Startd a test day but ended a bad day (540 with Q47)

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Well into the test center, I was pretty cool.

Got my AWA, I think I did a prety decent job with both my essays - argument and the issue.
Took a break and came back to realise that i had missed 1 min 40 sec of my QUANT time. Dont know what the heck happened I thought i was watching the test center clock.

Then into Quant, i had a game plan, stuck to it, did more time on the first 10 and sailed through pretty easy. I was short of time by 5 mins. But still thoght i did ok. Ansewered all Qs.
Took the break and this time went back in early.

Got full time on my Verbal. Started of carefully, now from here on I dont remeber what happened, i think got obssessed with a few questions in between, but recovered pace. In summary, I ended it with 40th question, missed answering 41st question. Ran out of time. But i thought I did ok with atleast 2 of the RCs , most of SC and decent on CR.

Anwered the experimental questions for test takers between 19th to 24th of Nov. This section is about new format of GMAT which will come in as of 2012. Did that survey and then clicked for the score.

Q47, V19.

Now only thing I saw was @#$$$#@!!@#$ in my mind.

Even before I started my first page of prep I took GMAT diagonostic and got a V28 or something. Over period of time i made it to V34-37. But V19 on test day is simply impossible.
Yes I missed answering #41 - will that bring my score down to V19 ?

Can someone please offer me some advice on what should I do?
Its like you have good quant which is actually good for nothing. Did this happen to anyone else?

I have 12.3 years of industry experience with good amount of hold on my subject matter or area of expertise.

I dont know all I can think of is, I should retake GMAT.

Experts Help !!
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by Night reader » Tue Nov 23, 2010 11:17 am
How you prepared for the Verbal part of GMAT? From your debrief it's not clear how you had prepared for the Verbal part. As far as I know, every new concept or strategy in Verbal part may push back inherent test taking elements - intuition and data stored in the past memory. Some new rules and concepts have to be mastered, otherwise they are detrimental. When we know a piece of information about the problem we stick to it; sometimes we refuse to apply the strategy of Contenders, Winners, etc. I have put myself in a test. I had improved one area in SC and then tried to answer OG questions. As a result, the accuracy in my answers appeared to be lower than that had been before I learned new concepts,.

I am not to advise you, yet pondering about if you could resit a month, continue drilling the quant and doing the verbal exercises. The next time you will go into exam, pretend like you know nothing about the Verbal part. Use the defending strategy, eliminate Contenders, take your old memory knowledge out, read the SC problems to feel how they sound, chew out CR.
My knowledge frontiers came to evolve the GMATPill's methods - the credited study means to boost the Verbal competence. I really like their videos, especially for RC, CR and SC. You do check their study methods at https://www.gmatpill.com

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by cindy_wer » Tue Nov 23, 2010 12:06 pm
Hi rc_sunil,

What was ur game plan for quant.I am interested to know..May be it will help me for next attempt.

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by rc_sunil » Tue Nov 23, 2010 6:56 pm
@NightReader - well I only detailed my test day information, yes I didnt mention anything on the prep. My main issue was my prep or any other expectation i had beore the exam (not just sticking to one type or style or approach) was all proven wrong. I was not strereotyped on the way I was expecting verbal. Something else went wrong especially with my timing but cannot figure out what. Anyways I will make amends if I am to retake it again.
I dont know whats the best thing to do and am seeking advice on that.

@cindy_wer: Well gameplan for the quant was simple. Before even i entered the test center, i had it clear in my mind that i am going to spend more than 2 mins per question for the first 10. Then tackle the rest with one at a time approach.
So when i realised that I had lost more than a min on the break, i didnt panic, that was the key for me.
I was cool, so at the end of it i thought to myself not bad and thought verbal cant be worse. unfortunately it turned out to be worse !
Anyway the other simple piece of advice is plug in numbers in all places as you can, this will hugely improve your speed.
When you lack time, look for answer choices that are totally out of the way and eliminate them and take a very educated guess if you have you to based on some common number combinations you would have seen in your practice.
For example: increase of 25% and then decrease of 20% would put you back at the same original number, right trianlge's length of sides ratios etc. You will at minimum get about 6-8 DS questions with x,y,z or a,b,c related equations which you can easily sail through in 1 min each with number approach. that saved my day. believe me, it did.

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by gsbjake » Tue Nov 23, 2010 9:10 pm
rc_sunil, don't give up buddy. A lot of people don't do well their first time but end up doing much better on their second or third tries. I think you need to re-evaluate your entire study plan and plan on attacking your particular weaknesses.