380, what just happened?

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380, what just happened?

by Spike142 » Sat Jul 16, 2011 4:30 pm
A little background, I have been studying for this Test for the past 6 months. I have covered what I feel like was everything. The entire Manhattan GMAT guides yes all eight, the O.G. official review, Kaplan review and strategies, and both "Cracking the GMAT" guides and practice problems. Every book from cover to cover. I sacrificed nearly everything; work, working out, and even the social life of my senior year of college. To say the least I felt above and beyond prepared for this test.

Today I walked into the Test center with my head held high a great song in my head and the confidence that would dwarf even that of Barney Stinson (Yeah just dropped a "How I Met Your Mother" quote). My family had my back, calling me up and telling me they prayed for and wishing me luck. Even telling me that they knew I would do great.

I went through the test feeling great! I felt like I was on top of it and making a killing of the test. The AWA was great I felt that my diction, structure and even grammar were impeccable. Supporting paragraphs were spot on and felt like I was clear and concise. Anyway I will not be able to find how I actually did in that for a few weeks anyways.

The Quant section...SOLID or at least I thought. I was a bit short on time at the end but was still able to finish on time and work through every problem of the section. Throughout the test I felt like the questions were beginning to level out, becoming a bit easier and more and more alike along the level of difficulty. So by the time I finished the quant. section I had mixed feelings about my performance. Never the less I held my head high and moved forward to the verbal section.

Verbal though I am a slow reader and have the tendency to over analyze....well all the time. Never the less I tried to set most of that aside. I have never been really good with sentence correction, but even during the test I felt like was doing really well. Reading Comprehension in the past I have had problems with but I worked at it and yet again felt like was was doing really well.

In the end and after I filled out their extra questions, information for profile, etc. I closed my eyes said a short prayer, only to finish my prayer and open my eyes to a 380! I thought what in the Hell just happened? I studied for six full months, and sacrificed so much to get in there and to come a drastically short.

I know no one in here was sitting there with me during the test. I have no clue what happened though. I am down but by no means out, I am going to take the next two weeks off and then start again. Access my weaknesses and figure out if I need to take classes. Build a new strategy and begin to work once more at the GMAT. MY goal is still to score over a 700. I know I can do it, I think it is just a matter of applying all that I have actually learned.

I am just trying to figure out what happened, in there. Has this happened to anyone else? Or does anyone know how to work with this setback? I am very eager to get back to working on getting a better score. I would appreciate all the help I can get.

Oh and do not plug! I will report anyone who plugs their services. Suggested study material, yes. Private tutorials or anything alike, No.
If your going to make the conscious decision to something, then you gotta either do it or not do it - it's as simple as that - Travis Rice

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by Victory_GMAT » Sat Jul 16, 2011 4:42 pm
Keep working on right direction with right state of mind. There are many weaknesses which people can't see and they underestimate the test. People with SOCIAL ANXIETY DISORDER will have very hard time to cop with GMAT. These type of things people don't realize the problems of their own mind and they keep working on OG and comparing scores. loss of memory, nervousness, haste to solve the questions ASAP, doing same kind of mistake again and again are most probable symptoms. GMAT not only tests your maths and verbal skills it also tests you stability of mind to lead and manage others. There is reason why test makers prepare the test in such a tricky way because GMAC have to listen to schools and officials and ask them whether or not this test is really helping schools to get right candidates?

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by Spike142 » Sat Jul 16, 2011 4:55 pm
I forgot mention my practice test scores:
GMAT PREP 1: 480 (First Practice Test)
GMAT PREP 2: 650
GMAT PREP 3: 670
GMAT PREP 4: 620
GMAT PREP 5: 580
GMAT PREP 6: 690 (Aha Moment Reached)
If your going to make the conscious decision to something, then you gotta either do it or not do it - it's as simple as that - Travis Rice

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by Spike142 » Sun Jul 17, 2011 6:35 am
Can anyone possibly help me? Aside from the asinine reply above claiming I possibly have S.A.D.. By the way I was chaplain of my fraternity for two years, your reply is moot.
If your going to make the conscious decision to something, then you gotta either do it or not do it - it's as simple as that - Travis Rice

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by pranaygupta86 » Sun Jul 17, 2011 7:43 am
Hey

I noticed that you had taken the GMAT Prep test 6 times. Since these tests tend to repeat questions after a you've taken them a few times, you might want to try some other test this time around. During my prep, i found Manhattan's 6 tests to be decent. Give that or any others you might like a shot.
I bet you just had a crappy test day, so don't sweat it.

