GMAT 640 (Q50 93%, V26 39%) - Need advice on what to do next

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Dear all,

Disappointed with my score today. Expected to beat the GMAT until I saw the final score screen :(

I did the 2 GMAT Prep tests and scored 730 and 710. My quant scores are consistently at Q50 in all tests. I even finished the quant part 8 minutes ahead in the actual test today.

I spent most of my study time on Verbal. I have used Kaplan Premier, Manhattan SC, OG 12 for my preparation.

With dealines for 2nd round of applications are around Jan 2010. I want to apply for top 50 MBAs in US. Should I retake the GMAT? Do you know how I can improve my verbal score? I felt quite comfortable with the verbal test today, but the score was much worse than I expected. Seems like questions I answered with 50% - 50% today all turned wrong unfortunately.

If I apply this scores to top 50 MBAs, will they reject me at the first place? I'm a non-native English speaking and IT guy (3 yrs IT working experience).

Thanks for ur advice.

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by JeffB » Fri Oct 09, 2009 6:59 am
Well, what do you struggle with in Verbal RC? SC? CR?

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by cuong_brian » Fri Oct 09, 2009 4:30 pm
A look at my GMAT Prep and from my experience in the exam, my weakest should be SC. Then RC and CR have abt the same weight on the number of errors I made.

Under the time stress, I answered more questions with directed guess.

In order to get a jump in the score, think I need a systematic way to kill verbal questions. For SC now, for example, I read the SC first time and if the error is obvious (parallelism, S-V) and one answer stands out from the rest --> I can kill it. But GMAT is more tricky than that, I normally come down to 3 or 2 choices and then have to choose from there. This will cost time and the final accuracy :|. Similarly for CR and RC. I feel better in CR, coz I find more choices are out of scope --> easier to eliminate.

I find in our forum similar questions to improve the Verbal before (how to do it fast and accurate). But you are more than welcome to give me your advices. Thinking of taking it again at end of Nov. Need to build a verbal strategy quickly now.

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by mruzeful » Sat Oct 10, 2009 1:40 am
Same scores here (650 Q47V34)..

Wanna apply for top 50 mba colleges (specailly in UK- Cass and Lancaster)..Please advice.. exp 3yrs IT

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I think you are a bit misguided about top or bottom concept. After a time, Managers are known for thier achievements NOT for Ivy league Brands. A Harvard Gradute Manager who failed to meet the results or Wharton Graduate Investment Banker who failed to provide investors a promised return on thier investment, Will remain nowhere. Just look at the school who welcome you and start working on MBA. MBA is an another name of a 'Set of Tools" to work and lead in management or enterpreneurship. These "tools" are more important than the brand of tools.

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by rrrhhh » Thu Oct 15, 2009 12:11 pm
If you are applying for top 50 schools, i'd say you have a very strong chance of getting in.
It will be difficult in Top 10 schools, but you should have no problems in schools ranked 30-50.

If you want to significantly improve your score, i recommend you the knewton test prep.

Regards!

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Same trouble with me bro!

by rajeevtenneti » Sat Oct 17, 2009 1:17 am
Wow ! it appears -all IT guys have simillar troubles !
My score 620(Q 48 V27 ) i have 3 Y 8 months of exp .I am confident of making 50-51 in quant ,but in verbal :cry: I donot know what to study now !
I did OG,Verbal review.These somehow didnt help me gain confidence ,that clearly reflected in my verbal score !

How can i improve ?,even i am aiming for the top 50 B schools and am considering a re-attempt in Nov end.Can someone suggest a sure shot guide to a good verbal score ?

Dear forum members ,

Any of those who scored 700+ can you suggest me what kind of a practice ,or any new material that can help me out ?

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GMAT Score:700

i understand

by huul99 » Sat Oct 17, 2009 4:44 am
HI...well i sympathize with u on this....

i had gt a 660 3 months ago and then got a 700 2 weeks ago..

