I just Beat The GMAT!

I had taken GMATPREP1 without any preparation as a diagnostic test and got 570. I understood I was weak in verbal and concentrated on Verbal during my preparation. I had read the MGMAT SC guide and Powerscore CR bible multiple times (close 5 times) and had a very good accuracy with last 50 questions in OG. But I dont know what happened on the GMAT i got only 18 in Verbal section. Got 620 in GMAT Prep2, 590 in princeton review, 580 and 590 in Kaplan online events. But scored 530 on the real GMAT. I cannot digest this score.

Of all the Tests that I have taken till now I have scored the least in GMAT. I hope it never happens to any student. I also felt that the test was tough. The very second question i got was a permutation and combination problem. First 15 were very different most of them were DS questions and the last 10 were very easy. Finished the last 10 in 13 minutes(44 in Quant). I though the verbal was not that difficult. But i couldnt think clearly on the CR part. The duration of the test had taken its toll on me. I couldnt think clearly on CR and I wasnt following the technique that I had been following during practice (I was using POE- process of elimination on each question). I have never done the AWA part during the full length test. Thats the BIGGEST MISTAKE I made. Also I think my preparation had some gaps. I wasnt reviewing the mistakes that I was making. Need your help on the below questions. I am planning to take on GMAT again and prove myself the second time. I am aiming for 700+ score.

1. How to prepare mentally and physically for the GMAT.
2. How to review the wrong question is Verbal.
3. How to improve in Verbal section. I used MGMAT SC and Powerscore. Also suggest good practice material for Verbal.

I'm really frustrated with my score. Just a week before the GMAT i had score a 620 on GMATPREP2. Guys, Friends, Tutors pls help me fight back.

Hi dvinoth86,

Firstly we would say that stay positive and such anxieties are common during exam preparation
time. Juggling between work and studies is tough so you need to define a significant time for your
GMAT preparation. Sometimes taking few days off work for preparing for the GMAT can help a
person tremendously. If you have time this may not be a bad idea. Take practise GMAT tests to see
how you are doing. If you cannot do that don't worry. What might work instead is to set aside 1-
2 hours at night on weekdays and major part of your weekend to study and prepare for GMAT-
in this case we will suggest a good 2-3 months preparation. However we recommend you to keep
taking practise tests to gauge your performance. It will help you in identifying your weak areas
and you can focus on them accordingly. You might be able to study more than the given hours and
that would take you less than 2-3 months. It all depends on your potential really.

There are various ways you can use to practise for your GMAT. You might need to change your
practise style and try this combination to provide you flexibility and different styles to practise so
it doesn't get monotonous.

It could be combination of-

1-Books- Books like- The Official Guide for GMAT Review, The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal

Review, The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review etc could be used.

2-Online Study Guide: Websites like Knewton, Grockit etc provide you with practise questions
online.

3-Smart phone applications- Kaplan, Veritas etc offer applications to prepare for GMAT on your
smart phones

@dvinoth86
Sorry to hear the story.
For your first question- don't fight the gmat. Try to have fun and enjoy solving questions. verbal is a problem for non-native speakers(am guessing you are one)- so don't worry, just keep a log of questions you are answering wrong during practice and revisit them now and then.
Good luck!

Hello Vinoth,

I havent taken an exam yet, but I know my diagnostics are somewhere between 500-600. When do you plan to take it ? Do you have any time crunch to take it sooner or could you afford few months preparation? I am sure you can do better.

Cheers,

Sai

do not take GMAT as early as six months from now. The verbal 18 will show on your next administration unless you improve significantly your digestion of GMAT content.

First of all, do concentrate on the Reading Comprehension only.

Secondly, verse your vocabulary to see if you can comprehend the words which have different meaning in different situations. For example, the word *color* may have the literal meaning of color as the reflection of an eye on the light spectrum. At that the word *color* means distort, e.g., 'Knowing that he had lied about his previous experience colored our evaluation of his application.'