And as for all this jazz about the standardized tests testing ability to lead, manage, create gold from lead and what not, I'm pretty sick of it. Your GMAT score tells you just one thing about yourself: what your GMAT score is.

Enjoy your 2 weeks off and stick it the GMAT the next time.

Regards
Pranay

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by rjank » Sun Jul 17, 2011 2:36 pm
It's a bad sign when you're going through the GMAT and you feel like you're doing well, or you feel like it's easy (or becoming easier as you go along). Lots of people that do really well feel like the questions are very challenging, even that they might be bombing it, because they're answering questions at the tip top of the their ability. It might start off a bit easy, but ideally each section should feel more and more challenging, or at least get very challenging for you at about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way through and then level off...something like that.

One of a few things happened here: either some of your prep scores are nonsense (maybe you repeated the GMAT prep exams too many times and got a big boost from seeing repeat questions), the GMAT prep wasn't a good predictor for you (which would be weird because they are generally recognized as the best predictor of your actual GMAT socre), test day anxiety affected you more than you realize, or some combination of those three.

The upside of this is that being in your senior year of college, you have a good long time to work out the issues if you need to.

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by edward.feng » Sun Jul 17, 2011 5:50 pm
I definitely think you took the GMAT Prep too many times, and artificially boosted your score. I would take a few weeks off, and refocus. It is pretty hard to go through senior year and study for the GMAT at the same time. Instead take like 2 solid months to really plug through it, make sure you actually understand the concepts in the books, instead of just reading them. Also, I find that even though MGMAT goes through pretty much all the strategies and thought processes of the questions, I need to do lots of practice questions to really drill the point home. Such as when you should immediately try to plug in numbers for VIC problems or different rephrasing techniques in DS.

Take the MGMAT practice tests, keeping in mind that the quant section is harder than the actual GMAT (at least at 700+ level).

Best of luck!

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by havok » Mon Jul 18, 2011 10:20 am
Spike142 wrote:I forgot mention my practice test scores:
GMAT PREP 1: 480 (First Practice Test)
GMAT PREP 2: 650
GMAT PREP 3: 670
GMAT PREP 4: 620
GMAT PREP 5: 580
GMAT PREP 6: 690 (Aha Moment Reached)
I assume you must have taken the same test more than once? Generally, that would inflate your later scores and is not indicative of how you will actually do on the exam.

You might want to take a prep course, since those will generally put you in the 600+ range, and then see how well you can self-study to reach your 700+ goal.
Last edited by havok on Tue Jul 19, 2011 12:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by Cheers123 » Tue Jul 19, 2011 11:34 am
I believe it was overconfidence that dipped your score. From your description and practice scores it appears that your preparation was much better than what was reflected in the actual test scores. I also took GMATPrep tests multiple times, the questions do repeat but not so much as to inflate your score by hundreds of points.

Whatever it was, don't dwell on it. You are the best judge to decide whether you need a prep course or not. Keep the faith and move on. Trust yourself, learn the lessons and give your best shot.

All the best!

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by ronysof » Fri Jun 01, 2012 5:45 pm
Hey,

Just had the same experience as you did, today. I have been studying since Jan and been scoring well on practice exams. Have you taken the Gmat again? Please let me know what happened.

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by gtg279v » Fri Jun 01, 2012 5:57 pm
Same thing, effectively, happened to me. My practice exams are as follows.

Practice Exams, In Order:
-Kaplan CAT 1: 630
-Kaplan CAT 2: 620
-GMATPrep 1: 660
-Kaplan CAT 3: 600
-GMATPrep 2: 680

Actual GMAT: 520 (Today)

I suspect there is an issue with retaining the information or applying the techniques under pressure. I remember that I did not apply much of any information/techniques on the actual exam. I, basically, reverted to standard practice. Not sure why.