Hi All,
I had thought that I will be writing "I just beat the GMAT" in my subject line, instead of what I have written. Unfortunately, things did not turned out the way I planned.
Anyways, it is not the end of the world, and I will be sparring with this mean exam again. I will continue to do so until I beat it dead. So let me share what I have done so far.
I gave my GMAT exam this week and scored an abysmal 560 (Q40, V27).
Test Experience:
On the exam day, I arrived at the center on time, checked in and started the test. I did both the essay and the IR part swiftly without wasting a lot of energy. Then took my first break and afterwards started the quant section. As I had made a commitment to myself that I will stick to my game plan and timing strategy, I found the quant section easy. I knew what I was doing on most of the problems, with the exception of a few data sufficiency problems that I had to guess. By the time I was on the 36th question I had 4 minutes left. I finished the quant section and then went for the second break. Then I started the verbal section.
This is where things started going south. After I had done 5 questions I don't know what happened. I started getting really tough sentence correction questions one after the other. Although I had 83% success rate on the SC questions, I found myself in a real tough position. In any case, as I had to stick to my timing strategy I made educated guesses and moved on. In the middle of the section I also noticed that I made some careless mistakes on at least two questions. Finally, I completed the section and looked at my score of 560.
Prep Strategy:
Although I have been preparing for the GMAT for almost a year, I really became serious in December 2012.
Books used: Manhattan GMAT guides and OG Archer. I also signed up for E-GMAT verbal live prep. In addition to this for the last 60 days I also followed the BTG 60 guide. (Thanks to Brent for his untiring efforts)
I also purchased the set Manhattan CATs. All the tests were taken under actual test taking conditions. The scores on the Manhattan GMAT and GMAT Prep CATs are as follows:
Manhattan GMAT CAT 1 - 570 (Q41, V28) - 02/28/13
GMAT Prep CAT 1 - 550 (Q36, V29) - 03/13/13
Manhattan GMAT CAT 2 - 540 (Q38, V27) - 04/2/13
Manhattan GMAT CAT 3 - 610 (Q38, V35) - 04/12/12
Manhattan GMAT CAT 4 - 570 (Q41, V28) - 04/19/13
Manhattan GMAT CAT 5 - 590 (Q44, V27) - 04/27/13
Manhattan GMAT CAT 6 - 590 (Q39, V32) - 05/09/13
GMAT Prep CAT 2 - 610 (Q46, V28) - 05/18/13
GMAT Prep CAT 3 -710 (Q47, V40) - 05/19/13
With the exception of one outlier data point of 710, all other scores were in a standard deviation of 25.8. Both the mean (578.75) and the median (570) are quite close to each other. I have disregarded the 710 data point in my calculations.
Now I am planning to retake the exam in approximately 1-1.5 months.
THE BIG QUESTION?
Here comes the dilemma. The results of both the mock test and the real GMAT test do not measure up to my real conceptual understanding of the material, and with the OG Archer stats. I am confused because I know the concepts very well and have reviewed them again and again in the last one month.
However, I believe that I may have poor test taking skills. But I don't know how to identify and rectify these poor skills. I know that I need more practice. May be I should do drills with large sets of both quant and verbal questions. Moreover, I am not sure if retaking the test in 1-1.5 months is a good time frame. At this point, I am feeling a bit lost on what type of retake strategy to employ. I will appreciate if the experts can push me in the right direction.
Thanks and Best Regards,
JBK
I had thought that I will be writing "I just beat the GMAT" in my subject line, instead of what I have written. Unfortunately, things did not turned out the way I planned.
Anyways, it is not the end of the world, and I will be sparring with this mean exam again. I will continue to do so until I beat it dead. So let me share what I have done so far.
I gave my GMAT exam this week and scored an abysmal 560 (Q40, V27).
Test Experience:
On the exam day, I arrived at the center on time, checked in and started the test. I did both the essay and the IR part swiftly without wasting a lot of energy. Then took my first break and afterwards started the quant section. As I had made a commitment to myself that I will stick to my game plan and timing strategy, I found the quant section easy. I knew what I was doing on most of the problems, with the exception of a few data sufficiency problems that I had to guess. By the time I was on the 36th question I had 4 minutes left. I finished the quant section and then went for the second break. Then I started the verbal section.
This is where things started going south. After I had done 5 questions I don't know what happened. I started getting really tough sentence correction questions one after the other. Although I had 83% success rate on the SC questions, I found myself in a real tough position. In any case, as I had to stick to my timing strategy I made educated guesses and moved on. In the middle of the section I also noticed that I made some careless mistakes on at least two questions. Finally, I completed the section and looked at my score of 560.
Prep Strategy:
Although I have been preparing for the GMAT for almost a year, I really became serious in December 2012.
Books used: Manhattan GMAT guides and OG Archer. I also signed up for E-GMAT verbal live prep. In addition to this for the last 60 days I also followed the BTG 60 guide. (Thanks to Brent for his untiring efforts)
I also purchased the set Manhattan CATs. All the tests were taken under actual test taking conditions. The scores on the Manhattan GMAT and GMAT Prep CATs are as follows:
Manhattan GMAT CAT 1 - 570 (Q41, V28) - 02/28/13
GMAT Prep CAT 1 - 550 (Q36, V29) - 03/13/13
Manhattan GMAT CAT 2 - 540 (Q38, V27) - 04/2/13
Manhattan GMAT CAT 3 - 610 (Q38, V35) - 04/12/12
Manhattan GMAT CAT 4 - 570 (Q41, V28) - 04/19/13
Manhattan GMAT CAT 5 - 590 (Q44, V27) - 04/27/13
Manhattan GMAT CAT 6 - 590 (Q39, V32) - 05/09/13
GMAT Prep CAT 2 - 610 (Q46, V28) - 05/18/13
GMAT Prep CAT 3 -710 (Q47, V40) - 05/19/13
With the exception of one outlier data point of 710, all other scores were in a standard deviation of 25.8. Both the mean (578.75) and the median (570) are quite close to each other. I have disregarded the 710 data point in my calculations.
Now I am planning to retake the exam in approximately 1-1.5 months.
THE BIG QUESTION?
Here comes the dilemma. The results of both the mock test and the real GMAT test do not measure up to my real conceptual understanding of the material, and with the OG Archer stats. I am confused because I know the concepts very well and have reviewed them again and again in the last one month.
However, I believe that I may have poor test taking skills. But I don't know how to identify and rectify these poor skills. I know that I need more practice. May be I should do drills with large sets of both quant and verbal questions. Moreover, I am not sure if retaking the test in 1-1.5 months is a good time frame. At this point, I am feeling a bit lost on what type of retake strategy to employ. I will appreciate if the experts can push me in the right direction.
Thanks and Best Regards,
JBK
