GMAT Strategy

Hi,
I am writing to ask for help in analysing what might have gone wrong with my preparation.

I wrote my first GMAT in Aug 2009 and scored a 640. I had used OG and not much else. I was discouraged then and was disappointed because I couldnt complete the Quant section. Timing was my biggest problem then. I took a break from the GMAT and work kept me busy for the next few years.

I decided to restart my GMAT preparation and took the help of a private tutor from Dec 2011 - April 2012 and have been practicing using the following materials:

1. OG 13
2. Manhattan guides
3 e-GMAT SC

My preparation wasnt continuous because of personal issues. I was scoring between 640 - 700 in the MGMAT tests which was also around the time I came across "Thursdays with Ron". I went through most of his videos and learnt many new things. I believed I was learning things better, seeing things differently. I scored: GMAT Prep1 - 680 and GMAT Prep2 - 640. I reviewed the incorrect and most of the correct questions by going through the forums.

I then identified SC as my weak area and concentrated on that heavily by purchasing e-GMAT. After a few months of practice and going through the guides again, I retook GMAT Prep1 and scored 740 two weeks ago. I was aware that it was an inflated score but I hoped to get a score around that number in the actual GMAT.

To my utter shock, I took my GMAT today to score a 570. I havent seen a score as low as this even in my initial diagnostic tests.

I took a caffeine tablet, Red bull and Gatorade to keep myself alert through the exam. But, I am not sure if this caused me to feel nauseous and heady during the test or the subconscious feel that the test was just not going right.

I am not ready to give up on this exam yet. I was wondering if any one of you have any advice on how I can understand what went wrong with my exam. I finished my verbal section with 15 minutes to spare.

A mistake I know I made is that I didnt take the exam under official conditions. Always skipped the argument and the IR section to concentrate on the Quant and Verbal section. A mistake that I will now correct.

Thanks in advance.

SS

Hi There

Its good to know that you aren't giving up on the GMAT yet because you really have no reason to.From both your scores I would say you have your quant concepts sorted which means all you have to do is now practice 700 level questions under timed conditions (roughly 2 mins per question)...If you're exceeding 2 mins for a particular topic in quant then get your fundamentals straight for that topic...

Its clear though you have to work on your verbal section...which means practising all three sections under timed conditions that is to say spacing them out across 75 mins...practice these questions under realistic exam conditions...when running into problems with specific SC type questions (like parallelism,modifiers or subject verb agreement) or specific CR questions( like assumption or boldface) get your doubts clarified without proceeding with further practice questions...

Lastly...it is definitely important to prepare your stamina to take the entire GMAT...so yes take practice tests with the AWA & IR sections as well...

Good Luck!

Hi soni_pallavi,
You are right, I have a lot of work to do.

Thank you for your kind words. It certainly helps.


SS