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bombing the GMAT

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bombing the GMAT

by kap » Mon Apr 11, 2011 6:25 am
I'm going to take my GMAT tomorrow, and I'm fairly certain that it's going to be a complete and utter failure. I've been studying vigorously for over three months now. My goal was a 700. I took a practice test mid way through my studies to guage my progress and scored a 660. At the time, I was pleased with this score as I assumed that I would reach my goal upon the completion of the second half of my studies. However, I took a practice test one week before my test and my score dropped 60 points. I was pretty frustrated but I reviewed some issues and took second practice test two days later to redeem myself. 40 point improvement, but still worse than I had been doing 2 months earlier.

So I cracked down and worked on my weaknesses all weekend so that I could get my score back up. In an effort not to burn myself out and lower my confidence even more, I decided against taking another full practice test on the Sunday before my Tuesday exam. I spent the time working on my weak areas and then did a timed 20 problem quant set and 20 problem verbal set. 50% accuracey on both... bomb, AGAIN! Most of my mistakes are not mind busters, so I'm fairly confident I possess the proper foundation to tackle these problems. I don't know what my issue is. But I have yet to see any sign that I will pull through on the exam. I'm fully expecting to equally bomb the official test, though it'd be nice if that were not the case since I feel confident when I'm working through the problems individually.

Any words of encouragement would be greatly appreciated.
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by kap » Mon Apr 11, 2011 6:28 am
P.S.- I'm definitely going to walk in there with the attitude that I am going to crush the test and never have to go back to that testing center again. I'm not even studying today, I have a massage scheduled this evening to relax, I'm going to eat a good dinner, and then get some sleep. But I still have this over hanging feeling that my final score will be exactly where my recent practice tests have been, which is just a huge disappointment to me given all the work and effort I've put in to this thing.
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Mon Apr 11, 2011 9:06 am
Hey Kap,

I love the follow-up post...it certainly can't hurt to go in confidently and you probably have much more reason to be confident than you'd think!

As far as that set of questions from this weekend, consider this - you have absolutely no idea how a 50% correct percentage on a single set of 40 questions would translate to a GMAT score. Were those "easy" questions? Were they "difficult"? Were the problems disproportionately skewed toward your weaknesses? Were they completely accurate (OG-style) or were they "what you had left" and maybe not the most representative of GMAT questions?

I wouldn't get too hung up on "50% correct". Frankly, if they were above-average difficulty questions that percentage could easily translate to pretty high GMAT score.

What's most important is that you took a few lessons from that set (e.g. "I need to be really careful to double-check that I've answered the right question, because at least three of my mistakes were in that genre") and that you go into the test relaxed and confident. Don't let that last set of 40 shake your confidence - honestly, it's just as likely that you performed extremely well in a CAT context as it is that you underperformed, and either way the only score that matters is the one you get tomorrow. Control what you still can and don't let one interpretation of yesterday derail that.
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Mon Apr 11, 2011 9:32 am
I thought it might be useful to throw out some numbers to add to what Brian said.

When I was writing the article Taking the GMATPrep Practice Tests Multiple Times (https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/03/ ... tiple-times), I took GMATPrep practice test #1 four times, and each time I answered every second question correctly (I did this for the quant section only)

Given that I correctly answered exactly half of the questions each time, you'd expect my quant scores to be about the same for all 4 tests.
My 4 scaled scores were: 19, 23, 26 and 42
This represents a percentile range from approximately 8th percentile of to the 63rd percentile

So, it's not about how many questions you answer correctly; it's about the level of difficulty of the questions you answer correctly.
Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com
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by kap » Mon Apr 11, 2011 9:33 am
Thanks for the feedback!

The practice set was from a mgmat practice test, I just did the first 20 of both. The questions I was getting wrong were actually quite easy, like 300-500 range! I was just making silly mistakes or falling for obvious traps. I performed a lot better on the more difficult questions actually, excluding the one 700-800 range question I got- which I also missed due to a silly assumption I made.

I'm actually hoping that the nerves tomorrow will force me to focus more! I know the material, I just need to the play the mental game I guess and be alert. I'm ready to crush this thing but I just hate the idea of seeing a poor score at the end and feeling my heart drop in utter disappointment with myself.
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by kap » Wed Apr 13, 2011 7:13 am
I just took my test yesterday and I ended up scoring a 700! I was really happy with my results and am pleased to say that I'm officially done with the GMAT : )

Thanks for all the words of wisdom and encouragement. I think changing my attitude and trusting in the work that I'd done already really helped me to reach my goal.
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Wed Apr 13, 2011 10:05 am
Wow - great news, Kap! I'm thrilled to hear that you stayed confident and that doing so paid off...I figured that that would happen.

Congratulations to you, and let this be a lesson to others here - please, please don't let the results of one homework set or practice test shake the confidence that you've earned over weeks and months of studying! If you've put in the time leading up to your test, the only thing you have to fear is fear itself, so don't succumb to that.
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