I just Beat The GMAT!

Hi Folks,

I will begin by saying that I have a tinge of disappointment as I expected about 10-20 points more. While there have been some excellent debriefs from many, let me share what I, in retrospect, consider my mistake both before and during the test.

I had a morning 9 o'clock appointment and in my quest to reach the center about 45 minutes early, I forgot to eat breakfast (ok, I am not an early eater)....just before reaching the center I realized that a hungry stomach till mid day will lower my sugar levels during the exam, a condition which usually affects sharpness and hence time management. I managed to grab a few biscuits but that was it....far from an ideal biological state to start the exam with. It may sound like a minor issue in the middle of frantic last min/last week prep, but you will realize it once you are in the middle of the action.

The test starts - AWA was simple and I scraped through it with more than 5 minutes to spare in each of the sub parts.

Now comes the Quant - After reading several posts, I was led to believe that the initial few questions will hv a few tough ones to allow the algorithm to figure one's level - and this ingrained thought proved to be my nemesis....the initial questions on quant were quite simple (with a few odd looking ridiculously easy to appear on GMAT) which got me concerned as I thought that either I am getting everything wrong (which could be one reason for simpler following questions) or I am missing the embedded trick....this quandary made me double and triple check a few of these ques, which otherwise did not merit more than 45 secs to a minute. Even half way through the test, I found the difficulty level of questions lower (even compared to GMATPrep) and this inadvertantly made me complacent on time management - I just wanted to make sure that I am getting them all right and not succumbing to some improvised trick of GMAC. Unfortunately, I started seeing some tougher questions post about 25-26 initial questions.....a look at the clock told me that now I had fewer than 2 minutes avail per question...in the end, due to time pressure, I could not comprehend the last two questions well enough and had to make a qualified guess, something which was easily avoidable and am sure is responsible for the 6 percentile point deficit in my final quant score.

Then came the verbal section - now I was far more conscious of the time but somewhere down the middle of this section, I could feel my focus lowering and my mind not comprehending as sharply and as quickly as I am otherwise used to. I did lean on verbal significantly to boost my overall score as I averaged 40 and above in 5/6 MGMAT Tests and was generally feeling quite comfortable with the level of difficulty presented in the verbal section of the test. Overall I felt satisfied with my performance in the verbal section but alas, I saw only 38, for which I honestly have no explanation.

In short, I would like to emphasize that as the d-day approaches, one should not overlook some of the points I have mentioned above......if your body is not at its peak, it will not let your mind do its best, resulting in compromised focus.

Before I finish my post, I do wish to express my gratitude to the several experts on this site who truly do a great job...

Should anyone want to know: I personally benefited from MGMAT tests (good for building stamina)...in addition, I only took a Princeton practice test and 2 GMATPreps.

Good luck to all the folks who are yet to take the GMAT!!!

Congratulations! I understand why you feel disappointed...but hey..the good thing is 730 is no bad score, definitely not something that colleges will hold against you (I am sure you are aware of this).

Time to take a few days break and then focus on apps. Which colleges do you plan to apply?

gmatmillenium wrote:Hi Folks,

I will begin by saying that I have a tinge of disappointment as I expected about 10-20 points more. While there have been some excellent debriefs from many, let me share what I, in retrospect, consider my mistake both before and during the test.

I had a morning 9 o'clock appointment and in my quest to reach the center about 45 minutes early, I forgot to eat breakfast (ok, I am not an early eater)....just before reaching the center I realized that a hungry stomach till mid day will lower my sugar levels during the exam, a condition which usually affects sharpness and hence time management. I managed to grab a few biscuits but that was it....far from an ideal biological state to start the exam with. It may sound like a minor issue in the middle of frantic last min/last week prep, but you will realize it once you are in the middle of the action.

The test starts - AWA was simple and I scraped through it with more than 5 minutes to spare in each of the sub parts.

