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Horrible experience... I am not going for GMAT again :(

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Horrible experience... I am not going for GMAT again :(

by nainachauhan » Wed Feb 20, 2013 1:50 pm
I had a horrible experience with GMAT. I took my first GMAT on Nov 17 2012 and got 590 q42 v28. I was disheartened but then decided to give it a second shot. I prepared and worked for it and yesterday I took it again. This time I'm totally devastated as I got 540 q39 v25. I could not do the last 10 ques in quant and I seriously cannot recall how many could I guess in those from the time I was left with. Then came the verbal for which I was already 0.27 sec late from the 8 min break as I was just thinking of what I did in quant. However I started it and then by the end of it I had 9 ques which I had to just guess. I really do not understand how this happened to me. Could some one please guide me on this. I seriously do not plan to go for a third time as it has broken my confidence. I dont know if I can get into a good school with these scores. I am totally confused and seek some practical guidance. Maths has always been my strong point but after getting these scores I seriously doubt my abilities.
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by eki » Wed Feb 20, 2013 8:39 pm
Hi Naina,

Just remember that it happens with most of us. Has happened with me as well. I have taken GMAT thrice (you can read my post on it).

I seriously recommend you to give it another shot.But this time you have to do things differently :

1. Take a 15 days break. Do not do anything related to GMAT.
2. You know how to study and what to study, so do that all over again.
3. Take mocks and see how you score in those mocks. Do not book the test date unless you are within 20 points range of your target score.
4. In your test do not try to get ALL questions right. Skip/guess questions that you are not confident about. Remember that everyone who does well in the final test guesses atleast 3-4 questions.
5. Remember your aim is not 800, so do not try to get all questions right.

Take a deep breath, give your self a break and come back determined.

regards,
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by Tommy Wallach » Wed Feb 20, 2013 11:15 pm
Hey Naina,

Sorry to hear about your experience. One thing I can't help but notice, however: you don't mention how you were scoring on practice tests. I'd love to know all your practice test scores, because it would be surprising if you scored that low when you were scoring significantly higher on your practice tests. Generally when people struggle with time on test day, it's because they haven't taken enough full-length tests under strict, realistic time conditions. Does this describe you, or not?

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by nainachauhan » Thu Feb 21, 2013 10:57 am
Frankly speaking I did take few tests but not in the exact same way as it is on the exam day. Also i believe that I paid a lot of attention in reading books about each topic rather than doing more practice. Now when I look back I feel I should have done more practice rather than reading concepts. Also I feel that yes in verbal section I do put in lot of time reading the part and than reading every option coz I was following the POE. It would be great in case you can advice me on how can I win over my drawbacks.
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by Tommy Wallach » Thu Feb 21, 2013 12:33 pm
Hey Naina,

Thanks for the response. Indeed, taking practice tests not under strict conditions isn't helpful, because you don't know how you'll do when the real thing comes along. Were your scores on those practice tests significantly better than you actually scored on test day? If so, you might be looking at some kind of serious anxiety issue. Either way, we recommend between 6-8 practice tests before you take the real test (and 2-3 should have a score about where you'd like to be).

And it isn't wrong to focus on reading books, but then you need to do practice questions. It needs to be a healthy balance of both.

POE is good, you just have to speed up your reading so it doesn't take all day. That's still the correct process.

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by nainachauhan » Thu Feb 21, 2013 2:25 pm
Thank you so much for your advice. It was really a great help
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Mon Feb 25, 2013 8:25 am
I'd like to echo eki's first piece of advice: Take a 15-day break. Do not do anything related to GMAT.

After 2 weeks, you'll find that things look much different from how they look today.

Cheers,
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by Jim@StratusPrep » Mon Feb 25, 2013 4:07 pm
Yeah, step away and focus on the silver lining: with the amount of questions you guessed on you were likely performing better than you did on the first exam. Sounds like you should focus on test taking strategies.
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