1st attempt-560, 2nd attempt 690(45Q, 39V)

[savagec318]

I just finished taking the gmat and scored a 690! I'm so happy. I first took the GMAT on Dec 15th, 2009 and scored a 560. I was so sad at the time. Today's score actually surprised me.

I've never even scored a 690 during my practice exams. My quant usually ranged from 46-48, and verbal ranged from 30-34. When I saw a 690 on the screen, I jumped up out of my seat. Then moments later, I saw my 44quant and realized that if i got a couple questions correct, I could've reached 700. Anyway, it doesnt bother me, I'm happy!

GMATPrep2-620
GMATPrep1-670
MGMAT1-600
MGMAT2-620
MGMAT3-640
MGMAT4-610
MGMAT5-620

[money9111]

Congratulations! savagec318 560->690 in 2 months is a great jump! You give me hope! Any tips on how to make that jump like you did?

[hrishi19884]

I just finished taking the gmat and scored a 690! I'm so happy. I first took the GMAT on Dec 15th, 2009 and scored a 560. I was so sad at the time. Today's score actually surprised me.

I've never even scored a 690 during my practice exams. My quant usually ranged from 46-48, and verbal ranged from 30-34. When I saw a 690 on the screen, I jumped up out of my seat. Then moments later, I saw my 44quant and realized that if i got a couple questions correct, I could've reached 700. Anyway, it doesnt bother me, I'm happy!

GMATPrep2-620
GMATPrep1-670
MGMAT1-600
MGMAT2-620
MGMAT3-640
MGMAT4-610
MGMAT5-620

Well done brother! we would love to see your strategy for getting such a wonderful score.

You have gone 130 points up mann! .....just unbelievable!

[sallespadua]

You are in inspiration to me! I took the test yesterday, got too nervous and scored 560 also! Yesterday was a day I don't want to remember, I had trouble with time! Scored 44M / 23V. I still can't believe how I did so bad in the Verbal section. I finished math missing counts that I don't usually miss. I missed the first two questions!
In the verbal it wasn't so different from the practice material as well. I was feeling ready for the test, scoring from 660 to 730 in the the practices. Believe this?

Anyway, I'm going to give myself another try, and this time I just hope to go well like you. I think I just need to hold my anxiety in the next attempt and keep the the study pace.

Do you think in middle of March is a good date to the second attempt?

[hrishi19884]

You are in inspiration to me! I took the test yesterday, got too nervous and scored 560 also! Yesterday was a day I don't want to remember, I had trouble with time! Scored 44M / 23V. I still can't believe how I did so bad in the Verbal section. I finished math missing counts that I don't usually miss. I missed the first two questions!
In the verbal it wasn't so different from the practice material as well. I was feeling ready for the test, scoring from 660 to 730 in the the practices. Believe this?

Anyway, I'm going to give myself another try, and this time I just hope to go well like you. I think I just need to hold my anxiety in the next attempt and keep the the study pace.

Do you think in middle of March is a good date to the second attempt?

I have also taken a date on 11 March(just one month after my last attempt)...the reason being I used to score well in my practice tests but failed tremendously on the G-day.

I think you should take test in a month only if you were getting good score in practice tests like in MGMAT tests or Kaplan or others, but failed to do so on the G-day.

[hrishi19884]

You are in inspiration to me! I took the test yesterday, got too nervous and scored 560 also! Yesterday was a day I don't want to remember, I had trouble with time! Scored 44M / 23V. I still can't believe how I did so bad in the Verbal section. I finished math missing counts that I don't usually miss. I missed the first two questions!
In the verbal it wasn't so different from the practice material as well. I was feeling ready for the test, scoring from 660 to 730 in the the practices. Believe this?

Anyway, I'm going to give myself another try, and this time I just hope to go well like you. I think I just need to hold my anxiety in the next attempt and keep the the study pace.

Do you think in middle of March is a good date to the second attempt?

I have also taken a date on 11 March(just one month after my last attempt)...the reason being I used to score well in my practice tests but failed tremendously on the G-day.

I think you should take test in a month only if you were getting good score in practice tests like in MGMAT tests or Kaplan or others, but failed to do so on the G-day.

and yes, mid March is a better option....go ahead and beat the GMAT!

[savagec318]

In my first test of 560(43Q 26V), I think it was the nerves that got to me, and I made myself panic by constantly looking at the timer after each question, which made me rush. I ended up with 15 minutes left to spare in the Verbal section and a horrible score. In this second attempt, I decided not to look at the timer at all because in the practice tests, I would always have a good 5minutes left. I went very slowly in Verbal this time, and it paid off well.

I don't know if anyone else is similar to me, but I noticed that I tended to score the highest in practice tests when I started around 11am-2pm and my scores would get worse if I took a test later. Therefore, I made my appointment for 2pm. I think the best thing I did was to do all my CATs around 1:30-2pm to simulate the real test. It was really nice of the lady to put me alone in the far corner away from everyone else, I was really able to concentrate.

I didn't really do any drastic changes after my first attempt. I only focused on Verbal by going through all the CR and SC questions in OG. A purchased the Manhattan SC book a week before the test, read through it in a few days, and redid all the SC questions in OG. After this, I was able to remember many of the questions. I would do about 2 MGMAT tests a week. Even though i exhausted the first 6, i did more tests for practice.

[money9111]

savagec318 thanks for the repost...

so takeaways are:

- don't look at timer if i've been ahead of schedule throughout my CATs... seems like a no brainer but I haven't experienced the testing center environment yet. I actually looked at the timer very frequently during my practice CAT and finished the Quant and Verbal with 10 minutes to spare!

- I'm going to try taking my next practice CAT around 1:00. The first one I took was at like 3 and I had only been up for 30 minutes. I allow myself to sleep late on weekends

- How long did you study for between the 560 and 690?

[gmattering]

savagec318 thanks for the repost...

so takeaways are:

- don't look at timer if i've been ahead of schedule throughout my CATs... seems like a no brainer but I haven't experienced the testing center environment yet. I actually looked at the timer very frequently during my practice CAT and finished the Quant and Verbal with 10 minutes to spare!

- I'm going to try taking my next practice CAT around 1:00. The first one I took was at like 3 and I had only been up for 30 minutes. I allow myself to sleep late on weekends

- How long did you study for between the 560 and 690?

i agree - an irritating habit i have is to regularly look at the timer and gauge how much time per question i have left - for e.g. if timer shows 14:00 and i have 14 questions left - then i know i have 1 min to answer each question - this calculation at the back of my mind would have cost me 5sec each time.

[money9111]

gmattering I feel your pain... then you try rationalizing in your head why you shouldn't do that calculation, which wastes more time! lol at least that's what I do... it's like I'm doing the verbal portion on the test, but my mind doesn't want to let go of doing calculations!! stupid stupid test ::sigh::