I just Beat The GMAT!

Took GMAT on Saturday and scored 680

I was able to finish off quant section however failed to finish off with verbal. Ended up guessing 3-4 questions at random.

Score came as a surprise to me because I was consistently scoring higher than 710/720 in both GMATPrep and Manhattan GMAT CATs. My lowest verbal score in these tests in last 2 weeks was 36

I did complete OG11 for verbal part before the exam however was not able to complete verbal guide. I will appreciate any advice on
1) Improving verbal score
2) tracking the improvement as I have exhausted all my GMATPrep and Manhattan exams.

Thanks

A few things to think about (in no particular order):

a) Were your practice tests done under strict testing conditions? If you didn't write the essays, or if you kept taking advantage of the MGMAT pause button, for example, you would likely find the real test much more tiring towards the end, when you're trying to finish off the verbal section.

b) Were ALL your verbal practice done under timed condition? I believe it works out to be 1.8minutes per question plus change, so you should strictly adhere to it when doing all your OG questions. Also, do the questions 41 at a time.

c) Have you ever been unable to finish the verbal section in any of your practice tests? This is interrelated with point a).

d) I find that doing repeat OG questions helps sometimes. You're not going to remember most of the questions you've done, so if you're really out of practice questions, consider doing those from OG/Verbal again.

e) You can try Kaplan or Princeton Review (buy the CD or something), but I've personally found some of their questions to be too odd or too weird.

f) Analyze your errors and determine the cause - do you need to improve on your grasp of the content in general, or do you just make silly mistakes? I definitely needed to improve on sentence correction, and I highly recommend the MGMAT book, but you've probably already been through it. I also sucked at reading comprehension, but I found that it was really hard to improve on it. Although, some of the advice in the MGMAT RC book may be helpful. I haven't read any other book.

Good luck!

i gave the GMAT a week back and was shocked by my dismal performance. Got a 660 on the test. What really surprises me is that i was doing well in the GMATPrep tests - 710 & 760 and relatively ok in kaplan - 650 to 680 range. I was pretty confident of my prep but somehow bombed it all on g-day [Q48,V33]
am thinking of retaking the test but what really worries me is that i still haven't realized where i went wrong on the test. i know its verbal, but i cannot pinpoint which of the 3 is my weakest section. maybe it was nerves and lack of stamina -in which case i should practice more full length tests..can anyone suggest some names here? or maybe its verbal - in which case i should review. again any suggestions would be "hugely" appreciated. i know i can ace this test but am scared i'll mess it up again. whats wrong with me!!!????

Vidyarthi,

the only thing that is wrong with you is that "nothing is wrong with you".

GMAT , like most of the adaptive tests, depends a li'l bit on your exam day luck and lot on exam day concentration.
Start concentarting one q at a time and forget about everything else.
There is no magic stick man...you make it or break it and move on. Such is life.

USE the break between QA and verbal wisely.
last ,but not the least...day by day how people get selected in most top B-schools is getting really puzzling to me.

here is the case :

Mr X , IT worker, 6 years experience( 2 in INFY+4 in US company), li'l community work , 730 GMAT got dinged by kellogg but accepted by Chicago GSB Part time.Believe me the only difference between him and myself is that he drives a 2007 Corolla and moi a 1999 one

Mr Y, IT worker , 4 years experience( 4 in TCS , 1+ in India, 2- in US),li'l community work,720 GMAT got accepted by Kellogg but dinged by GSB. Believe me the only difference between him and myself is that he drives a 1996 Nissan Altima and moi ...

I agree I have not seen their essays...

So what do you make out of it?