Scored 40 point less than my previous score(need help)

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Ghosh!! .....what can I say about yesterday.....I cried the whole day even in the test center......I had given GMAT earlier 6 months back without studying anything and I scored 480(38Q, 19V).

I gave it yesterday again for the second time, I scored 440(39Q, 13V) .......I had studied 2 months for this one..

I used Manhatten and gave all 6 manhatten tests
My scored in MGMAT were

MGMAT 1 - 540
MGMAT 2 - 560
MGMAT 3 - 620
MGMAT 4 - 590
MGMAT 5 - 630

None of my scores were below 540 ... but when I went for the real one ...not a single question came from Manhatten or Official guide....was a big bad luck for me.

Another imp thing that struck me hard is that the first question for both Quants and Verbal were almost 800 pointers

The paper stated itself with 800 pointer which I haven't expected at all. I took almost 6-8 minutes to answer that(ans were probably wrong) and then lost my confidence for getting the first 10 questions right.

Though I managed in Quants to reach 39 and since it comes before verbal, I messed the whole thing in verbal.
RC's and CR were very tough. Tougher than the MGMAT one's. I lost speed later on and had just minutes left when I started guess work for the remaining 15 questions in the end.


I feel in the middle of the 16th question in verbal My computer was slightly got hanged for a moment say 10 seconds. I saw the timing changed a bit. Didn't calculate the exact one before and after it was hang but I think the verbal paper ended somewhat early than my quants(may be 5-10 minutes).

Is timing reduction possible if your PC gets hanged in between......I actually don't know whats the main reason for that.


I have scheduled my last GMAT appointment on March 11....can somebody please help me what strategy should I apply to reach atleast 25-30 in verbal. I am actually a non native English speaker.

Appreciate your help...
Hrishi

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by money9111 » Sun Jan 31, 2010 10:06 am
hrishi19884 sorry to hear about your experience... don't worry though getting your score up shouldn't be too difficult if you can learn the basics.

i see that you took all MGMAT practice tests... these scores can be misleading because their Verbal sections are easier than the real verbal sections, so that would explain why the surprising score.

what sources did you use to study for the exam? if we know this, we may be able to help you develop a strategy

cheer up!
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by taposh_dr » Sun Jan 31, 2010 10:53 am
Hey hrishi19884,

Looks like what you need is more practice with respect to time. I know people knowing every thing and being prepared, some times get nervous and forget everything. You need to change your thinking towards the exam. Think its a game, have confidence and attack like a gamer. Say "Come on Gmat !!! Hit me hard and I will still reply you correctly".

Of course nothing can be achieved without hard-work. But along with it you need patience and attitude. I think you have worked hard, just develop the attitude and I am sure you will do a lot better.

Good luck..

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by Osirus@VeritasPrep » Sun Jan 31, 2010 5:11 pm
I'm a native speaker and the verbal actually got me as well. I can't tell you if this works or not, but what I'm about to do is go through the Merriam Webster vocabulary builder. I'm also going through two grammar books just to get the basics of grammar down so I can get the sentence correction down.

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by hrishi19884 » Sun Jan 31, 2010 7:06 pm
Hey money9111,

I actually used OG 11 and OG 12 as well as Manhatten online material for practice. I used Wren and Martin for grammar.

The fact is that I am slow in reading and I cannot answer RC without understanding it completely. There I spent plenty of time. During my study time, I had well prepared for SC and CR from MGMAT as well as OGs, but lost confidence in real one and lost much time there too ending in a mess.

Yes, your rightly said that MGMAT verbal is much easier than actual GMAT, that is why I scored less in verbal.
Do any other tests have a good verbal competitive to the real GMAT?

Hey taposh,

Yes, definitely I need to develop more confidence and aggressive attitude towards this exam. I don't have much time now as its just a month to go for my last appointment on 11 March. In verbal it is very difficult to judge which are tough one's and which are not. Is it possible to get atleast a decent score in verbal if I skip RC next time(as already I am a slow reader and takes me lot of time in understanding passages which in GMAT are usually tough)

Hey osirus,

I had done with Wren and Martin before exam, I think I lacked a good strategy for verbal, now already not much time left for my last appointment with GMAT. I need to understand now is what to attend and what to leave during exam so that I won't be landing up with a guesswork of last 15 questions in the end.
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by money9111 » Sun Jan 31, 2010 7:34 pm
Would this help at all? not sure if you have it - The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review, 2nd Edition

I'm not sure how much of it... is dedicated to RC though
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by taposh_dr » Sun Jan 31, 2010 7:58 pm
Hey Hrishi,

Please do-not skip any thing, some RC's can be easy and you can collect good points. Work on the timing. I would recommend coming up with some strategy while giving test

e.g. the total time is 75 mins, so work problems 1-10 by 60th min i.e. Keep an eye on clock and see if you are on problem 10 when the counter hits 60, similarly you are on problem 17or 18 when the counter hits 45, problem 25-26 when counter hits 30, and 33-34 when counter hits 15.

