I just Beat The GMAT!

Hi all

Disappointing news... I took the GMAT again this morning, for the 2nd time, and only went up 10 points. What gives?

My first GMAT attempt was Feb 12th; I scored a 460 (27Q 27V). To be perfectly honest, I did not study that much at all. I did not even take one single practice test (so stupid). After receiving this extremely low score, I immediately contacted the dean of admissions of the program that I want to enter and reasoned with her to let me have more time and retake the test. Fortunately, it was still early in their admissions process, so she gave me until mid April to raise my score.

I wasted no time and got right down to business. I made a study plan for myself and cut my hours at work. My new study schedule consisted of 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. I realized that this was ambitious, but getting into b-school, and getting in this year, is imperative. I bought several more books and purchased 800score.com's course that included 5 CAT exams.

In the interim, I scheduled my retake for today, April 15th. This gave me roughly 2 months to re-prepare. I studied my butt off. I worked through Princeton Review's Crack the GMAT, Kaplan Premier 2007, 800score.com's course, GMAT Secrets and worked through most of OG 12 and OG Quant 12 (my biggest mistake). In addition, I scoured this website on a daily basis and watched all of Kaplan's free video part series on this website.

I took several practice tests along the way and showed very little improvement. The highest score that I had received was a 520 UNTIL, 3 days before my GMAT, I decided to take a GMAT prep test (from mba.com). I took this test under real conditions (as I did all my other practice tests) and at the exact time as my GMAT would be. I scored a 590! (38Q 34V) I was sooo excited! I told myself, "Sarah, it has all set in, and you ARE READY!" Of course, I reviewed all of my answer choices, right or wrong, (as I do for all of my practice tests) and realized that of the questions that I did miss, most were careless mistakes. This practice test gave me so much confidence!

This morning I reviewed the 100's of flashcards that I have made over the past two months. I left with plenty of time to get to the test center and was so excited to be there. I just knew that today was my day and that I would get over a 600. I was cool, calm, and collected. I was actually very anxious to start. After the quant, I took my break and chugged a Redbull; I felt great about my quant performance. I then went in and felt very well about my verbal performance. To my surprise, my score came up and I noticed the number 4. A 470 (29Q 26V)!! 10 points above my original, which was 2 MONTHS AGO!?! It was also 120 points less than my highest score!! WHAT GIVES!?!? How does 2 months of intense studying and dedication translate into 10 points?? I probably could have never studied again and made that poor score.

I am crushed. I do not understand. I worked my butt off and felt that I had finally grasped the material. I have always been a good student. I graduated from University of Tennessee last May with a 3.5 cumulative GPA and was valedictorian of my high school. School has always been my strong suit. I actually enjoy studying. Even more so, I enjoy seeing my hard work pay off, which was not the case today!

I have been upset all day, just now gaining energy to write the post. Does anyone have any insight? I will mention, just for the sake of reasoning, that standardized test have always been a problem for me. I could never beat the ACT in high school. I have dreamed of getting my MBA for 3 years now and I hate to think that this GMAT score is going to take that dream away from me. This GMAT score does not represent my capabilities at all.

I am willing to take the exam again, but need to make sure that the 3rd time works for me. I think having 3 scores on my report is bad enough, I definitely don't need 4! (Not to mention the cost of 4!)

Does anyone have any suggestions to help? I am really down right now. I hate this test!!!

Sorry to hear about your experience...

Are you saying that you took a course and did not see any improvements? That's highly suspicious...

Also, the OG should be the backbone of your practice, since it's the only book out there with real, retired questions. This might have been an issue for you... You can check out a few more retake recommendations here.

Don't give up! You can still beat this test!

Never loose your heart. "Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory."

I advise you to buy Manhattan GMAT series for your practice. Those maths course book helped me a lot to brush my fundas and may be because of that I got 49 in quant. Those six CATs are simply great and the most exciting part is their review system. You can immediately find out what are your weaknesses and where you are spending more time.

Apart from that follow systematic plan before retaking GMAT. Study plans given in this site is quite helpful and currently I am following the same. I will advised you to go for a one week or two weeks break before you re-start your preparation. Follow your schedule, check your mistakes and you will conquer your GMAT in your third attempt. Good Luck!

Are you saying that you took a course and did not see any improvements? That's highly suspicious...

I did not take a course; 800score.com is an independent slf-study course!

Sarah sorry to hear about your experience. You worked your butt off, so you have the ability to work hard. Now forget what happened. Learn from your experience and move on. From 470 you can move to 600. It's possible. You said you touched 590 at some of point of time, so you have it in you.
Do a quick check of the areas you need to work on. Divide the areas into categories as below (just suggestions off the cuff)

Q: Number properties (odds/even, prime numbers, remainders), word translation (speed, time, work problems), geometry (area, volume), statistics (average, median, mode), Inequalities
V: RC (Common question types - such as Inference, factual questions etc.), SC (modifiers, parallelism, tense, subject-verb agreement, idioms) and CR (Common question types - Inference/must be true questions, strengthen, weaken).

Over a period of time you should be able to zero in on areas that you are not comfortable with. And yes I think you should go for a 3rd attempt once you start hitting 600s consistently.

smeyers wrote:

Are you saying that you took a course and did not see any improvements? That's highly suspicious...

I did not take a course; 800score.com is an independent slf-study course!

I think it's more a question of materials used here. On your retake, you should focus on more detailed resources to help you hit your target score. Crack the GMAT and Kaplan Premier are both general books, so they don't go too deep on any one concept. You might want to invest in books such as the Manhattan Guides or the PowerScore CR bible.

Something similar happened to me recently, Sarah. Whatever you do, DON'T take the Kaplan course. They're a wast of time and money.