from 600 to 640 bleh...GMAT Retake Suggestions?

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So I just finished taking the GMAT for the second time, and scored a 640 with a 41 Q 36 V split IR 5, which is ok because I didn't study it at all. The last time I took a GMAT my score was 600 a 43 Q 30 V. So I actually scored the 40 points that most people experience in a retake. I'm actually surprised, because I had done more work to make sure I was in the right frame of mind going into the test. The last time I took the GMAT I freaked myself out the week leading into it and did substantially worse.

My practice tests are as follows
GMAT PREP 1 620 43 Q 33 V, Sept 7th
GMAT PREP 2 640 42 Q 37 V Oct 11th
GMAT PREP 3 680 47 Q 37 V Nov 1
GMAT PREP 4 700 44 Q 41 V Nov 30
Final 640 41 Q 36 V

Test day
I actually felt really good during quant, and attempted to guess no more than 2 questions in a row. Saw a pretty good range of questions including number properties, inequalities, probability, and other topics I usually saw around the ~43 mark on the GMATPrep software. Verbal felt alright, but I didn't really study this section because I got 90% correct on OG and thought this was a strength.


Materials used:
Magoosh
OG 13
MGMAT

I watched the Magoosh videos, and did all the questions in the OG, my hit rate on Verbal was high 90% on RC and CR, 80% on SC. My rate on Quant was approx 80% on PS and 78% on DS. I'm not sure how to proceed from here. I feel that I have a good grounding in the basics, but what I lack is some nuance of how higher level quant problems apply the basic rules. I'm not sure if I need to go back to OG 13 and try to get a 100% or to look at higher level questions, or potentially both? I know in terms of quant questions I'm weaker on DS, work/rates/ and word problems, and quite strong on number properties. I'm naturally more inclined to verbal, "a poet, and was able to raise my verbal from 30-36 by doing more practice problems even though I feel like I should have done better. Also I did ever single PT under timed conditions and did the full exam.


Trying to decide what to do from here on. I'm a tad bit dejected I was hoping that 670 would be my lower bound. Not sure if I want to take the GRE as I had hoped to apply for the Consortium this round. My goal was a 730, with a 690 as a min considering the rest of my background. I don't know if I should even apply in this round or put it off to R3 or next year. I used pretty much all the questions from OG 13 and the GMATPrep, do you have any suggestions of what else I should use? I have Jeff Sachmann's set, and would use that to get target practice.

I called the schools I'm going to apply to, and they said if I can take the test within a few days after R2 closes they would consider it. I would prefer to take the GMAT again, and would like to at least get into the range of my practice tests.
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by GMATinsight » Wed Dec 10, 2014 1:58 am
I think a student with the track of scores you have got in Mock CAT and actual GMAT must consider taking GMAT again because your scores have been consistently showing a lower score (Check percentile) in Quant section specially.

Quant section is considerably easier to score much better so you should give more attention t oit and take GMAT again when your score in Mocks settles to 47-48 consistently. This will give your current score a boost of about 50 marks and bring it to the boundary of 700.

The best thing about GMAT is that the number of attempts doesn't make a difference and the best attempt is considered for your application assessment.

Major focus on Quant is essential and some on Verbal to keep it atleast consistent.

The material you have referred is not extensive material so you need to refer to more study material and better questions so that your accuracy also improves which should be about 60% in quant at the moment given your score.

For any further and specific input on Quant you may reach us at the details mentioned below.

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by [email protected] » Wed Dec 10, 2014 9:08 pm
Hi Bigred2008,

You've provided a lot of important information in this post, so I can offer some perspective on what happened on Test Day and what you'll need to do to improve. I'd like to start with some questions though:

1) How much time passed between your 2 Official GMATs?
2) What did you do differently this time (how did you avoid "freaking out"?)?

3) Since you took the GMAT once before, did you take these GMAT practice CATs before?
4) The length of time between your practice CATs is significant. Why did you wait so long between CATs?

5) When you mentioned The Consortium, have you already made contact with that organization? When you say that a 690 was your "minimum" considering your background, was that minimum based on information that you received from The Consortium?
6) What specific deadline(s) are you under to get in one more GMAT?

7) did you have a pacing problem in any of the sections on Test Day? Did you have to rush at the end just to finish?

As far as this GMAT score is concerned, here is what you need to know:

1) GMAC has publicly stated that an Official Score is within about +-30 points of actual ability. This Official Score is within overlapping range of all of your practice CAT scores.

