490......What gives?

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490......What gives?

by medea66 » Sun Aug 10, 2008 8:28 pm
After a disasterous score (370) in May after a prep course and many months of studying, I decided to hit the books again. After completing all of the PS questions in OG green and all questions except for RC in OG purple, I took my first GMAT PREP today and scored a miserly 490(Q29, V28).


Just to break things down, I have been doing problems under timed conditions and then review each one that I got wrong along with each one that I got right but had doubts on during the practice session.

I have scheduled my test for the end of the month and really need to do some legwork in order to break the 600 mark. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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by bilko » Sun Aug 10, 2008 8:39 pm
Which prep course did you take? I know at least Princeton Review and Kaplan have a guarantee that lets you retake the course for free (well, PR's is free; not positive Kaplan's is, but if not, it's likely a small fee).

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by newera » Mon Aug 11, 2008 1:17 am
well, on the bright side, you managed to bump your score up by 120 pts, which is a good start. Don't lose faith, keep going.

I suggest you primarily focus on mastering the official gmat material...the official guides and the gmatprep software. I have a friend who got a 490 and kept practicing only from the OG books for 3 months and ended up with a 710 on the real thing. Practice practice practice and for every wrong answer, go back and really try to understand why you missed it. and do it over again a couple days later.

good luck. if you feel you're not ready by the end of the month, delay your test date. you can take the exam a week before submitting the application and you'll be fine.

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by medea66 » Mon Aug 11, 2008 4:20 pm
I took Kaplan...boy was it a waste of time and money.

Newera,

Thanks for the encouragement! I don't exactly have 3mos, I've devoted way too much time already. This entire year has been about studying for the GMAT and I have to take this one soon.

One school has a deadline in the middle of Sept and the other a month later. I have about 2more weeks to study, so I better do it right. As for the 120pt improvement, I don't really look at it that way since I was able to get mid-500 in my practices. So the main goal now is to make quick improvements.