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Test in 14 days, got 600 on my 1st GMAT Prep Test

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Test in 14 days, got 600 on my 1st GMAT Prep Test

by swissstud » Thu Dec 27, 2012 2:27 pm
Hey guys,

so my first ever (and hopefully only) GMAT test is in 14 days, it's on January 10th. I've been studying for almost a month now.

I've gone through several preparation textbooks that I rented at my school uni:

-Cracking the GMAT (2012/2013/Verbal Workout)
-Official GMAT Book (2012)
-Kaplan advanced preparation---> this one is really good, has the toughest questions. It really gets you going.
....and some others

I've just taken them one by one, going through every page, taking notes, doing the exercises and examples.

All in all, I've calculated that I've studied 49 1/2 hours. I find that pretty freakin' incredible aha

Today was my first ever "real" prep test with a score at the end. I used the Official GMAT Prep software. I got 600. I'm quite happy with my score but I'm not satisfied. I need, and I mean need, a minimum of 680 at the test. Anything less and my application to the top program I wanna go to is not possible.

Taking into account that I've never even read anything or worked on anything related to the GMAT until a month ago, that my official mother tongue is french and that I speak English (my "2nd" mother tongue) only with my family (so I never really work on my grammar or critical reasoning skills, etc...), I think I did relatively well.

The fact that I'm also recovering from a serious concussion, which happened 2 1/2 months ago, and that I have serious PCS (Post Concussion Symdrom: lots of headaches, concentration problems,...) I think it's pretty good to have reached a 600 score on my first computer test.

Now the real question is how to get from 600 to a minimum of 680. What should I do? What's my plan from now on?

I haven't finished the Kaplan advanced preparation book so I think for sure I'll continue working on that.

I have another textbook that has 3 GMAT preparation tests left. How should I space these 3 tests with the computer one that I have left?

Should I like take the last computer GMAT Prep test on the 5th or 6th of January.

Also, one question, you can only take 2 computer GMAT Prep tests, right? There's no way you can do more right? The software doesn't let you take more than 2.


---------------------------------------------------------

By the way, concerning my 600 score GMAT Prep test, I got these results:

I got about 14 out of 37 questions wrong in the Math
I got about 17 out of 41 questions wrong in the Verbal
I got 8 out of 12 questions wrong in the Integrated reasoning

I completely failed at the integrated reasoning, took about 8-9 minutes to try and figure out a single question that I eventually got wrong.

The rest is meh, isn't great but with 600, I'm guessing I got the first ones right and then didn't get all the hard ones right. Some were real tough.

Plus, with my headaches and all, I noticed I answered some pretty simple questions wrong, concerning about 9-10 questions in the test I just read the text/problem, thought for about 10 seconds and chose an answer without even reading all the possibilities. I didn't feel too good, I hope that on test day, my head will be ok.


Thanks a bunch guys, really nice of you to help me out.

Cheers
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by David@VeritasPrep » Thu Dec 27, 2012 4:59 pm
You can take the official GMATPrep tests a couple of times each. Once you exit out of the test it resets and you can take it again. Some people like to uninstall and re-install before taking each of the two tests a second time.

So you have a total of 4 tests there. You can even take the tests a 3rd time each for a total of six, but once you get to that level you will find that at least some questions are repeated. When you get a repeated question work all the way through it as you would and do not simply choose the correct answer. This will keep you straight in terms of timing. After all you are not likely to get too many questions correct in just 15 seconds on the actual test!
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by David@VeritasPrep » Thu Dec 27, 2012 7:20 pm
I agree that you did well taking the test in English with a headache and your first test and all. I would say that you need to clean up those errors that you are making on the ones you should get right. As you said when the headache is gone hopefully the errors are as well.

Here is an article explaining why just those errors that you mention may have lowered that 600 score quite a bit and that without those you may have scored much higher. https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/12/ ... n-the-gmat

Here is a posting that talks about the three kinds of errors that people make and which are good and bad https://www.beatthegmat.com/in-the-dumps ... 52293.html


I am thinking that you should take another practice test soon - when you are in a better frame of mind - and see where you are and what your errors are. Read this article before you take that next practice test
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/07/ ... tice-tests

14 days can be enough time to get to where you want to be but you have to be efficient and know what to focus on in order to get there!
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by swissstud » Fri Dec 28, 2012 2:06 pm
David@VeritasPrep wrote:I agree that you did well taking the test in English with a headache and your first test and all. I would say that you need to clean up those errors that you are making on the ones you should get right. As you said when the headache is gone hopefully the errors are as well.

Here is an article explaining why just those errors that you mention may have lowered that 600 score quite a bit and that without those you may have scored much higher. https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/12/ ... n-the-gmat

Here is a posting that talks about the three kinds of errors that people make and which are good and bad https://www.beatthegmat.com/in-the-dumps ... 52293.html


I am thinking that you should take another practice test soon - when you are in a better frame of mind - and see where you are and what your errors are. Read this article before you take that next practice test
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/07/ ... tice-tests

14 days can be enough time to get to where you want to be but you have to be efficient and know what to focus on in order to get there!

Thank you very much for the info. I will definitely check out those links before redoing a prep test.

Yeah, I think I'm gonna try to do at least 2 more "official" GMAT Prep tests before the 10th of January.
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by swissstud » Wed Jan 02, 2013 9:09 am
Hey guys,

So I retook a test after having studied a few days. I must have studied 4-5 hours between my first Prep test (December 27th) and my second one (January 2nd)

Well, I got a 670 score (got 600 on my first try). I'm quite pleased, although I wanted to get at least 680, because that's what I need as a strict minimum on test day.

