I just Beat The GMAT!

Well, I just got out of the test center and I'd have to say I'm pretty disappointed. Ended up with a 640 (Q36 V41).

I'm mostly shocked with my weak quant score. I took every Manhattan GMAT practice test, both GMATPrep tests, and a Princeton Review test and never ended up with a quant score nearly as low as a 36. I think my lowest ever prior to today was a 40, and I usually averaged a 44-48.

I felt like the questions on the test kept hitting my quant weak spots repeatedly and I was in a major rush. Ended up with 20 minutes and around 15 questions left. I know I should have stuck to the 2 minute rule, but I fell in the trap of, "well...if I spend a little more time on this one, I'll get it right..." Verbal, on the other hand, felt like a breeze the whole way through.

Crazy thing is that in the past I've almost always done better on the math parts of standardized tests than the verbal parts. I typically do very well in math classes. I guess the fact that there are so many engineers and the like taking the test that it's a bit tougher to get a high math score on.

I studied:
- All of the Manhattan GMAT Math books, except for Fractions, Decimals, and Percents.
- OG 12 (all problems quant, bit more than half verbal)

Verbal wise, I'm definitely satisfied. Only a few days of studying really helped me improve my scores here. I went from averaging about a 36V to 40+ consistently. I am a native English speaker though, so this obviously helps. I love the fact that the GMAT doesn't test vocabulary, poetry, old English, or anything like that.

A week before the test, I took GMATPrep 2 and got a 750 (Q48, V45). Obviously, this didn't correlate too much with my real score. There were a few repeat questions though from the OG, so I guess that messed things up a bit.

Anyways, that's my debrief. My next plan of action is to study for quant some more and take it again next month. My goal is to get a 680+...not going for an MBA as I'll be a fresh UGrad, but instead a top MS Accounting/Finance program and perhaps later a Ph.D.

needless to say try again..
you have already aced the verbal..for quant all you need is get the basics right.. practice a lot..
you haven't mentioned any practice tests apart from the GMAT prep..u should take some tractice tests. that will get you some pratice and you will learn when to guess and move on..
olve questions on the forum and try to understand the explanations especially the ones from the instructors..

good luck next time..its not gonna be hard for you

I feel your pain. I just got a 640 with Q38 and V40 and I was hoping for something around 680.

I'm trying to debate if it's worth dropping another $250 for the gamble that things will be better or if I should just take a night class to show that I'm working on my weak quantitative score.

Even I have the same experience with the Quant.... Sorry to learn that.

Thanks for the support guys and good luck to those of you who also will be retaking. Will keep in mind some of the advice given here. I'm working on hitting my weak spots hard, (think word translations part of MGMAT) so hopefully that helps things out for my next take.

screamingsoftly - I think it depends on what you're getting on practice test scores. If you've tested at numbers much higher than a Q38 then it's pretty clear that you could do better and a retake would probably be worth it. If not, you'd have to think about whether you want to put the time in to study the kinds of questions you're missing for a while or not.

If you're right on the borderline for the school(s) you're applying to, then yeah you're in a pretty tough situation. I'd say that unless $250 would be a big hit to you financially you should go for it.

Agreed, while I have been averaging at about 660 consistently I just have a fear in the back of my head that if I retake the test somehow things could end up worse.

Before I rush into anything I'm going to meet with an Admissions Adviser from the school and solicit his opinion. Average GMAT score at my school of choice is 663 so I'm close but my undergraduate studies didn't include many quantitative courses.

I'm going to clear my head a bit for now and start trying to brainstorm on the essays. Good luck with the retake, let me know how it goes.

I am having exactly opposite problem of is being discussed here. I took my GMAT today. 570 (Q48 V21) (

@sreak, what happened mate....

u were going good in ur preps....was the verbal tricky?

Yes mate, I felt verbal was tricky. Actually, I felt I was doing well on Verbal, mainly because, I was getting tougher and tougher questions and I assumed that I was doing well on Verbal.

On the otherhand in Quant, I felt I was getting easy questions one after the other and I able to solve them in no time. I did not really see any tough permutations or probability questions or that many tricky geometry problems. At the break time, I doubted if I did poorly in first few questions in Quant, because I could not really see any tough problems in the later stage.

gmat_dest wrote:@sreak, what happened mate....

u were going good in ur preps....was the verbal tricky?

reminds me when i gave gmat in may..quant was pretty easy..and i guessed quite a few ..ended up with Q48...it was the verbal which was the pain....killer passages that can bore anyone to death :P ended up with V28.

Oh yeah, I too get too bored with RCs. I get so frustrated, at times I feel, why do they have to include Verbal and I wish there was only Quant in GMAT

I got a 36 in Quant on Saturday. I've been using the GMAT Hacks Math Bible.

sreak1089 wrote:Yes mate, I felt verbal was tricky. Actually, I felt I was doing well on Verbal, mainly because, I was getting tougher and tougher questions and I assumed that I was doing well on Verbal.

On the otherhand in Quant, I felt I was getting easy questions one after the other and I able to solve them in no time. I did not really see any tough permutations or probability questions or that many tricky geometry problems. At the break time, I doubted if I did poorly in first few questions in Quant, because I could not really see any tough problems in the later stage.

gmat_dest wrote:@sreak, what happened mate....

u were going good in ur preps....was the verbal tricky?

Same exact thing happened to me in both sections.

Hey Catalyst ... what was ur score...?

For Quant, I have been using MGMAT books for Number properties and Inequalities apart from training material from a local institute in India..

dombarb wrote:I got a 36 in Quant on Saturday. I've been using the GMAT Hacks Math Bible.