I didn't beat the gmat but I am certainly driven to. So I need your advice.
Background: I first wrote the GMAT 5 years ago and scored 550 AWA 5.5, with a balanced quant & verbal score. I hadn't prepped much; I only used the Kaplan books for practice & I didn't even try a mock test. When I finally decided on the schools I wanted to apply to, I decided to retake the test a year later to try to increase my score but the first retake ended up dropping my score to 490, AWA 4. Again, I had only used Kaplan books - unfortunately I did not realize there were other resources available. Especially this site/forum which has been great! Anyway, getting back to the test: I was racing against time on both the AWA & Quant sections. I was also writing the test after work (I'd tried getting the day off but couldn't & it was too late to reschedule) so was very stressed about 'getting it right' & it was just a disaster. At this point I decided to not retake anymore and just take a breather.
Fast forward to 2011: I did another retake earlier this year only because it was too late to change the date. My mistake was that I did not cancel my scores during this attempt. My score did not increase from the disastrous previous retake but my score in Verbal did increase by one point so I suppose that was the tiny silver lining. I took some private tutoring for quant to understand GMAT strategies for Data Sufficiency and the lessons certainly helped. As did the videos on DS on BTG - value versus yes/no, etc.
Since late summer this year I've been studying and finally gave the exam this week. Materials I used included: OG Guide 12, OG Quant & Verbal Guides, MGMAT SC, MGMAT Number Properties, MGMAT Word Translations, PowerScore CR. I realized that my hit rate in Reading Comprehension was about 90-95% so that was one area I was not worried about. Overall my Verbal scores have been higher than Quant (DS always gets me) hence I focused more of my time on Quant. I practiced sums from the OG 12/Quant. I had intended to set aside time for CATs, but I didn't budget the time accordingly and hence only managed to do it once.
Before the day of the exam and I scored a 630! To many this may not seem like a big accomplishment to fuss over - but considering my actual highest was only 550, I was thrilled!
It gave me the confidence that I could beat this. My Verbal score was 41 & Quant was 35. I gave the test at home mimicking the conditions of a test center with the exception that it was quieter at home and may have helped me concentrate better. I really felt that I finally knew how to approach this beast and still emerge a winner. Day of test: Exam was scheduled for 1:30 p.m. so followed the 'get enough rest, don't practice anything or give CATs, etc.'. Briefly read through some formulas to ensure I wouldn't panic and forget something in the middle of answering a question. Psyched myself mentally to not fear this beast (I could beat it!). I chose a different test center (a college in an office building) because it was closer to home, thinking similar testing conditions would still be honored.
BIG mistake:
a. The chairs were old and creaked each time someone sat up straight or moved forward
b. You could hear the phone ringing at the reception on the other side of the wall of your 'test' room
c. You could hear phone conversations held at the reception between staff & what sounded like potential students or instructors heading home
d. You could hear when staff would microwave their tea/coffee/food or whatever else needed to be microwaved!
Unbelievable!! I had to read a CR argument at least 5 times before I could understand what I was supposed to look for in the answer choice/decide what family the argument belonged to. Needless to say it was very frustrating & distracting. And I ran short on time on BOTH sections - until now I had only run out of time on the retakes on the quant section because I was completely stressed. This led to me guessing in order to at least submit an answer, rather than none at all and get penalized. And of course, the tears of disaster at the end of the exam. I was devastated. This is still hanging over my head & now I'm even more determined to beat this beast.
I called Pearson Vue & logged an incident report re the test center conditions (atrocious to say the least). Regardless I still need to give this exam & beat it to move on with my life. I know now that I should do more practice CATs, under test conditions so eliminate time management concerns of actual test day. I need to improve my DS score because it is still beating me on the actual test, even if I did alright on the mock. I don't want to spend 100s of dollars on a course which may not work. I'm going to review all of the OGs, MGMAT SC & PowerScore CR - is there something else I am missing in my ammunition?
What else can I do to beat this? I'm still working full-time (as I have been throughout) so any suggestions/success stories would be appreciated!
