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From 730 to 650 in actual GMAT

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jerseyguy79 Just gettin' started! Default Avatar
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From 730 to 650 in actual GMAT Post Fri Apr 20, 2012 4:35 am
Very bad experience for the test day. After having performed well at all the tests, the test day arrived and my score went below my worst score ever (even lower than the diagnostic). My test was at 8 am and aI arrived at 7:30 and after all the paperwork and singnatures I was able to start the test at 8am. The AWA sections went well and I took a break after AWA. Thne the Quant sections started and I felt that I was doing well and was able to get the tricky questions as well. I thought that I will get atleast to 95% percentile. I had 3 minutes leftwhen the last question came on screen and finished quant section with 30 seconds remaining.

After QUant sections I felt confident and took 2 minute break to gather myself and start the verbal section. As I started the verbal I felt the questions were little different from what I had practised during MGMAT but I thought that I was doing well. I though I was pacing along well but when there were 10 questions left I realized that I had only 14 minutes left. I tried to complete the next few questions quickly. Luckily next 3 questions were sentence correction and I was able to get through the next 4-5 questions quickly while figuring out hte correct answers but after that I was hit with 5 CR questions which were long too. I ended up guesssing on 2 questions and was not very confident on other 2-3 as I did not have much time to think. I never had time issue with my verbal section of tests during practice so I was taken by surprise. I expected the score to be lower than 730 (700-710) but never imagined that it would drop down to 650.

I have been studying for last 3 months and started at 670 level (GMAT diagnostic). I started with Kaplan guide and then moved onto Manhattan Set of 8 guides. I completed all books and then started Official Guide. I alaso compelted course in SC from e-gmat.com

Here is my progress for tests that I took:

1. GMATprep1 (In March) 680
2. MGMAT 1 - (On Mar 18) - Completed only verbal as I selected a wrong time option for quant section - Q 36 81%
3. MGMAT2 (On Mar 26 ) - 700 Q47 V39
4. MGMAT3 (On April 1) - 680 Q47 V35
5. MGMAT4 (On April 5) - 700 Q46 V39
6. MGMAT5 (On April 8) - 720 Q48 V40
7. MGMAT6 (On April 15) - 730 Q48 V42
8. GMAT PREP2 (On April 16) - 730 Q47 V42

Actual GMAT - 650 Q47 V32

I'm looking forward for any advice / help about what to do. Any other course that I can take to improve Verbal score.

Thanks.

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ameya85 Just gettin' started!
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Test Date:
28th April 2012
Post Fri Apr 20, 2012 5:43 am
jerseyguy79 wrote:
As I started the verbal I felt the questions were little different from what I had practised during MGMAT but I thought that I was doing well.
Ah! bad luck or perhaps not the right day. I am not a right guy to suggest you anything but I'd certainly like to know what do you mean by - Questions were little different? The reason I am asking this is I recently took a GMATPrep test and questions asked were indeed different than MGMATs.


Ameya

keg88 Just gettin' started! Default Avatar
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Post Fri Apr 20, 2012 8:14 am
It looks like you got the exact quant score as in your practice MGMAT tests. Did you feel that it was about the same level of difficulty/style of questions.

As for Verbal, missing the last 8-10 questions can really drop your score. Also, when you're rushed and stressed you may have missed things. You could have went from a 38 to a 32 just because of those timing issues. That's the difference between a 700 and a 650. You also mentioned that verbal was a little bit different than your practice tests. Was it harder? Different frame-works? If the difficulty level was the same, stress/timing is likely the reason you dropped.

It really depends how you answer the above questions. Overall, i think you're in good shape.

pemdas GMAT Titan Default Avatar
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Post Fri Apr 20, 2012 10:57 am
Somehow I feel your weakest point is critical reasoning section of the verbal part. Try analyzing the structure of arguments and filling in the gaps with objective assumptions, i.e. be unbiased in your thinking. You mentioned Kaplan's and I am afraid their logical reasoning part strategy is too general ... You need to detox your brain of that Kaplanish style of argument pondering. You might benefit from reviewing the Princeton's verbal book as well as MGMAT guide, and of course you would not loose your time by preparing with PowerScore's logical reasoning guide. Overall, try to focus on CR for the next time you will be taking GMAT.

gl

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jerseyguy79 Just gettin' started! Default Avatar
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Post Fri Apr 20, 2012 11:18 am
Thank you all for replying back.

To answer one of the question posted, Yes the level of verbal was little more difficult. I agree that time screw up in the end probably costed me 40-50 points and I will concentrate more on CR. It seemed that the SC was little more difficult on actual GMAT than MGMAT. In some of the tests for MGMAT I was able to find solutions within 20-30 seconds by finding the verb or number error but not even a single question was that easy on actual GMAT.

I believe the RC was similar in style but one thing that I found different was that I got 5-6 CR questions all together in the end.

I have booked the test again and plan to cover the following in next 4 weeks:
1. Review MGMAT guides for verbal
2. CR from another book or online course (Any other book/ course considered good for CR?)
3. Purchased the Knewton's GMAT on Demand course. WIll complete their tests.
4. Review the answers log for official guide and re-do the questions that were answered wrong on the first try.
5. Review Math from official guide and Manhattan

Any other suggestions that you think might help in making sure that I am able ot get above 720 in next try.

Thanks.

ollapodrida Just gettin' started! Default Avatar
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Post Fri Apr 20, 2012 3:59 pm
Hey buddy, I will suggest you use as many retired official problems as possible in your study next time around. It appears you focused too much on material from Manhattan GMAT and had very limited exposure to retired official problems. I think the Manhattan SC Guide is the bible in SC, but I would probably use material from the test makers for the other sections of the test. Paper tests from GMAC are good for gauging your timing on the three verbal sections. They are also a fairly accurate predictor of your actual score (accurate within +/-30pts). If you can finish the RC and CR sections on paper tests, timing might not be your problem and you might want to focus on mastering concepts instead. OG 10 and Powerscore CR bible are two other resources I will recommend. Finally if you run out of practice problems, this website has more practice questions than you will ever need.

Best of luck on your retake!

campbellronald7 Rising GMAT Star Default Avatar
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Post Mon Apr 30, 2012 2:34 am
Hey JerseyGuy it was perhaps a bad day that in spite of having good test you were able to score just 650. Probably you got the points and weakness to be focused on in the next preparation for GMAT. Good luck.

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