Thirdly, find your way into the verbal prep. - download youtube-dot-com video lectures for LSAT RC and Logical Reasoning. Re-read MGMAT SC guide entirely and only then apply step-by-step the acquired skills. Many SC entries test more than one concept.

gl on retake

Thanks to each and everyone who has replied.

I have started my preparation again. This time around I am concentrating more on Quality of the question rather than Quantity of question. I'm trying to learn from each and every question. Also I am reviewing my mistakes and i've started maintaining an error log.

I also have some questions, and will appreciate if you help me to clear my doubts.

Today I took the MGMAT CAT. I was anxious and really scared to get a bad score. The root of my fear is to find out that after a long-way journey through the gmat thickets I am still not ready for a G-day.

AWA's 1st text was about the petty crime. I just suddenly felt myself even worse, because I did not really know what to write. I have had no clue what arguments could be stated about that crime. In spite of it, I could squeeze some text from myself, and went to the next text.

Quant-
While solving the quant questions , I felt tiredness and headache, since I really felt that the questions are hard for me. I also would like to point out, that I have seen some of these questions on the various forums, though I didnt remember the answers. So I solved them, but the fact that I have seen them before, rose my doubts about my real score.Furthermore, sometimes I felt as if my mind was blocked. I knew the required formula, but my fear blocked all my thoughts.

After the quant section I felt that I failed this test horribly, and I even had doubts whether there was any need to continue it. Since there was no way back, I decided to go on and switched to the verbal section.

Verbal-
I did this section not very carefully, since I was devastated by my feelings about the quant section. again few questions were familiar, but I was still not sure whether I remembered the answers to that questions. here I didnt feel any anxious because I really didnt care anymore about my result

In conclusion-
I got 700 (q 45 v 40). In fact, I was really surprised, because I really thought that I was beaten by that test. almost all of my quant questions were 700-800 level(maybe that is why I felt tiredness).

my questions are-
later some doubts arose in my mind-whether this result is true (I have seen some q. on the forums, though I was not quite sure about the answers), can this score be admitted as my real score, how to get 'a real picture', how to understand whether I am ready for a G-day.

I am scared to be beaten on a real test as it was with the user above, dvinoth86. That is why I just want to understand what to do, where I am wrong, and how to understand when i am 100% ready for the test.
amazing,but i am not required to get an MBA degree neither by my employee, nor by anyone else. it was just my pure wish.I mean my current career is ok. No one is waiting for my great results. But I eat myself inside,and I so eagerly want to get that degree, that I am scared to be beaten on a real test day.

Lala, if you aren't sure don't take the test. I never scored less than 49 in quant part of MGMAT CAT, but was always assuming this to be inflated. Moreover, the RC part of MGMAT is really-really easy in comparison with actual GMAT. Your 40 in their CAT means absolutely nothing once you fail completely through hard RC passage and realize cautiously answering the questions below your level. This is the worst which may happen in test with you - fail completely one RC passage and be placed under the very tiny percentile interval, regardless of the progressing difficulty levels of your questions.

Thus, for the non-native it's the most priority to master the art of analytical reading. The balanced accuracy in CR and SC along with the mastery in reading comprehension should take you there to your desired score in verbal. As for math, I think you are OK and need only to follow GMAT strategic tips in exam - like guess and move, ball-park, POE, backward solving, etc.

pemdas wrote:Lala, if you aren't sure don't take the test. I never scored less than 49 in quant part of MGMAT CAT, but was always assuming this to be inflated. Moreover, the RC part of MGMAT is really-really easy in comparison with actual GMAT. Your 40 in their CAT means absolutely nothing once you fail completely through hard RC passage and realize cautiously answering the questions below your level. This is the worst which may happen in test with you - fail completely one RC passage and be placed under the very tiny percentile interval, regardless of the progressing difficulty levels of your questions.

