Problem

This topic has expert replies
Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
Posts: 27
Joined: Wed Dec 01, 2010 10:37 pm

Problem

by gana » Sat Dec 25, 2010 8:16 pm
Dear Dana,

I am using 60 day study plan. Today was 23 rd day of the plan and I took my second attempt on GMAT prep and scored worse than the previous one. I took manhattan practice test twice a month ago and kept studying almost every day. No improvement on the scores. I feel worthless. There is something I do is wrong I dont know what or why. I feel worthless and blue. What should I do, any advice please?
Source: — GMAT Strategy |

User avatar
Community Manager
Posts: 1048
Joined: Mon Aug 17, 2009 3:26 am
Location: India
Thanked: 51 times
Followed by:27 members
GMAT Score:670

by arora007 » Sun Dec 26, 2010 12:51 am
gana wrote: I am using 60 day study plan. Today was 23 rd day of the plan and I took my second attempt on GMAT prep and scored worse than the previous one. I took manhattan practice test twice a month ago and kept studying almost every day. No improvement on the scores. I feel worthless. There is something I do is wrong I dont know what or why. I feel worthless and blue. What should I do, any advice please?
Gana,
What was your earlier and this time's score breakup?
Did you find any consistency in the mistakes you make?
These two questions are the very basis on which somebody can help you.

MGMAT tests give a very good analysis on the basis on question types and difficulty level.
You can infact get exact accuracy based on difficulty level and accuracy over these two tests as well.
Hope you can look it up for yourself, where you need more work.

Lastly don't lose faith or hope...participate on the forums more often, clear your doubts and you will feel more confident.
https://www.skiponemeal.org/
https://twitter.com/skiponemeal
Few things are impossible to diligence & skill.Great works are performed not by strength,but by perseverance

pm me if you find junk/spam/abusive language, Lets keep our community clean!!

User avatar
Site Admin
Posts: 2567
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 2009 10:05 am
Thanked: 712 times
Followed by:550 members
GMAT Score:770

by DanaJ » Sun Dec 26, 2010 2:25 am
Hmm... There are a bunch of things that may have happened:

1. GMATprep is not the same as an MGMAT test. They are quite similar, but they're not by any means identical. If the score fluctuation is not that big, then this may partially explain the lower score.

2. You were tired today compared to last time you took a CAT. This will impact your performance quite a bit, so make sure to rest well before the real thing!

3. This is something I heard from Stuart Kovinsky and I must say it makes sense: he noticed that the majority of students get a lower score on their second CAT (the one they take after some studying) compared to their first CAT. This is because in the very first days of your prep, you're accumulating a lot of knowledge. However, think of it as books that aren't sorted yet: you buy books by studying, but it takes PRACTICE to know exactly where each book is (hope this makes sense) and which one you really need. It's going to be another few days before you get it just right. He also said that after this disappointing second CAT, most people go on an upward curve!

I wrote a bit about this stuff here: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/04/ ... ice-scores

While all these reasons explain your drop in score, it doesn't necessarily mean that you should ignore what happened, but interpret it in the context of your own prep. arora007 gives some very solid advice: if you're continually making the same mistakes, something is wrong and you need to backtrack.