Preparing for the final shot

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Preparing for the final shot

by Meriwether7 » Fri May 31, 2013 11:04 am
Hi There.

My GMAT story below:
Sat for the exam first time in December, 2012 and scored disappointing 580 (Q44, V26). This was so unexpected that I could not even believe when the actual score showed up, thought there was some error... I was scoring between 630 - 700 on practice exams and 2 days before the actual test even scored 730 on GMATprep. The actual score destroyed my MBA thoughts for the 2013 intake... I plan to apply top 10 b-schools and with 580 I did not have any chances.

I took some time off and then continued studying from March. I did Princeton 1,037 practice questions, GMAT OG 13, and took Veritasprep lectures. My verbal score seemed to be improving, especially after Vertitasprep course (I watched all their classes, wrote all 10 exams of Veritas and 6 MGMAT exams - never received a score below 640) and I was now scoring in 670 - 730 range. My test was scheduled in May and I took couple of days off before the test day - just to concentrate on GMAT. I wrote the GMAT prep 2nd exam a day before the test date and scored 760. It helped me to feel self confident on the exam date, but...

I was feeling a terrible headache during the test - Quant did not go very well, I was initially prepared for 50-51 score, but felt I was not doing that well. Then verbal started and thought I was doing well on that, got a boldface CR question after first 10 questions. RC questions took more time than I planned and I ended up guessing last 5 questions. Then my score appeared - 2nd disappointment! scored only 610 (Q46, V28). I could not even imagine such a low verbal score even in my worst dreams... 28!

Anyway, I need to clear this thing - I am now registered for the GMAT exam in July and need to make sure that this is my final shot. I am using veritasprep notes/books and their on-demand lectures. Also signed up for the Veritas online class. At the same time I am also doing OG13 questions again (on my Ipad - while commuting) and purchased OG Quant and Verbal reviews.

Please can you suggest any other resources, which could potentially complement my current plan? I need to get 710 + by this time and I am ready to give it enough preparation (even though I work 60 hours per week).

Any reasonable thoughts will be highly appreciated.

Cheers
Meriwether7

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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Sat Jun 01, 2013 5:53 am
Your practice test scores suggest that you know the material backwards and forwards. The missing piece of the puzzle seems to be how you function on Test Day. You mention that you had a headache, but I suspect that there are other forces at play, namely test anxiety and a lack of confidence. If you want to perform well on test day, you need to spend some time overcoming these two beasts.

If you're interested, we have a free video on the topic on overcoming test anxiety: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gener ... es?id=1252

With regard to adopting the proper mindset/attitude on test day, you may be interested in the following BTG article: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/04/ ... n-the-gmat

Cheers,
Brent
Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com
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