Advice Needed, please

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Advice Needed, please

by the nona » Wed Feb 13, 2013 5:17 pm
I took the gmat just today , the 13th and was shocked by a 540 despite I aimed at a minimum of 650 - 700 and studied for 3 months . Intending to retake after 4-6 weeks , I am in urgent need of your valued advice . What shall I do ? I have to mention that I identify and categorize 80-90% of the questions I see , and for most of them (saying 70-80 %) I can strategize the required approach.

Thanks

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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Thu Feb 14, 2013 10:18 am
Hey Nona,

Sorry to hear about a frustrating test day! I know it's a bummer right now but one silver lining is that on what looks like a pretty bad day for you you had an average score, so even at your worst you're "beating" about half of all GMAT test-takers, so you have some room for optimism.

While it's fresh is a good time to start strategizing so I'm glad you wrote. Try to think about:

1) How was your pacing? Did you have enough time? Did you rush and make silly mistakes? Did you have too much time and you could have relaxed a little and avoided mistakes? Knowing how to do the questions is part of the battle; another big factor is how you do them under test conditions.

2) Did you see any content you felt unprepared for? Especially, did you see it more than once? If the test revealed any knowledge gaps, you know have that item on your to-do list.

3) Was there anything that kept you up the night before the test or put a pit in your stomach as you walked in, like "I wish I would have taken another practice test" or "I hope I don't see any probability problems"? Now's the time to address that since you do have a new opportunity.

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So that's a start on your test debrief. But on top of that, try to spend some time the next couple weeks on:

4) What common mistakes did you make on practice questions? Did you fall into the same traps (assumptions on DS, misreading the conclusion on CR, quickly eliminating the right SC answer because it "didn't sound right")? Your first attempt at the GMAT, you probably focused a lot of content knowledge (everyone does) but now you have a chance to learn more about yourself and your own tendencies.

5) You mentioned that you're 80-90% proficient in identifying what to do and 70-80% on implementing an approach - what about the other 10-30%? Do they fit into large categories? Can you address those? That's still a pretty big chunk - 20% is 1/5th of the test and so if you figure you're making mistakes on the 4/5 you can definitely do and there's a full 1/5 that you're not yet there on, that explains a lot.



I hope that helps you get started...keep us posted!
Brian Galvin
GMAT Instructor
Chief Academic Officer
Veritas Prep

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by the nona » Sat Feb 23, 2013 2:32 pm
Thanks a lot , Brian . Which do you prefer : doing problems and review on the same day or doing problems on days and reviewing on other days ??? (alternate days for example)??