I've taken the GMAT twice now in the past two months, first time I was in shock with a 620 (Q48, V28). Given that I'm a native English speaker, and I scored much higher on my practice exams prior to the actual exam, I know that the 28 in Verbal was not representative of my ability. I spent the last month honing my SC skills and working on understanding patterns in CR questions. However, I didn't spend a great deal of time on RC, in part because I didn't really see any way to drastically improve RC. After taking the first exam, I really moved my efforts to work on verbal.
My second attempt was scheduled for November 1st. 30 minutes into the exam, the second AWA had a really vague opinion that threw me off and I had a hard time coming up with a good argument. I managed to get through it, but it definitely took more energy than I would have expected. Moving onto the math section, I saw a few curveballs in the beginning which I couldn't get my head around. I think midway through the section though, I started to make up for some of the difficult questions and felt halfway decent about my performance on the section.
As the verbal started, there were a few strategies I wanted to make sure I kept in mind. The first was to make sure I did everything I could to get the first 10-15 questions right, to ensure I started off with a higher percentile. With past exams, I have noticed that when I get quite a few questions wrong upfront, I have a really difficult time getting my score past a 35. On the real exam, around question 20 everything started to blur. I would read a question, but nothing was clicking for CR and for RC. For SC I was usually able to determine what the correct answer was, but for CR and RC I felt like I was in a daze and my head was on fire. I'm not sure if it was nerves kicking in, lack of stamina, or something else but I know that the second half of verbal I became progressively anxious. I finished the exam with a 660 (Q 47, V34). Disappointed, devastated, and I honestly don't know what to do. I've taken multiple practices now, including repeats of GMAT Prep. The highest I have ever scored on any single GMAT prep in verbal is a 40, so maybe that indicates that I'm not performing at a level where I should be. On my past practice exams I've analyzed my scores and typically I've scored around 48-50 for Quant and 34-40 for Verbal. I've scored 700+ on multiple GMAT prep exams now, but on the day of the exam I haven't been able to crack a 700. I've been prepping diligently for several months now, and I really only have one more chance for this exam which is scheduled for December 2nd, allowing me one month to get through applications.
This forum has been tremendously helpful in the past few months, with the success stories, motivation, and techniques people have used. If anyone has any advice or could shed some light on what I'm doing wrong, I would be really grateful. Like many others on this forum, I've spent countless hours prepping, studying my mistakes, developing stamina, etc. I will admit, I'm a terrible standardized test taker, but I'm hoping this next month I can do something different that will get me to a 700.
Sources used thus far:
MGMAT Guides, OG Guides (Verbal and Quant included), Powerprep, BTG Forums, MGMAT Forums
My second attempt was scheduled for November 1st. 30 minutes into the exam, the second AWA had a really vague opinion that threw me off and I had a hard time coming up with a good argument. I managed to get through it, but it definitely took more energy than I would have expected. Moving onto the math section, I saw a few curveballs in the beginning which I couldn't get my head around. I think midway through the section though, I started to make up for some of the difficult questions and felt halfway decent about my performance on the section.
As the verbal started, there were a few strategies I wanted to make sure I kept in mind. The first was to make sure I did everything I could to get the first 10-15 questions right, to ensure I started off with a higher percentile. With past exams, I have noticed that when I get quite a few questions wrong upfront, I have a really difficult time getting my score past a 35. On the real exam, around question 20 everything started to blur. I would read a question, but nothing was clicking for CR and for RC. For SC I was usually able to determine what the correct answer was, but for CR and RC I felt like I was in a daze and my head was on fire. I'm not sure if it was nerves kicking in, lack of stamina, or something else but I know that the second half of verbal I became progressively anxious. I finished the exam with a 660 (Q 47, V34). Disappointed, devastated, and I honestly don't know what to do. I've taken multiple practices now, including repeats of GMAT Prep. The highest I have ever scored on any single GMAT prep in verbal is a 40, so maybe that indicates that I'm not performing at a level where I should be. On my past practice exams I've analyzed my scores and typically I've scored around 48-50 for Quant and 34-40 for Verbal. I've scored 700+ on multiple GMAT prep exams now, but on the day of the exam I haven't been able to crack a 700. I've been prepping diligently for several months now, and I really only have one more chance for this exam which is scheduled for December 2nd, allowing me one month to get through applications.
This forum has been tremendously helpful in the past few months, with the success stories, motivation, and techniques people have used. If anyone has any advice or could shed some light on what I'm doing wrong, I would be really grateful. Like many others on this forum, I've spent countless hours prepping, studying my mistakes, developing stamina, etc. I will admit, I'm a terrible standardized test taker, but I'm hoping this next month I can do something different that will get me to a 700.
Sources used thus far:
MGMAT Guides, OG Guides (Verbal and Quant included), Powerprep, BTG Forums, MGMAT Forums
