22 year old girl/ recent college grad/ STRESSING about IR

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I took the GMAT Thursday and was stoked to see my score of 740 (Q49, V42). Moreover, I think the essay went fine because my scores for the AWA were always 5.5's in practice and the real one felt no different. I'll go over what I did to prepare if anyone is interested below but more importantly I must say that the integrated reasoning was really difficult. Yes, I did finish but I was very rushed on the last 4 and even in practice tests I couldn't get above an 8/12. That being said, I did study for IR and I thought I was ready but I just don't know anymore. It was much more difficult than the practice tests. Now I know that no one really cares too much about the IR score right now but I plan to go to grad school in a few years not now, so is it worth it to retake or just sit on the score (this is actually giving me a lot of anxiety).

In regards to the test experience/ my study plan/ ect:

Firstly, I would recommend taking the GMAT while during or soon thereafter graduating college. I feel it is important to say this: you have all the knowledge you need to take the GMAT when you take your SATs/ ACTs so waiting until later may not be the best bet. Moreover, as I did take a class through Veritas Prep I met quite a few people studying for the GMAT in their mid to late 30s and not only did they seem disinterested in the process but I know most didn't follow through and take the exam, which would suck after dropping $1500 on a class. The veritas prep class itself was decent (I wish we practices some more difficult problems but the books and strategies and the number of practice tests the company gives you are well worth the money. I did take the class from July to August and didn't take the exam until December due primarily to family drama and not feeling prepared. I recommend signing up for your test date well in advance so it gives you some pressure to study because without it, even if you are super interested in B-school, you are probably not going to study. In the last month before the exam I used the OG13, the Kaplan GMAT book, platinumgmat.com, beatthegmat.com, and any other website that could give me 700+ level questions and tips for IR. Also, if you do have some issues with a specific type of problem (mine was rates especially with 3+ workers) STUDY IT. I swear I tried to pretend my problem wasn't a problem and I kept getting lower scores on GMAT prep tests because I could never get those questions right AND I got one on the GMAT itself and it felt so good to solve it correctly. Point is,
If you have a weakness, don't avoid it, study it and improve. Avoiding your problems is no way to study; you can't do well overall if you just ace one portion and do poor on the other. Also, get sleep 2 nights before and the night before! And, lastly, don't study the day before (you can make a study guide a few days before and look over it for an hour or so but nothing major) and certainly don't look at practice problems, it will not help you and could hurt your score.

Onto the GMAT itself... The testing facility was fine. I did get lost on my way to the parking garage (took the test in SF, park at ampco station (101 Lombard) but entry is on sansome). I didn't realize there would be people in the same room taking different tests and at different times but I found it kind of calming because there wasn't a fury of typing during the essay. Moreover, I didn't know this before but basically they let you in the testing room whenever you're ready and you start the test like 6 minutes after you sit down so don't go in until you are absolutely ready. Also, and I can't emphasize this enough, take practice tests and plan everything!! The day of I knew exactly what to eat, what to drink, etc and it totally worked. I ate oatmeal for breakfast and drank coffee in the morning, answered the 10 quant Q's I missed on the last GMAT I had taken (about 4 days before the real thing), and even though I didn't do extremely well on these questions, it still really got my brain thinking. In the car I had my GMAT playlist, primarily full of upbeat songs to put me in a good mood. Before the exam I ate a banana, took a sip of coffee, and brought a few cough drops into the testing room (bad sore throat the day of). I knew I was going to have another sip of coffee and a half of a banana during each break. I felt all this planning, though I am not a planner, took a lot of the stress out of the GMAT. In terms of the IR, like I said, I felt it was extremely difficult and am considering retaking if I get a score below a 5ish. During the quant, I actually thought I was doing really poorly because the questions were very easy (lots of arithmetic and exponent rules) but I figured if I was, at least I could boost my score up by getting those right. The verbal I didn't feel was very difficult. The reading comp passages were pretty short (though dense in terms of information), the critical reasoning was ok (a few were really difficult but the negation technique was very beneficial, and sentence correction (another weak point) was a lot easier than I had expected. If anyone has trouble with that the best thing I can recommend is that you realize that each sentence doesn't have 100 errors, but more like 1-3 and if you see those issues, you will be fine (and I never did that 1000 SC questions that's been circling around but I feel it would have been a waste of time; it's not about quantity, it's about quality of studying).

Now any men in the audience can skip this part: I did have my period while taking the exam and the best recommendation I can give is, again, plan ahead! You need to take something for period symptoms (midol, Tylenol, whatever), take practice tests while taking that medication to avoid poor interactions or a poor testing experience! It didn't cause me any extra stress as I was prepared, but I thought I should mention something because a few nights before the exam I was worried about it and no one has said anything online, and I know I can't be the only one...

Seeing my 740 score was very encouraging. I had received 700s/720s on practice tests but I knew 740 was within my grasp and everything just worked out. Like I said, it's just a waiting game to determine if my IR score is decent so I don't have to take the test again!

Good luck everyone, remember to breathe, the exam is your opportunity to show how logical you are, you can do it!

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by Jim@StratusPrep » Mon Dec 17, 2012 2:48 pm
Congrats and nice debrief.
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by jumsumtak » Mon Dec 24, 2012 10:37 am
congratulations on the score.

I won't be surprised to see a very good IR score. Your quant was pretty decent and I don't think IR is very difficult. In fact, for a lot of people it has yielded a greater than expected score. (if that helps!)

If you attempted all the 12 questions (even if the last 4 were rushed) you can get a very good score. To put things into perspective, you can get 8/8 after getting 4 out of 12 wrong!

Obviously you can't do anything but wait. My suggestion would be to enjoy your achievement and have a good celebration.

Best