660 q 44 v 38
700 q 47 v 39

first of all, u must know and understand....that u can easily score well in verbal....GET OVER THIS MENTAL BLOCK>>>>very impt.

another thing that you need to know that there is no point in giving the gmat unless u are not confident in verbal...

u must consistently get above 35 in verbal in ur practice tests if you have to think of getting 700 n above.


what i personally feel is that verbal requires PRACTICE...it make a man perfect..

OG's are definitely not sufficient considering the level of english that is beong asked.

i have seen people who cant communicate well,fail to speak in flow and get 42/44 in verbal.....

y?? because of PRACTICE....

go ahead...with 1000 cr,sc, and practice a good 100 RC before sitting next ...am sure 26 will definitely get to 35+......be in the flow..IF you leave RC and get back to it after 15 days..then ure fooling urself......FLOW IS ImpT....

and yes..if you don have a good 6,7 yrs of wrk ex.....640 is toooo average for the top 20....forget getting thru........they ave ppl with 7-8 yrs of wrk ex with scores of 750...


sorry fr being blunt...

cheers

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Thank you

by rajeevtenneti » Sat Oct 17, 2009 7:34 pm
Dear huul99 ,

Thank you ,I am very glad that you replied .i am relieved a bit now .Yes i will start practicing on verbal again.However ,i have an issue, I almost exhausted all my test material ie Kaplan tests,Verbal Review ,OG Manhattan SC.I did use the 1000 series (Fortunately/unfortunately -- i didnt complete it ) so i might use that material to test my understanding and complete the rest of it.
I will be glad if you can suggest any other material that i can practice.But for now i can do nothing but give them a second read

Also reg your comments 'Sorry for being blunt'---
you just stated the facts ,That is the reality ,i need to accept it poor score-->less chances of making it to Top school ,.

i think i might push my score Up to 680-700 with good prep ,I am planning to give exam again in Nov 3/4 week .

Do you think a score of 700 can fetch me Aid ?

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GMAT Score:700

hi

by huul99 » Sun Oct 18, 2009 1:50 am
hi..

thx fr replying..

few ques?

u said u exhausted the material?

ARE U GETTING BACK TO THE MISTAKES THAT U DID?
(if not----> the worst thing that u can do)

ARE U SCARED/Nervous during verbal and confident while quant?
(nop---u have to be comfy in both)

DID U READ THE OG EXPLANATIONS FOR SC CR SC ?
(esp SC---> nop----wrong/ i read every word of 10/11)

Moreover----> let me tell u the trend these days?
SC is based more on common sense n less on rules( its not that rules of grammer/manhatten SC are not important)........u first need to master the rules---> even after mastering the rules u will find that u might get many questions on OG 12 SC wrong.......here s where is the catch is---->U NEED TO BE FLEXIBLE between rigidity and normality.........

ALso for RC---> read the passage/i used to keep things slow...

ONLY practice in CR can take u miles......

read my post--------->

https://www.beatthegmat.com/finally-scor ... 46796.html

(copy n paste).....

another impt thing....REGULARITY....days before the exam u must must practice all the things...CR/SC/RC (half an hour each)---> so that u remain in the frame of mind to solve in the right and the righteous fashion and in sync........

alternating between the 3 verbal components on a weekly basis is, acc to me, not so helpful.......COZ U THE STRATEGY DOSEN coME natuRally to U!

lemm knw...

cheerio............

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MY GMAT experience

by rajeevtenneti » Sun Oct 18, 2009 8:51 am
Dear huul99,

Firstly ,answers to your questions

ARE U GETTING BACK TO THE MISTAKES THAT U DID?
--(if not----> the worst thing that u can do)
I didn't get a chance to attempt them again -(only few i did) why ? Not much time before the exam .

