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Having a horrible time with the GMAT. Please help.

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Having a horrible time with the GMAT. Please help.

by Josh85 » Fri Jan 22, 2010 1:12 pm
So I've been studying this test for a long time now. I've taken a couple months and gone through all the MGMAT Quantitative books along with the Princeton review guide. I've always had trouble with Math so I figured I'd focus on that more.

Here's my problem:

I'm scoring embarrassingly low on the GMAT. I take the test on the 26th and I just feel pretty hopeless about it. I'm not shooting for a 650+ score because I'm just applying to Pitt's grad school. So really I need just a 550 (or so I believe) but I'm having trouble even getting that. For some reason, I'm just plain terrible on standardized tests. I lock up, freeze, and forget everything that I know and learned. This happens with a lot of standardized tests with me. In all honesty, I know I probably prepped wrong and I can't seem to focus much either.

Here are my options as I see them.

1) If I bomb the test, I can still take it again in a couple months and make Pitt's fourth round but I'm not even sure if it's worth it at that point. Wouldn't they have most of their seats filled anyway?

2) I can take it anyway but I'm afraid the score will be so low that it won't matter what score I get the next time. I'm know I'm within 7 days of rescheduling the exam and it'll cost me $250, which is fine. I'm not worried about paying it because more than likely I'm going to take it again.

3) I can wait a couple months and take it during the summer and apply for the first round the following fall. That's a long time to wait but it might be worth it.

And beyond that, I'm basically clueless to what I should do. Everything else is already taken care of pretty much (personal statements, resume, letters of recommendation).

Some advice would be great. I really need it.
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by Osirus@VeritasPrep » Fri Jan 22, 2010 1:15 pm
This is a post I made in response to how to use the MGMAT guides. I think you will find it helpful

"The way I did it was in addition to making flash cards, I did two problems a day from past chapters. For example, if I am on chapter 5 of number properties. I would do problems 1 and 2 or 3 and 4 or 5 and 6, etc, from the previous chapters and then I would move on to new information. Do this for all chapters. It is a long and tedious process, but I believe it has helped me a lot."

If you do this, odds are you won't forget much of the information. The drills is the eqivalant of an active flash card.
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by Osirus@VeritasPrep » Fri Jan 22, 2010 1:16 pm
I hope to see you in Pitt. I hope to get accepted to Tepper so I would be right down the road. Unless I score a 750 plus in a week then I'm going to Boston...lol.
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by Josh85 » Fri Jan 22, 2010 1:20 pm
The way I did it was in addition to making flash cards, I did two problems a day from past chapters. For example, if I am on chapter 5 of number properties. I would do problems 1 and 2 or 3 and 4 or 5 and 6, etc, from the previous chapters and then I would move on to new information. Do this for all chapters. It is a long and tedious process, but I believe it has helped me a lot.
Well I've already done the problems in MGMAT. I actually don't think it works too well with me. I'm still unsure of what to do.
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Fri Jan 22, 2010 5:01 pm
Hi Josh,

I just gave similar advice on another thread, so hopefully I don't get pigeonholed as a one-trick pony, but here's what I'd offer:

-Schools only, with only the most incredibly rare exceptions (like a sequence of awful scores, which would suggest that you don't learn from your mistakes), care about your top score, so if the worst thing that happens this week is that you learn from the experience and have to take it again, it's by no means catastrophic. The GMAT is an easy test to underestimate, and schools know that...they don't want to penalize you for not realizing how tough it can be, nor do they want to miss out on a stellar candidate whose only mistake was thinking they could take the test without much preparation. In this space, we're all well aware of the opportunity (and perhaps need) for test prep, but that's not the case in much of the world (though I trust that the marketing folks at Kaplan, Veritas Prep, and Knewton are working hard to change that!).

-With your practice tests, they're infinitely more useful in their capacity to diagnose your weaknesses than in their role as a measure of your progress. I can't emphasize this enough - plenty of students take practice tests to "see where they stand", but significantly fewer go back and analyze the results more carefully, and that's where you can gain improvement. You say you're scoring low - to which factors do you attribute that? Are you pacing yourself well? Are there patterns in the mistakes that you're making? Are there certain question types, or conceptual errors, that you're just not getting? Over this weekend, take some time to identify 3-5 major areas of concern, and see if you can make progress on those. Just shoring up a few of them can make a quick, substantial increase in your score.

-Pursuant to the above, if your goal is a bit more modest, recognize that you don't need to be a master of everything on the GMAT, but rather able to minimize the mistakes that you're currently making and feel comfortable with some of the more often-tested concepts (number properties, etc.). Again, if you can find a few areas on which you're struggling and bring those up to being strengths, you'll make a strong overall improvement. Regardless of your end goal, if you have manageable interim goals, it's easier to get there.

So, I guess in summary, I don't know how far off you are for this week's test, but if it's even remotely close to where you think you should be, you might as well go ahead with and take the exam, and at the worst learn something. If you use the next few days to target making marked improvement in a few areas, that just might do it.
Brian Galvin
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Chief Academic Officer
Veritas Prep

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by Josh85 » Fri Jan 22, 2010 6:46 pm
Thanks Brian,

Just one more question though. How bad are my chances for applying to the fourth round for the University of Pittsburgh? I have no idea how bad last round applications can be.
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