GMAT Strategy

I took the GMAT on 5/24/10 and scored a 520 Q29 V32. I was very upset when my score popped up on the screen. I took the Veritas Prep course which I found to be useful because I was a GMAT newbie walking into the class. I had never cracked a book open and didn't know what to expect in terms of the class so it was helpful in getting some of the fundamentals down. In addition to doing all the problems in the Veritas workbook I did all the questions in the OG cover to cover as well as the Verbal supplement.

I took a total of about 8 CATS including the 2 GMAT Prep tests. The first GMAT Prep I took I scored a 610 Q38 V36. The last one I took I was at a 650 Q42 V38. I was happy to see the improvement in my score and was feeling more confident about the test. Although my goal was to get at least a 700, I felt the need to have a go at the test because I had been studying for quite a while and just wanted to get it out of my system.

Everything I've read says that the GMAT Prep is a pretty accurate reflection of how you'll do on the actual test but it obviously wasn't the case for me. I don't have a history of testing anxiety and I didn't feel overly anxious while I was taking the test. I did feel the actual test questions were more challenging than the practice tests but I thought it was because I was doing well. Just to make sure I wasn't going crazy I took a test yesterday on which I scored a 640 Q40 V37, so I'm really at a loss here.

Has anyone experienced this? Any feedback would be helpful as I go back to studying. thanks

Hi liza,

Sad to hear your result. I know that it's very difficult to digest when you did not expect a score much lower than what you were getting in practice tests. I had the same experience too. I was consistently getting a 680 in my practice tests but got only 570 in my actual exam.

Fortunately in your side, your verbal score seems to be consistent with your practice tests (if not very precisely consistent!). It's always easy to improve your quant score by choosing right books and right study methodologies within 2 months. No doubt, Actual GMAT quants is much tougher and trickier compared to GMATPrep. People always used to get 2-3 points lower than their practice tests in quants.

For improving your quant score, I would strongly recommend buying MGMAT quant sets and brush up your basics religiously. Then take their 6 free online CATs (which comes with the sets). In my opinion, their quants is the best resource you can ever get. Their explanations given in CAT exams are invaluable. And practice all questions in this forum. This is the best forum you could get for the best questions with best explanations from experts.

Make sure that you do not ignore verbal. Verbal prep is always very important for GMAT. Make sure that you work a little bit harder to bring that score from 32 to 40 (atleast). Good luck!

I wanted to chime in because my story is similar. I took the Veritas Prep program (classroom course) and just took the GMAT with disappointing results - 590 / 31 Q / 40 V. This was even after taking a number of MGMAT practice tests where I scored 36-39 on quant. I'm looking into retaking the course through Veritas for free, then retaking the GMAT in a couple of months.