Sorry, this is a little long.
A little background:
I started studying for the GMAT about 3 weeks ago, and have taken the following diagnostic/prep tests.
~3 weeks ago - Kaplan diagnostic test - received 30 out of 38 questions right, but a scaled score was not provided for this test.
During the following week, I studied a great deal, but I mainly focused on math. I primarily used the Princeton Review book.
~ 2 weeks ago- Took Princeton Review Practice test 1, scored a 650 (45Q 34V). I was pretty happy with this score, but knew that I had a good deal of work ahead of me if I wanted to achieve my goal of reaching a score of 700.
During the following week, I studied even more, but again mainly focused on math using the Princeton Review book. I know that focusing on math when my verbal scores were so much weaker was probably a mistake, but for some reason this is what I chose to do. I did a little bit of verbal review in the Kaplan book. I focused on reading comprehension, as this was my weakest point in the practice test.
~ 1 week ago - I took a second Princeton Review practice test and scored a 620 (Q43 V33). I was sort of upset, because I had studied a great deal over the prior week, and thought I had a greater understanding of both math and verbal. I knew that a week was not a long timeframe, and I didn't expect much improvement, but I didn't think I would drop 30 points. I seemed to do better on reading comprehension, but worse on critical reasoning.
I studied verbal very intensely for the next week. I got the
OG verbal book and went through a large portion of it. I did a few tests from CR1000, and I downloaded GMAT prep and went through all the verbal reviews. I started really studying the answers, even regarding the questions I got right (something I wasn't doing previously). I felt like my verbal skills really improved. I didn't look at any math questions the entire week.
I took a GMAT Prep practice test this morning. I thought the math was incredibly hard, harder than any of the practice tests I had taken previously, and I messed up my pacing, so I had to finish the last 7 questions in the last 7 minutes. I finished with one second to spare. I had to make educated guesses on many of the questions. I was really freaked out after taking the math, and spent my 5 minute break pacing around, trying to clear my head so I could focus on verbal. I though verbal was actually fairly easy, but that made me even more upset, because I thought that if I was getting easy questions, I must have screwed up. It was only a practice test, but I was trying to treat it as a real one. At any rate, two of the questions on the test were questions that I saw in the
OG verbal guide, but I had gotten those right, (when I did them in the
OG) so I don't feel that I was given an unfair advantage. I finished verbal with 7 minutes to spare.
I finished the test not knowing what to expect, but I really thought the final score might be around 600.
I received a 770 (50Q 45V)! I was in shock, and although I'm happy about it, I don't know how it can possibly be accurate. I would love to think I improved so much in a week, but I don't know. Plus, I really didn't feel comfortable with a lot of the questions. I did feel during the past week that a lot of the verbal stuff just clicked in my head, and I really got it. Obviously if I could really score a 770, I would be elated. I'm just worried that this score might be a fluke. I thought the Princeton tests were supposed to be easier, so I would have expected my scores to be lower than the Princeton scores.
So, I guess I should take a few more GMAT prep tests (I understand it can be uninstalled and reinstalled so that there are 4 tests available), and if the results are in the same range, I can schedule my GMAT appointment. Has anyone else encountered such a wide range of scores over such a short period of time?
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27 Aug 2006, 10:18