ARE U SCARED/Nervous during verbal and confident while quant?
yes Confident in quant .In Verbal ,Not nervous but scared because i already knew my verbal prep was pretty much messed up.
(nop---u have to be comfy in both)--hmm yes i agree

DID U READ THE OG EXPLANATIONS FOR SC CR SC ?
(esp SC---> nop----wrong/ i read every word of 10/11)
-- Alas ! i didn't (only for the wrong answers i did read them,But didnt spend much time on them )

-- I get the point you are trying to make from these questions :) - Did i prepare thoroughly enough? Ans: NO


Can't wait to share my experience it follows


1.Completed Kaplan Book theory and did the exercises given in the book .I was pretty good at it, I scored in 40's out of 50 questions given in Kaplan excercises and a similar score in CR .This made me gain confidence in Verbal . Quant i was confident.I didn't much do the exercise just browsed thru the DS part.
{I heard that students score less in Kaplan tests --from my friend ofcourse -no idea on the validity of his statement }
2. OG(CR and SC) i already completed well before hand: nearly 5-6 months before i applied for the exam.(Did i check each Answer ? --- NO :( ,However i checked for the wrong answers,i didnt try to attempt wrong answrs again) .
3.I wrote a few tests meanwhile ,My quant score was good but my verbal score was poor ( i was getting 20-21 mistakes )etc this lowered the confidence that i gained in Kaplan tests .

When the exam is a months time away ,I started with the Verbal review BOOK- ,I started doing 10 questions at a time and consciously ensured i spent no more than 2 min on any question. (i did this because in the kaplan tests i felt that i went very poor on timing esp in verbal part).
My CR performance was OK(i got atleast 7/10 correct).

For the SC part ,i was devastated !! I consistently kept making lot of mistakes -checking the explanations was another blow ! They bore little resemblance to kaplan methods( no offense for Kaplan methods here -only i felt it this way, my friend scored 34 in verbal only following Kaplan -- i though how lucky !)when i chose parallelism ,i found the answer to be something else.

This increased my anxiety , i was great-full enough that i was learning new ways to identify SC mistakes.

With exam nearly 8-10 Days i attempted the First test (It happened to drive me nuts !whatever confidence i had in Quant almost vanished )I scored 560 .I went through explanations for each question and somehow i landed on MGMAT forum.


(About MGMAT forum-) I am very thankful to their posts their discussions,those posts led me to gain my lost confidence in quant.Thank you Guys I love You .

A DAY before exam
-----------------
I attempted 2nd test a day before the exam i scored 590.I somehow was able to predict my mood and score next day ,which i supposed would be around 540-560,any my mood dejected and coming out of exam cursing myself ( i estimated my score basing on my friend's score he scored 680-720 in Prep tests and scored 650 in Actual test ).


-on my way to office one of my colleagues was asking about my prep as my exam was scheduled the next day , I explained i wasn't doing good in SC ( In the second GMAT prep exam- i made 21 mistakes in verbal out of them 13 wrong answers in SC alone !!I cursed myself for not preparing well ) I scored 48 in quant.My colleague advised me to go thru Manhattan SC.I wondered should i learn new book or check verbal answers for which i attempted wrong in the Prep tests .I completed all the theory and did go thru few of their (MGMAT SC) exercises.

Exam Day
----
I woke up late,had good sleep, read my notes for AOI and AOArg .Had a good lunch went thru my notes for SC.
I was prepared for a score of 560,i thought Quant was my strong hold ,i said to myself -no amount of anxiety can wither me and make my quant score low ,and that in verbal i should be careful for the first 5 questions .Amazingly , it worked(to an extent) i had a good go at Essay ,my confidence in quant helped i maintained pace ,i guessed one question as it took nearly 4 min.Towards the end i completed in time.During the break i realized that i made few mistakes in the quant sections ,but i knew i would score nearly 50.

In verbal i spent 12-14 min for the first 5 questions .Just to ensure timing shouldn't effect my judgment for first 5 questions.For the rest i felt that questions were actually easy(may be i didnt get first 5 correct ?),i went on with my normal pace.Towards the end there was a long Reading comprehension -- I wast able to understand it properly ,time was short ,i just grabbed the main idea and guessed 3 questions .Rest i managed with normal timing (but obviously with low confidence because of messed up preparation) .

Once i saw the scores i was happy that i could save embarrassment .After the exam i felt that i can score good in verbal but i need to practice SC a lot .But didnt know what i need to study as i almost studied everything that i have for verbal, except for the 1000 SC(this i didnt study because i didnt know the answer explanations,I completed first 300 or odd Qns with the help of threads in this forum ,rest i need to complete ).

:o .