So I'm obviously a lurker (sorry!) as this is my first post.
I took the GMAT last year (December) and scored a 650 (43Q/37V). I just took it again 2 days ago and scored worse!! 640 (42Q/37V).
I want to get into a top 10 school, so I decided to take the Manhattan GMAT course this past summer. I thought it was great...go to me rethink how I think and built a bit of confidence in me. The materials I used were the MGMAT books and the OG's (12th, green and blue). I didn't do a single OG problem without a timer. I kept track with the Manhattan tracker. I deeply reviewed each problem type and reworked missed OG problems 3 times until I knew how to approach the problem from several different ways. I also was getting about 65% of the questions right in the "198 700+ level GMAT quant questions" document that is floating around on here.
My test scores are as follows:
First attempt at GMAT December 2009 - 650 (43Q/37V)
MGMAT CATS
1 650 (45Q/34V) at start of prep in May 2010
2 690 (44Q/39V) - 6/15/10
3 650 (44Q/35V) - 8/8/2010
4 740 (47Q/44V) - 8/19/2010
5 710 (48Q/38V) - 9/6/2010
GMAT Prep 1 720 (48Q/42V) - 9/18/2010
GMAT Prep 2 750 (49Q/42V) - 9/28/2010
Actual GMAT Oct 2, 2010- 640 (42Q/37V) <---- lowest quant score, yet, and verbal was lower than on 5 of my practice tests!
So on Test Day, I'm feeling somewhat confident. Naturally, I was nervous, but not as nervous as I was the first time. I set in my mind that if improved from a 650 (official score from last year) to a 690, I would consider the journey a success. Well, start the quant section and I already feel screwed. A lot of the questions that were thrown at me stumped me...like they were new question types (but I knew they weren't). I had to guess on many more than I ever did during practice and could not figure out several of the questions. Also, I got so many percent/fraction/decimal questions I felt like, and I know this is a weak point for me (although in my prep, my educated guessing actually saved me...but I wonder if it was just really really dumb luck?). The guessing and not knowing what the heck I was doing reflected in my official score. On the verbal, I honestly felt like was doing a great job, but that was obviously not the case. During OG practice, I'm getting nearly all CR and most SC and RC questions correct (including practice tests). I felt so prepared for this exam, and it was such a kick in the **** to see that I did WORSE after 6 months/3hrs a day (average) of prep �.
Any suggestions on what I should do or if I should even retake this blasted test? I feel like I can't beat it at this point. I was confident, felts like I was at my peak, and I bombed. Because of this feel defeated...how am I supposed to know if I'll really improve?
Too bad we can't just submit our GMATPrep scores LOL. And I don't trust GMATPrep's accuracy anymore. The test seems like its evolved much since this software was released.
I appreciate any feedback. You guys are great...sorry to be a lurker!
I'm down, but not out completely...thanks!
I took the GMAT last year (December) and scored a 650 (43Q/37V). I just took it again 2 days ago and scored worse!! 640 (42Q/37V).
I want to get into a top 10 school, so I decided to take the Manhattan GMAT course this past summer. I thought it was great...go to me rethink how I think and built a bit of confidence in me. The materials I used were the MGMAT books and the OG's (12th, green and blue). I didn't do a single OG problem without a timer. I kept track with the Manhattan tracker. I deeply reviewed each problem type and reworked missed OG problems 3 times until I knew how to approach the problem from several different ways. I also was getting about 65% of the questions right in the "198 700+ level GMAT quant questions" document that is floating around on here.
My test scores are as follows:
First attempt at GMAT December 2009 - 650 (43Q/37V)
MGMAT CATS
1 650 (45Q/34V) at start of prep in May 2010
2 690 (44Q/39V) - 6/15/10
3 650 (44Q/35V) - 8/8/2010
4 740 (47Q/44V) - 8/19/2010
5 710 (48Q/38V) - 9/6/2010
GMAT Prep 1 720 (48Q/42V) - 9/18/2010
GMAT Prep 2 750 (49Q/42V) - 9/28/2010
Actual GMAT Oct 2, 2010- 640 (42Q/37V) <---- lowest quant score, yet, and verbal was lower than on 5 of my practice tests!
So on Test Day, I'm feeling somewhat confident. Naturally, I was nervous, but not as nervous as I was the first time. I set in my mind that if improved from a 650 (official score from last year) to a 690, I would consider the journey a success. Well, start the quant section and I already feel screwed. A lot of the questions that were thrown at me stumped me...like they were new question types (but I knew they weren't). I had to guess on many more than I ever did during practice and could not figure out several of the questions. Also, I got so many percent/fraction/decimal questions I felt like, and I know this is a weak point for me (although in my prep, my educated guessing actually saved me...but I wonder if it was just really really dumb luck?). The guessing and not knowing what the heck I was doing reflected in my official score. On the verbal, I honestly felt like was doing a great job, but that was obviously not the case. During OG practice, I'm getting nearly all CR and most SC and RC questions correct (including practice tests). I felt so prepared for this exam, and it was such a kick in the **** to see that I did WORSE after 6 months/3hrs a day (average) of prep �.
Any suggestions on what I should do or if I should even retake this blasted test? I feel like I can't beat it at this point. I was confident, felts like I was at my peak, and I bombed. Because of this feel defeated...how am I supposed to know if I'll really improve?
Too bad we can't just submit our GMATPrep scores LOL. And I don't trust GMATPrep's accuracy anymore. The test seems like its evolved much since this software was released.
I appreciate any feedback. You guys are great...sorry to be a lurker!
I'm down, but not out completely...thanks!