Now comes the Quant - After reading several posts, I was led to believe that the initial few questions will hv a few tough ones to allow the algorithm to figure one's level - and this ingrained thought proved to be my nemesis....the initial questions on quant were quite simple (with a few odd looking ridiculously easy to appear on GMAT) which got me concerned as I thought that either I am getting everything wrong (which could be one reason for simpler following questions) or I am missing the embedded trick....this quandary made me double and triple check a few of these ques, which otherwise did not merit more than 45 secs to a minute. Even half way through the test, I found the difficulty level of questions lower (even compared to GMATPrep) and this inadvertantly made me complacent on time management - I just wanted to make sure that I am getting them all right and not succumbing to some improvised trick of GMAC. Unfortunately, I started seeing some tougher questions post about 25-26 initial questions.....a look at the clock told me that now I had fewer than 2 minutes avail per question...in the end, due to time pressure, I could not comprehend the last two questions well enough and had to make a qualified guess, something which was easily avoidable and am sure is responsible for the 6 percentile point deficit in my final quant score.

Then came the verbal section - now I was far more conscious of the time but somewhere down the middle of this section, I could feel my focus lowering and my mind not comprehending as sharply and as quickly as I am otherwise used to. I did lean on verbal significantly to boost my overall score as I averaged 40 and above in 5/6 MGMAT Tests and was generally feeling quite comfortable with the level of difficulty presented in the verbal section of the test. Overall I felt satisfied with my performance in the verbal section but alas, I saw only 38, for which I honestly have no explanation.

In short, I would like to emphasize that as the d-day approaches, one should not overlook some of the points I have mentioned above......if your body is not at its peak, it will not let your mind do its best, resulting in compromised focus.

Before I finish my post, I do wish to express my gratitude to the several experts on this site who truly do a great job...

Should anyone want to know: I personally benefited from MGMAT tests (good for building stamina)...in addition, I only took a Princeton practice test and 2 GMATPreps.

Good luck to all the folks who are yet to take the GMAT!!!

Gr8 score buddy...
Can you please provide your MGMAT scores and gmat prep scores ?

Also throw some light on the level of difficulty of verbal question..

Hi Nikhil

Here re my MGMAT scores...

700
710
670
730
710
720

I will say MGMAT may just be a close proxy to one's actual GMAT score.

nikhilkatira wrote:

gmatmillenium wrote:Hi Folks,

I will begin by saying that I have a tinge of disappointment as I expected about 10-20 points more. While there have been some excellent debriefs from many, let me share what I, in retrospect, consider my mistake both before and during the test.

I had a morning 9 o'clock appointment and in my quest to reach the center about 45 minutes early, I forgot to eat breakfast (ok, I am not an early eater)....just before reaching the center I realized that a hungry stomach till mid day will lower my sugar levels during the exam, a condition which usually affects sharpness and hence time management. I managed to grab a few biscuits but that was it....far from an ideal biological state to start the exam with. It may sound like a minor issue in the middle of frantic last min/last week prep, but you will realize it once you are in the middle of the action.

The test starts - AWA was simple and I scraped through it with more than 5 minutes to spare in each of the sub parts.

Now comes the Quant - After reading several posts, I was led to believe that the initial few questions will hv a few tough ones to allow the algorithm to figure one's level - and this ingrained thought proved to be my nemesis....the initial questions on quant were quite simple (with a few odd looking ridiculously easy to appear on GMAT) which got me concerned as I thought that either I am getting everything wrong (which could be one reason for simpler following questions) or I am missing the embedded trick....this quandary made me double and triple check a few of these ques, which otherwise did not merit more than 45 secs to a minute. Even half way through the test, I found the difficulty level of questions lower (even compared to GMATPrep) and this inadvertantly made me complacent on time management - I just wanted to make sure that I am getting them all right and not succumbing to some improvised trick of GMAC. Unfortunately, I started seeing some tougher questions post about 25-26 initial questions.....a look at the clock told me that now I had fewer than 2 minutes avail per question...in the end, due to time pressure, I could not comprehend the last two questions well enough and had to make a qualified guess, something which was easily avoidable and am sure is responsible for the 6 percentile point deficit in my final quant score.

