770! - after a shocking 610 on first attempt

szaronsj

Just finished the GMAT and received a 770 (50 q 44v). This was my second attempt on the GMAT.

My first experience was as follows:
I began studying around February by taking the Princeton Review class and actually took the test in May. This was probably a mistake, but my work schedule made it difficult to consistently study over this period of time. Nevertheless, I was scoring in the 700+ range on practice exams with Princeton Review and GMATPrep, on which I scored a 720 three days before I took the actual exam. The last PR test I took I scored a 750. I was confident going into the first test.

Obviously, I was shocked and stunned when I scored a 610 on the real test. Surprisingly, I was in the 47% on the quant section while verbal was still respectable. At the time I had no idea what I had done wrong. Looking back now, however, I think it had to do with timing. Specifically, I think the Princeton Review practice exams hurt my test taking strategy. On those tests, I was only missing 4-5 questions on the quant section to score in the 700+ range. This means that you cannot miss very many questions on the real test. When I came across a few tough questiosn on the real thing, I couldn't / wouldn't move forward and got caught up. After that I was rushing throughout the rest of the exam.

My experience the second time around:

I took a break from studying, only periodically reviewing GMAT material. Then I started studying more by mostly taking practice exams. Most helpful, I think, was the Manhattan GMAT tests. These tests really taught me how to move on if I could not get one question right. The math was also very difficult. I also supplemented this with Kaplan 800 and some Kaplan practice tests.

I took about 5 practice tests in the 1.5 weeks prior to the real thing. All scores were 700+, but none were 770. I scored a 740 on the GMATPrep two days prior to the real test. THe day before I reviewed material for 2 hours or so and relaxed the rest of the day. I also reviewed for about 45 mins today (day of the test).

During the test I found the math to be surprisingly easy. In fact, it was so easy that I thought I was bombing the math section again! I was hoping to get a 680, best case scenario. I think I have MGMAT to thank for this. Oddly enough, I did have one question on parabolic curves earlier in the test, which I had not come across on any other practice material. Other than that, most of the material I had come across and the math was MUCH easier than MGMAT.

So thank you to this board. It has been an excellent resource as I have prepared for the GMAT. Hopefully this will serve as encouragement for those of you who had an unsatisfactory score the first time around.

givemeanid · Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 12:59 pm Post subject:

Congrats on a great score! A double congrats for showing so much improvement. The point you make about PR tests making you feel like you need a lot of questions right to get a high score is very appropriate. I just took my first MGMAT CAT after exhausting all 4 PR tests and I could tell that I need to make some tweaks in my test taking strategy.

Reading your debrief gives me confidence that I can make enough tweaks in the next 2-3 weeks before the D-Day.

Thanks for the insight and congrats once again.

dbaGMAT123 · Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 11:43 am Post subject:

Thanks a bunch for that. I had a terrible first test and it is great to hear your story!

aim-wsc · Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 5:26 am Post subject:

congrats szaronsj

thats a BIG leap and a great achievement!! Smile