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A bitter experience - Disappointing 580

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A bitter experience - Disappointing 580

by pepeprepa » Fri Sep 05, 2008 10:06 am
The test
AWA was ok. However, the Q started in the wrong way, I could not find the tricks of the question, I really never never felt it during my practices tests. I had to guess several times and I could not gain confidence with any question, I could not apply my tricks or methods. Indeed, I found the maths hard although I was used during my prep to make the Q really easily, having to work on 2 or 3 problems out of 37. Here I had to worry with all 37 questions...
It's true I was depressed at the end of the Q. However, I managed to regain the will during the 10 minutes break. I could not master SC and I felt my weakness on CR. 2 RC texts really made me lost and I went on till the end of the V. I was sure I did the V poorly because I was passive. Every time I performed well on V, I was active and totally involved, here I suffered fro every question and they mastered me.
Result: Q48V22 580 ... totally puzzled


My preparation
When I started my preparation 2 months ago my goal was 580. I do not need more given the program I apply with my school demand that score. I worked on OG11, OG green, OG purple, Kaplan 800. I learnt a lot on all grammatical rules and was confident in my possibilities to score more than 580. Little by little, the GMAT really interests me and I decided to intesively work on it so as to get a good score. I did not have any plan, I just worked everyday V and Q during more or less 40 days. My progression in V was encouraging and gained skills but it does not seem to be the case.


The solution(s)?
I would like to retake it, even if it is not necessary. Indeed, I really feel ashamed by this score and I can't let the GMAT beat me like that! No way! So please according to all these things, give me some ideas to explain my failure.

My practice tests are not wonderful, but I am around 650 in general. I started doing the AWA before the Q and V at Gmatprep2. I did everything to be as close as the exam conditions: AWA - 10' break - Q - 10' break - V
Gmat prep1: 640 Q49V27
Powerprep1: 640 Q49V28
Powerprep2: 710 Q50V35
Gmatprep2: 640 Q50V27
MGMAT: 650 Q45V35
Veritas prep: Q52, did not do the V
Kaplan: 650 Q44V39

I do not understand what I did wrong and what I have to look at. My verbal was weak but I never thought about getting a V22...
My maths score is also disappointing... I really expected more.

Do you have any clue to explain my 580 which is around 70 to 80 points above the mean of all my practice?
Hope to hear you.

Thanks for all members, I really enjoyed learning and helping people on questions.
Last edited by pepeprepa on Sun Sep 07, 2008 1:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by LSB » Fri Sep 05, 2008 10:52 am
Hey pepeprepa - I am really sorry to hear that it did not go well. Your results (both V & Q) are well below any of the tests you wrote in your prep. Without knowing more about you or the details of your preparation I would argue that you can definitely do better than this.

By reading your post, it sounds like you really let the first few Q questions get to you and affect the rest of your test.

If I can speak from my own experience for a moment. It's tough to have high expectations and then get stunned by a few questions in a row which you don't know how to approach. At least for me this used to be a confidence killer for the rest of the test. However, I found that doing as many CATs as possible really helped me manage my emotions. As you can see from some of my previous posts I did more CATs than necessary in most cases. What I found in hindsight was that these really helped me whether emotional storms during the test. I was pretty depressed after certain questions in Q as well. But everytime my mind was starting to think back I just killed the thoughts right that moment. I guess what I am trying to say is that you know the subjects. Your results seem like they are due to stress and anxiety. If you get this under control you can definitely regain strength (at least in the math section which, going by your practice tests, you obviously know how to master)
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by aj5105 » Sat Sep 06, 2008 12:53 am
LSB,

The biggest worry is --when i come across a huge abstract RC.I read the first para again and again - it makes no sense - then i progress to the the end of the RC with the RC making no sense to me.I would be done with 6-7 mins then.Finally,i gather strength and move to answer the qn - i am lost.Then next thing i see my dreams crashing down.

due to this i have been aversive to tests !
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Re: A bitter experience - Disappointing 580

by amitdgr » Sat Sep 06, 2008 5:06 am
pepeprepa wrote: Result: Q28 V22 580
I cant believe it ! This is NOT representative of your capability pepeprepa.. I know for sure you CAN do a LOT better than this.. I know you from your posts.. Esp quant.. I'm sure it was an off day for you .. maybe the first few questions made you to lose focus ..

