580-Clearly retaking and looking for advice / encouragement!

[slash10]

Let me give you a brief background of my experience. I studied for about a month focusing on problem solving and sentence correction for the majority of my time. I took the exam on about 2 hours of sleep because of test anxiety and felt absolutely exhausted. It was a terrible experience, I absolutely froze - when the second Math problem popped up I looked at it in excitement because I thought "oh I know this, it will take me about 20 seconds". It took me 4 minutes, I couldn't organize a single thought, it felt like I was trying to read chinese. Thats how I felt the rest of the test, like I had studied french for a spanish exam. I am going to retake the exam and am looking for some advice, I have pretty much every study aid that people have suggested and really want some words of encouragement of people who have risen their score drastically, I am shooting for the "benchmark" 700 but would be content with anything over 670 because the rest of my application / experience / essays are all extremely strong.

To anyone who reads and replies, thank you for your input it is greatly appreciated.

[zipper123]

snip... I took the exam on about 2 hours of sleep because of test anxiety and felt absolutely exhausted. It was a terrible experience, I absolutely froze - when the second Math problem popped up I looked at it in excitement because I thought "oh I know this, it will take me about 20 seconds". It took me 4 minutes, snip....I am shooting for the "benchmark" 700 but would be content with anything over 670 because the rest of my application / experience / essays are all extremely strong. snip....
To anyone who reads and replies, thank you for your input it is greatly appreciated.

Hi Slash,

have you considered taking the test in different time of the day?

I am an extremely morning person and also a nerve wreck, I always schedule my tests first thing in the morning. I passed my PMP on my first try with 80+% and GMAT was pretty ok too. (see my other post).

[gmat_enthus]

Let me give you a brief background of my experience. I studied for about a month focusing on problem solving and sentence correction for the majority of my time. I took the exam on about 2 hours of sleep because of test anxiety and felt absolutely exhausted. It was a terrible experience, I absolutely froze - when the second Math problem popped up I looked at it in excitement because I thought "oh I know this, it will take me about 20 seconds". It took me 4 minutes, I couldn't organize a single thought, it felt like I was trying to read chinese. Thats how I felt the rest of the test, like I had studied french for a spanish exam. I am going to retake the exam and am looking for some advice, I have pretty much every study aid that people have suggested and really want some words of encouragement of people who have risen their score drastically, I am shooting for the "benchmark" 700 but would be content with anything over 670 because the rest of my application / experience / essays are all extremely strong.

To anyone who reads and replies, thank you for your input it is greatly appreciated.

Hi slash,

Some 3-4 cents from me

- It happened to one of my very close friends, had a bad day (couldnt concentrate, bad light or something like that), scored 510, took another date as soon as possible and scored 730. So dont fret it happens

- try not to worry too much in your second attempt. And RELAX the day before.

- Dont try to cover to too much material, just practice and relax, figure out your mistakes.

- Take mock tests in worst possible cases
- when you are too sleepy
- when you are too tensed
- when you just had a heavy meal
(you will be prepared for all situations )


Hope these help

[slash10]

I would love to take the test at a different time but everytime I look at test dates / times, the only ones that pop up are scheduled at 9 am.

Both of you thank you for your replies I really appreciate it and am going to start studying again this weekend and will probably set my test for 7 weeks out.[/quote]

[pixiesalt8]

Hey there,

I'm betting you just psyched yourself out. The first time I took the test after about a month of studying, I was super nervous and totally stressed myself out. Needless to say, I was v. disapointed in my score. After the test, I just ran to a computer and scheduled a second test a month after the first. This time, I didn't study at all. I probably took about 20 minutes to look over some notes and memorize a couple of math formulas. I managed to get a great night's sleep the night before and was very happy to see that my score rose substantially-- I ended up getting over 700, which was my original goal.

So good luck and remember not to stress!

[800guy]

Hey there,

I'm betting you just psyched yourself out. The first time I took the test after about a month of studying, I was super nervous and totally stressed myself out. Needless to say, I was v. disapointed in my score. After the test, I just ran to a computer and scheduled a second test a month after the first. This time, I didn't study at all. I probably took about 20 minutes to look over some notes and memorize a couple of math formulas. I managed to get a great night's sleep the night before and was very happy to see that my score rose substantially-- I ended up getting over 700, which was my original goal.

So good luck and remember not to stress!

don't stress man, you can do it!!