just 2 days before my first GMAT test. So I quickly decided to go for the second try. I took my second try about 3 weeks later and got 650(Q50,V27), at that time I had to convince myself that there must be something I missed during my test and 640-650 showed exactly true level of my skill. Obviously, my problem is as the same as what you had before your 5th try. I am very bad in verbal part and need focus on verbal.
At that time I was not determined to go to business school, partially discouraged by such scores I dropped the idea and continued working in one telecommunication company. In the end of last year I reroused my passion for business school and targeted one school I am intereseted. I checked the application deadline and decide to give myself the 3rd try of GMAT. I did not have too much time to prepare and sometimes felt strained from my job. Anyway,I knew exactly where is my weak area that is verbal and focused on it. I finished all SC questions OG 12th, which I had done 3 times during my previous test preparation. I redo all the questions and noted all mistakes I made. I made sure myself understand clearly the answers explainations in OG, and resorted to web for those I felt unclear. I was pretty sure that I got everything clear,then made pratices everyday on beatthegmat.com. During last two weeks I can feel my improvement almost everyday. Although I have very short time to prepare,I feel all my studying is very efficient. It would be better if I could have 2 more weeks time but I need submit my score no later than 7th. I know I was a little bit rushed but I felt it is going to be OK if I can feel myselves improved comparing to last time I took test.
I underestimated the difficulites of taking a 3.5hours test with such high tempo stress. I felt so exicted and panic for loosing control of the time that I finished Q part 10 mins ahead! Then I came to verbal part, I managed to have better control at this stage and finish all the questions just in time. I did rushly pick serveral answers for one RC passage, I kept focuing on timing and could not remember anything I read. And the end I did hesitate to cancel the test but I would never cancel one. Then I got the miserable score.

I felt so terrible and tried to comfort myself by searching on internet for the messages describing such miserable experiences I had just been through. After reading your posts I realized some of my mistakes, but I really want to understand thoroughly about my problems in verbal part. I do not believe that my veral level is lower than even one and half years ago. It might be necessary for me to ask a private tutor for my verbal problem. I would be very appreciated if you share the information of the tutor you have asked for. I am living in Sweden so I guess I can only ask help via Skype.

GraciaCY

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melon Just gettin' started! Default Avatar
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Post Thu Feb 02, 2012 11:13 pm
HI eladshush
IS there anything you did different the fifth time.
I too gave the exam 2 times but i am just hovering around 600.
I agree with what you say that GMAT score might not be the only criteria to get into a good B school but it is the first and important criteria.
I knew the first time I wasn’t prepared that well , but the second time i was well prepared.
I still searching for clues what went wrong. I have started to go through MGmat videos for some basics.

eladshush Just gettin' started! Default Avatar
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Post Thu Feb 02, 2012 11:20 pm
Hi GraciaCY - Thank you for sharing your story.
I was in a similar situation as you were, and I believe that with a good teacher and a good study material, you can also achieve your target score, especially after you already got very good scores (640,650). Additionally, and not less important, adopt relaxation methods to be used in stressful situations as the GMAT (Yoga, Breathing techniques, etc).

You can find my tutor's email in my post (scroll down to the end of the thread): http://www.beatthegmat.com/i-beat-the-gmat-on-my-fifth-attempt-720-q49-v39-t103615-15.html#448261

Good luck and keep me updated.
eladshush

ronaldramlan Rising GMAT Star
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Post Fri Feb 03, 2012 7:56 pm
graciacy wrote:
eladshush

Obviously, my problem is as the same as what you had before your 5th try. I am very bad in verbal part and need focus on verbal.

Anyway,I knew exactly where is my weak area that is verbal and focused on it. I finished all SC questions OG 12th, which I had done 3 times during my previous test preparation. I redo all the questions and noted all mistakes I made. I made sure myself understand clearly the answers explainations in OG, and resorted to web for those I felt unclear. I was pretty sure that I got everything clear,then made pratices everyday on beatthegmat.com. During last two weeks I can feel my improvement almost everyday. Although I have very short time to prepare,I feel all my studying is very efficient. It would be better if I could have 2 more weeks time but I need submit my score no later than 7th. I know I was a little bit rushed but I felt it is going to be OK if I can feel myselves improved comparing to last time I took test.
I underestimated the difficulites of taking a 3.5hours test with such high tempo stress. I felt so exicted and panic for loosing control of the time that I finished Q part 10 mins ahead! Then I came to verbal part, I managed to have better control at this stage and finish all the questions just in time. I did rushly pick serveral answers for one RC passage, I kept focuing on timing and could not remember anything I read. And the end I did hesitate to cancel the test but I would never cancel one. Then I got the miserable score.

GraciaCY
Hello GraciaCY,

There are a number of things that I'd like to add if you will. Also, you'd be able to have a look at my earlier response to similar issues here (http://www.beatthegmat.com/gmat-660-quant-48-verbal-32-t89671.html#398833).