I still have 6-7 days to prepare myself. I think that if I can squeeze 2-3 Prep tests between now and the 10th of January (test day), I can manage to get 680. What do you think?


This time, I really tried to focus on every single question, not like my first try. Did sensibly better on the verbal section and better on the quantitative section. My head felt ok, a bit better this time around.

Regarding the Integrated Reasoning section, it was the exact same questions than on the 1st test. Is this normal? I still tried to solve them one by one as if they were new to me. So part of my increase from 600 to 670 is due to this but good God, is this normal?

Also, so I have to uninstall the GMAT Prep program and re-install it in order to take other Prep tests? Is that right?

I have a free online Princeton Review Prep test. Should I do this one instead so that I don't get the same Integrated Reasoning section again?



-----------------------------------------------------

Here are the details of my score:

670 score

-Integrated Reasoning: 12 Questions, 3 Incorrect
-Quantitative section: 37 Questions, 11 Incorrect
-Verbal section: 41 Questions, 6 Incorrect


----------------------------------------------


Thanks a lot guys!

Cheers
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by David@VeritasPrep » Wed Jan 02, 2013 11:06 am
The IR section is new and they may not have any "question bank" for those. So if you retake GMATPrep Tests you will likely see the same questions.

You said
Regarding the Integrated Reasoning section, it was the exact same questions than on the 1st test. Is this normal? I still tried to solve them one by one as if they were new to me. So part of my increase from 600 to 670 is due to this
The IR score is completely separate from the 670 that you earned. So that has nothing to do with it. That section is scored later and you are given that score at the same time as you get the AWA score - a week later or more.

So seeing the same IR did not have any part in your increased score.

Of course you can get a 680. You could do that today if you have a good test. If you can take two more practice tests -- both Official GMATPrep - two should be enough.

I have not had to reinstall to take the test again but if it is not working for you to retake then you should reinstall.

Nice improvement!
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by swissstud » Thu Jan 03, 2013 9:09 am
David@VeritasPrep wrote:The IR section is new and they may not have any "question bank" for those. So if you retake GMATPrep Tests you will likely see the same questions.

You said
Regarding the Integrated Reasoning section, it was the exact same questions than on the 1st test. Is this normal? I still tried to solve them one by one as if they were new to me. So part of my increase from 600 to 670 is due to this
The IR score is completely separate from the 670 that you earned. So that has nothing to do with it. That section is scored later and you are given that score at the same time as you get the AWA score - a week later or more.

So seeing the same IR did not have any part in your increased score.

Of course you can get a 680. You could do that today if you have a good test. If you can take two more practice tests -- both Official GMATPrep - two should be enough.

I have not had to reinstall to take the test again but if it is not working for you to retake then you should reinstall.

Nice improvement!
Thanks a lot for the info!

Ah, I did not know IR was not counted in the score.

Well I'm even more confident now that i know my 670 score is due to my Quant and Verbal performance.

I'm gonna take another practise test tomorrow morning and another perhaps two days later on the 6th or 7th of January.

Thanks!

Cheers
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by swissstud » Fri Jan 04, 2013 7:51 am
I did another Prep Test, this time a Princeton Review online test.

I got 580. I'm very disappointed, I went from 600, to 670, to 580. I don't get it. I kinda had a feeling I didn't do great but 580 is low. I knew that my Verbal wasn't gonna be great but damn, I'm so disappointed.

-----------------------------

Here's the details of my score:

Score: 580

Verbal 29 (24 of 41)
Quant 41 (31 of 37)
IR 23 (23 of 28)

As you can see I really messed up on the Verbal, almost 50% wrong. I also got the first quant question wrong which didn't help.

I don't know what to think. The real test is on the 10th of January. I'll take another online Prep test on the 6th. Should I take 2 more Prep tests?
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by swissstud » Sat Jan 05, 2013 2:46 pm
I think I should take two more. 3 seems like a little much.

One test on the 6th and one more on the 8th. How does that sound?

I'm taking the Official GMAT test on the 10th of January.
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by David@VeritasPrep » Sat Jan 05, 2013 4:41 pm
Remember that the test you took last is not an Official practice test. So that number could be off by quite a bit. Don't lose hope...

Two more tests is plenty. It would be great if you took the Official tests for those!

one on the 6th one on the 8th is fine.

Focus on those practice tests and pretend it is the real thing.
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by swissstud » Sun Jan 06, 2013 7:40 am
Ok so I did another Official GMAT Prep Test this morning (January 6th).

I got 710 (Quant 47, Verbal 40). I'm quite pleased. I skipped the AWA and IR part because they were the exact same ones than on the 1st and 2nd try so I thought I might as well go right to the "important" part, the one that is scored.

--------------------

Here's the detail:

Quant 47 (37 Questions, 14 Incorrect)
Verbal 40 (41 Questions, 9 Incorrect)

--------------------

My incorrect questions to questions ratio for the Quant is less good than on other GMAT Prep tests but my score is higher so I'm guessing that means I did very well on the first 20-25 questions and got the hard ones wrong.

I'm quite happy with my Verbal, there were a few similar questions that on my previous tries but I still managed to get the same ones wrong so I still got a good score if you take that into account.

---------------------

So up until now, I got 600, 670, 580 (Princeton Review test) and 710.

I'm still gonna do one more test on the 8th of January and I think I'll be ready on the 10th of January, the Official GMAT test day.

Any advice?
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