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Retake GMAT exam in 3 weeks!

by karimelchami » Fri Sep 30, 2016 10:04 pm
Hello,

I posted couple of weeks ago this thread: https://www.beatthegmat.com/2-weeks-till ... 92559.html

where I had 12 days left to take the GMAT exam and was stuck around 450 on practice tests. Last week before the exam, I practiced a lot and my scores improved a lot in practice tests as sees below in Manhattan CAT exams:
CAT EXAM #6 Completed 09/27/2016 Score: 580
CAT EXAM #5 Completed 09/27/2016 Score: 540
CAT EXAM #4 Completed 09/26/2016 Score: 520
CAT EXAM #3 Completed 09/25/2016 Score: 550
CAT EXAM #2 Completed 09/17/2016 Score: 450
CAT EXAM #1 Completed 09/08/2016 Score: 430


450 to 580 in only 10 days; however, this was not enough to help me on my real GMAT. I ended up with 510, when I was targeting 580. Luckily, school extended my gmat score submission till Oct 23rd (deadline was Oct 1st) and now I have 3 weeks to retake the exam and get a minimum of 580.

I have been studying for a month now using the Manhattan books, took 6 Manhattan CAT exam and 2 GMAT Prep while also practicing in the GMAT study guide book. My only regret was that I've been practicing CAT exams without doing essays and IR which affected my score on the real test. This is my score for the official GMAT:
Scaled Score Percentile
IR 1 0
Quan 41 45
Verbal 20 23
Total 510 32

I guessed through IR to save my energy for Quan and verbal. By the time I have reached the verbal, I was drained that it affected my verbal.

Now, I'm putting this behind me and thankfully the school gave me an extension to submit my scores. I'm scheduling an exam 3 weeks from now, and although that's not enough but I have no other choice and I believe this should be sufficient to get my targeted score of 580. so what do you think I should do? Revisit Manhattan material? Read another Prep provider? I'm finding myself struggling the most in Data sufficiency and Critical reasoning (and sometimes reading comprehension)

I appreciate your feedback
thanks!
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by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Sat Oct 01, 2016 3:18 am
karimelchami wrote:Hello,

I posted couple of weeks ago this thread: https://www.beatthegmat.com/2-weeks-till ... 92559.html

where I had 12 days left to take the GMAT exam and was stuck around 450 on practice tests. Last week before the exam, I practiced a lot and my scores improved a lot in practice tests as sees below in Manhattan CAT exams:
CAT EXAM #6 Completed 09/27/2016 Score: 580
CAT EXAM #5 Completed 09/27/2016 Score: 540
CAT EXAM #4 Completed 09/26/2016 Score: 520
CAT EXAM #3 Completed 09/25/2016 Score: 550
CAT EXAM #2 Completed 09/17/2016 Score: 450
CAT EXAM #1 Completed 09/08/2016 Score: 430


450 to 580 in only 10 days; however, this was not enough to help me on my real GMAT. I ended up with 510, when I was targeting 580. Luckily, school extended my gmat score submission till Oct 23rd (deadline was Oct 1st) and now I have 3 weeks to retake the exam and get a minimum of 580.

I have been studying for a month now using the Manhattan books, took 6 Manhattan CAT exam and 2 GMAT Prep while also practicing in the GMAT study guide book. My only regret was that I've been practicing CAT exams without doing essays and IR which affected my score on the real test. This is my score for the official GMAT:
Scaled Score Percentile
IR 1 0
Quan 41 45
Verbal 20 23
Total 510 32

I guessed through IR to save my energy for Quan and verbal. By the time I have reached the verbal, I was drained that it affected my verbal.

Now, I'm putting this behind me and thankfully the school gave me an extension to submit my scores. I'm scheduling an exam 3 weeks from now, and although that's not enough but I have no other choice and I believe this should be sufficient to get my targeted score of 580. so what do you think I should do? Revisit Manhattan material? Read another Prep provider? I'm finding myself struggling the most in Data sufficiency and Critical reasoning (and sometimes reading comprehension)

I appreciate your feedback
thanks!
I'd make this a 3-pronged attack.

1) To address the psychological factors that can influence your score, try incorporating a little mindfulness meditation: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archi ... on/275564/

2) Review your old tests and look for patterns. If you find that there were opportunities to use a simple strategy, such as picking numbers, rather doing complex algebra, you want to note that. If there are content issues (if you struggled with exponent questions, for example) make sure to do some drilling in the relevant areas. For additional practice, hit a question bank: https://www.veritasprep.com/gmat-question-bank/

3) This time around, gauge your progress by taking official practice tests from mba.com (There are 2 free tests, and 4 more that you can purchase.)
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by [email protected] » Sat Oct 01, 2016 9:46 am
Hi karimelchami,

You have the potential to pick up some serious points in BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections, but you don't have the time needed to make big improvements to how you handle both sections. With a V20, you have a variety of different ways to pick up the 70 points that you're looking for (assuming that you can score at a the Q41+ level again), so I suggest that you focus your studies on the Verbal section for the next 3 weeks (with a little time set aside for Quant - so that you can maintain those current skills). You should also plan to take 1 FULL-LENGTH CAT (with the Essay and IR sections) per week.

