..now what?

[mohit11]

Hi everyone,

I am at a loss of words right now, just reached home from the test center and.. I don't know what happened...

I've taken GMAT twice now, in my first attempt i scored 670 (Q 45 , V 38)

I decided to retake the test.. put in a lot of hard work.. Following are my practice test scores..



I took a week off work, put in a lot of effort in the last few days... I couldn't get a good night sleep the night before the test. Things seemed to be control during the quant section, though i did mess up on my timing (as usual). I started the verbal section strong, I got a bold face CR on 10th question, followed by a difficult RC and then everything after that is just hazy. I was hit with 2 very long and difficult RC's, CR seemed a little more difficult than usual, I found myself trying to catch up on my timing (RC's made my timing go for a toss).....End result..

620 Q46, V 29 ... I've never scored 29 in verbal (NEVER EVER.. till today that is...)

Here's the question, what do i do?

I don't think i'll be able to live with myself without beating the beast. So i'd definitely go in for another shot and put today down as one of those bad days. But the problem is.. that between my first attempt and my second attempt I've done Manhattan Tests twice and GMAT Prep's multiple times..

I would appreciate any advise i can get ... Signing off..

[gb]

Its ok yaar. I know how it feels. But then there are so many guys who face the same issue and then improved to a 750. Visit pagalguy and read varun's post. That guy had a similar story. He has given good pointers which might help you.

My advise -

Analyze all the MGMAT tests and prepare a matrix of the errors. Its possible you still have some areas of improvements. What I think might have happened is : you kept giving tests without working on the week areas. On the D day u missed a couple of your strength areas and paid the penalty.

Try this and if you want you can share this matrix with me. We can work to get things going.

All the best!
gb

[mohit11]

Thanks gb, I guess what's done is done, time to regroup and fight again tomorrow and enjoy this free ride on the learning curve.

[hardik.jadeja]

hello mohit,

just read your pm. apologies for late reply. i was out of town. your practice test scores were good. i see 10-20 points improvement in almost all of your practice score. in my opinion that's a good sign. it shows that you were improving with every practice test. it is very difficult for anybody to analyze and pinpoint the reason behind you not achieving your desired score.

one thing i am not sure is that how many of these practice tests were given with awa section. it is very important to give at least 4-5 practice tests with awa section in order to build the stamina. it is very difficult to maintain the high level of concentration in the verbal section after having written the awa and the quant section. in my opinion, writing a practice test without awa section gives you inflated score. based on the experience you shared here, i feel that one of the reason you struggled in verbal section is that you were falling behind on time. it is possible that you were getting tired and you were not reading as fast as you usually do. It is possible that during verbal section your concentration was not at the level where it should have been.

second thing you need to check is that how many questions that you had already practiced and knew the answers appeared in your practice tests. this happens often to people who follow forums such as this one as most of the questions from gmatprep and manhattan tests are discussed here. if the same thing happens to you in future, then be aware that your score is inflated. i suggest you deduct 20 points from your score if you see 4-5 repeat questions and 30-40 points if you see 8-10 repeat questions.

couple of suggestions from my side.. give yourself a break of 2-3 weeks from gmat and then come back and attack with a fresh mind. if you want to achieve 740 in gmat, then it is important that you get your quant score to 49-51 level. in my opinion increasing your quant score by 4-5 points is relatively easier than increasing your verbal score by those many points. so work on quant section as well and make sure that you score atleast 49 in quant in almost all of your practice tests. write as many practice tests with awa as possible. identify if there is any particular question type such as CR, SC or RC that you struggle with when you reach 700+ level. maintaining error logs is important. re-visioning your error logs and your notes again and again is very important. and also learn to analyze your preparation. make sure that you don't leave any crack open. don't leave anything to chance. if you leave a single thing to chance, more often than not gmat manages to find out that area.

i am glad that you are in the right spirit. work a little harder and you will achieve your desired score.

best of luck..

[adi_800]

Its ok yaar. I know how it feels. But then there are so many guys who face the same issue and then improved to a 750. Visit pagalguy and read varun's post. That guy had a similar story. He has given good pointers which might help you.

