GMAT Strategy

Tomorrow is the big day! I had been oreparing for about 3 months and with a very tight agenda, there is no surprise for me to not have amazing scores.
I made all tests from Kaplan in Demand. My scores were 480, 340, 480, 390' 490, 480, 400, 460 & 600.

I really couldn't believe i ever would reach the 550 and less 600! but a day latter i did the Manhattan test and I had 420. My confidence is kind of mixed! I really do not know wheter to trust or not on those results and how accurate they are. My anxiety is growing and I really need some advise.

thanks!

What kind of advice do you want?

The most constructive response I can come up with is:

The exam does not care about your practice exam scores. Nor do schools. Your practice exam scores don't affect your real score. Practice exams are a way to become comfortable with the format of the exam. The fact that you scored a 420 recently won't affect your score tomorrow. Your overall knowledge of concepts covered on the exam and your focus will. If you're going to take the exam tomorrow, there's not much else for you to do at this point than to relax today, to sleep tonight, and to take each problem one by one tomorrow.

Best of luck!

Hey Taniuca,

My first major piece of advice - if your test is tomorrow, "need feedback from scores" should be the last thing you think about!!!! You're going to get the only score that matters tomorrow, so what does it matter whether your practice test scores are accurate or not? Let's hope they're not, and there's always reason to believe so. But if you have 24 hours until you take the GMAT (and I'd argue if you have 24 years before you take the GMAT this advice still holds) you can do several productive things to help improve your score, and wondering whether your practice test scores are accurate is NOT one of them.

You should be thinking about:

-Which mistakes do I make frequently - let's remember to double-check for them tomorrow
-How has my pacing been - and let's have a plan in place to make sure that I get to all 37 / 41 questions tomorrow
-Which 2-3 major concepts have I been hit-or-miss on - let's review those once more to make sure that I "hit" this time


As far as your scores, they're either pretty accurate or they're not, and no one on this forum can tell you for sure either way. Tomorrow's test will, though, so that answer is coming. The only thing you can control right now is tomorrow's score, so focus on the last few reminders to yourself that can make that score as high as possible. And since confidence is so important, focus on that 600. On your best day thus far you scored a 600 - that shows that you have the potential to do well tomorrow. So make tomorrow your best day!

Taniuca wrote:Tomorrow is the big day! I had been oreparing for about 3 months and with a very tight agenda, there is no surprise for me to not have amazing scores.
I made all tests from Kaplan in Demand. My scores were 480, 340, 480, 390' 490, 480, 400, 460 & 600.

I really couldn't believe i ever would reach the 550 and less 600! but a day latter i did the Manhattan test and I had 420. My confidence is kind of mixed! I really do not know wheter to trust or not on those results and how accurate they are. My anxiety is growing and I really need some advise.

thanks!

Although i myself will give it in November, i totally agree with riprop... u should relax and just go through the flashcards .. And hopefully u will get ur target GMAT score!

Good Luck!

Thank you guys! I'll post my score once this is over! And yes I'll keep my mind open that if I was able to get a good grade, then I can do it once again tomorrow.

Hey, I hope you are done with your test by now. Waiting for good news!

Let us know how it went.

Mir.

Eventhough, I finished the test it went bad. I got a 340 so it was like if I never studied. I feel sad not so much because I failed but, because of the time invested for almost have a grade that was as much as if i had never spent one single day studding. At least i got the experience of what if feels been on the real test. the people at the front desk was very nice and the breaks were just enought to go to the restroom, get a good strech and go back to work. the toughest part for me was the grammar section, I ran out of time, plus the material was way more difficult than any training materials such as Kaplan or Manhattan. As a recomendattion, focus more on the Gmatprep test, questions will be like them I'm not sure what will be my strategy moving forward but, regardless what happens I'm glad is over and that I did the best I could do. Having a nine month baby, a full time job and not having english as my first language made things a little bit more difficult. I hope I can still make it to school and hopefully other type of programs or assistance exist out there.
I wouldn't waste again my money on Kaplan, unless you want to practice the tests only. For the $400 is not worth. better material can be found for less money such as Manhattan that for $80 you get 6 practice exams.
Before i take back the books once again, I would like to thank Beatthegmat, as even when the Gmat beat me i got a great experience and feedback from this site.

Taniuca wrote:Eventhough, I finished the test it went bad. I got a 340 so it was like if I never studied. I feel sad not so much because I failed but, because of the time invested for almost have a grade that was as much as if i had never spent one single day studding. At least i got the experience of what if feels been on the real test. the people at the front desk was very nice and the breaks were just enought to go to the restroom, get a good strech and go back to work. the toughest part for me was the grammar section, I ran out of time, plus the material was way more difficult than any training materials such as Kaplan or Manhattan. As a recomendattion, focus more on the Gmatprep test, questions will be like them I'm not sure what will be my strategy moving forward but, regardless what happens I'm glad is over and that I did the best I could do. Having a nine month baby, a full time job and not having english as my first language made things a little bit more difficult. I hope I can still make it to school and hopefully other type of programs or assistance exist out there.
I wouldn't waste again my money on Kaplan, unless you want to practice the tests only. For the $400 is not worth. better material can be found for less money such as Manhattan that for $80 you get 6 practice exams.
Before i take back the books once again, I would like to thank Beatthegmat, as even when the Gmat beat me i got a great experience and feedback from this site.

I feel for u.. But i would suggest you to retake. Take your time with preparation but give GMAT again. I believe you can do way way better.

I would ask you to go to Official guides a lot more. Others are there yes, But before anything else came Official Guides were the one people had to get a 700 score. Hence, Understand what kind of questions they will ask and how u need to do them!

Try and work on ur pace and keep a timer. There is an app named as GMAT TIMER, find it and download it!

And as always BTG is there and will be, along with us !!

I dont know why, but i think you have this potential to score really 'really' good score. Believe me, you should be super-charged now. Go crazy on it.

It can't get any worse than this. You owe yourself this one last push! Just remember, Winners never quit. If you are F1 fan, watch the documentary on 'Ayrton Senna'.

We would all want you to reappear!