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unexpectedly Bad Score-550 Q49 V17

by er_priyankajolly » Sat Aug 21, 2010 7:42 am
I need guidance...

I have given a number of test Princeton , Manhattan, kaplan
Please see my score range in these tests

Princeton ----620---700 ( Q always 49+ and Verbal between 29-33)

kaplan -------600-710( Q always 49+ verbal between 30-35)

Manhattan (Gave only first 4 tests) -----630-640( Q 32-34 and verbal 31-34)

GMAT Prep 1----700 (Q 49, V 35)

GMAT Prep 2----680( Q 49, V 31)


but my real GMAT exam break up is shocking. Q 49 and Verbal 17!!!!!!!!!!!.
I took the exam on 20 August

I don't understand how did i get 17 in verbal.I know that i am not extremely good at verbal but i expected at least 26 in it. During the test i was not at all nervous...Read each question well and answered to the best of my knowledge. I didn't even rush at the end of the test.I got a lot of sentences which were either completely underlined or 3/4 underlined. I read somewhere that such sentence mark that you are performing good.


Experts please guide me what should i do now................I expected to get 650+ in GMAT but now i have no place to go. I am literary in tears.
I have a good profile overall. But with this score i wouldn't get admission in a good college.
Here is my profile

10th ------90%
12th--------90.2%
Under-graduation ------86%( Stood First in my University and got a gold medal for my performance)

Job Experience -5+ years...I am software engineer. With lot of extra curricular activities like organizing events, teaching poor children on weekends etc....

But GMAT exam has ruined me.............:( I really don't know what to do? I know i would have to retake the exam but i am already at the brim of the admission season. Lots of colleges have already started their admission cycles and i dont know whether a re-attempt would improve my score and whether i would be able to submit my application in time to my dream colleges.

Please guide me what to do. Also if possible let me what could have really happened.
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by Purusha » Sat Aug 21, 2010 5:47 pm
Sorry to hear your GMAT experience didn't go well!

Did you not finish the Verbal section? V17 is really low.

You have to take the test again. Your Quant score is very good so if you get at least V35, you will get close to 700+ and that will be good enough for many of the top 20 B-schools.
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by er_priyankajolly » Sat Aug 21, 2010 6:37 pm
Purusha wrote:Sorry to hear your GMAT experience didn't go well!

Did you not finish the Verbal section? V17 is really low.

You have to take the test again. Your Quant score is very good so if you get at least V35, you will get close to 700+ and that will be good enough for many of the top 20 B-schools.
I know dear But I want to know what happened to me in Verbal?
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by papgust » Sat Aug 21, 2010 7:23 pm
Hi Priyanka,

Really sorry to hear your experience. There are certain things in life which you may not find the answer. I feel that this falls into that category. I have the same experience. I was getting more than 32 in all practice tests, but eventually ended up with a 23 in actual GMAT. I took the exam 4 months back and I still don't understand why i scored poorly in verbal. I did not have any jitters and my concentration levels were high too. But one thing was clear to me - I'm still not on par with verbal. Maybe my strategies are wrong OR my problem solving way is wrong. I don't know about it yet.

I guess you're in the same boat too. My primary suggestion is - Don't use the same resources next time if you're planning to re-take. Of course, this may or may not work for you. But to me, using the same resources may not help me much. For instance, I used Powerscore CR bible and MGMAT SC guide in my prep. Very recently, I casually went through osirus's post in some thread in BTG that Powerscore CR bible sometimes overfeeds the candidate with information (i.e. too much information) which may confuse the candidate in reality rather help him. I really liked that thought and I completely agree to it. Maybe that's the reason why i failed in CR because I've sometimes felt that unintentionally during my prep. Now you could see that this took me 4 months to realize.

For a verbal score of 17, you can be pretty sure that you need to really work hard in all three departments - SC, CR and RC. So, relax and sit back and understand why you are not comfortable with each department. Like how i realized for CR, you may eventually find the root cause of the problem and take remedial action. Like i said, most probably you may need to change the resources (maybe the current resources is not working for you!). Go through some book reviews that are available in BTG and I'm sure that you can find a solution to your problem.

As always, we're here to support you anytime. Good luck!
Download GMAT Math and CR questions with Solutions from Instructors and High-scorers:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/download-gma ... 59366.html

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by er_priyankajolly » Sat Aug 21, 2010 10:36 pm
papgust wrote:Hi Priyanka,

Really sorry to hear your experience. There are certain things in life which you may not find the answer. I feel that this falls into that category. I have the same experience. I was getting more than 32 in all practice tests, but eventually ended up with a 23 in actual GMAT. I took the exam 4 months back and I still don't understand why i scored poorly in verbal. I did not have any jitters and my concentration levels were high too. But one thing was clear to me - I'm still not on par with verbal. Maybe my strategies are wrong OR my problem solving way is wrong. I don't know about it yet.

I guess you're in the same boat too. My primary suggestion is - Don't use the same resources next time if you're planning to re-take. Of course, this may or may not work for you. But to me, using the same resources may not help me much. For instance, I used Powerscore CR bible and MGMAT SC guide in my prep. Very recently, I casually went through osirus's post in some thread in BTG that Powerscore CR bible sometimes overfeeds the candidate with information (i.e. too much information) which may confuse the candidate in reality rather help him. I really liked that thought and I completely agree to it. Maybe that's the reason why i failed in CR because I've sometimes felt that unintentionally during my prep. Now you could see that this took me 4 months to realize.

For a verbal score of 17, you can be pretty sure that you need to really work hard in all three departments - SC, CR and RC. So, relax and sit back and understand why you are not comfortable with each department. Like how i realized for CR, you may eventually find the root cause of the problem and take remedial action. Like i said, most probably you may need to change the resources (maybe the current resources is not working for you!). Go through some book reviews that are available in BTG and I'm sure that you can find a solution to your problem.

