Feeling totally demoralised and beaten.. Help!

[gemmox]

Hey guys,

I took my 2nd GMAT paper today and really hit the deck with it - in fact I have both times!

The first paper I scored 370 - this mortified me as my practices had NEVER been this low. Today I scored 410. This time, the feelings were no way near as emotional, lets say! But as my score came onto the screen, I just felt like saying forget it. Especially as all my practices these last few weeks have been in the 500's.

I've been accepted to a business school in London, with the conditional offer that I score 600plus. Unfortunately today due to my lack of turning knowledge into GMAT success, I've had to defer my offer for entry of September 2014. This now gives me a year.

FYI I've been studying part time since May - doing as many hours I can, mainly across weekends and every other week I can sneak a day off from work.

I'm looking for any kind of strategy advice as I've decided to start a fresh, obviously taking forward the knowledge I've gained, stored and worked with over the past couple of months. I invested in the Kaplan classroom anywhere course - which I have until late this year to utilise.

Books wise I have: The Official GMAT Quantitative Review, Official GMAT Review - 13th Edition & a Kaplan GMAT Math Workbook.

I'm deciding to steam on ahead, as theres no time like the present! I was hoping that I could get some of your views, experiences on how you've not let the GMAT beat you, and how you've conquered it!

Background - I'm a british female, early 20's. I currently have a First Class Honours degree in Business & Logistics.

Looking forward to moving forward with it all and hearing some views.

[[email protected]]

Hi gemmox,

Many Test Takers experience the same type of frustration that you're feeling (especially early on), so don't get too down on yourself. The GMAT is a consistent, predictable test, so you can learn to beat it.

You have a good set of resources to work with, so here is what I'll advise as you start fresh: studying for the GMAT is similar to learning to play a musical instrument - you can't just practice on the weekends. Plan on 3 solid months of study, with small chunks of time spent during the week and larger chunks of time spent on the weekends (for practice CATs, etc.). The practice will help you to build up a "library" of tactics that you can use over and over again, which will improve your scores, pacing and confidence. It sounds like you didn't quite gain the level of experience that you needed, and with the practice scores that you earned, you were likely making lots of silly mistakes.

All of this can be fixed though, so start planning ahead. When do you want to take your GMAT? What's your work schedule going to be like? How will you fit in the small study sessions during the week? Etc.

If you have any additional questions, then you can feel free to contact me directly.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

[Brent@GMATPrepNow]

Your practice test scores suggest that you have a decent grasp of the material. The missing piece of the puzzle may be how you function on Test Day. I suspect that there are other forces at play, namely time-management, test anxiety and perhaps a lack of confidence. If you want to perform well on test day, you need to spend some time overcoming these beasts.

If you're interested, we have a free video on the topic on overcoming test anxiety: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gener ... es?id=1252

We also have a free time management video: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gener ... es?id=1244

With regard to adopting the proper mindset/attitude on test day, you may be interested in the following BTG article: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/04/ ... n-the-gmat

Cheers,
Brent

[melguy]

Hey

You have a lot of time on your side. It might be a good time to take a video course / purchase a course and books from a company and start with a new approach. When I was at your score level it was the basics I was struggling with.

Some good video courses that I took are

https://www.veritasprep.com/ (video - books are included in On Demand course)
https://www.gmatprepnow.com/ (video classes)

Trust me with time and effort you will get there. A typical student spend around 200-300 hours of study time on GMAT preparation and there are no shortcuts (If i knew the shortcuts I would have taken them myself )

If you need any more info feel free to ping me.