I could not Beat the Gmat :(

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I could not Beat the Gmat :(

by himankk » Sun Sep 25, 2011 10:40 am
Hi All,

I have been following BTG from quite a while now and it helped me a lot in my prep but unfortunately I did very bad on the GMAT exam. After preparing from past 3.5 months, I gave the exam this month- Sept'11 and scored only 490 (Q 39, V 20). During my preps, I scored 650 on Gmat Prep 1 and 610 on GMAT Prep 2.

The biggest mistake which I have made is that I never wrote AWA essays in the Prep tests along with Quant and Verbal. At the day of exam, I was confident that I would be able to pull it up but as soon as the timer for AWA started, a pressure started building up at the back of my mind but still I managed to complete both on time. While doing Quant, I felt that I am doing good but then wasted my time on solving few questions and to finish test on time, I paced myself and ended the exam 5 minutes before.

While doing Verbal also, same thing happened. When 35 minutes were remaining, I still had 22 questions to cover and again in order finish on time, I paced myself and finished 8 minutes before the exam end time. When I saw my final score, I could not believe that I did so bad. I was so shattered that still I am not able to come out of this shock.

From past 1 week, I have been thinking if I should retake the exam or not. How should I increase my score? I know that I have practiced a lot by following the below material.

- OG 12
- Kaplan Online Tests
- GMAT paper tests
- GMAT Prep 1 & 2

After 1 week of introspection, I concluded my weak areas

- Data Sufficiency
- Reading Comprehension
- Critical Reasoning

I am seeking help from the experts as how to reorganize my study plan as my target score is 720. Please assist what all things I should keep in mind when I retake the test!!

Thanks,
HK
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by Geva@EconomistGMAT » Sun Sep 25, 2011 10:44 pm
himankk wrote:Hi All,

I have been following BTG from quite a while now and it helped me a lot in my prep but unfortunately I did very bad on the GMAT exam. After preparing from past 3.5 months, I gave the exam this month- Sept'11 and scored only 490 (Q 39, V 20). During my preps, I scored 650 on Gmat Prep 1 and 610 on GMAT Prep 2.

The biggest mistake which I have made is that I never wrote AWA essays in the Prep tests along with Quant and Verbal. At the day of exam, I was confident that I would be able to pull it up but as soon as the timer for AWA started, a pressure started building up at the back of my mind but still I managed to complete both on time. While doing Quant, I felt that I am doing good but then wasted my time on solving few questions and to finish test on time, I paced myself and ended the exam 5 minutes before.

While doing Verbal also, same thing happened. When 35 minutes were remaining, I still had 22 questions to cover and again in order finish on time, I paced myself and finished 8 minutes before the exam end time. When I saw my final score, I could not believe that I did so bad. I was so shattered that still I am not able to come out of this shock.

From past 1 week, I have been thinking if I should retake the exam or not. How should I increase my score? I know that I have practiced a lot by following the below material.

- OG 12
- Kaplan Online Tests
- GMAT paper tests
- GMAT Prep 1 & 2

After 1 week of introspection, I concluded my weak areas

- Data Sufficiency
- Reading Comprehension
- Critical Reasoning

I am seeking help from the experts as how to reorganize my study plan as my target score is 720. Please assist what all things I should keep in mind when I retake the test!!

Thanks,
HK
What you are describing here is a complete meltdown in time management. for the verbal section, You did the last 22 questions in 28 minutes - you probably got the vast majority of those wrong (if not all of them), and that hurt your score more than anything. Quant is probably the same - from "a few minutes behind the time plan" to "5 minutes ahead of time" sounds like a huge rush.

If I were you, I would retake as soon as possible. Spend the coming month practicing time management using simulation tests and timed exercises. Practice giving each question the time that it's due, and sticking to a reasonable pacing plan within each section. Your goal is to reach the final question in each section with 1.5-2 minutes to spare - - no more, no less. Do that, and you should get close to your GMATPREP benchmark of 630-640.
Geva
Senior Instructor
Master GMAT
1-888-780-GMAT
https://www.mastergmat.com