I just Beat The GMAT!

I have been a silent reader on this forum, but did learn a lot from others. Probably have not been able to convert those learnings into results.

I gave GMAT in 2006 with 2 months of prep mainly through Manhatten SC,OG, princeton review books, kaplan books and got 700. I applied to few colleges got reject. Then changed job and focused on it and didn't plan to apply for some time.

Last year started prep again, looked for resources did OG 12, purchased LSAT stuff for RC, CR, did Manhatten SC. Started with Manhatten CAT of 640, and continued and reached 730 in GMAT prep in 2-3 months. Then worst came had to cancel my GMAT appointment date for some reasons and didn't get enough time from job to prepare again.

Finally 2.5 months back pushed myself again to prepare along with stressful job of 12-14 hrs, some how tried to be regular but many times because was so tired that couldn't devote sufficient time. Took Manhatten CATs, scores were - 690, 690, 750, 720. Didnt attempt GMAT prep, did GMAT prep more based on sections than complete test.

Took test date last week .

Gave GMAT today and scored 690 Q-48, V-36. I never imagined that I would go so low in verbal. In the test didn't realize I was doing so poor in verbal.

I used to get good accuracy in CR, RC, SC in OG more than 85-88% even in LSAT official papers my accuracy for CR was more than 90%.

I need to figure out where I went wrong. One thing for sure is I was prepared less than what I thought I am. In Quant my scores in Manhatten used to be 46,48,48,even 51(had seen 4 or 5 questions earlier in some forum), my pace was not very great I used to stuggle out on last few questions and had to mark without solving. Even in today's test I paced decent but some how screwed my timing on some 30th question and got only 7-8 min for 8 questions had to mark 4-5 in series without solving. In verbal my scores were 36,38,45, I believe my level was somewhat near 700 and I had imagined to get more than 730-740 for which I was not prepared.

Now the only thing is I have exhausted GMAT Prep, Manhatten CATs, from where I will practise in future? Also with the current level of job engagement, and family requirements, I don't know how I am going to push my self again for this.....

On a second note, verbal in GMAT is harder than OG for sure, even RCs were real time consuming...quant was ok, in the entire test I can say 3 or 4 questions were non solvable.. if I would have managed time properly I might have ended in 50.

Hi,

Sorry to hear your scores were not upto what you expected. Some random thoughts below:

1. Score variance is not too high. Essentially GMAT tests you and its hard to "beat" the system too much. I would say given the kind of stress you had at your job, and the time you spent overall - 36 is not as bad.

2. Remember that on the day of the test your scores can vary by as much as 50 points. So on a good day you can get 720 and a bad day it can go down to 670. If you are confident you can do better - take the second shot as soon as possible since you already have the momentum.

3. My suggestion is to stick to as much as possible to OG questions. See if you can get your hands on OG 10, 11, verbal supplement, and most importantly GMATPrep questions on forums. They are the best way to practice. More important than practicing is to ensure you are internalizing and learning from each question.

4. No test prep question/scoring algorithm is going to match the real thing. So please take it with a pinch of salt. Focus instead on what you are learning from the questions. I think you get too bogged down by the final 3-digit number.

5. LSAT is a different test than GMAT. Lawyers take LSAT and so the language, and the kind of difficulty is totally different. I would suggest you stop studying for LSAT and focus instead on GMAT.

Think about where you went wrong, introspect well and then realign your preparation. I am confident you will do well.

Arun

hey Arun thanks a lot, I do need to appear again and about LSAT you are right even I realized later the question types are really different and its CR are much more logical and clear than cr from OG..

just one thing which I want to understand, I had appeared for GMAT on 10th Aug 2006, and now appeared on 26th Dec 2010, do you think my score report will have my older score of 700, i mean if I appear again after 3-4 months in that case will I be having 3 scores on score report or only 2 scores as I had appeared 5 years back on my first attempt?

thanks