Ehh. Okay with Verbal, but have done better on quant.

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Came back from my exam about 40 minutes ago. Scored a pretty lukewarm 640. The verbal part was 38, which is fine with me. However, the quant returned a pretty heart numbing 39. I think that this is pretty pitiful, especially given the fact that I have been scoring in the 40s for over a month now. I am considering retaking the test because of the quant section. We'll see. I'll sleep on it for a few days.

Overall, I thought that the difficulty of the math and verbal sections was exactly like the OG and the GMATPrep material. There were a few surprises, but I saw surprise problems on GMATPrep also; they're not something you can prepare for.

I cannot blame my quant score on nerves or lack of sleep or anything at all. I ran out of time on the last 2 questions and had to guess, though I would have been able to solve question 36 if I had 2 minutes for it. Still, the last time I took GMATPrep, I got a 45 on quant with only one repeat.

The algorithm on the real test IS different from GMATPrep, so maybe I have been scoring 39 or 41 on GMATPrep also. BUT, I still feel that I could have done better on the quant section. Again, I'll sleep on it.

Here is what I think about each section of the test:

Quant: the same problems as the OG guides and the GMATPrep software. There were three questions that were very poorly worded - two were actually grammatically incorrect - but I think these were experimental questions.

Verbal: Sentence correction was the same difficulty as the OG and GMATPrep. I would say the same for critical reasoning. There were two CR questions that I had to guess on because they just did not make sense to me. Reading comprehension.... I got lucky. Two of the four RC passages were about topics I read A LOT of books and papers about. I finished each in about 4 minutes. There was 1 science passage, 1 business passage, 1 social science passage, and 1 passage that was somewhere between social science and business. For some reason I feel like there was a fifth passage, but for the life of me I cannot remember it.

AWA: The first essay was OK. I covered all of the bases but that did not feel that it was a very strong essay overall. I would give myself a 4.5 for it. The second essay however, I would give myself a solid 6. Though I did not practice AWA much at all, I have written 20-page papers for sociology, philosophy, and English classes for the last 5 years, so believe me that was plenty of practice.

That's all I've got.
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by AleksandrM » Mon Jul 21, 2008 2:13 pm
Scheduled another attempt for September 8th. This time, I am going to split my time between verbal and quant. I am going to kick the crap out of critical reasoning and sentence correction questions. On the 8th, I better see a score in the 40s on both parts.

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by beeparoo » Thu Jul 24, 2008 7:18 am
Hey AleksandrM,
I see you posting a lot on Beat the GMAT so I want to wish you luck on your next attempt. Perseverance pays off in the end!

Bon chance!
Sandra

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by AleksandrM » Thu Jul 24, 2008 9:30 am
Thanks, Sandra.

Paradoxically, while I am taking the test again in order to increase my quant score, I am spending more time on verbal. I think that the principle of "less is more" might pay off. I have pretty much achieved the highest point I can on the quant section - I have been scoring in the low to mid-40s on practice tests - so I am pretty sure that I made some pretty stupid mistakes on the test. Therefore, I think that just reviewing quant will be just fine. Furthermore, reviewing just 2 days a week of quant will force me to really pay attention to what I am doing and look carefully at the OG approach and explanations. On the other hand, I have completely neglected the verbal section.

I think that my overall score could really increase as long as I don't make stupid mistakes on quant and get the maximum I can out of the MGMAT verbal books I am using.

Thanks again for the encouragement.

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by kvishal » Fri Jul 25, 2008 9:11 am
hi mate

well my story is no different from yours.just gave my GMAT and got 640 (Q42, V35).when I saw my quant I was taken aback because in GMAT Prep I was getting about 47-48,so 42 was an absolute setback.However I seriously flawed on timing.I got some difficult questions and took so much time on them that in the end had to breeze through 4-5 questions,not even educated guesses.
I will be giving GMAT sometime in March next year and this time will focus on strategy.I also need to improve verbal as verbal can really life the score.And I like your spirit,you should keep up the tempo and I have the same attitude.
Cheers!