Got beaten by the GMAT, again

[icecube6000]

I game my GMAT the fourth time today and scored 680(Q44,V40). Needless to say that I am disappointed by my score and will give the test again in one months time.

Following is the history of my GMAT attempts



GMAT 1

March 2010 : 650 (Q 43, V 37)

I prepared using princeton and powerprep CATS. In the actual exam, I was blown away by the difficulty of the Quantitative section. The testing laminated sheet also put me off. In short, I was not prepared.

GMAT 2

Dec 2010: 600 (Q 47, V 27)

This time I was more prepared. However during the verbal section of the test, I had a migraine attack. I just randomly selected most of the verbal answers and my score dropped as a result.

GMAT 3

Feb 2011: 640 (Q 42, V 37)

I couldn't keep up with the timing in the quantitative section and ended up missing 2 questions.


After my third attempt, I took 5-6 months break as I was getting married. Furthmore, I wanted to take some time off from GMAT. I started preparing again in Oct 2011.

Following is the break-up of my 12 CATS before my fourth attempt.


Manhattan GMAT 1: 680
MGMAT 2: 720
MGMAT 3: 660
MGMAT 4: 700
MGMAT 5: 700

I found the MGMAT quantitative section too time consuming and struggled each time to complete it.

Kaplan 2: 660
Kaplan 3: 670
Kaplan 4: 690
Kaplan 5: 670

These tests came with Kaplan premier 2012 book. Quantitative section was too easy on Kaplan tests and I scored a minimum of 50 on last 3 tests. The verbal section was tough. Reading comprehension was extremely tough and non-representative of the actual GMAT.

GMAT prep 1: 750 (Q50,V42)
GMAT prep 2: 730 (Q49,V40)

GMAT prep 1(re-take): 710(Q48,V39)

On actual GMAT today, I found the quantitative section pretty tough and ended up spending approx. 9 minutes on the first two questions. I guess both answers were wrong.

Verbal section was again slightly more tough than GMAT prep. SC was long and complex. CR had atleast 2 very close answers. RC was comparable to GMAT prep.

I took the MGMAT and Kaplan tests only this time. I have used the following material so far

1) Princeton: Cracking the GMAT
2) GMAT official guide
3) Kaplan premier 2012

I have not been able to get MGMAT books here in Pakistan.

I am still not giving up. I would again update after my fifth GMAT attempt [/u]

[pemdas]

is it all you want? update about the 5th try?

[icecube6000]

My target score is a minimum of 710 to be competative and 730 to have a slight edge in the set of universities that i am targeting. I am targetting the top 8-20 tier of US schools along with Rotman, ASB, Insead and Lbs.
I know that I can score more than 700 on the actual test day. Therefore, I am not giving up .