Retaking GMAT: Prep in 30 days

[rupantor]

Hi,
I took GMAT in 2005 and got 640: Q-46, V-32.
To improve my score, I studied for about 2 months and took the test again today.
I got 570: Q-40, V-28. My score went down by 70 points!
I did terrible in timing. Had to guess about 7/8 questions in each section.

Here is how I have been doing in my prep tests.
I took only the GMATPrep-2 with AWA essays; all other I just did Quant and Verbal. This may be one of my mistakes. Moreover, I realize now that I might have taken too many practice exams right before the original test.

25-Oct-08: Kaplan Paper Test: 600, Q-42, V-33
10-Nov-08: PowerPrep-1 (Retake): 670, Q-46, V-36
10-Nov-08: PowerPrep-2 (Retake): 700, Q-49, V-35
11-Nov-08: MGMAT CAT-1: 660, Q-44, V-36
13-Nov-08: GMATPrep-1(Retake): 720, Q-48, V-41
14-Nov-08: GMATPrep-2: 650, Q-49, V-31

I prepared with OG-11, MGMAT Sentence Correction (2005), MGMAT Number Properties Guide and Kaplan Math Workbook.

To meet application deadline for business PhD programs, I registered to take GMAT again on December 19, 2008. I have 33 days to do something! I am a full time master’s student; I will have to deal with three course exams in early December.
Do you have any suggestions for me about how to prepare? Will buying and reading all MGMAT Guides help?

[michael.dinerstein]

Hi rupantor,

I'm sorry to hear that you did not score as high as you would like on the exam. Just from your description of what happened on the test, I can fairly reliably say that what caused your score discrepancy was your timing. You absolutely need to get through each section - randomly guessing on 8 or 9 questions will absolutely trash your score. If you can just work on your sense of timing so that you do not repeat the same mistake when you take the test again, you'll be at a much better level, in the mid-600s range.

As for content, studying from our guides (which have recently been updated to the Third Edition) certainly can't help. Be sure to spend more time focusing on the area of the test you are relatively weaker in. To me, this seems like your verbal score since it's not consistent.

Finally, since you're in a bit of a time crunch, you might want to look into scheduling a private tutoring session with us. Even if it's just a 2 hour consultation, you can gain a more personally-tailored insight into studying for the exam.

I hope this helps as a starting point to study for the exam. You might also want to ask the people in the GMAT Strategy section of Beat the GMAT so that you can listen to different viewpoints.

Best,