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Time to quit?

by cd86 » Sun Oct 13, 2013 10:29 pm
I have been studying for GMAT for 2 years now. I have given the exam twice with scores gmat1 :540 gmat2:590 , after my 590 score in December 2012 )for which i had worked really hard for about an year) i decided to put in whatever it takes to score a 700+ , since then I have improved a lot with disciplined work.

My imporvements have been very slow though , unlike many people who say their score jumped from 610 to 670 after they did xyz for 2 weeks..that sort of thing did not happen to me. I know am very good at SC and CR , RC is still a problem.

I scored a 650 q48 v32 on GMATprep exactly one month ago , then 680 on mgmat , and yesterday i gave another gmatprep and got a 650 q48 v31 , even after one month of working on my weak ares.

I feel that more than the concepts now, i am failing in giving the exam the right way on a whole. How to learn to deal with the exam in itself? Even slight changes in my mood seem to affect my performnace , being in an ethusiatic mood itslef gives me a better score.Giving mocks every weekend, i feel so depressed and that i would rather be doing something fun than do this, I feel this so much more now because i have spent countless weekends over the past 2 years giving this exam. I feel like quitting and that this exam is something that i cannot get done with.

any help?
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by [email protected] » Sun Oct 13, 2013 10:58 pm
Hi cd86,

If what you've described is true (that you're scoring in the mid-600s to high-600s in your practice CATs), then why haven't you scheduled another Official GMAT? Any of those scores would be preferable to your 590 AND would be high enough to allow you to apply to any US Business School.

Maybe a 700 isn't possible, but you don't necessarily need a 700, so get comfortable with that idea and go take the GMAT.

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by mevicks » Mon Oct 14, 2013 12:13 am
Hi cd86,

Here are my 2 cents...

1] First and foremost read this: https://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/break-700.cfm
It comes from a company which knows A THING OR TWO about standardized tests!

2] You are already there Quant-wise, you just need to get the verbal basics out of the way. I'd suggest that you go through an american-english grammar book (again MGMAT has one) to build up a solid foundation. Try to make your strong points (SC) your weapon of choice, a grammar book would help with this. I'm still trying to work on my CR strategies and cant comment on them. As far as RC goes, I'd advice you to read GMAT-Like passages in an untimed mode (RC99, LSAT etc). MGMAT places too much emphasis on note-taking for RC, this strategy never worked for me. https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gmat- ... prehension has some very good tips. Initially the aim of the passages should be COMPREHENSION and not timing, note taking etc. Doing this raised my accuracy to 80-100% on RC passages (and well withing the expected time limit). Also if you haven't been reading novels, science articles etc, starting to read them now wouldn't do any good either.

3] Good Mock exams are PRECIOUS. DONOT WASTE THEM, no matter what. Dont give a mock test until you know that you've made substantial progress on your weaknesses.

4] Finally, do a little bit of GMAT practice EVERYDAY, if possible sit for longer hours, 3-4 hours on a stretch. This would help with the fatigue factor during the Mock tests.

Hope that helps.

Regards,
Vivek
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Mon Oct 14, 2013 3:47 am
cd86 wrote: Even slight changes in my mood seem to affect my performnace , being in an ethusiatic mood itslef gives me a better score.Giving mocks every weekend, i feel so depressed and that i would rather be doing something fun than do this, I feel this so much more now because i have spent countless weekends over the past 2 years giving this exam. I feel like quitting and that this exam is something that i cannot get done with.
I firmly believe that achieving a great GMAT score requires one to adopt the proper mindset. To this end, you may be interested in reading the following articles I wrote for BTG:
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2013/06/ ... -destroyer
- https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/04/ ... n-the-gmat

Cheers,
Brent
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by kuzzden » Tue Oct 15, 2013 10:25 pm
First of all, I want to say great thanks for all people who answered to this topic for the great words said, they are really inspiring.

Cd86, I have the same problem as u, I did well on mock exams and felt really well prepared during the test, however actual score was very dissapointing to me. After the exam I was sitting in the park near the testing center and thought that maybe GMAT is not for me and my desire to go for MBA is wrong. However, lately I understood that its just an obstacle before my dream, and my dream deserves some efforts to be done to achieve it. Here is a place to show ur strenght and not to give up.