Thus, for the non-native it's the most priority to master the art of analytical reading. The balanced accuracy in CR and SC along with the mastery in reading comprehension should take you there to your desired score in verbal. As for math, I think you are OK and need only to follow GMAT strategic tips in exam - like guess and move, ball-park, POE, backward solving, etc.

pemdas, I feel I will never be sure of myself I feel shame for my today quant result. I cant get why I am so weak in math after so long time. I mean I spend much time on the quant, but still can not get at least 80% and u r right about my 40 on verbal. I dont feel I am so good in it that is why I got confused by the result 700.

btw, following ur advice, I did RC from OG10. I got at most 2 mistakes per para, but again I have huge doubts whether it is a measure of my abilities, since I did these passages long time before, and maybe it is just my memory still remembers these texts.

it is just smth is wrong with me and my methods of studying. i have read many stories of ppl, who studied for at most 2 months and then got high scores. but I still flounder,and cant get a high score even in math. I seem to be a retard

so, we may conclude, that my mgmat score is not right, yes? then how to get a right score? I mean reading so much and sitting all the time on forums it is very likely to see the same questions on mock tests. so, how to test urself, and how to get a real picture?


p.s. what is ball-park, POE?

LalaB wrote:

pemdas wrote:Lala, if you aren't sure don't take the test. I never scored less than 49 in quant part of MGMAT CAT, but was always assuming this to be inflated. Moreover, the RC part of MGMAT is really-really easy in comparison with actual GMAT. Your 40 in their CAT means absolutely nothing once you fail completely through hard RC passage and realize cautiously answering the questions below your level. This is the worst which may happen in test with you - fail completely one RC passage and be placed under the very tiny percentile interval, regardless of the progressing difficulty levels of your questions.

Thus, for the non-native it's the most priority to master the art of analytical reading. The balanced accuracy in CR and SC along with the mastery in reading comprehension should take you there to your desired score in verbal. As for math, I think you are OK and need only to follow GMAT strategic tips in exam - like guess and move, ball-park, POE, backward solving, etc.

pemdas, I feel I will never be sure of myself I feel shame for my today quant result. I cant get why I am so weak in math after so long time. I mean I spend much time on the quant, but still can not get at least 80% and u r right about my 40 on verbal. I dont feel I am so good in it that is why I got confused by the result 700.

btw, following ur advice, I did RC from OG10. I got at most 2 mistakes per para, but again I have huge doubts whether it is a measure of my abilities, since I did these passages long time before, and maybe it is just my memory still remembers these texts.

it is just smth is wrong with me and my methods of studying. i have read many stories of ppl, who studied for at most 2 months and then got high scores. but I still flounder,and cant get a high score even in math. I seem to be a retard

so, we may conclude, that my mgmat score is not right, yes? then how to get a right score? I mean reading so much and sitting all the time on forums it is very likely to see the same questions on mock tests. so, how to test urself, and how to get a real picture?


p.s. what is ball-park, POE?

IMO you should not take these practice tests to see how much you will score in the real gmat. I dont think there is any test in the market that would give you a real time simulation of the GMAT.

However, these tests can give you a good measure of your stregths and weakness.
Did you solve the ques using THE PROCESS? (By "the process" i mean the standard approach that you've learnt for each ques type.)
Did you do the ques in the required time limit?
Were you able to sit through the whole test without burning out?

Even if you find a few repitited ques, there would still be a lot more that you might be seeing for the first time. Analyze how you've done those ques.
You should NEVER get those ques wrong which you've already done. If you do get them wrong, ANALYZE.



By the way,
Ballparking is a technique that is used for solving cumbersome calculations by using approximations. This helps in eliminating answer choices.

@rijul007

I was so disappointed by the result of the test, that didt even take a look to what I have done. U r right, I should analyze the results.

I like ur idea about tests in the market. u seem to be right. I should use them to deepen my knowledge and to get a better picture of my weak areas.