I took the GMAT just now and scored 710. Nerves got over me in both the sections, Q and V. After completing quant, I thought that my score would be 48 - 49 and I got very tensed. This got reflected on my verbal as well. I took more time initially and later on, in 15 mins, I had to complete 15 questions. I was so tensed that I was unable to understand any passage or RC.
In my tests, I was consistently scoring 740 - 750 with the lowest score of 720 in Gmat prep two weeks back.
I am not sure what to do. Should I retake? I am planning to apply for ISB and INSEAD. My expectation today was to get 720 - 740. But after doing badly on verbal, while waiting for the score I was expecting around 690
. How much does the difference between 710 and 740 matters for b schools?Edited: After looking at the average scores of all top b schools, I figured out that this score is good enough for any college to consider you. So guys, I will soon post a debrief. Just want to take some rest now.
DEBRIEF:
Hi Guys,
Let me take the opportunity to give back a little to beatthegmat.
Here is my debrief:
First and foremost, make most use of your libraries. I almost had every book which I could get from the library, including all Manhattan books, OG-11, OG-12, VR-1, QR-1, VR-2, QR-2, Kaplan, Kaplan-800, Princeton and some other books which I never used.
Second pointer is to get involved in the discussion of btg as much as possible. You sometimes know the right answer but do not know why wrong answers are wrong. Also go through all the posts of Ron. You will get to know many shortcuts of solving SCs.
Now coming to my preparation right from the beginning. I seriously started thinking about GMAT around three months back and that's when I brought some books from library. First book which I read was Princeton. It is really good for beginners and it brings your confidence level up.
Then I took Kaplan test and scored just 580. That was the time when I thought of quitting preparation
Yes you heard me right. But I really wanna thank btg forum. I got to know by browsing through this forum that Kaplan always gives you less score. I felt much better then.My next book was Manhattan SC correction. This book is good enough for basic questions of SC. You can do 600-700 level questions just by going through this book once.
I took 5 Manhattan tests and my scores were:
7/30 - 700 (Q47, V38)
8/08 - 650 (Q47, V32)
8/30 - 670 (Q47, V34)
9/19 - 740 (Q47, V45)
10/10 -750 (Q48, V45)
On 9/19, when I got 740, I decided to take date for my GMAT exam.
My feedback for Manhattan tests is that do not get depressed if you get low score in Quantitative. It is made tougher than GMAT by Manhattan staff to prepare you for real GMAT.
Before my G-Day, I took Gmat prep 1, 3 times, and Gmat prep 2, 2 times.
I don't remember exact scores but I remember that my first test gave me 640, that was in August beginning. But later on, I was getting 700+ every time, with the highest score of 760 and lowest score of 720. It's very important to analyze all the questions which you did wrong. For quanta, I figured out that I was lacking in geometry. I read Manhattan geometry book to brush up the concepts. Rest all the questions I did wrong were silly mistakes in hurry or sometimes I selected wrong answer by mistake.
I decided that on Gmat day, I will cross check every answer once to make sure that I am not doing any silly mistake.
For verbal, I just concentrated on sentence correction. My CR and RC hit ratio was good in OG-11 and several Manhattan tests so I didn't concentrate much on CR and RC.
A week before test, I was pretty tensed as what to do and what not to in that last week. The problem was, that I was still just studying SC and no RC or CR. This strategy slowed me down on actual GMAT and my hit ratio might have got bad on G Day.
My advice to everyone is to devote at least some time, even to your strong areas.
For SC and DS, I have some sets which have around 180 actual GMAT questions. You must go through them. If you don't know any of those answers, visit manhattan forums or btg forums to get the right explanations. I don't think any of those questions is not discussed on manhattan forums. Very important - Keep an error log of why those questions have got wrong and why you chose wrong answers. This will be very helpful in your last few days.
Now the day of exam:
Exam center is just 3 mins drive from my home. My scheduled time was 12 noon and I started at around 11:30. I reached there on time. Staff was good at my center and they just asked me to go through some instructions and then enter the exam room.
AWA part was easy and I wrote as much as I could. Let's see the score when it comes
.Then I took 8 mins of break, had some cold coffee, wen to rest room and came back to my desk. I started off with quanta. Initial few questions were damn easy and I was confused, whether I am doing silly mistakes or is the exam easy??? Then I thought of cross checking each of my answers before I go to next question. Somehow I mismanaged time and then I saw 15 mins left for 15 questions. I was pretty much tensed at that time. I knew that quant is my strong part and I don't wanna spoil this at least. I would have been disappointed with anything less than 49. I can say that last few questions were much much tougher than OG-11, 12. 35th question had lot many triangles and lot many lines inside those triangles. Adding to its beauty, the wording was pretty long and I had just 2 mins left for last two questions. I just guessed on it and moved forward to last question. So I had around 1.5 mins for last question, which I thought to be enough. I finished quant section just on time with 3 seconds left. One very important point to note here. When you are on last question, first check any of the answers blindly and then start solving the question. If you do not tick any of the answers and by mistake you don't keep track of those last 1 - 2 mins, it is highly probable that you may leave the question unanswered. I think you don't want to leave the question unanswered in GMAT even in worst of your dreams. So I solved quant and came for a break.
I was really depressed in my break because of the tough questions I got and also because I had 15 mins for last 15 qs, so I knew that I might have done many mistakes in last questions.
I thought that at least in verbal, I will kill it and won't do any question wrong. This attitude actually was not good at that time. Due to this, I was taking more time initially on verbal and then again I was back to around 14 qs 14 mins thing. When last 12 mins were left, I got a long RC. I knew that by this time I am already gone. In actual GMAT, I found that CR and RC were really confusing. Stacey suggested in one post that if you are confused between two choices in exam, don't spend lot of time. Just select any one and move forward. This is a golden advice. I didn't follow it and paid hard way. I took lot of time in 3 - 4 RC questions initially and had to read RC passage many times for those questions. You shouldn't do it. Just move forward is the key. Time is more important in GMAT then any other thing. So last 14 qs, I think I just blindly did. I just gave some thoughts on SC questions, but for CR questions, I chose blindly in the end. I finished verbal also just on time with few seconds left.
Then I got some useless screens where I had to just press next. My heart was not beating hard at that time because I knew that my score will be 680 - 690. But when the final score came, it was 710 Q-50 V-35.
So this was my long long story about GMAT.
If you want any help or have any question, please let me know.
Last but not the least, thanks to all you guys who helped me every day in getting better and better. 700+ was next to impossible without you guys. [/b]
