Disappointed with first GMAT

[A_Caceres]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post here, I wish I would have consulted with some of you before taking the GMAT. I am applying to University of Miami, I have 5 years of work experience in the US Navy, 3.9 GPA from DeVry University. I am currently in my senior year but I went ahead and applied for UM's MBA program for this fall. I attended the informational session, acquainted myself with some staff, and got asked to interview last month. My interview went great and was told everything looked good so far on my application just to do good on the GMAT. Well I took the GMAT yesterday and I scored a 410 (Q20 V27).I was very nervous during the test and had a few panic attacks when hitting confirm on some questions. Needless to say, I did not feel very comfortable going into the test. I studied with Barron's New GMAT 17th edition for about 3 months and scored between 530-580 on all practice exams (with similar T Scores). I rescheduled to take the GMAT again May 18th but am now questioning my ability to do well on this exam. I understand most of the concepts (individually), however, I always find myself second guessing my answers because I cannot verify if my work is correct. From what I see on this forum, I am approaching the GMAT the wrong way and I am not even sure where to start now. Any advice helps! Thanks in advance.

-Arnold

[David@VeritasPrep]

First lets address that anxiety and the lack of motivation that you might feel now. Then we can point you in a better direction in terms of studying.

Please read the following articles below on the mental (and emotional side of the GMAT).


Imagine your way to success on the GMAT
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2013/01/ ... n-the-gmat


Laugh your way to success on the GMAT
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/06/ ... n-the-gmat


There is a solution to every problem
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/10/ ... n-the-gmat


To Beat the GMAT Stop Multitasking Now!
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/02/ ... asking-now

[David@VeritasPrep]

Is that the only material that you used? Did you work with any official questions, such as the Official Guide?

Which Practice Tests did you take?

[A_Caceres]

Is that the only material that you used? Did you work with any official questions, such as the Official Guide?

Which Practice Tests did you take?

Thanks for the articles, I am moving forward and focusing on the retake.

The Barron's GMAT guide is the only study material I used and I finished the book cover to cover. I did the diagnostic test, 2 sample paper tests, 2 computer practice tests, and 2 timed tests. As stated above, I went off the T Scores and did progressively better on each test with 580 being my highest score. The questions on Barron's were completely different than the actual test, if anything, Barron's only helped me get the timing right for the actual GMAT. I was down to the last minute on every section averaging 2 minutes per question.

I just bought KAPLAN GMAT Premier today and my local library has additional GMAT study aids I can check out if needed... Thanks again for the advice!

-Arnold

[digvijayk]

First of all, you are going to crush the GMAT. And let me tell you why ? Because, I wouldn't let you fail. Re-phrasing... I will help you succeed. This forum gave me a lot and so I think it is important to give back too. So let's get started:

Barron's was a bad pick. Kaplan's is great, but only if you are already scoring well. That's because Kaplan practice tests will give you lower scores, which might demotivate you. Also, there's something missing in all the study materials, whichever test company you consider- and that is the official backing of the test makers. Official is official.

1. You MUST get the "Official Guide for the GMAT", 13th edition preferably, 12th would do too. And that is exactly where you start. You start with the diagnostic test, you analyze that test and then you start with the concept building/practice. Always go through the official guide first and then when you need to go deeper, open up the supplementary material (MGMAT guide, Kaplan, etc.) and delve deeper.

2. I would definitely spend my time on the free videos from Ron... just google "Thursdays with Ron". He turned my score around, and i bet his teachings will help you too.

3. Follow a study plan - BTG offers many study plans. Just hover over "Self Study" section.

Also, I have like a zillion resources for the GMAT, I can mail you. Just pm me your id.

I think UM is great, you may be looking somewhere around 600-650 for that? Do tell us about your target score and the deadline for that score(aug probably)?

Do tell what other help you need. Do well.

[Maulik_gmat]

Hi,
I had increased my score from 610 to 720 have given my methodology see if it suits you
Below given is my story....
From 610 to 720.......has been a journey worth remembering.......employing strategies and methods, changing them, and redeploying them until you arrive at the right one for yourself.
I will tell the method that worked for me......word of caution is that this strategy may not work for you so take this as a guideline and implement and adapt ur strategy.....After all Adapting is the key to survival....since Darwin.....
So here it goes......
Got a real dip in confidence when I got 610.....could not study and focus for about a month.....but then I refocused myself on what to improve and how to go ahead.

For Quant:-
1. Identify your bottleneck(where ur falling short in score) DS/PS, once you have done this 50% of the work is done.
2. Use about 3 preliminary tests to analyze this, for this u can use the diagnostics in OG and the 2 power prep thats what I did.
3. My weak area was DS, so I then shifted my focus to DS in Quant....always remember when ur working on DS u also have to use the other skills so they also improve....so improving the problem area leads to improvement in the already strong area.

How did I focus on DS:-
1. Every day I used to solve 20 examples of DS in a timebound approach. Maintained an excel giving me the % of correct to track my improvement.
2. I also maintained an excel detailing the responses that I got wrong...so that I can know where am I faltering.
3. I also created a label for error i.e error was due to oversight, Fundamental understanding, Fatigue or any other cause. This labeling helped me pin point my reason for problem in DS.
To my surprise i realized that my Understanding was strong, I just never checked the option upto C whenever i was done with A I used to set a judgement in my mind.....so for me I had to go through a thought process shift.

How did I focus on Verbal:-
This is the bone of contention for most..............
I adopted a similar strategy....though I needed to improve in all the areas, my weakest was Sentence correction.
1. Every day I used to solve 20 examples of SC in a timebound approach. Maintained an excel giving me the % of correct to track my improvement.
2. I also maintained an excel detailing the responses that I got wrong...so that I can know where am I faltering.
3. I also created a label for error i.e error was due to oversight, Fundamental understanding, Fatigue or any other cause. This labeling helped me pin point my reason for problem in SC.
To my surprise i realized that my Fundamentals were weak.
How to improve Fundamentals:- Please read this carefully......
U cannot know all the rules in english...you do not want to be William shakespeare.....So u need to focus on the rules asked in the GMAT......
How to do this is tricky, get all the OG sets 10,11,12,13 now you have a pretty exhaustive set of Sentence correction. Now when u solve a question you will get a rule, even if you get the answer correct always go ahead and see the understanding, this will help u solve the doubts in the fundamentals.
Formulate an excel with the rules and the problem of SC written in the row next to it. Later when you want to understand the rules better, read and go through the problems that you have identified....
In GMAT you will never face a problem you have faced, so the focus should be on rules and these will get u through.

For RC:-
Only option is read I read a lot of novels , magazines, newspaper articles to improve my understanding.

For CR:-
I was just good at it, so just practiced from the OG.
Importance of online forums:-
I used to regularly browse through them to see the responses of people and understand their reasoning, though i did not post actively on beat the gmat I read a lot of posts daily i spent around 30 mins on this website........

Hope this may help people understand my process and helps u improve the score......Hope u all achieve your dreams
You can write to me for help on [email protected], and can see my daily blog of MBA journey on https://maulikhelpsu.blogspot.in/

TC, hope this helps.......ATB for the test.....