If possible purchase score800's test, which has a cool timing feature.

Just have confidence,

Good luck

T

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by sars72 » Sun Jan 31, 2010 8:52 pm
hrishi19884 wrote:
Hey osirus,

I had done with Wren and Martin before exam, I think I lacked a good strategy for verbal, now already not much time left for my last appointment with GMAT. I need to understand now is what to attend and what to leave during exam so that I won't be landing up with a guesswork of last 15 questions in the end.
wren & martin just won't cut it for the gmat

the Doing Grammar: Fourth Edition book is the best
Last edited by sars72 on Sun Jan 31, 2010 9:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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by hrishi19884 » Sun Jan 31, 2010 9:04 pm
Thanks money9111, taposh,

I will check where I can get this one -"The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review, 2nd Edition " .

Do you think the first 10-15 questions are really important than the later one's? I am asking this because, the calculation that GMAT does in the end to get a final score is still a "Blackbox". No one knows it exactly, except the GMAC organization.

Hence, is it true that one should give more importance to first 10 or 15 questions, especially in verbal(where you cannot judge which one's 800 pointer and which one's 600 one, unless you read it completely and answer it)?

I heard from some of my friends that if you get 80-90% right in first 10-15 questions, the possibility of your score dropping below average level(500) is quite less. Please let me know.
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by hrishi19884 » Sun Jan 31, 2010 9:12 pm
sars72 wrote:
hrishi19884 wrote:
Hey osirus,

I had done with Wren and Martin before exam, I think I lacked a good strategy for verbal, now already not much time left for my last appointment with GMAT. I need to understand now is what to attend and what to leave during exam so that I won't be landing up with a guesswork of last 15 questions in the end.
wren & martin just won't cut it for the gmat

the Doing Grammar book is the best: https://www.amazon.com/Doing-Grammar-Fou ... 750&sr=8-1


Thanks sars72,

Plz let me know how should I time my GMAT. One thing is sure that I cannot complete the whole 41 questions(verbal) in 75 minutes(it's impossible for me). I am always left with 10-15 questions in the end(doing guesswork). Yes but if I skip RC, I am able to complete the whole paper with spare time of some 4-5 minutes. Actually, I score better this way skipping RC than instead attending it and losing time in the end. plz let me know how can I time verbal section properly.
Hrishi

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by papgust » Sun Jan 31, 2010 10:02 pm
Hi Hrishi,

Sorry to hear your bad experience with the exam. I have seen you before answering so many SC questions in this forum and I believe that you are doing good in SC. Maybe you could refresh MGMAT SC guide and solve OG questions. That would be enough for SC.

Maybe you were completely lost in CR and RC. The key in verbal is to practice as many official questions as possible. Always try to stick to OG for CR and RC. Official questions are framed very differently. So, other prep companies try to frame questions like GMAC, but in the end, those questions would never be equivalent to official questions with respect to quality and content. If you exhaust all official materials for CR and RC, then practice LSAT sets. This would do a great deal.

If you want to strengthen your strategies, then go for Pwerscore CR bible. I've personally used that book and i'm completely satisfied with it. I'm sure that others are also satisfied whoever tried this book.

I'm wondering why you are so concerned with how GMAC calculates scores and what GMAC does for first 10-15 questions. First of all, if you want to do well in the exam, just ignore what kind of questions or what level of questions GMAT throws at you. Be focused on how you could solve each problem within less time. There is a false information floating around the internet that answering first 10-15 questions would get you a good score. This is absolutely rubbish. You can search for Eric's article on his experience in a GMAT conference for evidence.

Just think about how a problem could be solved within 2 min and how you could guess if you exceed 2 mins and if you are stuck with that question.

Seeing your scores, you should spend about 70% of your prep time now in verbal. Remember that getting a good score in verbal improves your overall percentile. Again, try to stick to Official materials for Verbal. Stick to other prep materials only if you exhaust Official materials.

Good luck!

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by sars72 » Sun Jan 31, 2010 10:04 pm
hrishi19884 wrote: Thanks sars72,

Plz let me know how should I time my GMAT. One thing is sure that I cannot complete the whole 41 questions(verbal) in 75 minutes(it's impossible for me). I am always left with 10-15 questions in the end(doing guesswork). Yes but if I skip RC, I am able to complete the whole paper with spare time of some 4-5 minutes. Actually, I score better this way skipping RC than instead attending it and losing time in the end. plz let me know how can I time verbal section properly.
Practice, practice, practice

Set urself these timelines to begin with

SC: 1.5 minutes
CR: 2.5 minutes
RC: 6 minutes for short passage and 8 minutes for long passage

once you are comfortably finishing within these timelines,
then make it tighter:
SC: 1 minute
CR: 2 minutes
RC: 5 minutes for short passage and 7 minutes for long passage

You should now be able to finish well ahead of time with these guidelines in place

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by hrishi19884 » Mon Feb 01, 2010 12:36 am
papgust wrote:Hi Hrishi,

Sorry to hear your bad experience with the exam. I have seen you before answering so many SC questions in this forum and I believe that you are doing good in SC. Maybe you could refresh MGMAT SC guide and solve OG questions. That would be enough for SC.