1. know exactly which one/ones of the Verbal section you are weak at, whether SC or CR or RC, or even all of them. Once you identify the sections, you can move on to drill further to the type of questions that you find difficult to solve. Also, you need to get yourself used to having a high level of certainty of your answer choice, and one way to do so is to understand why all the answer choices, besides the one you choose, are incorrect. Even if you end up with two choices, unless you can confidently tell why the other one is wrong, you will never be certain of your answer choice.

One good strategy would be to immediately after reading a question focus your energy on finding the mistakes/errors of each answer choices, and NOT to try identifying the correct answer.

2. there is a slight difference between practicing the OG and over practicing it, but the impact is huge. Certainly, you want to get yourself familiar with the OG questions, but you don't want to engrave yourself with those questions because real GMAT questions will not to full extent be similar to the OG questions, although they do to a large extent. My point is, get familiar with the OG questions but DON'T overdo them.

3. I'm not sure which Prep Test you referred to, but you need to only depend your hunch of your likely test score on the results of GMAT Prep tests since GMAT Prep and OG are really the only sources that provide questions that most resemble the ones you see on real GMAT tests. Yet, GMAT Prep does not provide explanations to the answers, while OG does provide some. I personally think that the Manhattan GMAT forum provides the most reasonable and comprehensible explanations.

4. I don't know how you take the prep tests you mentioned, but if you skipped the essays when taking those practice tests, you may want to stop doing so. You need to include the essays on every practice tests you take, otherwise your score would be artificially inflated.

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Post Sat Feb 04, 2012 6:55 am
ronaldramlan wrote:
Hello GraciaCY,

There are a number of things that I'd like to add if you will. Also, you'd be able to have a look at my earlier response to similar issues here (http://www.beatthegmat.com/gmat-660-quant-48-verbal-32-t89671.html#398833).

1. know exactly which one/ones of the Verbal section you are weak at, whether SC or CR or RC, or even all of them. Once you identify the sections, you can move on to drill further to the type of questions that you find difficult to solve. Also, you need to get yourself used to having a high level of certainty of your answer choice, and one way to do so is to understand why all the answer choices, besides the one you choose, are incorrect. Even if you end up with two choices, unless you can confidently tell why the other one is wrong, you will never be certain of your answer choice.

One good strategy would be to immediately after reading a question focus your energy on finding the mistakes/errors of each answer choices, and NOT to try identifying the correct answer.

2. there is a slight difference between practicing the OG and over practicing it, but the impact is huge. Certainly, you want to get yourself familiar with the OG questions, but you don't want to engrave yourself with those questions because real GMAT questions will not to full extent be similar to the OG questions, although they do to a large extent. My point is, get familiar with the OG questions but DON'T overdo them.

3. I'm not sure which Prep Test you referred to, but you need to only depend your hunch of your likely test score on the results of GMAT Prep tests since GMAT Prep and OG are really the only sources that provide questions that most resemble the ones you see on real GMAT tests. Yet, GMAT Prep does not provide explanations to the answers, while OG does provide some. I personally think that the Manhattan GMAT forum provides the most reasonable and comprehensible explanations.

4. I don't know how you take the prep tests you mentioned, but if you skipped the essays when taking those practice tests, you may want to stop doing so. You need to include the essays on every practice tests you take, otherwise your score would be artificially inflated.
ronaldramlan, Thanks for your reply.
1, I always thought my weak part is SC, but I am now not so sure because it seems my score did not improve at all after I cleared all my confusions about SC grammartical rules and checked all types of mistakes I had made before. I tried to figure out the reason I falled into so low score but the only explaination I could find is that I failed probabaly refresh myself after writing and Q part,making a lot of careless mistakes in the very beginning of V part--I am sceptical about this explaination also. It is totally myth for me.
2, I do not want overpracticing. I know it is not a good thing to get too familiar with the questions in practicing material because that will mislead my judgement of my true level.Since I have gone through OG, I do not know what else material I should focus on if I continue my GMAT study.
3, I did only simulation test on GMAT Prep, the one I downloaded from officical website. I got 690 before I took my first attempt, then I got 640 in real test. Maybe I knew it was simulation and did not raise too much anxiety during the simulation. That is why I registered my second try immediately after my first test, I attributed my first score to odds.
4, I do not really remember how I did my simulation test because that was almost two years ago. I did not have any simulation before my 3rd test, that turned out a big mistake which I have to pay.

I do not want to attribute my low scores to bad strategies or dispersion of thought because that sounds really miserable. Maybe I should start from building solid competence of understanding english by intensive reading or whatever.

rixyroxy Just gettin' started! Default Avatar
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Post Sun Feb 12, 2012 10:50 am
Dear Eladshush,

It was really motivating to read your posts. You are a great example of self - belief. Wish you good luck ahead. Cheers....

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