GMAT re-taking strategies

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GMAT re-taking strategies

by debrupishere » Tue Aug 07, 2012 5:35 am
Hi ,
I just took the gmat yesterday and scored 650 (Q-47,V-32) although i was scoring about 720 ish in the practice exams.It was the first competitive exam that i wrote in 3 years and i panicked somewhere during IR and things started going hay wire from then. had never scored less than 49 in quants was shicked to see 47 :( . So obviously i am planning to write again, and any help in re writing the gmat would he;p. I will have to go to the US on a business trip for 3 months hence cant prepare then :( so planning to writ in jan end or beginning of feb.


Please give your suggestions and feedback.

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Nationality :- Indian
Work exp :- 2 years
target score :- 720

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by NextGreatLeader » Wed Aug 15, 2012 1:05 pm
I recommend you spend some time building your verbal score. You're clearly strong in quant and can likely boost your score without too much additional effort, since this is your first time scoring below 49. Which materials have you been using?

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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Fri Aug 17, 2012 12:17 pm
A few thoughts on what you wrote:

1) There's absolutely no need to panic on IR! Did you see the article this week in which Stanford GSB essentially said that it's not using the IR score in admissions for a while? There's good evidence that the score won't matter too much for you, and a ton of evidence to show that it's much less important than Quant/Verbal, so use that as a warmup and don't let it impact your energy or stamina.

2) Practice taking the test in one full sitting. Your verbal score could use some work, and some of that may be that your stamina and focus just waned toward the end. If that sounds at all true (and it may well be, especially given that you burned some anxiety during IR too), then build up that focus for the last 20-30 minutes so that you can keep that verbal score a bit higher.

3) While it's fresh, jot down any thoughts on:

-Questions that gave you trouble on the test
-Pacing problems you encountered
-Anything that kept you up the night before (so that you can study that and experience less stress next time)
-Anything you saw on the test that you didn't expect to see or weren't ready for

4) Be confident - it sounds like Monday just wasn't your day and you still scored a couple standard deviations above average. That's cause to be optimistic - you're not that far off, and now you have experience on your side!
Brian Galvin
GMAT Instructor
Chief Academic Officer
Veritas Prep

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