It was my third attempt at the GMAT, and got 500 (V-20, Q-40). First attempt 540 (V-21, Q-43) and second attempt 430 (V-18, Q-35). My story is all about my verbal scores. My first attempt was in December 2006 when i got 540. I had taken Princeton Review course before my first attempt. I was so rusted in Quant, and PR helped a lot in polishing my Quant.

After my first attempt i studied off and on over the next year of 2007 and went for my second attempt in December 2007. For this second attempt i prepared from OG-11, Official Verbal and Quant Review books, old PDF tests by GMACWall-Street-Crash , Manhattan SC, CR Bible by PowerScore (fantastic book for CR), SC Bible and notes/feedbacks available on net (the flash cards by beathegmat are excellent and reinforced my understanding of the topics). I also made notes for both verbal and Quant from all the best books available in the market on GMAT (PR, Kaplan all books, Barrens, Arco and NOVA). After going through all that material, I took GMAT Prep and got 36, 35 and 36 in verbal. I was satisfied that i had improved because when i first time took GMATPrep (a year back) my verbal scores were 28, 30, 33. I went for the actual GMAT in December 2007 for my second attempt and got 18 in verbal . I was shocked that after going through such an extensive material my verbal score went down from 21 to 18. I thought there must be something seriously wrong with me and i am not retaining what i go through. But the thing was that i never got 18 in verbal even when i took GMATPrep first time in December 2006 before my first attempt. As I mentioned above, at that time my practice verbal scores were 28, 30, 33.

Anyway, I thought definitely something seriously wrong with my understanding of the verbal topics. I decided to go for the 3rd attempt and prepared from some more material and repeated OG-10 (remember i had gone through the OG-11 and Review books twice before). I studied Manhattan CR and RC books and got some more tips from it. I did 50 GRE passages as well as 100 CR questions from LSAT. My average correction rate on them was 60% with GMAT time. Above all I was in the “above average” and “excellent” categories in the OG-11 diagnostic test.

With all the above preparation, I went for my 3rd attempt on March 8, 2008 (2 months after my 2nd attempt). My score is 500 (V-20, Q-40). Again verbal 20. How come? I believe now I can do SC even blindfolded with the brail system. How on the earth I am not going beyond 20 in my actual GMAT while my GMATPrep results are all around 35/36 and never got less than 28 in it even when I was a GMAT baby and saw the GMATPrep first time.

I can definitely ascribe lack of time management, and resultant panic, as the root cause of my low Quant score. But what exactly happens with Verbal in actual exams? Is that bad habit of spending extra time on difficult questions mar my Verbal also? But if this is the case then how come i did better in Practice exams? That's the mystery. During the actual exam i was moving smoothly in the Verbal. I did not panic in verbal until when 2-3 are left with 1 minute reaming. For both Verbal and Quants, i think i randomly guessed 2-3 questions in the end.

Anyhow, I have few questions:-

1. Does that random guessing of last 2-3 questions disturb the scores?
2. Should i quit looking at the GMAT questions for sometime, say for 2 months, and then start all over again? Or should i keep in touch with GMAT with slow pace, say solving 5 questions of each type daily or 4-5 times a week, and then take the GMAT after 2-3 months?

I believe if you stop looking at the GMAT stuff, you lose not only the rhythm but also the knack to solve such GMAT questions.

(My AWA result has just arrived and got 4.5 in it).

Regards

Nauman