I just Beat The GMAT!

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to share a bit of my story as I had pacing problems that I just could NOT shake, so I accepted this as one of my weaknesses and tried to focus on my strengths.

I know that only a 700 is considered on this forum as "beating the GMAT" but I'm rather happy with my score as the rest of my application is rather strong.

I always had pacing problems with the Math and would run out of time around question 29 or 30. Every time. On every practice test.

By the end, with Stacey's advice re: being able to "let go" of questions, I was still finishing with 7 questions remaining. However, I was doing well with the rest of the questions. What I tried to do each time was to halt when there were 2 minutes left and spend time doing some quick and educated guessing on the remaining 7 questions (so as not to lose heavily on unanswered Qs).

So I guess my main point with this is that some people just CAN'T get around the pacing issue. In such case, don't give up or get frustrated. Continue to try up to pick up the pace, but also accept this as your weakness and instead of spending most of your focus on timing, use the time on getting used to the different types of problems, get your concepts perfectly right, get used to the tricks......

......and more than anything, remember that the Verbal can really help you. I say this because the first time I took the test, I focused so much on the Math and not enough on Verbal (as my first language is English and I'm a communications major, so it was not exactly tough for me. However, getting the Verbal down really helps! Wish I had done so the first time!

Anyway, I'm rather happy with my score especially as my workload at work heavily increased during the last 1.5 months, and I also had to travel a bit and was so worried that it would interrupt my focus.

4-5 weeks until I hear from the school about their decision!!

GOOD LUCK everyone!
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PS: I would really like to thank everyone at this forum. It really, really helped - everything from strategy to pacing advice to techniques to solving actual questions to time management!

I will be recommending this forum to everyone I know who is taking the test!

that is really a scoer to be proud of! I'd be delighted with it - thanks for the tips and ood luck with the applications.

Thanks very much, good luck to you too, Vanessa.

Absolutely ! Congrats ! 680 is a good score!

Thank you! Honestly, I think it's a terrific score and one that will not hold you back anywhere. From here on it's about the application I think. My friend who got 680 was accepted at Stanford and Harvard so you can go all the way. Thanks for having taken the time to talk about your experience!

Neat score Montreal06 Just focus on your apps and i am sure you'll get through.

BTW I'd kill to get a 680

Hey Montreal06, I am happy I found your post.
I did not take my gmat yet, I am still practicing/studying. I actually do just fine with math in general but realize pacing is my big problem too. Recently I’ve done 37 questions of a mock test (roughly 70% correct), but it took me nothing less than 3 hours to get through!
I am not worried with my 70% correct as I know I can improve it (as I just started my preps for gmat), but I am not sure how to response to my slow pace.
How did you improve yours? Just practicing? My feeling is that it takes me too much time to “translate” the work problem into equations.