Given your limited timeframe, I think that you would find the EMPOWERgmat Verbal Score Booster to be quite helpful. Most of our clients finish that Study Plan in under a month, so you might be able to properly work through it in 3 weeks. During that time, you'll also be able to access any of the Quant resources that interest you. We have a variety of free resources on our site (www.empowergmat.com), so you can 'test out' the Course before setting up an account.

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by karimelchami » Sat Oct 01, 2016 10:54 am
thank you! Unfortunately, the only date I could find available before Oct 23 (date set by the school) was Oct 18, so I had to book that. 17 days to go to re-take my gmat.
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by ceilidh.erickson » Sat Oct 01, 2016 3:51 pm
You are taking WAY too many practice tests! You took 4 in 3 days - no wonder the test didn't go as well as you had hoped! You were probably completely burnt out. This is not a helpful way to study!

Taking test after test does nothing to actually build the skills you need to improve on the next test. Here's an analogy: taking tests is to improvement what stepping on a scale is to weight loss. Someone trying to lose weight would step on the scale to measure how much weight was lost, but he or she wouldn't expect that the act of stepping on the scale itself would make him/her lose the weight.

That analogy isn't entirely accurate. There are 2 skills that actually can be improved with taking practice tests: 1) pacing and 2) roll-with-the-punches decision making. But I'm willing to bet that these weren't the 2 primary things that were negatively affecting your score.

If you're forgetting math concepts, misreading questions, not recognizing grammar rules... you have to practice these skills specifically. You need to give yourself ample time - probably one or two days - to dissect each practice test in depth, right and wrong answers. Then give yourself time to specifically work on any topic or skill that was weak.

Between now and Oct 23, you should not take more than 2 more practice tests. Even 1 might be enough! You've already seen a wide breadth of material with the practice tests you've taken, so now your task is to understand those in depth.

TRACK YOUR MISTAKES! Recording and analyzing your mistakes is the necessary piece that I'm guessing you were missing. (You couldn't possibly have had time for it with all those practice tests!). Here's how: https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -studying/

Good luck!
Ceilidh Erickson
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education
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by karimelchami » Mon Oct 10, 2016 6:59 pm
one week left to retake my exam. I've been reviewing Verbal and Quant (mainly verbal) for the last week on empowergmat and took my first CAT after my official gmat exam and I got a disappointing 400 on it.

Q32 percentile 30
V15 percentile 9

I took the full CAT exam with AWA and IR, and I was following a strategy that I learned from empowergmat only to realize that with 9 minutes left on verbal, I had 9 questions left so I had to guess most of the remaining questions. Still a disappointing quantitative score compared to the real gmat I took 10 days ago.

Now with one week left to retake my exam, I'm targeting a minimum of 580.
I will practice every day using OG book and focus on verbal questions. Targeting 3-4 hours every day (due to work). with one last CAT 4 days before the exam that I expect to do.

Any advice for my last week, and how to keep up stamina, focus, and place till the end of my verbal? Does GMATPrep reflect my real score or is it little harder?

thanks!
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by [email protected] » Mon Oct 10, 2016 7:14 pm
Hi karimelchami,

Have you done a full review of this CAT and filled out your Mistake Tracker? Beyond the specifics of that document (which can help you to truly define WHY you got questions wrong), a much simpler review would categorize your wrong answers in each section into 3 categories:

How many questions did you get wrong....
1) Because of a silly/little mistake?
2) Because there was some math/verbal that you just couldn't remember how to do?
3) Because the question was too hard?

Beyond those questions, how were you performing in the Verbal section BEFORE those final 9 questions? And what fraction of those final 9 questions did you end up getting wrong? With your score goal, you don't have to correctly answer ANY questions that you think are too hard or too weird, BUT you have to nail the 'gettable' questions - which means that you have to keep the little mistakes to a minimum. Regardless of how you study, the GMAT will always give you the score that you EARN.

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by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Mon Oct 10, 2016 7:21 pm
Any advice for my last week, and how to keep up stamina, focus, and place till the end of my verbal? Does GMATPrep reflect my real score or is it little harder?
The GMATPrep tests employ the same scoring algorithm as the official exam.

