defeated and agitated

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defeated and agitated

by abhishek07sep » Wed Aug 29, 2012 9:42 pm
hi,i am writing this post in utter dejection.what i thought would be my "how i beat the gmat" post is finally showing up as "how gmat beat me that too pretty hard" post.(please dont mind the grammatical mistakes as,at present, i am not very much inclined to write correct sentences)

my name is abhi.english is my second language,first is hindi.i have been studying for the gmat since april.i was never good with verbal in my entire life,so i started to look over the internet for the adequate material.after a few hours of search,i decided to buy the holy MGMAT SC GUIDE and the holy POWERSCORE GUIDE FOR CR.i bought veritas material too,few books and 17 tests. having all my material at my desk,i embarked on a much common journey for a much coveted degree.i went through the guides pretty thoroughly.verbal,my weakness all my life, started to make a lot of sense to me,especially after the grammar rules that i studied in mgmat guide. i even referred to other grammar books too, but most of those books had a little out of scope knowledge ,which i didn't find relevant to my preparation for the gmat.anyways, i kept sifting through material and collecting whatever i thought was worth learning. in about month and a half, i became quite confident about the verbal ,especially grammar, and CR was going good too.i didn't have much trouble figuring out the cr questions; they started to make sense to me after the initial few days of studying the guide.
i didnt see any math untill july.in school maths was my favourite ,so i always have been confident about math.in july i quickly revised all the concepts of math needed in gmat and did a little practice on veritas material.i found the material FOR MATHS to be relatively easy than the actual gmat and the MGMAT TESTS.anyways, i also completed the OG12 and supplement for og(both for math and for verbal).now came the end of july,i started with my mgmat tests.
these are the scores.
mgmat test 1 690 (q48 v 36) (this was my first ever test,and i had a lot of anxiety.)
mgmat test 2 680(q48 v34) (the next day after the mgmat 1)

then i had to take off from the tests for a week. in this time,i realized that exept 2 or 3 questions in the verbal i knew all the remainin questions that i got wrong. i figured out that it was not the new knowledge that i needed the most at that time but the methods to calm my nerves and to time myself properly.

after a week i gave another mgmat-
mgmat3 740(q51 v41)
mgmat4 710(q48 v39 (the next day after the mgmat 3)

i realized that i was very lazy giving the exam very next day and figured that i shouldn't give any exam 1 day before the actual gmat.

after another few days i gave mgmat5
mgmat 5 750(q51 v41)
gmatprep1 720(q50 v39)(the next day after mgmat 5)

i was okay with this score range as i wasnt too much after the 99th percentile.
so in the next 4 days i had my gmat.i didnt give the gmatprep2.


now the things started to get nasty....
day 4 i had to go to some place so could sleep only for 3 hours in the night.that whole day was tiring.when i came back home i noticed that i was more than usual worried about the exam.day 3 i managed to take a 4 hour sleep. i awoke very early and in my head,no matter what i was doin or where i was,there was a constant anxiety all the time.
day 2,i harldy slept 2 hours in the night as i had to travel to chandigarh that's where my exam was.i live in dehradoon ,and ,after making this 250 km long drive in approx 5 -6 hours, i was completely out of energy. i reached there at noon, and, after having some lunch, i opened my error logs once again just to see them one last time.i had 4 cans of redbull in my car.i hadn't gone through the stuff in the previous 3 days so wanted to run down my eyes on everything.i was damn tired so around 4 in the evening thought to drink a red bull and quickly go through the error log ,and thought that by 8 in the night i would be slept.the sleep plan was looking good to me,but till that time i hadn't known that there was more to come.


having dinner at around 7, i was prepared to sleep. i was lying in the bed completely exhausted,but only after half an hour, i got even more tensed. i wasnt able to sleep,and just the thought that how much i was running out of sleep in the previous days and that how important it was for me to sleep properly that very night made me even more tensed. finally, worst thing that could have happened to me happened. it was 2 in the night,and i was awoke.i dont want to go into the feelin that i was going through at that moment,but ,to summarize,i didnt sleep at all. i remember walking on the corrridor of the hotel at around 3 in the night with full on frustration.
anyways it was the worst night of my life.i thought of not giving the exam as that might have allowed me to retake the test in the next few days,but i don't know why i just went in the exam centre.exam was at 9:30 A.M.


i was in a completely different state of mind at that time.my eyes were wide open but my mind too lethargic to take any stress. after having a red bull, i started with the essay and ir.i completed them with very slight problems.in the brake , i had another red bull and started with math,and it too came to me easily with few slight problems.then came THE MAIN EVENT of the exam.in the brake i again drank a red bull and ate a chocolate to get my mind running.but damn , this was the time i saw the difference with not just few problems but with major problems stepping into my head. it was so difficult to concentrate on those cr arguments,sentence structures and the rc passages. i was running out of time,i was taking a lot more time on every question ,yet wasn't answering them confidently.anyways, from question 25 to 35 i didnt even see properly what i was marking because i was running so damn out of time;moreover,i didnt even see any bold face question on the real exam,making me even more tensed . i was getting screwed up with each passing moment and the last 40 minutes on the test were just "AMAZING."


i pressed the agree button and the screen showed me my score
630(q 50 v 23) i was surprised with math.i wasnt expecting this score.
the math score has pushed me into a dillemma.
i am thinking that if i was good at math in the exam i should have been good with verbal too.
i mean i undestand that the lack of sleep had to take a toll on my verbal score,but i think that may be i am actually closer to verbal 28 to maybe verbal 30,because i was always pretty close to this actual math score.
i am having a very hard time to figure out that whether i should retake the test in a month or i need to take some heavy preparation before that. whatsoever,i wont deny i am disheartened to the very bottom of my heart.
Last edited by abhishek07sep on Thu Aug 30, 2012 12:41 am, edited 2 times in total.

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by 7777 » Thu Aug 30, 2012 12:38 am
whoaa... that was intense.. i think u don need to stress too much..
next time relax,don read anything before THE day,and no red bulls in the evening. u look like u are pretty much ready for a next fight.get a slot as soon as possible.work on controlling the stress.
your verbal scores indicate that in no way you deserve a 23 in verbal.did u take anyone with you.i think u didnt. next time take a friend with you...
trust me it wont be a major challenge for you to score atleast 730 in a month,if you work on your stress management..

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by AbhiJ » Mon Sep 03, 2012 6:11 am
Take care of logistics issues next time. Take a few days leave. Book hotels trains in advance. If possible take some friend with you. Remember GMAT will not define you even if you get 770.. Try to enjoy the exam.

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by Cate » Mon Sep 03, 2012 10:35 am
I could see how that could be very stressful for you. From what you have written, it seems as though you need to schedule your time a bit better leading up to the exam. If you do, you will find that it will make the exam less stressful and more enjoyable. You NEED to get rest, 3-4 hours a night will not cut it. Drinking too much Redbull can do more harm than good, and cramming before an exam like the GMAT is NOT the way to do things. Learn from your mistakes this time, and you should be fine when retaking the exam. Good luck!

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by Jim@StratusPrep » Sat Sep 15, 2012 9:54 am
Good luck on the retake... simply put, get some rest.
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