Need guidance in taking the decision to give GMAT in 2 weeks

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Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
Posts: 13
Joined: Wed Apr 04, 2012 7:53 am
Forum,

I have been preparing for GMAT for last 3 months very seriously.
I have taken the date for Exam in April for 25th May.

I am yet to finish all the practice sets i posses e.g. LSAT RC, LSAT CR, latest Quant etc but felt comfortable to try the FULL GMATPrep1 test i.e. i sat for 4 hours and wrote the Argument and Issue essays too. (I had attempted it approximately an year before with 590 score :-( and didn't dare touch again ;-) )

My score is:

Quant: 48 (12 Q wrong)
Verbal: 41 (8 Q wrong)
Score: 710

Please find the attached screen shot for more detail score.
There was hardly any repeat Q for Quant and i did guess few Q to finish it in time but in the end i had 4+ minutes to spare and the 37th Q was so easy that i solved it in 5 seconds.

There were many repeat Q's in verbal from the practices content and even 1 RC Passages was also a repeat. Though i solved CR (no wrong) and RC (2 wrong) very confidently, i struggled in SC (6 wrong) :-( I had 4+ minutes to spare in verbal section and the last 2-3 Q's were very tough.

More details about the Test:

Out of 12 Wrong Quant Q's
6 PS; 1Q: silly mistake, 3Q: no idea how to solve and guessed after some try, 2Q Guessed after spending around 3 min
6 DS, 4Q: Silly mistakes, 1Q guessed after a 3 minute of try, 1Q No idea how to solve or approach

Out of 8 Wrong Verbal Q's
0 CR
2 RC, 1Q hurried answer without using PoE :-( 1Q wrong inference
6 SC

I am planning to give GMATPrep2 tomorrow.

I am on leave for next one week too and can extend it for one more week. Should i give the final push now and give the exam on 25th as scheduled or reschedule it for late in June to have some more to practice and to get acquaint with IR section. I am in no hurry to apply for a college as my primary goal as of now is to get a good GMAT score :-)


Looking forward for your review comments.

Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
Posts: 13
Joined: Wed Apr 04, 2012 7:53 am

by bgs4gmat » Tue May 22, 2012 1:02 am
I have been preparing for GMAT for last 3 months very seriously.
I took the date for Exam date in April and planned to give it on 25th May.

I am yet to finish all the practice sets i posses e.g. LSAT RC, LSAT CR, latest Quant etc but felt comfortable to try the FULL GMATPrep1 test i.e. i sat for 4 hours and wrote the Argument and Issue essays too. (I had attempted it approximately an year before with 590 score and didn't dare touch again )

I still have 2 more day to get into the 7 day range and can save $200 or spend $50 more. I have already rescheduled in past from 25th may to 01 June and had spend $50 :-(

GMAC is making real money from this rescheduling and retaking stuff.
My MOCK test till now:

GMATPrep 1 710 (13th May)
GMATPrep 2 720 (16th May)
MGMAT CAT 1 690 (21st may)

I gave a full MGMAT CAT 1 yesterday and try to have conditions similar to Test Day and Center and realized that i may need to reschedule again. (I need at list 700 for my target colleges (1 year course in ISB/IIM-A/IIM-C). I am an Indian Male and Software Engineer (4 year in Oracle and 3 Years in HP) from a college which is Non-IIT, Non-NIT and not anywhere in top 100 Indian Colleges)

======================
Quant 45 77 % Review
Verbal 38 85 % Review
Total 690 91%

Following are my findings:

Quant
PS 11 Wrong, 8Q of 700 to 800 level and 3Q of 600 to 700 level, (3 Silly calculation mistakes)

DS 6 Wrong, 3Q of 700 800 level, 2Q of 600 700 level, 1Q 300 500 level, (2 traps, 1 Silly Mistakes of choosing wrong answer on screen)

Verbal
SC (3-4 repeat Q) 4Q wrong, 3Q of 700 800 level, 1Q of 600 700 level
In SC, 2Q wrong due to lack of concept clarity e.g. using would or will, Infinitive or Gerund as a subject , 1Q for Meaning Clarity, 1Q is due to a SC trap I was not not able to identify the SC trap of correcting the mistake but inserting a new error in wrong answer choice.

CR (3-4 Repeat Q) 5Q wrong , 3Q of 700 800 level, 1Q of 600 700 level, 1Q of 300 500 level,
I took 3 min and 45 second for each of the two wrong Q

RC (1 Repeat RC passage and 3 new RC passages)
In RC, 6Q wrong, 3Q Inference (All 3 700 800 level), 3Q Specific Detail (Anchor Phrase) (2Q 600 700 level and 1 Q 700 800 level) I took 5 min to answer a wrong Q ad 5 min to answer a Right Q, Its criminal , i should have guessed and move on after 2 min but didn't realize that its already 4-5 minutes as i was ahead of time as per y mile stones and thought of sparing a minute or two extra

======================

I feel that i am not prepared and i should not hurry for giving GMAT soon.
Somewhere within myself i am feeling it but not accepting it due to false sense of satisfaction from the Prep Tests.

I still have issues in:

1) Pacing the test specially in Quant
2) Accuracy in stress and time constraints ( Without time constraints i am scoring 100% in RC/CR of even at 700 800 level but in exam it reduced to 50% and 60%, I was able to do the RC 100% correct post exam)
3) Concept Clarity in SC is still an issue on top of it my not so good Vocab causing issues instrictly Meaning Clarity SC problems.
4) CR Mimic the argument and Strengthen questions are still an issue

Some general stuff e.g.
What is the ideal time to stop finding answer to a CR Q and move with a guess?
How to find that I am taking more than 2 minutes?
I understand pacing will improve with more practice but realization doesn't come very efficiently in the practice exam. I don't think looking at watch after every Q is a good practice?