I hope u'll find ur right motivation and beat the GMAT :)
The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up!
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by cd86 » Wed Oct 16, 2013 12:19 am
Thanks for the encouragement.

@rich I havnt scheduled a test hoping that I would get better at it eventually and will be confident enough to get a 700+ no matter what. Isnt hope what lets people keep going afterall? To be honest with myself , I do believe I can score 700 or above and thats why I am still trying.

@Meviks : Thanks for the advice , I am currently concentraitng on doing atleast4-5 RC passages a day.My quant scores range from 45 to 48 , so i feel I need to tighten my timing probably.
Sadly, I have indeed wasted good mocks. Not really a waste, I am where I am because of the learning I took from these mocks. But yes, I do not have any fresh mocks as such.I have taken them atleast once during my previous attempts.
Is there anyway at all now to judge my current level without relying on mock exam scores?

As you said , I decided to study for 4.5 hours stretches doing 37 math and 41 verbal questions everyday.
What I decided to do is give this whole thing one last push, give it my all. I have decided to stimnulate the exam day in every possible way. So I have decided to practice by going for a 4.5 hour practicr session , wherein I will start off with AWA and IR and then do 75 mins,37 questions math and 75 mins of verbal with 41 questions split acorss evey topic. This I hope will solve my problem some what atleast , with respect to anxiety and build endurance.This might seem a little extreme, but I believe this is what i required for me to make me feel better. So i am going to go ahead and do it. Since i work 9.5 hours a day , i think 4.5 hour stretch would be a little tough..but will try to stick to it somehow.
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by cd86 » Wed Oct 16, 2013 12:28 am
@Brent This whole "proper mindset" is too elusive and almost seems out of my control! Feel angry that such an important exam depends on so many external factors! If one is really good at the exam I guess they do well irrespective of how horrible they are feeling during or before the test.
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by mevicks » Wed Oct 16, 2013 1:37 am
cd86 wrote:
Is there anyway at all now to judge my current level without relying on mock exam scores?
Umm, I think the best indicators are mock tests (good ones), however you could try your hands on official questions provided by GMAC (question pack, og etc) and test your knowledge against questions of varying difficulty levels (hard, medium) in a timed mode.

For mock tests:
Option1) Reset GMATPrep and MGMAT tests --> Aim for 800 :)
Read this:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/03/ ... iple-times
https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/pos ... tml#p61601

Option2) Buy new stuff (GMAT Exam Pack 1, tests from another company - veritas etc)

Also, putting aside 4.5 Hrs everyday would be too taxing for your brain and would be impractical if you have too many involvements ;) (atleast for me it would be for sure :( ) so why dont you aim for fewer (3 - 3.5 hrs) once or twice in a week :) rest of the days just random practice.. on BTG or some other prep material...
The idea is to avoid "coming out of the GMAT mode", thus doing a little bit of GMAT practice everyday, this is what many GMAT strategy experts suggest on various forums...

Regards,
Vivek
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Wed Oct 16, 2013 9:00 am
cd86 wrote:@Brent This whole "proper mindset" is too elusive and almost seems out of my control! Feel angry that such an important exam depends on so many external factors! If one is really good at the exam I guess they do well irrespective of how horrible they are feeling during or before the test.
So, you're saying that adopting a GMAT-beating mindset will be difficult. That's understandable.
At this point, the question is "Where do we go from here?"
Does the difficulty of the task exceeds your desire to attend Business School? What are you prepared to do to achieve your dreams?

Aside: Adopting a proper mindset has benefits outside the realm of standardized testing. So, regardless of whether or not you want to continue preparing for the GMAT, I think it's still beneficial to pursue this kind of mindset.

Cheers,
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by cd86 » Mon Oct 21, 2013 12:24 am
Thanks you Brent for the great advice.

I had decided that I will give the next gmat prep exam only when i feel enthusiastic and motivated about gmat on a whole. I was feeling pretty good yesterday and decided to take a repeat of gmatprep1 , i scored a 710 , q49 v 38 , though i am happy that i managed time much better and was able to focus better (I drank red bull ,i guess it helped) , I feel the score might be inflated. Then i came across the following post by you :
www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/03/18/taki ... iple-times#

I have now decided to repeat gmat preps a few more times to practice stamina and hope to get 700+ on those. I guess that will make me confident about taking the real thing. Do you think it is a good idea?
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by sahilchaudhary » Mon Oct 21, 2013 12:44 am
cd86 wrote:I have been studying for GMAT for 2 years now. I have given the exam twice with scores gmat1 :540 gmat2:590 , after my 590 score in December 2012 )for which i had worked really hard for about an year) i decided to put in whatever it takes to score a 700+ , since then I have improved a lot with disciplined work.

