Hey all,
I've been on this forum a few times, mainly to complain about my previous GMAT scores. Well now, for the first time, I can actually report success. I took the GMAT this past Saturday and scored 760 (Q49/V45).
My first two tries were by no means complete disasters, but I was constantly disappointed by my quant score. On my first try, back in September 2009, I had a 720 (Q40/V50). My second, just two months ago at the beginning of September this year, was even lower at 700 (Q44/V41). This time around, I pulled out all the stops and got a tutor. While he certainly did help, the best advice he gave me was to really focus on the Official Guide. In my first two takings, I simply assumed that the OG questions were too easy for me, and so I only did the last 50 or so questions in each section. Big mistake. When I first started going through the OG, I realized that it was actually the questions of moderate difficulty that I was getting wrong. Once I powered through all the questions, I felt much more at ease with easier questions, and so I had more time to tackle the tough questions.
On another note, I think my scores demonstrate something about the GMAT: it's not nearly as consistent as the test creators would lead you to believe. To go from 50 to 41 to 45 in verbal simply is too large a swing to justify under the "30-point standard deviation" mantra, especially considering I did almost no verbal preparation at all. And while the quant score is on a clear upward trend, I find it hard to believe I actually went from 44 (66th percentile) to 49 (85th percentile) in such a short time. So let this be a lesson to all of you who are surprised by a low GMAT score: the variance in your score will be high, and a retake may surprise you just as much as your first taking. Just make sure to use the OG!
I've been on this forum a few times, mainly to complain about my previous GMAT scores. Well now, for the first time, I can actually report success. I took the GMAT this past Saturday and scored 760 (Q49/V45).
My first two tries were by no means complete disasters, but I was constantly disappointed by my quant score. On my first try, back in September 2009, I had a 720 (Q40/V50). My second, just two months ago at the beginning of September this year, was even lower at 700 (Q44/V41). This time around, I pulled out all the stops and got a tutor. While he certainly did help, the best advice he gave me was to really focus on the Official Guide. In my first two takings, I simply assumed that the OG questions were too easy for me, and so I only did the last 50 or so questions in each section. Big mistake. When I first started going through the OG, I realized that it was actually the questions of moderate difficulty that I was getting wrong. Once I powered through all the questions, I felt much more at ease with easier questions, and so I had more time to tackle the tough questions.
On another note, I think my scores demonstrate something about the GMAT: it's not nearly as consistent as the test creators would lead you to believe. To go from 50 to 41 to 45 in verbal simply is too large a swing to justify under the "30-point standard deviation" mantra, especially considering I did almost no verbal preparation at all. And while the quant score is on a clear upward trend, I find it hard to believe I actually went from 44 (66th percentile) to 49 (85th percentile) in such a short time. So let this be a lesson to all of you who are surprised by a low GMAT score: the variance in your score will be high, and a retake may surprise you just as much as your first taking. Just make sure to use the OG!