Then came the verbal section - now I was far more conscious of the time but somewhere down the middle of this section, I could feel my focus lowering and my mind not comprehending as sharply and as quickly as I am otherwise used to. I did lean on verbal significantly to boost my overall score as I averaged 40 and above in 5/6 MGMAT Tests and was generally feeling quite comfortable with the level of difficulty presented in the verbal section of the test. Overall I felt satisfied with my performance in the verbal section but alas, I saw only 38, for which I honestly have no explanation.

In short, I would like to emphasize that as the d-day approaches, one should not overlook some of the points I have mentioned above......if your body is not at its peak, it will not let your mind do its best, resulting in compromised focus.

Before I finish my post, I do wish to express my gratitude to the several experts on this site who truly do a great job...

Should anyone want to know: I personally benefited from MGMAT tests (good for building stamina)...in addition, I only took a Princeton practice test and 2 GMATPreps.

Good luck to all the folks who are yet to take the GMAT!!!

Gr8 score buddy...
Can you please provide your MGMAT scores and gmat prep scores ?

Also throw some light on the level of difficulty of verbal question..

Thanks and good luck to you...

I intend applying only within India...

asamaverick wrote:Congratulations! I understand why you feel disappointed...but hey..the good thing is 730 is no bad score, definitely not something that colleges will hold against you (I am sure you are aware of this).

Time to take a few days break and then focus on apps. Which colleges do you plan to apply?

No need to feel dissapointed....

You can take this exam again... if you really feel that you deserve more....

Thank you and good luck to you too for the apps.

throw some light on the level of difficulty of verbal question

Nikhil....I have a different take on this - I found the verbal quite ok but I scored lower in verbal in the actual test than I did in practice tests where I found verbal tougher.

My take - practice CR and RC from official LSAT tests....build stamina by solving one full section of CR and one of RC in one go from any off LSAT test (keep a time limit of max 2 min per ques) - after that any GMAT level verbal (save SC) will feel like a breeze.....and do your best in MGMAT tests....

nikhilkatira wrote:throw some light on the level of difficulty of verbal question

How were your timings in verbal section in general before the exam and during? In LSAT CR and RC section and in GMAT prep each section i.e. RC,CR and SC ? In general, for RC what is your approach?

Were you always comfortable from the very begining in terms of speed ? Could you put more details here and what was your stretegy overall for verbal section ?

As for strategy, I would just say read, read and read....for GMAT specifically, read financial dailies, NY Times or Economist and something you dont read regularly like Scientific American (a bit daily - I admit I didn't do this but would have liked to)

As of my speed....I have been quite comfortable with my speed on verbal - CR is my favorite...i really slugged it out on LSAT, a strong recommendation....

GMATMadeEasy wrote:How were your timings in verbal section in general before the exam and during? In LSAT CR and RC section and in GMAT prep each section i.e. RC,CR and SC ? In general, for RC what is your approach?

Were you always comfortable from the very begining in terms of speed ? Could you put more details here and what was your stretegy overall for verbal section ?

one more question

please compare verbal of gmat to that of mgmat.

I hv already answered tht....treat MGMAT verbal scores as a close proxy to the real one

nikhilkatira wrote:one more question

please compare verbal of gmat to that of mgmat.

Congratulations for the great score.

When do you recommend to start taking the MGMAT tests? As soon as one finishes the theory part plus some practice or even later? And in your opinion, how many days gap should be there between the two tests?

-Balraj.

No recommendation...I surmise it varies from person to person.

Bottom line is you should feel ready in all section before you tk practice tests....regd gap between tests - dont jump fm one test to another till you thoroughly analyze and understand your mistakes from the previous test

ballubalraj wrote:Congratulations for the great score.

When do you recommend to start taking the MGMAT tests? As soon as one finishes the theory part plus some practice or even later? And in your opinion, how many days gap should be there between the two tests?

-Balraj.