Mentally tired and physically exhausted from the days' work @ office, I came home determined to take a mock test. Though I was not in the best of mental state to sit through a 3+ hrs test, I pursued anyways. After a painful process of installing windows on my mac laptop (I found that GMATPrep doesnt work on Mac!!) I started the test (Practice test 1) @ 7 in the evening, yesterday.
AWA : Didnt write well on both - Analysis of the issue and Analysis of the argument. I found Analysis of the argument to be tougher. During my preparation I had never focused in this area. Just for the sake of it, spent 1 hour in this section and pressed Next.
Quant : Disaster!! Was feeling pressed for time from almost 10th question. Only 8 minutes were left to answer last 10 questions
Of which I blindly guessed on 4 questions and took a calculated guess on 4-5 questions. Didnt get a chance to completely read the last question. Just clicked a choice thinking that a wrong answer is better than not answering at all.
Verbal : Dejected by the dibacle, continued with the verbal which I anyways knew to be my weak point. So there was little hope that I would do some miracle here. Surprisingly, I felt the questions to be easier. But, given my experience while taking the Quant section, I decided to hurry through the question as fast as I could. Finally, I was able to complete the section with 5 minutes to spare. Which is again not good as I could have spent this time on other questions.
Result : If it were a real GMAT test, I would have decided not to take the score, given my bad performance. Here, I just clicked next until the result screen showed up. I was expecting something in the range of 550-580 (I hadnt given a mock test before so didnt know how the estimate the score given the performance.) To my surprise, I got an encouraging 690 (Q48, V36).
Quant : 13 incorrect : question no : 3,5,7,10,13,19,24,28,31,33,35,36,37.
Verbal : 14 incorrect (RC-4, SC-7 and CR-3) : question no : 4,11,14,16,21,24,27,30,32,33,34,37,40,41.
Analysis, Action items and Conclusion:
The environment in which I gave the test was not the best. Was too noisy due to constant chit-chat of friends. I was hopping from room to room in a hope that I will find a peaceful place to take the test. Will have to find a more suitable time (e.g. early morning when everybody is asleep) or a better place next time when I take the test.
AWA : Need to devise a strategy and practice.
Quant : Need to improve on time management. Need to practice more with time keeping. Material studied : Princeton, OG11, Kaplan800
Verbal : Need to improve SC which is also my weakest area. Materials studied for verbal : Princeton, OG11, Kaplan800, Manhattan.
There are also few positives to take home from this experience. I was surprised to know that one can afford to make so many mistakes and still score 690. I had a perception that 5-6 wrong questions in each section and the score comes down to low 600s. Hence, there is a lot of scope for improvemnt given that I took the test in the worst possible scenario.
So, given all this, the question is, and this is where I need your help, whether I am ready for the G-day. I am planning to take it two weeks from now (around Sept 8th). I have to make a call within a day or two, else I wont get a slot. And that is one of the reason why I took the test. I think I should go ahead with the planned date, though I am not fully convinced. The cost of postponing is huge here as I would miss the deadline to apply (first cycle) for ISB, which is 15th Sept. Please suggest me what I should do.
Also, I would appreciate if you can suggest what else I can do to improve the score.
Finally, this site has helped me a lot throughout my preparation. Thanks a lot to all of you. I couldn't have asked for more.
Thanks also for reading such a long post. When I started writing, I didn't expect it to grow so long.
- Shrinidhi.
AWA : Didnt write well on both - Analysis of the issue and Analysis of the argument. I found Analysis of the argument to be tougher. During my preparation I had never focused in this area. Just for the sake of it, spent 1 hour in this section and pressed Next.
Quant : Disaster!! Was feeling pressed for time from almost 10th question. Only 8 minutes were left to answer last 10 questions
Of which I blindly guessed on 4 questions and took a calculated guess on 4-5 questions. Didnt get a chance to completely read the last question. Just clicked a choice thinking that a wrong answer is better than not answering at all.
Verbal : Dejected by the dibacle, continued with the verbal which I anyways knew to be my weak point. So there was little hope that I would do some miracle here. Surprisingly, I felt the questions to be easier. But, given my experience while taking the Quant section, I decided to hurry through the question as fast as I could. Finally, I was able to complete the section with 5 minutes to spare. Which is again not good as I could have spent this time on other questions.
Result : If it were a real GMAT test, I would have decided not to take the score, given my bad performance. Here, I just clicked next until the result screen showed up. I was expecting something in the range of 550-580 (I hadnt given a mock test before so didnt know how the estimate the score given the performance.) To my surprise, I got an encouraging 690 (Q48, V36).
Quant : 13 incorrect : question no : 3,5,7,10,13,19,24,28,31,33,35,36,37.
Verbal : 14 incorrect (RC-4, SC-7 and CR-3) : question no : 4,11,14,16,21,24,27,30,32,33,34,37,40,41.
Analysis, Action items and Conclusion:
The environment in which I gave the test was not the best. Was too noisy due to constant chit-chat of friends. I was hopping from room to room in a hope that I will find a peaceful place to take the test. Will have to find a more suitable time (e.g. early morning when everybody is asleep) or a better place next time when I take the test.
AWA : Need to devise a strategy and practice.
Quant : Need to improve on time management. Need to practice more with time keeping. Material studied : Princeton, OG11, Kaplan800
Verbal : Need to improve SC which is also my weakest area. Materials studied for verbal : Princeton, OG11, Kaplan800, Manhattan.
There are also few positives to take home from this experience. I was surprised to know that one can afford to make so many mistakes and still score 690. I had a perception that 5-6 wrong questions in each section and the score comes down to low 600s. Hence, there is a lot of scope for improvemnt given that I took the test in the worst possible scenario.
So, given all this, the question is, and this is where I need your help, whether I am ready for the G-day. I am planning to take it two weeks from now (around Sept 8th). I have to make a call within a day or two, else I wont get a slot. And that is one of the reason why I took the test. I think I should go ahead with the planned date, though I am not fully convinced. The cost of postponing is huge here as I would miss the deadline to apply (first cycle) for ISB, which is 15th Sept. Please suggest me what I should do.
Also, I would appreciate if you can suggest what else I can do to improve the score.
Finally, this site has helped me a lot throughout my preparation. Thanks a lot to all of you. I couldn't have asked for more.
Thanks also for reading such a long post. When I started writing, I didn't expect it to grow so long.
- Shrinidhi.
