Time to quit?

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by cd86 » Thu Nov 07, 2013 1:32 am
Thank you so much for this advice.

Right now, when I read a question I am sure I can solve I tell myself "you can get this one, so no silly mistakes", when I see a question I can solve but I know is long, I immediately start working towards making an educated guess.

However, this guessing is what makes me feel uncomfortable. I always end up guessing so many of the questions and still get a nice score. That's why it seems like it might be fluke because earlier I guessed too, but I did not score well. The reason for this change is that : Earlier I guessed a few as I do now , but the ones I did not guess, I had many wrong answers there too. Right now, I guess as much , but the accuracy of those that I don't guess has gone up.

Apart from getting used to guessing and feeling fine with it, I think I will follow Brent's advice. That will take some pressure off me.

I think I will give the Gmat Prep couple more times to be sure of myself.

About when to give my exam: I feel that I should not take even a days break from work before the real exam, because these breaks, instead of relaxing me give me time to over-think and hence build pressure. I don't really perform well in that sort of situation. I want to be clear headed and happy when I enter the exam. I want to take a date spontaneously.
As David said , I think I have to get used to the fact that the exam is not going to feel good in any situation, so I need to learn to ignore it.

I got a 680 Q48 V36 on the Veritas free test I took it on 17th October.

Also, I have noticed that when I go with a prejudice that the particular mock is going to be easy I end up scoring badly,for example,the Veritas exam, I have heard that Veritas tests are easier, so I ended up not sticking to the timelineS.On the other hand the Kaplan test ive heard is really tough, so I took extra care.

Thanks for all the responses, it really helps to know other's perspective as well as to put my own doubts/thoughts to words.
Last edited by cd86 on Thu Nov 07, 2013 1:37 am, edited 1 time in total.

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by bpolley00 » Thu Nov 07, 2013 3:31 am
The most important question is always this: Why? Why am I coming up short? Why is it I can't get to a 700, why am I still missing questions. Usually, if you can figure out the answer to why, you will figure it out. The GMAT has nothing to do with proper mindset or "how you feel" on test day. Taking a test has to do with having a thorough grasp of the concepts being tested on test day, that is IT. If you know every single concept tested by every single question in the GMAC book and you are still coming up short, I would go through my posts on here and continuously ask yourself WHY is it that I can't do this. I mean it is just a test. I would also think about incentives. Incentives are a very interesting concept. Good Luck!

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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Thu Nov 07, 2013 6:43 am
cd86 wrote: Right now, when I read a question I am sure I can solve I tell myself "you can get this one, so no silly mistakes", when I see a question I can solve but I know is long, I immediately start working towards making an educated guess.

However, this guessing is what makes me feel uncomfortable.
A few things to keep in mind about guessing:
- it's possible to answer several questions incorrectly and still score 800 on the GMAT.
- your guess might be correct (especially if you've eliminated some answer choices)
- even if you guess incorrectly, the question might be an experimental question, in which case an incorrect answer won't affect your score anyway.
- if you're two or more minutes behind, you'll likely end up guessing at some point anyway, so why not do so sooner than later and, in the process, relieve some of the anxiety that these time constraints can produce?

Cheers,
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by David@VeritasPrep » Thu Nov 07, 2013 9:04 am
I agree with Brent!

I have had two students in particular improve their scores by 100 points in just a couple of days (from 600 on the GMATPrep to 700 on the actual exam) by understanding the points that Brent is making here.

Also, I don't really know what you mean when you say
when I see a question I can solve but I know is long, I immediately start working towards making an educated guess.


Unless you know that the question will take over 3 minutes it is worth it to get those questions right that you can get right. I am a little uncomfortable with what you have said here. Guessing is for when you are not making progress - not to avoid a question that might take some work and time to get right. 2:30 for a correct answer is a good tradeoff - knowing that some questions will only take 1 minute or so (For me these are Data Sufficiency usually).

For example, I was 6 minutes behind on the actual test with only 12 questions to go. I had 12 questions and only 19 minutes. However, the next five questions were all very good ones for me - mostly data sufficiency and soon I had 7 questions left with 14 minutes. This goes to say two things 1) don't panic and 2) if you can get a question right in under 3 minutes start that question with the intent of getting it right. If you are not making progress THEN you need to have the discipline to get out of that question by guessing.

I am not a big fan of "educated guessing" either. We had a long discussion among the experts here on Beat the GMAT a couple of years ago and we came to the consensus that people spend TOO long trying to narrow down choices on the quant section. In the end, it is still guessing. On problem solving anything over 30 seconds spent on narrow down choices to make an educated guess is usually wasted!!

Finally,
Also, I have noticed that when I go with a prejudice that the particular mock is going to be easy I end up scoring badly,for example,the Veritas exam, I have heard that Veritas tests are easier, so I ended up not sticking to the timelineS.On the other hand the Kaplan test ive heard is really tough, so I took extra care.
That was the old Veritas test from before May of this year. This is not true of the new test, as you learned. Like the actual GMAT, it adapts in such a way as to challenge everyone
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by cd86 » Mon Nov 18, 2013 4:43 am
Just finished giving another go at the Official GMAT got 650 Q47 V32. Not ecstatic exactly, but not sad either.

I dont think my verbal score reflects my abilities,i think i can score much better, somewhat like a 38-39. I felt really thirsty and sort of out of focus during verbal, i guess that's what led me down hill, overall I never felt like i was doing verbal badly..nevertheless..

Considering i give another shot at the GMAT, what should i do now? I realy have no more mock exams or material left to practice. I have seen every other questions somewhere already..