520 to 570 ....so depressed!!!!

[Wajiha]

Just came out from the 2nd attempt a scored a miserable 570...have been studying for the past 10 months but just cannot improve...in my first attempt i forgot to bring my id to the centre and i had to go back home to fetch it so my score suffered as i was very burnt out and tense...this time i thought i would do better but i have severe pacing problems ..i have no idea how to improve my pace ...in quant i always have 10 questions left in the last 2 mins so i just click away....help me with my pacing problem plz!!!

[bpgen]

You could read all those success stories of people's hardship/strategy...

https://www.beatthegmat.com/i-just-beat- ... t-f15.html

[papgust]

Have a look at these posts,

https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2009/09/ ... tice-tests
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2009/10/ ... art-2-of-2

You may get some good tips here.

[mjgoldste]

Heyo,

I've got to say, a 570 when you're just randomly clicking through your last ten questions is pretty good. But, I understand your feelings on the score and here's some good, home-cooked advice on pacing and how to build your stamina.

1) Make sure that every time you sit down to do a GMAT question (whether it's in a problem set or on a diagnostic test), set yourself a maximum of 3 minutes to do the problem, and if it's a Sentence Correction, then 1.5 minutes. Get used to doing problems quickly and efficiently (but not carelessly). The only way to improve pace is to crack the whip and stick to it.

2) To build stamina, work as if you're under test conditions for a sustained period of time. Do two hours of practice each day, splitting time between doing problems and reviewing answers. Make sure you know two things by the end of each session: 1) what you do and don't know, and 2) why you got some questions right and others wrong. Do you find yourself getting distracted during the test? Where do you find you lose time? Is it number crunching or something emotionally-related?

3) In order to improve your speed, practice practice practice. Set a schedule for yourself and stick with it. In addition to all the other things the GMAT tests, it's a big assessor of time/energy/stress management skills. In order to do well on the test, you've got to carefully balance yourself. I can say this from experience: I left the last two questions on my quant blank and my final quant score was I think a 41, or 69th percentile. Not great but not terrible either--at the same time, I was really surprised at how time snuck up on me. And I realized when I finished that I had kind of went into a daze during a problem in the middle of the Quant section.

4) Do you spend a lot of time trying to figure out how well you're doing in the test? As in, when you get an easy question (or a question you feel is easy), do you kind of panic and wonder if you got the last question wrong? I only ask because I know I used to spend time fretting about that and it was a big time-eater. When I'm only focused on the question at hand, I do a lot better and don't spend any energy being distracted.

Anyways, hope that helps. Good luck!

Michal

[pallavmishra]

Hi,

I would just add my two cents. Even though I scored a 740, I do not consider myself a guru in GMAT (more so because I never scored more than 620 in my Kaplan tests). A word of advise - for a test like GMAT, do not give yourself such a long timeline. Rather, just be focussed about the areas you are weak in - for example I was weak in all the departments of Verbal when I started off with my preparation. I was so scared when I took my first Kaplan test that I considered myself a total dud (perhaps I'd jumped the gun and written the test before any form of preparation). Another test much later, and more or less the same response. However, my scores were always balanced since then. I am not sure what material you have been using, but stick to a consistent regimen. If I were to prepare over 10 months, I would end up giving a serious look at GMAT only in the last 2-3 months and while away most of my time. I cannot be consistent if I were to study by myself for 10 months - its a human thing (since unlike college test stuff, standardized test material can bore you to death after sometime).

So, just forget everything about the past and organize yourself - since you have already written the test earlier, you know that pacing is your problem. Identify areas that are hurting your pace. If those areas do not improve for you considerably, try improving the pacing and accuracy of other areas that are your strength so that you could devote sometime. Also, as mentioned everywhere, be careful about the first 10-15 questions and then pace. Use the Official Guides and prepare your own test papers (and NEVER cheat there, since books have all the answer keys listed somewhere and some people are tempted to sneak a peek), time yourself. It would help, trust me. Keep practicing until you exhaust all your OG questions. Similarly use all your material like that - do not do a single question untimed. Then re-do some of the questions again from the OG question-bank, ensuring you do not repeat your mistakes.