I am shocked !!
Please visit my blog Gmat Tips and Strategies
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by LSB » Sat Sep 06, 2008 10:04 am
aj5105 wrote:LSB,

The biggest worry is --when i come across a huge abstract RC.I read the first para again and again - it makes no sense - then i progress to the the end of the RC with the RC making no sense to me.I would be done with 6-7 mins then.Finally,i gather strength and move to answer the qn - i am lost.Then next thing i see my dreams crashing down.

due to this i have been aversive to tests !
I remember going through this as well. I started writing a lot of facts down (especially on science passages which are my weakness). This helped me address the problem that I was loosing the main point of the passage. but that turned out to be quite time consuming as well.

After a long time I noticed my problems were disappearing. I took less notes and could still survive. After some more practice I just stopped taking notes and it worked. When I started reading a passage the objective was to not loose the train of thought. The worst is when you reach the passage and at the end you dont know anymore what it is saying. Lots of practice can address this.

Now, RC's are the most time consuming. BUT I think that it is critical not to give up on them. Whatever time it takes you should try to get at least half of the RC Q's right. The reason is that when an RC section comes up, the questions for that passage are predetermined. I.e. they are not adaptive. If you get them all wrong then the computer will start giving you extremely easy questions immediately after the RC section. It will then take time to make up for the 3-4 or 5 questions that you got wrong during the RC.

My approach was that I will not sacrifice RC. If I needed to catch up with time I would blind guess on a CR in the middle of the test (generally CRs tend to be more time consuming than SCs) ... so if you need to catch up on time .. avoid guessing on SCs. Sicnce RCs are sacred as per the above ... this leaves only CR.

I also found that Veritas had a good approach to RC. Read the passage and wait for a few moments before you go to the first Q. Apply the STAmp method.

S - "Scope" ... what is the passage talking about
T - "Tone" .. is the author supportive, critical, academic etc....
Amp - "Author's main point" ... what is the author's conclusion

In the beginning of my practice I would take a min to answer all of the above questions and write the answer down. Towards the end I was able to do this in my head in a few moments.

Practice is important on RC. I found MGMAT RC passages quite challenging (and long). This was good practice for the real test.

All in all: Given your track record, I think you should really analyze your Q. If it is true that this test result was just due to anxiety ... then you can address this by retaking the test (and reap the low hanging fruit). We all know you have the Q skills already. I would only worry about V if you want to radically improve your score (in addition to the Q improvement which should be easy)

Sorry for the long post
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Re: A bitter experience - Disappointing 580

by amitansu » Sat Sep 06, 2008 1:23 pm
pepeprepa wrote:The test
AWA was ok. However, the Q started in the wrong way, I could not find the tricks of the question, I really never never felt it during my practices tests. I had to guess several times and I could not gain confidence with any question, I could not apply my tricks or methods. Indeed, I found the maths hard although I was used during my prep to make the Q really easily, having to work on 2 or 3 problems out of 37. Here I had to worry with all 37 questions...
It's true I was depressed at the end of the Q. However, I managed to regain the will during the 10 minutes break. I could not master SC and I felt my weakness on CR. 2 RC texts really made me lost and I went on till the end of the V. I was sure I did the V poorly because I was passive. Every time I performed well on V, I was active and totally involved, here I suffered fro every question and they mastered me.
Result: Q28V22 580 ... totally puzzled


My preparation
When I started my preparation 2 months ago my goal was 580. I do not need more given the program I apply with my school demand that score. I worked on OG11, OG green, OG purple, Kaplan 800. I learnt a lot on all grammatical rules and was confident in my possibilities to score more than 580. Little by little, the GMAT really interests me and I decided to intesively work on it so as to get a good score. I did not have any plan, I just worked everyday V and Q during more or less 40 days. My progression in V was encouraging and gained skills but it does not seem to be the case.


