Should I cancel my test knowing I'm going to get a low score

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I'm planning on taking the GMAT exam in the first week of January and I've giving some serious thought of cancelling the test.

Reason being I'm nowhere near going to hit my target of 680+ on the test, having scored a very poor 420 and 450 on practice tests in the past two days.

On the one hand I think it would be good experience to sit the test, however on the flip side I think that a low score on my first attempt may reflect badly on my application, in the event that I do hit my target in the future.

Would appreciate people's thoughts on this dilemma.
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by cramya » Thu Dec 25, 2008 10:43 am
Swash,
Yes u can.I would suggest that you take more time to prepare and then take the GMAT since the test costs about $250 for each sitting.

By doing the OG questions, gmat focus(sold on mba.com) or other paper test (also sold on mb.com) u can get your hands on retired gmat questions. I would not spend 250 to get access to 78 questions as most of it may not even be the same the next time u take it.

Have u looked in to any test prep companies training courses/books?

Regards,
Cramya

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by swashbuckler » Fri Dec 26, 2008 1:42 am
Hi Cramya,

Thank you for your advice. I think part of the problem was the deadline I'd set myself was quite optimistic (coinciding with a business school application deadline).

So I was finding myself craming as much in without applying what I've learnt under test conditions. The upshot of all this was that with two weeks to go before the actual exam, I take my first practice test under timed conditions and see that I've underestimated concepts and how to apply them.

My study guides so far include OG 11, and Kaplan Math's Review. Are there many other practice guides around that people would recommend?

On the subject of training courses I was put off by the experience a friend had, who is currently at Business School. He paid a lot of money for a 2-3 day cramming session which he felt could be easily achieved by going through the training guides.

Going forward I'll postpone my test, and set out a more detailed revision plan with practive tests at key stages. In my mind I'm confident that I can obtain 680+ but my initial study approach was fairly unstructured and I'd rather approach the exam knowing I've got a realistic chance of obtaining my ideal score.