Just took the GMAT again two days ago after studying for about 4 months.
660 (Q47, V34) 82%
AWA
Was able to write complete essays with recommended structure but I don't think my argument and examples were that strong. Same with the Analysis essay.
Quant
Felt ok through the questions. Took my time on the first 6-7 questions and then seemed to get on a decent roll. Although a few seemingly simple questions tripped me up a bit, so ended up guessing and moving on, remembering not to get bogged down on any one single question..
Another thing is that one of the quant questions had a venn diagram with a shaded portion. I couldn't see any shaded portion. I ended up just guessing on that one. It wasn't until a later question that had really dimmed parentheses in the equation that I realized that the contrast was set so high on the monitor that it made any shading invisible.
I was able to get through all of the questions except that last two which I had to blindly guess on because time was running out.
Verbal
Took my time on the first 5 questions. I wanted to start out strong. After about 10 minutes I got a bad headache and had a hard time concentrating on the RC and CR. The SC seemed ok but for the RC and CR, I had to read the stems over and over. The answers seemed to run and overlap into each other. This killed my timing and I ended up having to blindly guess on the last 8-9 questions and didn't even get to the last two questions. Even though I told myself that I will make sure to not leave any question unanswered.
This was so frustrating after studying for so long. Especially after I was getting 730+ on gmatprep exams and 690+ on mgmat exams. Although i figured those scores may be skewed due to having come into previously seen questions, I thought I would still be able to get at least 700.
My first GMAT score was 600(Q37,V35). Although I increased my quant score by 10 points my verbal score dropped by 1. arrgh. I don't want to sit here and just blame my headache but it was the catalyst that started the ball rolling downhill for verbal for me. With each question that I had to rush-on/guess it only caused more anxiety for the next question.
Next steps
I am staying away from any GMAT stuff for 1-2weeks. I just bought a copy of "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho.
Great book for inspiration to follow your dreams.
I'm going to get back to studying, concentrating on verbal in stressfull test/timed conditions. I plan on taking it again in 3 months.
660 (Q47, V34) 82%
AWA
Was able to write complete essays with recommended structure but I don't think my argument and examples were that strong. Same with the Analysis essay.
Quant
Felt ok through the questions. Took my time on the first 6-7 questions and then seemed to get on a decent roll. Although a few seemingly simple questions tripped me up a bit, so ended up guessing and moving on, remembering not to get bogged down on any one single question..
Another thing is that one of the quant questions had a venn diagram with a shaded portion. I couldn't see any shaded portion. I ended up just guessing on that one. It wasn't until a later question that had really dimmed parentheses in the equation that I realized that the contrast was set so high on the monitor that it made any shading invisible.
I was able to get through all of the questions except that last two which I had to blindly guess on because time was running out.
Verbal
Took my time on the first 5 questions. I wanted to start out strong. After about 10 minutes I got a bad headache and had a hard time concentrating on the RC and CR. The SC seemed ok but for the RC and CR, I had to read the stems over and over. The answers seemed to run and overlap into each other. This killed my timing and I ended up having to blindly guess on the last 8-9 questions and didn't even get to the last two questions. Even though I told myself that I will make sure to not leave any question unanswered.
This was so frustrating after studying for so long. Especially after I was getting 730+ on gmatprep exams and 690+ on mgmat exams. Although i figured those scores may be skewed due to having come into previously seen questions, I thought I would still be able to get at least 700.
My first GMAT score was 600(Q37,V35). Although I increased my quant score by 10 points my verbal score dropped by 1. arrgh. I don't want to sit here and just blame my headache but it was the catalyst that started the ball rolling downhill for verbal for me. With each question that I had to rush-on/guess it only caused more anxiety for the next question.
Next steps
I am staying away from any GMAT stuff for 1-2weeks. I just bought a copy of "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho.
Great book for inspiration to follow your dreams.
I'm going to get back to studying, concentrating on verbal in stressfull test/timed conditions. I plan on taking it again in 3 months.
Last edited by bullshark on Thu Oct 15, 2009 7:15 pm, edited 2 times in total.
