690 (Q44, V40)

Hi guys, just want to share my experience with taking the GMAT.

I studied for about 8 weeks, using the MGMAT guides. I used all of the 8 books and I felt really confident in the weeks leading to the exam. A little about me: I'm not a native English speaker (but pretty fluent, I read unabridged Shakespeare) but Math has always been my strong suit. My college degree also is quant heavy and I did fine. Doing the MGMAT guides, I felt confident with the math but SC really got me scared. But after doing exercises, I've been getting consistent scores:

GMAT Prep 1: 720 (Q49, V40)
GMAT Prep 2: 750 (Q50, V40)

As such, I felt really confident going into the test and getting something around those scores. As such, I was really devastated when I found out my score was 690. The overall score doesn't bug me - it's an excellent score. However, the Q is really low and there is such a big difference with my verbal that it's going to send some red flags to the admissions comm. And the fact that schools often require at least a 75% percentile on each part of the test, I feel that my score isn't doing me any favors (Q44 is 69%). Plus, I came from a quant heavy course in college - that's not good at all.

Just a debrief and post-test analysis on the real exam: even though I like the quant part in general - I really don't like Data Sufficiency. And I felt I got weirder DS stuff on the real thing than in the GMAT Prep. Also, there were a lot of inequalities/absolute value combo DS stuff - the worst! I feel that did me in. I guess jitters also got in the way - I was scared of running out of time and guessed at some parts.

I'm over the initial shock [after just a day. I'm a masochist - I redid the quant part of GMATPrep2 (Q50 ugh!!!) and watched 2 seasons of Lost non-stop afterwards to drown out negative thoughts. After that I felt fine. Just a tip. ] I'm decided, I'll take the test again in a month's time. Now, two days later, I can't wait to go back to study DS and confront my IN/AB combo waterloo. But I could use some help from you guys.

I've been reading all of the retaking experiences in the forum. I'm really keen to increase my quant - i'm okay even though I don't get a 49 or a 50 but I just want to get past the 75% percentile and maybe score an 85% and not have such a disparity with verbal. I can use your thoughts on what I can use to improve my quant. I've heard Total Math GMAT and the GMATClub tests are excellent tools one can use to improve performance in a retake. What are your experiences with these resources? Also, what other advice or techniques could you share? Thanks a lot guys!

Well, I strongly believe that you are + 700 guy!! It was just a bad day & it has passed. I recommend the following
Take all the free available GMAT Cats i.e Kaplan, MGMAT,Knewton & Princeton.
Also, do consider the GMAT Club's Quant Bank. These are specially designed for Q 47 + score. Detailed explanation & threads are also there.
& one thing more, participate here in this forum Best of luck!!

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very good score...

Dayne, yup it's an excellent score. I'll be okay with it if my Q isn't low (Q44 is good but it's just that the school I'm eyeing wants a score above 75% - Q44 is 69% - darn). And it's so different with my V. Believe me, if I got a balanced Q/V 690, I won't be retaking the test - I'll be more than happy with it.

Thanks Hussain15, very kind of you! I'll definitely do the free CATs and the GC tests. And yes, I'll post more in the forum

Hey, I'm almost in the same boat as you. I took the GMAT about a month ago and I also got an unbalanced 690 (Q43 V41). I'm gonna retake it too. I was getting Q48 and Q49 on my GMATPreps. However, when I took the MGMAT CATs, I got a couple of Q43 scores, albeit I was really distracted in one of them. I should have taken those low Q scores as a warning and studied harder maybe, instead I just dismissed them as anomalies. So my advice is to try MGMAT quant exams and see for yourself. I know they're harder than normal exams but they did accurately predict my 690 twice out of 5 MGMAT exams.

Whoa, that's uncanny. I took the MGMAT CAT twice - didn't complete it since I was in a time crunch. Got 47 for both. But I prioritized the GMATPrep and since I got good scores there, I felt like maybe MGMAT is harder than the real thing. I guess it's back to MGMAT CATs. I have to agree - the math there is kind of whoa - and really similar to the questions I saw in the real GMAT. Goodluck to us!!!

When are you taking it again and what's the game plan?

From what I'm gathering from the forum and all your advice - this is what I'm planning to do for the next five weeks of intense training:

1 - Review OG12 + OG Quant + OG Verbal for the second time - focus on DS, set up error logs and aim to answer questions from what I learned from doing these things the first time around.
2 - Do all MGMAT CATs - I just got to do the first two since I was pressed for time. The Q part of the MGMAT CATs are really difficult - but somehow has the same feel of what I took in the real GMAT
3 - Do all GC Tests - how could I have overlooked this?!?!
4 - Buy select sets from GMATHACKS' 1800 Math Questions - specifically DS Challenge, DS Fundamental and Extreme Challenge. (or do you think Total GMAT Math is better?)