Maybe you were completely lost in CR and RC. The key in verbal is to practice as many official questions as possible. Always try to stick to OG for CR and RC. Official questions are framed very differently. So, other prep companies try to frame questions like GMAC, but in the end, those questions would never be equivalent to official questions with respect to quality and content. If you exhaust all official materials for CR and RC, then practice LSAT sets. This would do a great deal.

If you want to strengthen your strategies, then go for Pwerscore CR bible. I've personally used that book and i'm completely satisfied with it. I'm sure that others are also satisfied whoever tried this book.

I'm wondering why you are so concerned with how GMAC calculates scores and what GMAC does for first 10-15 questions. First of all, if you want to do well in the exam, just ignore what kind of questions or what level of questions GMAT throws at you. Be focused on how you could solve each problem within less time. There is a false information floating around the internet that answering first 10-15 questions would get you a good score. This is absolutely rubbish. You can search for Eric's article on his experience in a GMAT conference for evidence.

Just think about how a problem could be solved within 2 min and how you could guess if you exceed 2 mins and if you are stuck with that question.

Seeing your scores, you should spend about 70% of your prep time now in verbal. Remember that getting a good score in verbal improves your overall percentile. Again, try to stick to Official materials for Verbal. Stick to other prep materials only if you exhaust Official materials.

Good luck!
Thanks brother for your wonderful suggestion. Yes, I agree to you that I should first be perfect on official guides and and those questions equivalent to official guides. Also, that you said about SC and CR, I truly missed them in the exam. Actually I am very good in SC and CR. The reason I missed them was my RC questions went on to me so tough that I could not concentrate further on SC and CR. I will definitely start following your strategy above.

Another thing that troubled me that I was so exhausted in Quants that the 7-8 minutes break between Quant and Verbal was too less for me to get charged again.(though in practice tests I hardly used to take a 2 min break) I was really tired solving essay and Quants, this was also one of the reason I could not concentrate in verbal properly. I was not totally focused during Verbal, my mind went somewhere else in between, that might also be the reason I scored so less in Verbal.

In practice tests you are without any pressure or fear, you do it confidently. But in Real GMAT it's kind of Do or DIe situation and pressure builds in your mind and your mind goes somewhere else. I think that what happened to me.

I need to solve more and more full length practice before my next encounter. Verbal is my big headache now. I need to focus more on timing and RC.

I guess that the GMAC has increased its question bank this Jan as I saw may new questions that I haven't studied before from any OG 11 or OG 12 and also from MGMAT.
Hrishi

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by hrishi19884 » Mon Feb 01, 2010 12:52 am
sars72 wrote:
hrishi19884 wrote: Thanks sars72,

Plz let me know how should I time my GMAT. One thing is sure that I cannot complete the whole 41 questions(verbal) in 75 minutes(it's impossible for me). I am always left with 10-15 questions in the end(doing guesswork). Yes but if I skip RC, I am able to complete the whole paper with spare time of some 4-5 minutes. Actually, I score better this way skipping RC than instead attending it and losing time in the end. plz let me know how can I time verbal section properly.
Practice, practice, practice

Set urself these timelines to begin with

SC: 1.5 minutes
CR: 2.5 minutes
RC: 6 minutes for short passage and 8 minutes for long passage

once you are comfortably finishing within these timelines,
then make it tighter:
SC: 1 minute
CR: 2 minutes
RC: 5 minutes for short passage and 7 minutes for long passage

You should now be able to finish well ahead of time with these guidelines in place

Yes Bro..I really need to start on with the above timelines that you have set. Though it sometimes depends upon the level of RC questions that we get, we should not get stuck in that for more than 6-8 min, which I generally do.
Hrishi

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by hrishi19884 » Mon Feb 01, 2010 1:03 am
Sars, money911, Papgust, taposh and everyone,


You all have rightly said practice can only make it possible, but since I have just a month now to get my verbal scores up by atleast 10-15 points, I need some techniques and strategy too.

For example, I should not spend much time on that question which are above my scope, instead it's valuable to spend it on the easy one's(for which we are atleast sure to get the answers correct). So do you think question selection is important or I should juinst go on solvg as they come about on the screen? Which process will help me to get sufficient score taking into account that I am poor in verbal(i.e. less chance of getting tougher one's right).

Again, since I am too poor in verbal, I don't expect good sore in verbal, just the one that would increase my current verbal score by (10-15) points. I don't expect to get my total score to about 650, 700 and 750 etc. like you guys are trying. Also, it is not possible for me even if I dream about to get those scores. The basic reason for that it I haven't given much time for GMAT preparation(it's just less than two months due to my office work) and now I have just one month for my final encounter. I just expect a steady score of 550, not 10 more or not 10 less. I am confident about Quants but unsure about Verbal. Your suggestions to get my verbal(just 10-15 points) score up are more than welcome.
Hrishi

"As you sow, so shall you reap"