2) When you mentioned that you took all the CATs under timed conditions and that you did the full exam, I assume that you mean that you included the Essay and IR sections and that you took the two 8-minute breaks. If that's the case, then you used these CATs correctly. Beyond these details though, you have to consider other factors. What time of day and day of the week did you take these CATs (compared to Test Day)? Had you taken any of these CATs previously? Had you seen any of the questions before (in this Forum, for example)?

3) There are also a variety of factors that could have affected your performance on Test Day, including day/time of the Test, amount of sleep the night before, the length of the commute to the Testing Center, other distractions, etc.

4) It sounds like your studies were "book heavy", which tends to cause problems for a lot of Test Takers. You appear to do well with pencil-and-paper questions, but that's not a match for Test Day. For example, you claim to do really well on RC (90%), but how well do you do on RC when you're reading off a computer screen and you've already been working hard for 3+ hours. There's a "physical" aspect to working on a computer (it includes endurance, fatigue, pacing issues, etc.) that really can't be matched by working in a book. To score in the 700+ range, you're probably going to have to put more emphasis on computer-based studies and learn some new tactics to help you pick up those missing points (you're not going to score 730+ if DS is a "problem area.").

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Rich
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by MartyMurray » Wed Dec 10, 2014 10:09 pm
The first thing that jumps out at me is that the problems in the OG are rather limited practice. There are not that many of them and they are not that difficult. So, while you have made a good start, you need plenty of more challenging problems that include the nuances you mentioned.

For a huge group of more challenging quant problems check out the BellCurves question bank.

For a set of verbal and quant, you could check out the Veritas question bank.

Of course there are other sets as well.

You said you are dejected, but really you are not that far from your target score. One way to look at this is that you can incrementally acquire knowledge and skills to drive up your score. You already did this in a way when you made sure you were in a better frame of mind going into the second test. So you just need to find more changes you can make, each of which will make your score a little higher and the sum of which will get you to your target.

One thing you can do is prepare more for what you consider to be your stronger section, verbal. Even a poet may not be set up with the specific skills for in under two minutes finding answers to certain kinds of verbal questions. To correctly answer 700+ level SC, CR and RC questions, you have to be pretty well primed to slice and dice sentences, see the logic of things, and eliminate close to correct answers, among other things. Has to be bang, bang, bang, and right on the money, which they don't make easy much of the time. So you probably need to really practice verbal, with some online questions, to get used to what is going on and to learn the tricks of making it work.

As far as quant goes, there are so many ways to get some more points. Let's say you get tighter with some general stuff like factoring, triangles and exponents. Ok then you have a better foundation and your score should go up some. Then for instance, you could work on getting better at doing algebra DS problems. Ok those will definitely show up and you score will be a little higher.

To get my quant higher I sought out areas that I could tell I was like afraid of and did problems of those types until I was comfortable. Obviously as one does this, one's score goes up. It's no mystery. If you did enough of this, you would score 51 on quant. You just need to do enough of this to get your score to where you want it to be. Just be thoughtful about what you choose to work on. You could spend days working on probability and then see just one probability question on the test, or you could work on factoring and algebra and apply them right and left.

For more practice CATs, find and download PowerPrep, the old GMAC software. Here is one place where it is available. It doesn't have IR. Still they are good CATs. https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/resources

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by Bigred2008 » Thu Dec 11, 2014 10:49 am
[email protected] wrote:Hi Bigred2008,

You've provided a lot of important information in this post, so I can offer some perspective on what happened on Test Day and what you'll need to do to improve. I'd like to start with some questions though:

1) How much time passed between your 2 Official GMATs?
2) What did you do differently this time (how did you avoid "freaking out"?)?

3) Since you took the GMAT once before, did you take these GMAT practice CATs before?
4) The length of time between your practice CATs is significant. Why did you wait so long between CATs?

5) When you mentioned The Consortium, have you already made contact with that organization? When you say that a 690 was your "minimum" considering your background, was that minimum based on information that you received from The Consortium?
6) What specific deadline(s) are you under to get in one more GMAT?

7) did you have a pacing problem in any of the sections on Test Day? Did you have to rush at the end just to finish?

As far as this GMAT score is concerned, here is what you need to know:

1) GMAC has publicly stated that an Official Score is within about +-30 points of actual ability. This Official Score is within overlapping range of all of your practice CAT scores.