As always, we're here to support you anytime. Good luck!

Thanks for your motivation and suggestion......This score doesn't represent my abilities.

My RC was poor. My accuracy in RC varied from 30% to 100%.Accuracy in SC was 80-90% and CR 60%+

May be your are right that i cannot know what really went wrong....But does that signify that GMAT's verbal level has drastically increased. Even GMAT Prep doesn't represent the actual Verbal level of actual GMAT.
I felt that GMAT Prep's Maths was tougher than the one i got at actual test.
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by adi_800 » Sun Aug 22, 2010 2:11 am
Hi priyanka...

Sorry to hear that you had a bad day...
Btw..how was quant?
was it exactly similar to OG12/GMAT prep?
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by er_priyankajolly » Sun Aug 22, 2010 7:35 am
adi_800 wrote:Hi priyanka...

Sorry to hear that you had a bad day...
Btw..how was quant?
was it exactly similar to OG12/GMAT prep?
I found Maths easier than GMAT Prep.In Gmat Prep DS questions are tough. Number property questions were tough but DS didnt involve too much analysis.

I dont know if was true for everybody.
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by papgust » Sun Aug 22, 2010 7:58 am
er_priyankajolly wrote: Thanks for your motivation and suggestion......This score doesn't represent my abilities.

My RC was poor. My accuracy in RC varied from 30% to 100%.Accuracy in SC was 80-90% and CR 60%+

May be your are right that i cannot know what really went wrong....But does that signify that GMAT's verbal level has drastically increased. Even GMAT Prep doesn't represent the actual Verbal level of actual GMAT.
I felt that GMAT Prep's Maths was tougher than the one i got at actual test.

In my opinion, GMATprep verbal questions are somewhat similar to actual GMAT but a few exceptions. In actual exam, SC questions were a bit more convoluted to me and CR passages were confusingly long. But the most accurate indicator of GMAT is undoubtedly GMATPrep.

I'm surprised to hear that you found GMATPrep Math tougher than actual. I've only heard and experienced in the reverse order. People have different perceptions and it looks easy to you.

You mention that RC is your big weakness. Many people (inc myself!) tend to ignore RC while they prepare hard for SC and CR. Honestly speaking, I'm not a very good reader and I tend to get bogged down in detail of the passage. Maybe that hurt me a lot. Remember, active reading is not only important for RC but also for CR and to some extent SC. I definitely lack in active reading. Maybe that's a problem for you too.
Download GMAT Math and CR questions with Solutions from Instructors and High-scorers:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/download-gma ... 59366.html

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GO GREEN..! GO VEG..!

Daily Quote:
"Stop feeling sorry for the Butcher if you had to go Veg. The butcher can find another job but the poor animal cannot get back its life"
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by er_priyankajolly » Sun Aug 22, 2010 8:17 am
papgust wrote:
er_priyankajolly wrote: Thanks for your motivation and suggestion......This score doesn't represent my abilities.

My RC was poor. My accuracy in RC varied from 30% to 100%.Accuracy in SC was 80-90% and CR 60%+

May be your are right that i cannot know what really went wrong....But does that signify that GMAT's verbal level has drastically increased. Even GMAT Prep doesn't represent the actual Verbal level of actual GMAT.
I felt that GMAT Prep's Maths was tougher than the one i got at actual test.

In my opinion, GMATprep verbal questions are somewhat similar to actual GMAT but a few exceptions. In actual exam, SC questions were a bit more convoluted to me and CR passages were confusingly long. But the most accurate indicator of GMAT is undoubtedly GMATPrep.

I'm surprised to hear that you found GMATPrep Math tougher than actual. I've only heard and experienced in the reverse order. People have different perceptions and it looks easy to you.

You mention that RC is your big weakness. Many people (inc myself!) tend to ignore RC while they prepare hard for SC and CR. Honestly speaking, I'm not a very good reader and I tend to get bogged down in detail of the passage. Maybe that hurt me a lot. Remember, active reading is not only important for RC but also for CR and to some extent SC. I definitely lack in active reading. Maybe that's a problem for you too.

Yes your are right i need to be a good active reader. Thanks a ton for your valuable suggestions
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by sumanr84 » Sun Aug 22, 2010 9:11 pm
Sorry to hear about your score. I too scored miserable in the test this month. I agree with Papgust's remarks about the usage of old stuff for re-takers. Give yourself some break and then come back aggressively for next attempt. You will definitely improve.
I am on a break !!
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by arora007 » Mon Aug 23, 2010 2:09 am
Gather yourself.. and retake... I am also thinking of the same... Lets all KILL it! once and for all....
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by kal750gmat » Tue Aug 24, 2010 10:52 pm
Were there nervous issues on the day of the test? Did you get sleepy? How was your timing on the section?
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by lunarpower » Fri Sep 10, 2010 6:02 am
hi --
i received a private message asking me to comment.

there's not a lot of specific advice i can give in response to this thread, since all i have is some numbers representing overall scores. i.e., there are no indications of the original poster's specific weaknesses in different areas of verbal, apart from the one post tagging RC as a primary weakness.

--

if RC is a primary weakness, then you may benefit from re-learning how to read the passages and answer the question types.
check out the "thursday study halls" here:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/thursdays-with-ron.cfm
the AUGUST 17 link discusses these aspects of RC:
* long passages
* how to read (and how not to read) the passages
* main idea questions
the SEPTEMBER 9 link (not up yet, but should be posted in 3-4 days) discusses these aspects:
* short passages
* review of main idea questions
* inference questions
* "strongly supported" questions

go have a look -- that should help.

good luck
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

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