How should I study for a GMAT retake?

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How should I study for a GMAT retake?

by Ace Pilot » Sun May 08, 2011 9:30 am
Ok so I took my GMAT April 30th and scored an embarrassing low 430! I was extremley surprised at the result let alone disappointed. For a 7 month timeframe, this is how I studied for the GMAT: I started out reviewing questions in the OG for about a month. Then I enrolled in the Kaplan on-site course and used their software program to prepare for the test. I felt that I did learn a lot with their strategies. Also I felt that I came a long way with learning the content. However, after the class I had about a month to study on my own. So I took all the CATs 1-9 and scored upper 400's and 500's. My last CAT was actually 580! So I was confident that I would score above a 500 for the real test. Moreover, I focused all my energy on studying with the Kaplan quiz bank questions so that might of been how I scored a 580 because I recognized question types. Although I did take both GMATprep CAT's 1 and 2. Scored a 510 and 500 respectively. I did neglect the OG throughout my preparation and now I am getting the feeling that doing so resulted in a bad score.

My question is, how do I study for the retake? What would be a good plan of action? Also, I am not looking for a 700+ score the school that I am trying to get into will consider my application with a 500+ score and I am confident in my GPA, experience and letters of recommendation. The program is a part time program because I am a working professional. Futhermore, I felt that my weakness was in quantitative and sentence correction. I scored 15th percentile in quantitative and 35th percentile in verbal. My essays were 5.0. Finally the day of the test I felt like crap, slept terrible due to anxiety and the night before I got in a fight with someone while I was surfing. So my mind was not in test mode at all. I wasn't necessarily nervous I kinda felt like I didn't really care. I found myself day dreaming during the test. How do I fix my problems? Please I need help! :(

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by beatthegmat » Sun May 08, 2011 10:10 pm
We have a ton of resources here for helping you in your GMAT retake. Check out this Retake section of the GMAT/MBA Library: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/category ... t-test-day
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