730 and my mistake of over confidence in verbal

Hello,

I took the GMAT this morning and scored a 730 Q45 V46. Overall, I'm happy with the 730, my verbal score, and the prospect of ending my GMAT studies! Based on GMAT prep test scores I took at home, I'm a little disappointed in my quant. At home I was consistently achieving 48 - 50.

In any case, I'd like to tell the story of when I took the GMAT exactly 1 month ago, and compare it to today.

A month ago, I scheduled an 11AM Saturday morning test. Leading up to this exam, I focused entirely on quant. Why you ask? Well, from my initial "diagnostic GMAT prep" test, I scored a 41 in verbal (92%) and in two subsequent tests scored the exact same score, despite not studying a lick of verbal. My conclusion? I'm naturally gifted and I don't need to focus on it anymore!

Well, approaching the test day, the night before I reviewed my note cards, and did problems until just before bed. The next morning, I got up at 7am, had breakfast and continued studying. This was a huge mistake. I went into the test confident, the essays went well, and the quant actually felt good. I'm sure you know where I'm going with this... by the time I got to verbal, I had exhausted my gas tank! Outside of about 3 full length practice tests, I mainly just took the quant portions at home and skipped the rest. I was utterly unprepared for how my mind would wander, how that voice would constantly push through asking "what am I going to score today?" "How did I do on quant?" "where should I go to lunch to celebrate?"

I had zero focus on verbal, and just kept telling myself I couldn't fail... well, I did! I ended up with a 660, and it was driven by verbal, I was so embarrassed!

I got home, swore a few times, and then promised myself never to be this unprepared again. On that same day I scheduled my next test, 31 days later (today!)

Leading up to today, I actually decided I should study verbal, since in the past I had a track record of being 100% on CR and RC but having no clue whatsoever on SC. So I actually read an SC book (Manhattan guide). From this book, I realized SC is actually not that hard, there are only a few concepts that are tested and if you get good at identifying that, you'll do great! I built a calendar for myself, scheduling FULL TEST taking days, days to review results of my test and days to simply study. I stuck to this schedule no matter what was going on at work or in life.

The four tests I took leading up to today were huge confidence boosters (730, 740, 770, 760).

The night before test day, I decided to relax. I looked through my notecards ONCE to remember a few formulas. And ended up watching a movie on netflix called Saint Ralph... Netflix told me it was inspirational so what the hell right?? The story was about a boy that made a deal with God that if he were to win the Boston Marathon God would awaken his mom from a coma. But the great thing was the courage the boy demonstrated in the face of failure and naysayers. I told myself I have to go into the test the next day with this attitude, and i did.

The next morning, I woke up at 6AM, ate breakfast, and drove out to the test center for an 8AM test. I brought a water, a granola bar, and a 5 hour energy. My game plan was to take the 5 hour energy after quant. So I breezed through the essays, finishing them each with 10 minutes to spare (I scored a 6 on my essays last time) and felt I put the same quality of work in. I used the 2nd 10 minutes to go to the bathroom, told myself in the mirror to dominate and came back to dive into quant!

The quant section went okay, there were a few tricky questions, and then half way in, I got a super easy one that made me feel like I had blown it. But by the end, I felt relatively sure that I was getting fed the harder Q's. My one gripe about the GMAT process... with 10 minutes left on the section I was running low on paper, so I raised my hand and raised the booklet with it. What the proctor did next REALLY frustrated me. He walked in, WITHOUT a new booklet, took mine, walked away... then came back and asked if I needed a new pen! I was frantic, and pointed at the screen and said "I have 10 minutes left, HURRY!" Finally, he ran and got me a new booklet, I would say the whole process probably knocked about 30-40 sec off my time, but sitting there it felt like a full 2 minutes. Not to mention the disruption in concentration. It did not feel good sitting there staring at a problem and trying to do it in my head.

So I finished the quant section, took my break, drank the 5 hour energy to get a boost, and came back in for verbal. I sat down, and just did my thing for verbal. This time I was totally prepared for that voice, and squashed it. I had full concentration, and no questions threw me off.

So in the end, I learned that, maybe I WAS naturally good at verbal, but there is a psychological aspect to this test that cannot be ignored. I remember reading so many times on this forum from the experts the "importance of taking FULL tests WITH the essays." I always ignored that, telling myself I was different. I wasn't, and had a big failure as a result. So I guess, I also learned to listen to the experts....

Other key things I learned:
Make a schedule... and stick to it
Use powerpoint to throw down hard questions (1 per slide) and in your own words, solutions to said problems

Thanks!

In case you're wondering:

Study materials

OG 12
Manhattan OG Quant guide
Manhattan guides (all of the quant ones, and the SC one)
GMAT PREP

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