I didn't beat the GMAT. What should I do now?

[dubc1982]

I scored a miserable 540 today. Its absolutely crushing considering I scored a 550 on my first practice test before 3 months of studying. On my two GMATPrep tests I score 590 and 600 respectively. If I could get a 590 on the actual test I would be super happy, yet I failed. I don't know why I have trouble with standardized tests. I did bad on th SAT, yet graduated top of my class in college. I bombed the LSAT terribly. Now I've finally found something I want to pursue and the only thing holding me back is the GMAT. My grades, etc. are perfect for the school I want to go to, I just need to get above a 570. I've studied hard, and felt very comfortable with just about everything on the test. I was confident going into the test, wrote great essays and then bombed. I scored in the 30% on quant which equated to a 31 and 66% on verbal which was a 33. I don't know what else to do. I'm going to take the test again in a month because I feel like studying any more than that will burn me out. I kind of rushed through the math section, but it felt way harder than any of my practice tests. They say all you need to know are "basic" math concepts, which I feel I do, yet these questions were absurd. I've gone through the OG working on very difficult questions with not too many problems. I'm lost and don't know what else to do. Please help. The GMAT is the only thing holding me back from pursuing my dream.

[AleksandrM]

dub,

I scored a 480, 490, and a 560 on my first three practice tests. Four months later, I scored 640 to 670. I took my test two weeks ago and scored a 640 (39 in quant; 38 in verbal). I am not too satisfied with my score, so I am taking the test again in September. However, you can imagine how crushed I felt after my first few practice tests. However, I focused on all of my weaknesses and attacked these as well as I could.

It sounds to me like you need to really press on quant and make the more basic concepts absolutely intuitive. Stay away from probability and comb&perm questions. Just focus on building equations and make sure that you know your number properties (use more logic than plugging in numbers).

For verbal, I think that you need to minimize your time on CR and SC questions by absolutely eliminating uncertainty on SC and learning how to eliminate answer choices on CR. This will give you more time to spend on RC. Do not forget the importance of the verbal section in increasing your score. If you get your math and verbal in the lower 40s. You will score at the 660 to 680 level.

Having said that, you did not exactly leave yourself ample time. However, with enough time effectively spent on studying, I think that you could still get into the 620 to 640 level.

Good luck!