GMAT Strategy

It was my third attempt on the beast -- the GMAT. Got 500 (V-20, Q-40). First attempt 540 (V-21, Q-43) and second attempt 430 (V-18, Q-35). My story is all about my verbal scores. My first attempt was in December 2006 when i got 540. I had taken Princeton Review course before my first attempt. I was so rusted in Quant, and PR helped a lot in polishing my Quant.

After my first attempt i studied off and on over the next year of 2007 and went for my second attempt in December 2007. For this second attempt i prepared from OG-11, Official Verbal and Quant Review books, old PDF tests by GMAC, Manhattan SC, CR Bible by PowerScore (fantastic book for CR), SC Bible and notes/feedbacks available on net (the flash cards by beathegmat are excellent and reinforced my understanding of the topics). I also made notes for both verbal and Quant from all the best books available in the market on GMAT (PR, Kaplan all books, Barrens, Arco and NOVA). After going through all that material, I took GMAT Prep and got 36, 35 and 36 in verbal. I was satisfied that i had improved because when i first time took GMATPrep (a year back) my verbal scores were 28, 30, 33. I went for the actual GMAT in December 2007 for my second attempt and got 18 in verbal . I was shocked that after going through such an extensive material my verbal score went down from 21 to 18. I thought there must be something seriously wrong with me and i am not retaining what i go through. But the thing was that i never got 18 in verbal even when i took GMATPrep first time in December 2006 before my first attempt. As I mentioned above, at that time my practice verbal scores were 28, 30, 33.

Anyway, I thought definitely something seriously wrong with my understanding of the verbal topics. I decided to go for the 3rd attempt and prepared from some more material and repeated OG-10 (remember i had gone through the OG-11 and Review books twice before). I studied Manhattan CR and RC books and got some more tips from it. I did 50 GRE passages as well as 100 CR questions from LSAT. My average correction rate on them was 60% with GMAT time. Above all I was in the “above average” and “excellent” categories in the OG-11 diagnostic test.

With all the above preparation, I went for my 3rd attempt on March 8, 2008 (2 months after my 2nd attempt). My score is 500 (V-20, Q-40). Again verbal 20 . How come? I believe now I can do SC even blindfolded with the brail system. How on the earth I am not going beyond 20 in my actual GMAT while my GMATPrep results are all around 35/36 and never got less than 28 in it even when I was a GMAT baby and saw the GMATPrep first time.

It’s unbelievable now that after 3 three GMAT attempts and with all the material and repeat of OG guides 3 times I’m not going above 20 in Verbal. Even if you just random guess you get 10-12 in verbal and how come I am getting just 20 after all this preparation? I am going for my 4th attempt in few months. Any help out there !!!???

you are not alone. hang in there !!

Hi Ron,

Thanks for your insightful reply.

Your reply definitely explains something what i am looking for i.e. am i really bad in time management?

For this 3rd attempt i decided to repeat the OG-10 only, and for obvious reasons because i had already done OG-11 and Review Guides twice. This time around I did all the questions in OG-10 with timer (here i must also mention that, except 1-2% of the questions, i didn't find the OG-10 questions as already seen). In both Quants and Verbal my correction rate was between 80% and 85% in timed conditions. I never did a full set of 30-40 questions with timer rather i would do a set of 5 questions with timer (applying average GMAT time per question). Or sometimes i just did each question with timer and would see whether i did it in average time.

Here i should also mention one key point that somehow explains my low scores in the actual exam, despite the good practice results, that is: sometimes, maybe 1 in 5 questions, i did spend extra extra time like spending 5-6 mins on a difficult question just out of the habit that i can solve the questions without realizing the time constraint. And i think that habit also hampers my time management in the actual exams. For example, i took 5-6 minutes in answering the first Quant question and i am sure i did it wrong. It was not a difficult question, i had done many questions of that type and know the trick in it, but somehow i could not do it and wasted 5-6 mins. That definitely created panic and i ended up with only 40 in the Quant. Though i know i should have solved the first question or at least should not waste time on it. But here again my Quant practice results were also between 40 and 45. So 40 is almost what i got in practice.

I can definitely ascribe lack of time management, and resultant panic, as the root cause of my low Quant score. But what exactly happens with Verbal in actual exams? Is that bad habit of spending extra time on difficult questions mar my Verbal also? But if this is the case then how come i did better in Practice exams? That's the mystery .

During the actual exam i was moving smoothly in the Verbal. I did not panic in verbal until when 2-3 are left with 1 minute reaming. For both Verbal and Quants, i think i randomly guessed 2-3 questions in the end.

Anyhow, I have few questions:-

1. Does that random guessing of last 2-3 questions disturb the scores?
2. Should i quit looking at the GMAT questions for sometime, say for 2 months, and then start all over again? Or should i keep in touch with GMAT with slow pace, say solving 5 questions of each type daily or 4-5 times a week, and then take the GMAT after 2-3 months?

I believe if you stop looking at the GMAT stuff, you lose not only the rhythm but also the knack to solve such GMAT questions.

(My AWA result has just arrived and got 4.5 in it).

Regards

Nauman

Hi I am myself new to GMAT. In the sense that I have just started preparing.. I feel you should take time off. Start fresh after a couple of months. BUt dnt forget the concepts that u have learnt. I am sure this will help you a lot. I feel u have gotten urself too much entangled into the gmat stuff that ur mind is nt able to think properly. take a 2 month break. prepare for the next 3-4 months and give it a shot. I am sure u will be a happier lot.

Such things happen to everyone even many times i am also facing same problem be patient and enjoy what you are doing.

Thanks for the encouragment Michel.

hes right putting pressure makes you do bad because you think about time and not the question