Shocked! Help please

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Shocked! Help please

by sw2012 » Thu Sep 29, 2011 12:52 am
Hi Guys

I have been on and off BTG for a while.
My background - studied political science in my undergrad and now work with an IB in equities and work full time.

I recently gave the gmat and scored a 550! I am soo dissapointed with this score and really upset. I worked on the Gmat on and off for abt 2 months and had to take a big break due to work travel. I started again in July and studied diligently for 2.5/ 3 months - 3 hrs everyday and about 8/9hrs every day on the weekend.

I completed the OG 12, Kaplan course book, some of Manhattan guides and several quizzes from the Kaplan question bank. I had joined a kaplan course which I couldn't complete but still had access to their online portal so this came in handy.

My practice test scores are as follows in order (sorry, some of the raw scores are missing)

Gmat prep 1 - 650 q 42, v 38
Kaplan test - 570
Kaplan test 2 - 590
Manhattan test 1 - 610 Q 42, v 35
Gmat prep 2 - 610
Gmat prep 1 (repeat) - 640

Having not touched quant in over 10 years - I had to start from scratch and had focused all my energy on quant to start with. I know I didnt give enough time to verbal but when I continued to score lower in verbal than in quant, I worked really hard on my verbal in the last 3 weeks.

I was getting a 100% accuracy in rc, almost a 100% in SC and 80% or so in CR .. .however in practice tests, the sc and cr scores would inevitably drop!

Moreover, a few days before my exam I fell sick with fever/cold and was unable to work for a couple of days - I considered cancelling but given time pressures and leave from work, I thought/prayed that it would be ok.

But it wasn't - I ran out of time in both. Quant especially with 10 questions to go in the last 6 mins and about 6 questions to go in the last 4 mins of verbal. I got 5 RC's and I think under the time pressure I messed up the last one.

It was soo disspointing to see my score - 32Q and 34v - 550

I have now recieved my offical score report and I got a 5.5 on the AWA.

I am feeling absolutely lost and dont know where to start now!I want to give the exam again in the next 2 months, but not sure how and what to do. I was and still aiming for a 700 and could use the BTG members help/guidance. Please help .. thanks.
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by sam2304 » Thu Sep 29, 2011 8:14 am
sw2012 wrote: But it wasn't - I ran out of time in both. Quant especially with 10 questions to go in the last 6 mins and about 6 questions to go in the last 4 mins of verbal. I got 5 RC's and I think under the time pressure I messed up the last one.
This perfectly says why your quant score went to 32. There is no need to panic at all :). Keep your spirits high. If you are planning for a retake take more mocks and improve your timing. Remember that you don't need to answer all the questions rightly. So make guesses intermittently instead of rushing at the end, stick to timing and dump your ego. Follow a strict approach, use a timing strategy this is something which i use.

Q - 55 30 10 - 10 22 32
V - 55 30 10 - 11 25 36

When you are in the 55th minute you should be answering 10/11th question in quant, 30th minute you should be answering 22/23rd question. Same applies to verbal as well with slight deviations considering the RC, which might come in the middle as in 11th/25th/36th question. No matter what you should be there if not make a guess. This makes you to guess questions at 3 intervals, avoid both last minute panic and continuous mistakes at the end. When you get used to this you don need to waste time calculating where you should be right now. Then if you mess up quant section you will be morally down while answering verbal and you can avoid that pblm as well by following a simple strategy.

A 48/49 in Q and 35+ in verbal will get you to 700. So all you have to do is practice mocks and devise a timing strategy and repeat OG/any problems in a timed manner. You are already close to your verbal score and probably its low because of the timing issue, but quant you have to put in more effort. You will get used to the timing after 3/4 mocks.

Manhattan/Kaplan - both are good for quant.
SC - Go through Manhattan SC/Aristotle grail SC
CR - Powerscore CR bible (this might be helpful, but personally i feel its better not to rely too much on this book and devise strategy for each and every type of question. Just look for approach and ideas on what type of questions are asked)
RC - Try to get OG10 somewhere, that's suffice as you are already doing well in RC. We have to look on RC99 ;)

So plan accordingly and do well. There is nothing to worry at all :). You will crack it easily if you manage the timing very well :)
Getting defeated is just a temporary notion, giving it up is what makes it permanent.
https://gmatandbeyond.blogspot.in/

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by sw2012 » Fri Sep 30, 2011 5:19 pm
Hi Sam2304

Thanks for replying to my post - I do feel a lot better and starting to get all geared up to crack this exam!

For Quant would you recommend any other books ? I am going to go over all the MGMAT books to ensure my fundamentals are clear but in terms of practice - its OG12, OG quant review and the Kaplan questions. The Manhattan questions in the guide, are not GMAT type questions - more the test your knowledge type -can you recommend other sources?

Thanks again - appreciate your kind words :)