FED UP - 640 in 3rd attempt

[baladon99]

My GMAT Journey started almost an year and half back.These are my real scores .

1st attempt May 2010 : 580 - Q: 47 Verbal : 23

Though I took a 2 month break from work and completed OG 12 , I didn't prepare in an effective way and took the exam quite casually.At that point I wasn't very serious about GMAT .

2nd attempt Dec 2010 : 640 Q: 48 Verbal : 29

From September 2010 to December 2010 , I worked hard to improve my score and ended up in 640.
I bought MGMAT SC& CR guides and also took 5 MGMAT tests.Though mildly pleased with the improvement , I wanted a 700+ score.

I figured out that 700+ score was not possible without considerable improvement in Verbal. After a 4 month break I enrolled with e-gmat and started to learn SC from it. I read CR bible and made notes from it. I started to do LSAT RC and CR. After 3 months of hard preparation. my practice test scores (GMAT prep ) were between 710 and 760.I got 3 to 5 questions repeated in most occasions .Also I was weak in probability , permutations and combinations.I took some extra effort to learn those oncepts.As I was quite satisfied with the test scores I booked for the exam in 2nd week of August , 2 weeks in advance of the test date .i.e Sep 2011.

On the test day I wasn't very nervous as I thought I would perform well.

Essays were not bad and I told myself not to think much on essays.

Then came the Quants section , completed first 4 questions and in 4 minutes .The 5th question was a difficult one and I nearly took 6 mins to solve it.I think that I shouldn't have done this.( may be GMAT penalizes for taking too much time to solve a Question).But I had enough time to complete rest of the questions and I completed the section 4 mins in advance.

Verbal section : Sentence correction questions were quite tough . But RC and CR went OK. I felt that I was doing this section as per my expectations and I also managed the time quite well .( In my previous attempts I didn't properly time the verbal section). But I had to rush up the last two questions .

When the score flashed I was really stunned and moved to tears.It was the same 640 with Quants 46 and verbal 31. I was really clueless what happened and what went wrong ,especially in the Quants section. In the verbal section too , I constantly scored 35+ in practice tests.

As I am from India , I feel that it is really difficult to get into any top B school without a 700+ score.I have a work experience of about 3 years.

Now I really don't know whether I should make another attempt or just apply with the present score. I am totally fed up and clueless.

[Bschool2013]

Then came the Quants section , completed first 4 questions and in 4 minutes .The 5th question was a difficult one and I nearly took 6 mins to solve it.I think that I shouldn't have done this.( may be GMAT penalizes for taking too much time to solve a Question).But I had enough time to complete rest of the questions and I completed the section 4 mins in advance.

I don't think the GMAT directly penalizes you for taking 6 minutes to solve a problem. The issue is that you have an average of 2 minutes to solve a problem, and chances are, if you don't recognize how to do the problem in the first minute, you're not going to get it right. Best to guess and move on. Typically, spending more time on a question doesn't lead to the right answer, so you've spent valuable time on an incorrect answer, or even worse, on a question that didn't even factor into your score (experimental question).

You finished with 4 minutes to spare, but did you feel like you were rushing to get back on that pace?

Finally, don't give up. If it's truly your goal to go to a top B-school, the time you sacrifice now on GMAT prep will be worth it in the end.

[baladon99]

Then came the Quants section , completed first 4 questions and in 4 minutes .The 5th question was a difficult one and I nearly took 6 mins to solve it.I think that I shouldn't have done this.( may be GMAT penalizes for taking too much time to solve a Question).But I had enough time to complete rest of the questions and I completed the section 4 mins in advance.

I don't think the GMAT directly penalizes you for taking 6 minutes to solve a problem. The issue is that you have an average of 2 minutes to solve a problem, and chances are, if you don't recognize how to do the problem in the first minute, you're not going to get it right. Best to guess and move on. Typically, spending more time on a question doesn't lead to the right answer, so you've spent valuable time on an incorrect answer, or even worse, on a question that didn't even factor into your score (experimental question).

You finished with 4 minutes to spare, but did you feel like you were rushing to get back on that pace?

Finally, don't give up. If it's truly your goal to go to a top B-school, the time you sacrifice now on GMAT prep will be worth it in the end.

I aimed at 50 points in quants . So I thought I would have to get all the questions correct.

I don't think I was rushing to get back on that pace.I feel thatI gradually caught up with the time.

Thanks for your words Bschool2013. But sometimes I feel even that GMAT is not trustworthy or that GMAT may not be my cup of tea

[Luke.Doolittle]

I aimed at 50 points in quants . So I thought I would have to get all the questions correct.

