Thinking of GMAT score - HELP please

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Thinking of GMAT score - HELP please

by karthikpe » Sat Dec 13, 2014 6:18 am
Hi,

I appeared for the GMAT and scored a 640 Q45 V 33 IR 5. During my practice tests on the GMAT prep software my scores were :
Manhattan trial Exam -640 (1st attempt before starting prep)
Exam I 660 (1st attempt before starting prep)
Exam I 2nd attempt 630 (Dont know what really happened)
Exam 2 730 (Q49 V40)- two days before actual test.

I was expecting somewhere between 680-730. I decided to cancel my score because I wasnt in the best frame of mind during the Exam due to health reasons and actually missed couple of ques in the Quant section and wasnt really concentrating on the verbal section.

But now when I go through blogs people say that in the future admission committee could speculate that I really bombed my exam and consequently this might affect my admission prospects even though I improve my score. Please suggest me whether I should reinstate my score so that the actual performance is visible.
Last edited by karthikpe on Sun Dec 14, 2014 12:05 am, edited 2 times in total.

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by [email protected] » Sat Dec 13, 2014 11:42 am
Hi karthikpe,

First off, a 640 is a good score (it's just shy of the 80th percentile), so having that score on your record is not a bad thing.

You mention reading through some blogs that discuss how a FUTURE Admissions Committee MIGHT interpret a cancelled score. Who wrote these blogs? Have they ever worked on an Admissions Committee? And if they did work on an Admissions Committee and a cancelled score was not a factor during their employment, then why would it suddenly become one in the future?

In real simple terms, Business Schools really don't care how many times you take the GMAT, so by extension they should not care if you have a cancelled score on your record.

As far as your practice CAT scores and your expectations on Test Day, I'm curious if you were taking the ENTIRE CAT every time or if you were skipping sections? Skipping sections leads to a shorter CAT and (in almost all cases) an artificially "inflated" score. Also, taking a CAT two days before your Official GMAT might have caused a bit of "burn out" that affected your performance on Test Day.

As a point of discussion, I think that having that score on your record is more of a positive than a negative. If it's the best score that you're ever going to earn, then you need to have it on your record. If you can improve, then it shows your ability to improve on a good performance and make it an amazing performance.

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by karthikpe » Sat Dec 13, 2014 11:15 pm
Hi Rich,

You are right. I never attempted awa and IR along with the other two sections. (except for the ones before the start of preparation). The exam before 2 days I took just the quant and verbal sections together.

Sure I can reinstate the score but I will definitely not use this for admission. I can definitely score better than 640 and I am planning to take GMAT again in February. So in spite of me not using the score do you think its better to have it on record?

Also during my practice tests the section that constantly kept pulling my score down was SC. Even in the Exam I got 730 I had about 9 ques out of a total of 13 incorrect questions from SC. I had about 98% accuracy in CR and RC even in my error logs, but only 55% in SC. Please suggest me some methods using which I can concentrate on this weakness and fare better in my next attempt.

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by [email protected] » Sun Dec 14, 2014 11:57 am
HI karthikpe,

We'll have a better sense of what you're capable of once you start taking FULL-length CATs. Until you do so, we'll have to work up from the 640 that you scored on the Official GMAT. As I mentioned earlier, I think that having the 640 on your record is a good thing (and there's NO downside to having it there).

Since you've identified SCs as your major "problem area", before I can recommend new resources or tactics, I'd like to know how you studied so far.

1) What resources did you use to study?
2) How long did you use them?
3) Do you have a pacing problem in the Verbal section? Do you have to rush through any questions at the end of the section? Do you finish early?

Getting good at SCs requires a combination of knowledge (grammar, idiom rules) and pattern-recognition (knowing how the GMAT writers phrase their prompts/answers, the typical "style" patterns that are used, etc.). So a good chunk of what you'll need to master is memory-based; the other part is to develop the ability to spot all the various rules/patterns when they show up.

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by karthikpe » Sun Dec 14, 2014 8:09 pm
Hi Rich,

Thank you for your suggestions. No I do not have a pacing problem in either of the sections. I finish the quant section on time and the verbal section 2-3 minutes earlier. On the actual GMAT though I finished about 9 minutes before time.

I used Aristotle SC Grail mostly during the last prep. I also have Manhattan's SC book. I did have trouble completing the idioms portion of the book and did not practice as I found the rules difficult to apply to GMAT problems. So most of the time unless the error is very apparent it was difficult for me to spot it. For my last attempt I spent about 100 hours for total prep and about 15 hours for the SC section. I typically sit for 2-3 hours per session during my preparation. For practice I used Grockit website.

I would really help me if you can point me to a location where I can learn how to analyze and build my skills to tackle a GMAT SC problem. I did watch Videos about how to tackle the options in a GMAT SC problem but it didn't help me to choose the right option as my instinct/choice after applying the rules was mostly wrong.

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by [email protected] » Sun Dec 14, 2014 11:30 pm
Hi karthikpe,

Based on your prior messages, you're getting almost half (or more) of your SCs wrong, so your issue can't only be about idioms. In real basic terms, grammar rules/idioms aren't much different from math formulas - you have to have the necessary knowledge (know the rules) and you have to spot when that knowledge applies (pattern-matching).

It might be that the resources that you've used so far were not enough to help you to properly train. However, it might be that you have not put in enough work yet. Combined with the fact that you weren't taking FULL-length practice CATs, this might take some time to improve.

Have you scheduled your next GMAT yet? When is it (or when are you thinking about retesting?)?

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by karthikpe » Mon Dec 15, 2014 5:11 am
Hi Rich,

No I have not rescheduled the GMAT yet. I am panning to take it up again in Feb. Do you think its enough time to achieve a 720+. I can spend about 30 hours per week on preparation.

Also, please guide me on the material I should be using for my preparation along with realistic timelines. It would be of great help thanks.

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by manyaabroadtpr » Wed Dec 17, 2014 9:12 pm
karthikpe wrote:Hi Rich,

No I have not rescheduled the GMAT yet. I am panning to take it up again in Feb. Do you think its enough time to achieve a 720+. I can spend about 30 hours per week on preparation.

Also, please guide me on the material I should be using for my preparation along with realistic timelines. It would be of great help thanks.
Hi Karthikpe,
If you were sick in the middle of the exam and you were unable to focus/concentrate, and if you are confident that you can score really high, then you can explain the situation to the admissions officer why you went for a second attempt. But the decision of reinstating your score is completely yours. Pls take a look at some statistics below.

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Let us know if you would have any other specific question and we would be happy to guide.

www.manyagroup.com

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by [email protected] » Wed Dec 17, 2014 11:38 pm
Hi karthikpe,

The simple answer to your question is 'yes' - another 2 months of study (give or take) should be enough time for you to improve. The more complicated answer is that the additional time that you spend studying is less of a factor than the quality of your studying. To that end, you've only taken a FULL-length Test once - on your Official GMAT. While I'm happy to offer some suggestions about additional practice materials, I think that we need a bit more data to define your abilities. I suggest that you take another week and keep studying as you have been, then take a FULL-LENGTH CAT (with the Essay and IR sections) and report back with your scores. That data will go a long way to establishing if you're really scoring at a 640 level (or higher, or lower).

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