And mindfulness meditation has been shown to help with stamina, focus, and working memory: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archi ... on/275564/
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by karimelchami » Mon Oct 10, 2016 10:31 pm
[email protected] wrote:Hi karimelchami,

Have you done a full review of this CAT and filled out your Mistake Tracker? Beyond the specifics of that document (which can help you to truly define WHY you got questions wrong), a much simpler review would categorize your wrong answers in each section into 3 categories:

How many questions did you get wrong....
1) Because of a silly/little mistake?
2) Because there was some math/verbal that you just couldn't remember how to do?
3) Because the question was too hard?

Beyond those questions, how were you performing in the Verbal section BEFORE those final 9 questions? And what fraction of those final 9 questions did you end up getting wrong? With your score goal, you don't have to correctly answer ANY questions that you think are too hard or too weird, BUT you have to nail the 'gettable' questions - which means that you have to keep the little mistakes to a minimum. Regardless of how you study, the GMAT will always give you the score that you EARN.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
to be precise, on the practice CAT couple of days ago, it went down hill on the verbal on question 26./before that, I had 8 correct out of 10 before I got only 5 correct ones out of the last 16 (though I started weak I had 15 correct out of first 25 questions). I think it came down to guessing and losing focus towards the end. I will yet to review the CAT questions I got wrong; however, my strategy for the remaining days is practice and focus on my mistakes through an error log I created.

thanks!
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by [email protected] » Tue Oct 11, 2016 9:14 am
Hi karimelchami,

From what you've described, the big 'issue' that you faced on this CAT might have actually been a physical one and not a mental or tactical one. Many Test Takers face endurance/fatigue issues during the Verbal section - which is understandable since the GMAT is about 4 hours long and the Verbal section is the final 75 minutes of the Test. Tired brains tend to make poor decisions. In addition, there are two challenges in the Verbal section that you won't face in the Quant section:

1) Verbal questions don't have a 'safety net' - if you make a little mistake, miss a detail, etc., then you'll be convinced that one of the wrong answers is the correct one. In the Quant section, if you make a mistake, then there's a reasonable chance that "your answer" will not be among the 5 choices, so you KNOW that you screwed something up and you can go back to try to fix your mistake.
2) At some point during the Verbal section, you will likely think "I just want this Test to be over" and you'll actually start doing less work, taking fewer notes, missing more details, etc...and you'll rush through questions that you probably could have answered correctly.

This is all meant to say that you might need to consider physical aspects of how you take the Test, including the time you begin the Exam, what you eat for breakfast, what you do during your two 8-minute breaks, etc. You can train to face every aspect of Test Day, but you have to acknowledge that there's more to prepare for than just the content of the Exam.

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by karimelchami » Tue Oct 11, 2016 9:33 am
[email protected] wrote:Hi karimelchami,

From what you've described, the big 'issue' that you faced on this CAT might have actually been a physical one and not a mental or tactical one. Many Test Takers face endurance/fatigue issues during the Verbal section - which is understandable since the GMAT is about 4 hours long and the Verbal section is the final 75 minutes of the Test. Tired brains tend to make poor decisions. In addition, there are two challenges in the Verbal section that you won't face in the Quant section:

1) Verbal questions don't have a 'safety net' - if you make a little mistake, miss a detail, etc., then you'll be convinced that one of the wrong answers is the correct one. In the Quant section, if you make a mistake, then there's a reasonable chance that "your answer" will not be among the 5 choices, so you KNOW that you screwed something up and you can go back to try to fix your mistake.
2) At some point during the Verbal section, you will likely think "I just want this Test to be over" and you'll actually start doing less work, taking fewer notes, missing more details, etc...and you'll rush through questions that you probably could have answered correctly.

This is all meant to say that you might need to consider physical aspects of how you take the Test, including the time you begin the Exam, what you eat for breakfast, what you do during your two 8-minute breaks, etc. You can train to face every aspect of Test Day, but you have to acknowledge that there's more to prepare for than just the content of the Exam.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
what's your recommendation for the physical aspect and what to consider in my remaining week? In my real gmat I had my exam at 8 am but had to drive for about 40 minutes to get to the center. I had breakfast (boiled eggs) before going to the exam and used my 8 minute break to eat granola bar and a banana and drink water.

On the practice CAT, I took the exam at 8 am as well, no breakfast, with little food during breaks.
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by [email protected] » Tue Oct 11, 2016 10:01 am
Hi karimelchami,

Skipping breakfast and not 'recharging' during your two 8-minute breaks would almost certainly have a HUGE impact on your performance. The human brain needs fuel to properly function - and if you didn't give yourself that fuel, then that would go a long way to explaining the drop in score.

You should (re)watch the Physical & Psychological Tactics Module in the EMPOWERgmat Course. It walks you through a number of different things that you can do to put yourself in the proper 'form' to maximize your performance.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
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