I don't think I was rushing to get back on that pace.I feel thatI gradually caught up with the time.

Thanks for your words Bschool2013. But sometimes I feel even that GMAT is not trustworthy or that GMAT may not be my cup of tea

I just wanted to dispel a notion here. You don't have to get all the answers correct to get a 50 or even a 51 in quant. In one of the gmat prep exams that I took I missed 3 questions and still got a 51 . Its more about WHAT questions you miss than HOW MANY you miss.

[akhilsuhag]

I would add to that. You don't need all questions correct, I got a 49 with 15 incorrect questions on my GMATPrep. What is important is that you get the easy ones correct and only get the real hard ones wrong. I have heard of people getting around 10 incorrect and getting a 50.

So go ahead and leave questions and manage your time.

[baladon99]

Once I have got 8 questions wrong and scored 50 in GMAT prep.But unfortunately I was mentally obsessed that I somehow wanted to get all of the questions right in the math section. Moreover I did a careless mistake that dragged the problem to 6 mins. That said I still was quite confident about the rest of the questions as far as math section is concerned.

The main Problem is I am not confident to take up the exam again.I am afraid thatI might not get the desired score as in my latest attempt. I have read many rumors about GMAT algorithm and people are still speculating how it works.Some say that it is still not fool proof and preparing again is waste of time. I don't know what to believe and what not to.

[rperezgmat]

I just began my 5th attempt at this GMAT thing. I will just not give up! I am stuck in the mid 600's, and I am changing my approach. I have subscribed to the 60-day program so that I can keep my prior knowledge fresh, but I really have to become more analytical with every question. I have this tendency to begin doing something right away. You seem to be very strong in Quant, so you would probably be better helped by concentrating in verbal. I, however, need to do better in both... I scored Q:42, and V:35 for a composite score of 640. Good luck. I am aiming for a retake in early December.

[la56]

I guess since you have 3 years of experience, you are still okay on the age front and have some more time to work on your GMAT and at the same time gaining experience in parallel.

Now, regarding the TOP MBA program- More depends upon your definition of the TOP B program.
Harvard, Wharton,Stanford, MIT etc are a totally different league. i have seen a guy with a 620 get into Wharton and guy with 770 rejected from the same school. So more depends upon why you want to do with your career. If financial growth is one of the pressing concerns then there are other universities which would give a tremendous boost to your career.

Regarding GMAT, i think you need to slow down while doing Quant, this comes from personal experience.
DS is a tricky beast, the simple questions trick you into selecting the wrong answer choice. In case you want to give gmat another shot read through the articles in the gmat resources area of MGMAT and go thru the study halls by Ron.

[ronaldramlan]

The main Problem is I am not confident to take up the exam again.I am afraid thatI might not get the desired score as in my latest attempt. I have read many rumors about GMAT algorithm and people are still speculating how it works.Some say that it is still not fool proof and preparing again is waste of time. I don't know what to believe and what not to.

I hope that you don't mind that I step in here. First, I want to let you know that I understand how you feel about your scores. I took the test twice and ended up with the same score. Full story below.
https://www.beatthegmat.com/gmat-660-qua ... tml#398833

Exactly a week before my test, which I took in Aug and contained extra Integrated Reasoning section at the end of the test, I read in a number of GMAT related forum that some who took the test with additional Integrated Reasoning section claimed that GMAC algorithm was somehow skewed as they got surprisingly lower score. They believed that the additional IR section although confirmed by the GMAC that it has no bearing on official test score, somehow adversely and unfairly affected their scores. Can you imagine how I felt at that time? For once, I thought that I'd be better off rescheduling my exam. At the end my gruelling battle of the mind, I decided that I would proceed and take the test as scheduled.

Key takeaway here : DON'T be bothered with how GMAT algorithm works. First, you will see that of those who submitted complaints about how they got unfairly low score, only a small fraction, if not no one, actually received score correction. The GMAT algorithm works just fine. Second, burdening yourself with thoughts of the probability that the GMAC algorithm gets skewed and puts you at a disadvantage situation is COUNTER PRODUCTIVE. Whether the algorithm works correctly or not is beyond your control. There is nothing you can do to prove or change that.. You'd rather focus your efforts and energy on "things" that you can control and can help you improve your score. I hope that I can help you identifying those "things".

If you read the above link, you will see that I believe that each test taker should get him/herself familiar with the styles of the questions presented on the real test. I also believe that none of the practice tests available out there get any close to the the real GMAT questions for at least one reason : the creators of those practice tests can only predict the types and tones of the questions coming from GMAC. The only practice tests that can help you become familiar with real GMAT test are OG and GMATPrep.