That's it - hopefully, I'll get lucky the second time around.

Well to tell you the truth, I feel that the biggest reason for my low Q score was exam day jitters. I feel like I wasn't thinking straight and couldn't recognize the problem types properly. By the time the verbal section came by I was really relaxed. Although MGMAT Q sections are much more difficult than the regular exam because some of their questions were really retarded and long, I felt the same jitters throughout the MGMAT as I did throughout the exam.

My game plan for now is make sure I know everything related to the quant section cold to avoid any hesitation. Then just redo all my practice exams since it's been a month and I've forgotten most of the questions.

At this point, I don't want to leave any stone unturned so I'll review everything in the OG - make sure I've really learned the concepts and target my DS problem.

wrote:

(or do you think Total GMAT Math is better?)

Which one do you think is better?

I understand that you want to leave no stone unturned. However, you can probably give GMATHACKS a miss. I bought two sets from GMATHACKs, was not really impressed with them. I never got about using them. IMHO, they are over rated stuff. I guess GC Tests and other materials available here would more than suffice.

You can consider buying GMAT Focus. They are official materials and should be excellent material to practice. Do read some reviews, before putting your money down on it.

Thanks for the advice! I wasn't so sure about that, some of the retakers seem to see it in a positive light, but after spending so much on MGMAT and other books, I don't wanna waste more money.

As for GMATFocus, this is the first time I'm learning about it. It looks like an excellent resource. What's your experience with it?

I have not bought it. I also hope I dont have to. My GMAT is in a few days. Incase, I had to Retake, I had GMAT Focus in mind.

I think it was just one bad outing for you. How did you do in your 1st few questions like between 1 - 15 in your actual GMAT and the last set between 30 - 37 ? I am not sure whether weakness on one or two topics alone can dramatically bring the score down.

The best of luck on your exam! Honestly, the test now is one big blur...it's as if I can't focus on one aspect of the experience. I'm guessing I'm so nervous on the start of the exam that I messed it up from the beginning. Seeing these weird DS questions kind of psyched me out. I'm actually not sure but you know, my post-test analysis is all gut feeling and it's something I feel I need to work on...so I'll focus on those but review everything (including verbal - I don't want to neglect that and have another lopsided score again!).

hey good luck to you RGM,
when are you taking your next test? hope you post some excellent results when the time comes.

very helpful debrief for me... reminds me to keep my quant humbly in-check. i've been consistently scoring above 95% on both PS and DS in the OG books (so i've been now neglecting a lot of my quant studies), but I feel that if I don't make sure i stay focused, i can easily make those silly mistakes (or get the hard questions wrong) and get a score that I feel i shouldn't "deserve."

Thanks Adalfu! I'm taking it in two weeks - hopefully all the hard work pays off! Nervous excited.

I started with Quant then ended with Verbal review - so my quant might not have been that fresh on d-day. So it's great that you're deciding not to let your guard down with Quant. My background is quant as well, although not as heavy as yours - so I might have felt a little too confident.

I have a lawyer friend who focused on the quant so much but neglected the verbal since he's a lawyer. He got a 650, Q is 50, but V dragged it all down! My tip is...assume you know nothing and make sure you have all bases covered.

Adalfu, when are you taking your test? Good luck on d-day! What are your materials?

Hey RGM,

Despite the fact that you feel you can do better, congrats on a really strong score. Sounds like you know what you need to do to get the score you're aiming for, and I wish you all the best with it.

You mentioned you were given a lot of absolute value/inequalities DS questions on your test and that this may have hurt your score. I also have a lot of difficulty on specifically these types of questions. I don't have a lot of time left to be looking through more books at this point - only about 2 weeks till the exam. I was hoping to simply practice solving this specific type of question as much as possible so that I develop some confidence and some level of comfort when I see it. While I make random quant mistakes here and there in many areas, 20% (according to the error log I've been keeping) of all the questions I get wrong are DS inequalities/abs value questions. Do you know of any source that will give me practice on this specific type of question and help me build a robust and consistent method of attacking it?

Thanks,
zaj16

Hey zaj, you know, I've been reviewing everything, and I have only two weeks to go! Redoing all the OG guides and the GMATClub tests. But as for the absolute value/inequalities - I've been using a thread here focusing on that actually. I think it's a very good resource - I've went through it and found the questions quite good. Check this out: inequality-and-absolute-value-questions-from-my-collection-86939.html

Good luck on the exam!