Should I retake GMAT? (Don't feel like I can improve anyway)

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Hi guys,

in march this year I have taken the GMAT and scored 590 (Q38, V33). Because I reached 620 twice (once before even starting to study) in the GMAT prep exams before and I aimed on at least a 600 score, I was quite disappointed.

This is why I have decided to retake the GMAT and scheduled an appointment for next week on Thursday. I have been intensely studying over the past 2 to 3 weeks with 6-8 hours daily (haven't been able to start earlier). Due to my poor quant score I have worked myself through all quant books of Manhattan GMAT as well as all OG quant problems (and partly the QR).

I feel like I am quite comfortable with the types of questions and have always performed well when doing timed sets in the guides.

Now, I have just started a GMAT Prep Test and felt like I wasn't able to use anything I learned in the course of my studies for the questions in the quant part of the test. Within the first 15 questions, despite more or less guessing about half of them, I was already way behind the time and so frustrated that I canceled the exam without seeing the results.

I am really disappointed now because I feel like all the effort I put into studying the previous weeks has been for nothing.

The question I have is whether you'd recommend me to still take the test, because right now I feel like I might score even worse than the 590 I scored the last time.

I would really appreciate some tips. Right now I don't have any motivation to continue studying until test date, as I feel like my results won't increase anyway (and probably decrease).

Thanks in advance
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by sam2304 » Sat Oct 06, 2012 9:50 pm
You said 2 - 3 hours and 6 - 8 hours daily, so what you have to do is leave the books for 3 to 4 days, don't touch the books at all not even the forums or anything related to GMAT. Then on the 5th day retake a GMATPrep mock, which you took already. Take it with AWA and IR, some people are so afraid of taking tests that they skip AWA and IR and then with all the tension in mind if you go for quant section directly, you will not think straight. AWA and IR actually gets you in tune relieving you of all the stress and tension. If you are aiming for 600 + then you should take the test after 5 days and if possible reschedule the test.
Getting defeated is just a temporary notion, giving it up is what makes it permanent.
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by blablub » Tue Oct 09, 2012 2:35 am
Hi guys,

thanks for the advice. I have taken the second GMAT prep on Sunday in which I scored 650 (Q47, verbal don't remember). Today, I have taken the first MGMAT CAT Test and achieved a score of 640 (Q42, V35). So it seems I am actually not performing too bad compared to the score I am actually aiming for.

How indicative is the MGMAT result, especially the quant part, because I have a huge discrepancy in the quant results in the GMAT prep and the MGMAT CAT I took?

Thanks!