My advise -

Analyze all the MGMAT tests and prepare a matrix of the errors. Its possible you still have some areas of improvements. What I think might have happened is : you kept giving tests without working on the week areas. On the D day u missed a couple of your strength areas and paid the penalty.

Try this and if you want you can share this matrix with me. We can work to get things going.

All the best!
gb

Oh ya...That varun guy..
gave 4 times...
590
610
650
710

That is what I would say Perseverance...
You would get his debrief on this site itself..I think it is on page 2...

I think that is the best example for you mohit...
N i think Varun made it to Katz in R2...

[adi_800]

Here you go!!


https://www.beatthegmat.com/my-journey-f ... 56196.html

[kissthegmat]

I would ask to retake..

[mohit11]

Hardik, adi_800, kissthegmat, gb - Thank you for taking time out to reply to this thread.

I think one of the problems was that i got too used to the GMATprep questions and thus timing in the verbal section never became an issue, on the real test however, i faced those issues and when you couple timing issues with tough RC's and add overworked mind in the mix.. Well you have recipe for disaster.

I started early in March to make sure i apply in R1 that is not going to happen. So i'll try and get over with GMAT early October and then make a push for R2 (Its tough but not impossible).

My GMAT plan is simple. I am going take free tests at Kaplan, Vertias etc and I am going do new material for Verbal.

I will be doing LSAT RC's to get used to tough RC's. I am not sure whether i will opt for LSAT CR's because i feel their style of question is different from that of GMAT, so i wonder how value LSAT CR's would add to my preparations

As far as Quant is concerned, I need to start guessing. I think the test is designed to make a person guess the last few questions in a row. So this time i plan to make sure that i get to decided when i need to guess and not let the test decide that for me.

Don't worry ill beat the beast in October 2010 for sure .

[Anurag@Gurome]

Mohit:

Another possibility is that you had an off day - it hapepns to the best of test-takers. Your table shows consistent improvements. My recomemndation is to regroup and review the weak areas. Work on them. But do not overdo it. After a certain point, you start to overthink the questions and the scores drop off. Do you tend to remember your questions? How many of the GMATPrep questions can you say you "remembered" the last two times you did those tests?

[mohit11]

Thanks Anurag, I'd say i remembered approximately 5-6 questions (mostly CR's) on the Verbal Section. I focused only only OG 12 and 10 for CR to make sure i get used to the pattern of CR questions but i guess that strategy did not really work for me because i tend to remember CR questions. So i guess my CR preparation style was flawed. Now i am focusing on newer questions that replicate the OG pattern.

My SC performance has improved considerably. I think on any given day my hit rate is between 80 percent and 85 percent.

I am going to try LSAT RC's under strict time frame to get used to tough RC questions. The idea is to make fewer than 7 mistakes in the Verbal section. I'll appreciate any suggestions that you may have on my approach.

For Quant, i don't think content is a problem, though there are couple of issues that i have identified.

1. Letting the test decide when i should guess instead of guessing when i want to guess. Hence the strategy now will be to guess somewhere in the middle of the section on questions that a) i tend to get wrong the most b) the questions that consume a lot of my time.

2. I tend to prefer equations method of solving over back solving approach and thus i lose out on time. I will now focus on adopting a back solving approach wherever such approach is easier and saves me time.

Again, your thoughts/flaws on/in my Quant or Verbal strategy will be greatly appreciated

[adi_800]

My 2 cents...
I gave gmat prep twice N got wrong around 7 questions..
Out of which 5 were wrong in last 7-8..as I was losing out on time..
n I still got 49/50..
So it seems that last qs dont count much...
But do not take this as full proof advice..


N back solving helps to get rid of d problem early...

[Anurag@Gurome]

You have figured most of the strategic points well Mohit.

I would rather offer you this tactical advice: when you are "in" the test, do not think of the question past nor think of the question to come. Focus exclusively on the question at hand. In the test, it's all about executing all that you have learned without being conscious of it - it saves time and causes less distraction.

Also, Guessing in the middle when you come across questions that you just can't crack is a wise thing to do.

Best of luck.