Hello everyone, I took the GMAT last week and scored 690 with a Q50, V34 split.
Background - 26 y.o Indian Male engineer working in F-50 manufacturing company in the U.S (~ 2.5 years). I'm planning to apply this Fall i.e. Sept/Oct. deadlines.
I started my prep at the beginning of March using Manhattan guides (complete set). In the meantime, I also went through GMATClub's Math book and bought the
GMATClub tests to improve my quant. Here is a brief overview of my prep timeline and practice test scores.
MGMAT #1 - 630 (Q43 V32) - start of March (w/o any prep)
Completed all
MGMAT guides - thru' March
2nd MGMAT- 630 (Q44 V32) - start of April
review tests + worked on weak areas +
GMATClub Tests + started
OG 2016/
OG Verbal review - thru' April
GMATPREP 1 - 740 (Q50 V40) - mid April
continue
OG +
OG verbal review practice + review incorrect questions - thru' April
3rd MGMAT - 690 (Q48 V36) - end of April
continue
OG +
OG verbal review practice +
GMAT Club tests + Ron's SC videos - thru' May
GMATPREP 2 - 750 (Q50 V42) - end of May - (Felt good after this but I still had 4 weeks remaining, so bought Exam Pack 1)
I feel I should have given my test around this time
GMATPrep SC+CR pdf + slacked a little during this time because of good GMATPrep scores.
GMATPREP 3 - 720 (Q49 V40) - start of June
Panicked a little and practiced mainly quant + bought
e-gmat SC/CR course to improve from V40 to V42/44 (although I did not do the
egmat course seriously, just briefly went through my weak areas)
GMATPREP 4- 750 (Q50 V42) - mid June (2 weeks before test)
Actual test - 690 (Q50 V34) - (I had some issues with verbal timing during the test. I had only 15 minutes for the last 12 questions, but ESR says I still got 75% of the last 10 questions correct, i.e about 3 mistakes)
690 is definitely below my expectations.
I bought the Enhanced score report (Beta) for this test. It looks like GMAC added additional tables to analyze your performance in each section and for the % of incorrect answers for each section.
Here is what my verbal break up looks like,
"You responded correctly to 63% of the first 10 questions, 86% of the second 10 questions, 86 % of the third 10 questions and 75% of the final 11 questions"That is about 4 + 2 + 2+ 4 = 12 mistakes. My accuracy was similar to GMATPrep in which I made an average of 9-10 mistakes and ended up with V40.
My sub-section scores are CR- 38, RC - 33, SC - 31. Turns out my strong areas (RC,SC) were messed up in the actual test
Quant breakup,
"You responded correctly to 100% of the first 9 questions, 86% of the next 9 questions, 71 % of the third 9 questions and 71% of the final 10 questions"Is it possible that 4 mistakes in the first 10 questions led to such a low verbal score ? Or maybe the questions I got incorrect were of V40 level and the test never threw those questions at me after the first 10 because it determined my level was in the low 30's. Anyway for my next attempt, I should tweak my strategy to focus more on the first 10 questions.
Moving on the more important part, I'm planning to revisit the whole
e-gmat SC/CR course + Question Pack 1 to fix my weaknesses in SC/CR/RC. I'm planning to retake in a month, and this is the only retake possible before this year's deadlines. I'm aiming for around 740-750 to cover up for other weak areas in my application.
Any advice on how to improve further will be greatly appreciated
Thank you.
close
26 Jun 2016, 14:02
My friend, I applaud your courageous and forward-looking attitude!! This will serve you well in your studies and in your career. 