My imporvements have been very slow though , unlike many people who say their score jumped from 610 to 670 after they did xyz for 2 weeks..that sort of thing did not happen to me. I know am very good at SC and CR , RC is still a problem.

I scored a 650 q48 v32 on GMATprep exactly one month ago , then 680 on mgmat , and yesterday i gave another gmatprep and got a 650 q48 v31 , even after one month of working on my weak ares.

I feel that more than the concepts now, i am failing in giving the exam the right way on a whole. How to learn to deal with the exam in itself? Even slight changes in my mood seem to affect my performnace , being in an ethusiatic mood itslef gives me a better score.Giving mocks every weekend, i feel so depressed and that i would rather be doing something fun than do this, I feel this so much more now because i have spent countless weekends over the past 2 years giving this exam. I feel like quitting and that this exam is something that i cannot get done with.

any help?
I also got a 540 in my first attempt, but scored around 650 in mocks. I am planning to give my second attempt in less than a month after preparing for 3 months.

However, my verbal is not showing much improvement. I am also not confident that I would be able to score my target of around 700, since in mocks I am getting around 650 only.

Any suggestions ?
Sahil Chaudhary
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Mon Oct 21, 2013 7:13 am
cd86 wrote: I have now decided to repeat gmat preps a few more times to practice stamina and hope to get 700+ on those. I guess that will make me confident about taking the real thing. Do you think it is a good idea?
Great idea.

If you see duplicate questions, don't forget to wait about 2 minutes so that you don't give yourself extra time (which will skew your results).

Also note that two additional practice test pack are available for purchase: https://www.mba.com/store/store-catalog/ ... ack-1.aspx

Cheers,
Brent
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by cd86 » Tue Nov 05, 2013 11:58 pm
Since the last time I wrote the gmat prep I have taken the following tests

mgmat 700 q47 v39
economist gmat 710
kaplan cat 1 740 q98% v92%

I guess I am in much better shape than I was before.What inrigues me though is that when I got these socres I was equally underconfident as I had been before and while i gave these mocks I 'felt' as though I am doing really badly.I still dont feel confident.Is this normal? What should i be doing now?
Thanks.
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Wed Nov 06, 2013 9:18 am
cd86 wrote:Since the last time I wrote the gmat prep I have taken the following tests

mgmat 700 q47 v39
economist gmat 710
kaplan cat 1 740 q98% v92%

I guess I am in much better shape than I was before.What inrigues me though is that when I got these socres I was equally underconfident as I had been before and while i gave these mocks I 'felt' as though I am doing really badly.I still dont feel confident.Is this normal? What should i be doing now?
Thanks.
VERY nice!!!!
I'm surprised that you didn't feel good (confident) while taking these latest tests.
I suggest that, in the future, you "fake it until you make it."
So, if possible, try to fill your mind with manufactured confidence. When you encounter a new questions, say to yourself "Ha! Is this the best they can throw at you?"
If you can't answer a question, say to yourself "I don't have time for this nonsense. I'll get a better score if I skip this one and give myself more time to ace other questions"

And so on.

In addition, you should adopt the body language of a champion. More about this here: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2013/06/ ... -destroyer

Cheers,
Brent
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by David@VeritasPrep » Wed Nov 06, 2013 9:42 am
The last time I took the official GMAT I did not feel that it was going particularly well either. I actually thought briefly of canceling my scores. The result was a 770.

The GMAT is designed to make you feel a little uncomfortable and the only time you should probably feel totally comfortable is when you are on the way to a perfect 51 on a section. Remember it adapts to you and keeps challenging you.

Brent has given some good advice throughout this thread. I echo his comments about the mindset. I would add that when you have to guess on a question you can say to yourself "wow, I guessed correctly again! I am pretty great at this!" You will never know so why not be positive instead of negative?

Hey, I did not see a result from the FREE Veritas Prep Practice Test...that one has shown good reliability in terms of GMATPrep and actual GMAT scores and I would love to see what you score is on that test.
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