The solution(s)?
I would like to retake it, even if it is not necessary. Indeed, I really feel ashamed by this score and I can't let the GMAT beat me like that! No way! So please according to all these things, give me some ideas to explain my failure.

My practice tests are not wonderful, but I am around 650 in general. I started doing the AWA before the Q and V at Gmatprep2. I did everything to be as close as the exam conditions: AWA - 10' break - Q - 10' break - V
Gmat prep1: 640 Q49V27
Powerprep1: 640 Q49V28
Powerprep2: 710 Q50V35
Gmatprep2: 640 Q50V27
MGMAT: 650 Q45V35
Veritas prep: Q52, did not do the V
Kaplan: 650 Q44V39

I do not understand what I did wrong and what I have to look at. My verbal was weak but I never thought about getting a V22...
My maths score is also disappointing... I really expected more.

Do you have any clue to explain my 580 which is around 70 to 80 points above the mean of all my practice?
Hope to hear you.

Thanks for all members, I really enjoyed learning and helping people on questions.

All days don't go the same way.. and your day of GMAT wasn't the D-Day for you, all i can say.

Looking at the score (especially quant) vis'-a-vis' your quant ability (having observed at our Prob solving forum) all i can say this is not your actual potential.You surely can do a lot better and can get a perfect quant score.
From your test day experience, it seems you got lost gradually after the first q baffled you.From my personal experience, sometimes i get stumped by some not so difficult questions rather than by some hard questions.

But for verbal you should practise more as you said you are weak.

The test environment or condition on our state of mind some times makes the whole test experience more stressfull.This is the single most important factor that can make or break one's performance.

You can take a break and retake all the on line tests (to gain more confidence) with some more verbal preping.

All the best for a 700+ score.


cheers,
Amitansu
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by sp19 » Sat Sep 06, 2008 8:05 pm
pepeprepa.
are you sure you scored 28 on Quant ? Can you please tell me when did you take your test ? Because I took on 29th Aug and I share same experience as yours. But in my case I have Quant 43 and Verbal 20 and I scored total of 530. But you say you scored 580 with Quant 28 and Verbal 22.

I am also in the same boat like you. I have target scored of 580 which is what my target college is loooking for. I used to score exactly like you a little less. I used to get 630s in all MGMATs and 600,610 in GMATPrep and verbal around ranging 27-32. But I scored 20 on the G-day...I am also shattered.

Please let me know if your score really was 580 with mentioned scaled score.


Can anyone please guide me too?
Thanks,
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by sudhir3127 » Sat Sep 06, 2008 8:36 pm
sp19 wrote:pepeprepa.
are you sure you scored 28 on Quant ? Can you please tell me when did you take your test ? Because I took on 29th Aug and I share same experience as yours. But in my case I have Quant 43 and Verbal 20 and I scored total of 530. But you say you scored 580 with Quant 28 and Verbal 22.

I am also in the same boat like you. I have target scored of 580 which is what my target college is loooking for. I used to score exactly like you a little less. I used to get 630s in all MGMATs and 600,610 in GMATPrep and verbal around ranging 27-32. But I scored 20 on the G-day...I am also shattered.

Please let me know if your score really was 580 with mentioned scaled score.


Can anyone please guide me too?
Thanks,
I think the Quant score shud be 48 and not 28.
Last edited by sudhir3127 on Sat Sep 06, 2008 9:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by sp19 » Sat Sep 06, 2008 8:52 pm
sudhir3127,
i did not get your point. can please elaborate more ? quant 48 and 28 ?

i think we should let pepeprepa answer more about it.


Thanks.
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by pepeprepa » Sun Sep 07, 2008 1:59 am
Yeah guys that is Q48, not Q28 :D
Thanks all of you for your messages, I take a break for the moment.
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by sp19 » Sun Sep 07, 2008 8:27 am
I think verbal is also 28 and not 22 right ? Because 48 and 22 is still not a 580.
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by pepeprepa » Sun Sep 07, 2008 8:38 am
Q: 48 Percentile: 84
V: 22 Percentile: 27
580 Percentile: 60
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