By now, you should have realized that Verbal is your area of improvement and that an increase in your Verbal score will boost your overall score higher than the same increase in your Quant score. So, if your ultimate goal is to significantly pump up your overall score, you know where you need to focus. Once you realize this, the next step would be to train yourself to able to explain not only why correct answers are correct, but also why incorrect answers are wrong. If you are faced with an SC and you can quickly spot what you think would be the correct answer, DON'T immediately click on CONFIRM. So long as you cannot tell why each of the other answer choices is incorrect, you can never be certain that the one you choose is correct.

I know that OG and GMATPrep do not provide sufficient explanations on why correct answers are correct and incorrect answers are incorrect. However, you can always find in MGMAT forum threads that discuss each question from the OG and GMATPrep. You will usually find the explanations given in those threads helpful.

Well, I think that I have shared with you two "things" from my experience. Let me know if you think I can help you further.

[baladon99]

Thanks Ronald.First of all Congrats for succeeding the in the third attempt. To me the very thought to prepare again for the exam again itself seems to be herculean. (last time I had the push or self-motivation to do )moreover this is already a dead-line period( Oct, Nov and Dec) to apply for admissions . If I retake , I may have to wait till 2010 to enter into a B-school.

I agree with you on the pattern of verbal questions on the real GMAT. Btw If I prepare for the exam again , as you said , I shall try to concentrate more on OG and GMAT prep.But I have exhausted OG prep atleast in verbal - if I see a question I know the correct answer . This is because I have seen the question N number of times. So Shall I use other OG s i.e editions 11 or 10 ? Did you use those ? I went through the 180+ GMAT prep SC and CR questions documents , which I downloaded from GMAT club forum . I also went thro' MGMAT explanations for those questions. Surprisingly, most of the Real GMAT questions(atleast for SC) were quite different from the questions I had practiced.

[ronaldramlan]

(last time I had the push or self-motivation to do )moreover this is already a dead-line period( Oct, Nov and Dec) to apply for admissions . If I retake , I may have to wait till 2010 to enter into a B-school.

I understand the complexity of your situation. Time is tight, so you need really think about your chance of improving your score, which I'll talk about in a minute. At some point, you've got to be able to firmly say to your self that you'd better off spending the rest of your time on other aspects of your applications. Working on essays and recommendations gives you a completely different challenge, so you need to take it into account.

I agree with you on the pattern of verbal questions on the real GMAT. Btw If I prepare for the exam again , as you said , I shall try to concentrate more on OG and GMAT prep.But I have exhausted OG prep atleast in verbal - if I see a question I know the correct answer . This is because I have seen the question N number of times. So Shall I use other OG s i.e editions 11 or 10 ? Did you use those ? I went through the 180+ GMAT prep SC and CR questions documents , which I downloaded from GMAT club forum . I also went thro' MGMAT explanations for those questions. Surprisingly, most of the Real GMAT questions(atleast for SC) were quite different from the questions I had practiced.

I realized that by now you must have overused the OG and GMATPrep that your performance can no longer be reflected on those materials. But, tell me ... how well did you do the Verbal questions in OG 12th edition?
I didn't use the former editions of OG during my preparation for my last attempt. However, I understand that some questions on OG 12th edition are not found on OG 11th edition. So, using former editions of OG will give you fresher start.

You mentioned in your earlier post that SC is your main weakness. Is this notion supported by the result of your OG or GMATPrep? If so, can you identify which areas of SC you are weak at (i.e : modifier, pronoun, comparison, etc)? Can you see the types of SC questions on which you mostly fall for?
Now, I'm trying to look at the details as I believe that the general advice won't help much. Still, you don't need to spend so much time after reading the sentence to find anything wrong with the original sentence. If you can't, quickly go to answer choices and find reason(s) to eliminate. Usually, you'll easily throw away two or three of the answer choices. Your ability to eliminate the rest of the answer choices to come to the final answer depends on your mastery of identifying somewhat less obvious mistakes, such as pronoun, comparison, modifier, or even meaning.

Probably if you can address some of the questions above, I'll have a better understanding of some of your specific weak areas.

Having said so, I'm not a GMAT expert as I don't have a super high GMAT score (I'm just happy to help). You have to feel comfortable with seeking opinions from GMAT experts, including those from leading GMAT preparation providers, such as MGMAT, Veritas, etc. You can ask for advice on their blogs.

[baladon99]

I guess since you have 3 years of experience, you are still okay on the age front and have some more time to work on your GMAT and at the same time gaining experience in parallel.

