I recently took the GMAT and scored a 350. Yes, that is a 350. Honestly, I don't even know where I went wrong. Furthermore, I know my abilities are far more higher than the score would indicate. I simply felt rushed and was really nervous. I've taken securities exams 7, 66, 9 and 10 and passed with flying colors but for some reason this test freaked me out. Anyhow, it is plausible for me to go from 350 to the 650ish range on the second try? Thanks for the help and advice.
Hey ololswims,
Thanks for posting and for sharing your experience. Please rest assured that it's certainly possible to even double that score!
The GMAT isn't a content-based test like the exams you've taken in school or even some of the financial securities exams that test "what you know". It's also not graded on a purely chronological basis - it's all on a curve. So it's entirely possible (if not probable) that you correctly solved 90% of the problems you missed but then answered that last 10% incorrectly and just incurred a ton of GMAT-themed "penalties".
Say a question asked:
John's Jeep has a 20-gallon gas tank. If he completely fills it and then makes a 100-mile trip to Denver, how much gas is left in his tank when he arrives if he averages 20 miles per gallon for the trip?
You might correctly note that, at 20 miles per gallon, he'd use 5 gallons of gas. 5 would definitely be an answer choice - but the correct answer to this particular question is 15...it's how many gallons are left, and not how many are used.
When you're taking a test like this under timed conditions, the GMAT has a ton of little traps like that to test "how you think" - Do you prioritize the final objective? Do you have the presence of mind to look at the big picture and not become mired in the details? Etc. - even when you've done most of the problem correctly. These items are exacerbated under timed pressure, too.
If you can identify these mistakes to which you are vulnerable, build speed and efficiency on the exam, and buy into some of the thought processed that the GMAT prioritizes (using "number properties" instead of pure calculation, for example), you can definitely make that turnaround. With your prior academic success and your commitment to doing well on all of those tests, I'd frankly be surprised if you didn't.