2) When you mentioned that you took all the CATs under timed conditions and that you did the full exam, I assume that you mean that you included the Essay and IR sections and that you took the two 8-minute breaks. If that's the case, then you used these CATs correctly. Beyond these details though, you have to consider other factors. What time of day and day of the week did you take these CATs (compared to Test Day)? Had you taken any of these CATs previously? Had you seen any of the questions before (in this Forum, for example)?

3) There are also a variety of factors that could have affected your performance on Test Day, including day/time of the Test, amount of sleep the night before, the length of the commute to the Testing Center, other distractions, etc.

4) It sounds like your studies were "book heavy", which tends to cause problems for a lot of Test Takers. You appear to do well with pencil-and-paper questions, but that's not a match for Test Day. For example, you claim to do really well on RC (90%), but how well do you do on RC when you're reading off a computer screen and you've already been working hard for 3+ hours. There's a "physical" aspect to working on a computer (it includes endurance, fatigue, pacing issues, etc.) that really can't be matched by working in a book. To score in the 700+ range, you're probably going to have to put more emphasis on computer-based studies and learn some new tactics to help you pick up those missing points (you're not going to score 730+ if DS is a "problem area.").

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Thanks for your answer, and let me attempt to answer your questions.

I took the first GMAT in 2012, and the most recent one a few days ago. I was recruited into a new job with a promotion, and put more emphasis on building my resume and professional experience. So I took some time off, and got back into studying August of this year. Last time I took the on a Tuesday at 4:00 pm. I stupidly went into work that day, got stressed and then excused myself to run over to the testing center. So when I took it I was fatigued and slightly stressed, so it wasn't the best time to take it. I've pasted a previous write up on my last test experience. I had most likely seen the CAT's before, but was 2 years ago, and I'm not even sure the questions I saw were/are still there and I use the mac version, which didn't exist when I used the GMATPrep software last. I had to run an emulator, Parallels, on my mac just to get it to work last. I was going through my material, and doubling back, and didn't want to waste my GMATPrep's.

I am already in the process of applying, and mostly done with the rest of my application. It's mostly the fact that my undergraduate record isn't the strongest. My parent's had strokes while I was in college and I have a sub 3.0 GPA. The advice that I have received is I need to be close to the median of the schools I'm applying to, which is in the 690-700 range because the rest of my application is strong. My recommendations are good; I've been promoted 6 times in 6 years; I manage a team and have been recognized as a top-performer within a publicly traded company. I didn't have as much a pacing problem as a few questions through me for a loop. I had a at least 5 probability and permutations/combinations problems, a few about replacement. I also had a string of at least 8 DS questions as well, and I did work on developing a guessing strategy so I didn't guess two in a row.

Correct I took all exams under timed conditions and took the correct break patterns. I took the first two CAT's after work typically, so about 2 hours after work which would typically have me ending around 11pm and then save analysis for the next day. I took the last two CAT's on the weekend's usually around 2pm, and my exam was scheduled for 12pm.

Nothing about test day. I didn't sleep the night before that much tossed and turned, maybe got a solid 3-4 hours, but felt refreshed when I woke up. Test center is 10 minutes away from my house and took off from work. I have some wiggle room with timing for the GMAT but I'm looking prob 5 weeks away tops. Also, I did more SC work this time around based on my last writeup. Do you have any suggestions for where I go from here? I pretty much have OG 13 memorized.



"I just finished taking my first gmat, and I am disappointed with my score, a 600, 43Q, 30V. When I first started studying, I scored a 510, 31 Q 31 V, and had steadily been working on improving my score. I used all the MGMAT books and then the OG 12 guide and the two supplemental guides as my primary study tools.

I took 5 of the MGMAT Cats
1. 520 30Q 32V
2. 560 35Q 32V
3. 580 39Q 31V
4. 600 42Q 32V
5. 710 42Q 44V

I also took 4 Practice Tests
1. 510 31Q 31V
2. 530 35Q 28V
3. 680 44Q 39V-This and the 710 were taken one week from the actual test
4. 620 39Q 32V-Took this the day before the actual test and it shook my confidence

Things really started to come together when I started to score in the high 6's and low 7's and it just seemed like it was clicking. I now realize that I just assumed because I am a native speaker verbal would be easy. I also almost focused entirely on quant during my studying period, but that was because I was in the getting 90% of RC and CR questions correct in OG because I had taken the LSAT before. I had worked through all the problem solving questions and about 100 of the data sufficiency problems till I got them all right.

But during the test, I felt really confident on quant for the most part, but verbal rattled me, mostly because there were a lot of SC questions and I was weak there."
"No Pressure, No Diamonds. "