Now, regarding the TOP MBA program- More depends upon your definition of the TOP B program.
Harvard, Wharton,Stanford, MIT etc are a totally different league. i have seen a guy with a 620 get into Wharton and guy with 770 rejected from the same school. So more depends upon why you want to do with your career. If financial growth is one of the pressing concerns then there are other universities which would give a tremendous boost to your career.

Regarding GMAT, i think you need to slow down while doing Quant, this comes from personal experience.
DS is a tricky beast, the simple questions trick you into selecting the wrong answer choice. In case you want to give gmat another shot read through the articles in the gmat resources area of MGMAT and go thru the study halls by Ron.

My need is simple. To be a part of Gloabl B school so that I could get international exposure and boost my career .I am not interested in expensive schools such as Wharton , as I wish to pay back my money soon

[baladon99]

(last time I had the push or self-motivation to do )moreover this is already a dead-line period( Oct, Nov and Dec) to apply for admissions . If I retake , I may have to wait till 2010 to enter into a B-school.

I understand the complexity of your situation. Time is tight, so you need really think about your chance of improving your score, which I'll talk about in a minute. At some point, you've got to be able to firmly say to your self that you'd better off spending the rest of your time on other aspects of your applications. Working on essays and recommendations gives you a completely different challenge, so you need to take it into account.

I agree with you on the pattern of verbal questions on the real GMAT. Btw If I prepare for the exam again , as you said , I shall try to concentrate more on OG and GMAT prep.But I have exhausted OG prep atleast in verbal - if I see a question I know the correct answer . This is because I have seen the question N number of times. So Shall I use other OG s i.e editions 11 or 10 ? Did you use those ? I went through the 180+ GMAT prep SC and CR questions documents , which I downloaded from GMAT club forum . I also went thro' MGMAT explanations for those questions. Surprisingly, most of the Real GMAT questions(atleast for SC) were quite different from the questions I had practiced.

I realized that by now you must have overused the OG and GMATPrep that your performance can no longer be reflected on those materials. But, tell me ... how well did you do the Verbal questions in OG 12th edition?
I didn't use the former editions of OG during my preparation for my last attempt. However, I understand that some questions on OG 12th edition are not found on OG 11th edition. So, using former editions of OG will give you fresher start.

You mentioned in your earlier post that SC is your main weakness. Is this notion supported by the result of your OG or GMATPrep? If so, can you identify which areas of SC you are weak at (i.e : modifier, pronoun, comparison, etc)? Can you see the types of SC questions on which you mostly fall for?
Now, I'm trying to look at the details as I believe that the general advice won't help much. Still, you don't need to spend so much time after reading the sentence to find anything wrong with the original sentence. If you can't, quickly go to answer choices and find reason(s) to eliminate. Usually, you'll easily throw away two or three of the answer choices. Your ability to eliminate the rest of the answer choices to come to the final answer depends on your mastery of identifying somewhat less obvious mistakes, such as pronoun, comparison, modifier, or even meaning.

Probably if you can address some of the questions above, I'll have a better understanding of some of your specific weak areas.

Having said so, I'm not a GMAT expert as I don't have a super high GMAT score (I'm just happy to help). You have to feel comfortable with seeking opinions from GMAT experts, including those from leading GMAT preparation providers, such as MGMAT, Veritas, etc. You can ask for advice on their blogs.

Hi Ronald ,
I think that I generally fall for SC sentences that test the meaning.Honestly speaking My aim was to score 50+ in Quants so that I could balance with the score even if verbal score dropped a little. As you said I feel that the other test generators set questions that test the book concepts. I may have to take up your OG advice seriously , If I prepare again.

[rohit_gmat]

My need is simple. To be a part of Gloabl B school so that I could get international exposure and boost my career .I am not interested in expensive schools such as Wharton , as I wish to pay back my money soon

if thats the case 640 is a good score... in fact its good enuff to get u into Bschools ranked from 10-30 ... i know a guy who got accepted @ IESE & ESADE with a 640 and his profile wasnt magnificent or anyth like that... in my opinion... u shud go ahead n apply to BSchool.. maybe even use the additional essay section to talk about ur gmat (thats wat the guy did who i mentioned got into those 2 schools)

good luck

[baladon99]

If thats the case 640 is a good score... in fact its good enuff to get u into Bschools ranked from 10-30 ... i know a guy who got accepted @ IESE & ESADE with a 640 and his profile wasnt magnificent or anyth like that... in my opinion... u shud go ahead n apply to BSchool.. maybe even use the additional essay section to talk about ur gmat (thats wat the guy did who i mentioned got into those 2 schools)

good luck

Thanks Rohit. Those are actually quite soothing words for me now.Btw I'm just curious to know that whether the guy accepted those two admission offers.