Ridiculously Frustrated.....

First off Jenn, I feel your pain. What you feel right now is completely understandable and you have the right to wollow in it. This test was a real bugaboo for me as it has been for most. I was scoring in the 700s on all my practice tests (except Kaplan) and I got a stinking 610 on the real thing. I knew I could do better, so I studied some more, took it again, got a 640. Still not satisfied, I studied some more, took it again, got a 610. Yep, I went down. Imagine how I felt. But I told myself that the GMAT is just a test, not an indication of IQ or absolute B-school ability or good looks or charm, it's just a test of a few concepts and time management. I got too nervous and rattled when I had to guess and overall I just wasn't positive in my previous tests. I took a month to remedy that and I took the test again (4th time) and got a 710 (remember, there was only 1 month between tests).


Second, 660 is a great score. I know you did not do well in quant part, but at least you know where your weakness is. One thing to note is that a low GMAT quant can be overset by high quant horsepower in your job. I know you want to apply to school this year and apply in the second round (I can see by your dec 12 deadline that you are applying to Haas). You can't re-take the GMAT until next month, so the earliest you can take it is Dec 1. Will your official scores make it to Haas by dec12? Maybe, but I doubt it. Here are a couple of options
1. Apply with what you have. Really shine in your essays and LOR and prove to adcoms that your high quant job is indicative of your quant abilities.
2. Maybe apply to a different school that has a second round deadline in early January. This way, you can study up on your quant, stay polished on your verbal, re-take the test in early Dec, and have your official scores ready by deadline.
3. Wait until next year. yea I know this is not what you want to hear, but I had to go though making that decision a year ago after I got a 610. IN the meantime, work hard on your GMAT to improve it and have your essays, etc ready for round 1 next year.


Overall, you doing great and your working hard and it will pay off, I promise you. Take a day off and relax, talk it over with friends and family. If you decide to re-take try to work on your time management and your mental attitude. Stay positive. YOU CAN DO THIS.

Thanks for your kind words guys
Do you know where I can get this kaplan bank of questions? I've actually taken the full blow kaplan course and it sucked so I'm not sure I can trust them again.
Also, what books would you recommend for hard core math help besides OG 10? Should I get OG 11? Shoud I get Kaplan 800 or the Kaplan math workbook? I'm really not into spending another $200 to kaplan

Jen

You maybe good at math, but this test is not really testing math as much as your ability to use a limited number of quantitative tools to solve unlimited number of problems.

I would encourage you to practice with our math challenges. These are some really difficult questions and they will be frustrating to solve. Just like difficult homework problems help you prepare for the test, the purpose of these difficult problems is to help you master the concepts under timed conditions.

Time management should be your primary target. Not finishing a section definitely hurts your score. You never want to spend too much time on a problem. This advice of not spending too much time on a question comes straight from GMAC.

Devise a strategy for the first 15 questions. You have to move on after you have spent 3-4 minutes on a question. if you are doing well on time after the first 15-20 questions, you will have better control over the test.

Also, getting the difficult problems incorrect does not hurt your score as much as getting easy problems incorrect. Keep your focus on eliminating errors and concentrate harder on the easier problems. We may let our guard down on the easy problems and its very easy to mistake on those.

Hope this helps

Praetorian

Kaplans course does suck, but the Qbank doesn't.

You can also practice your timing with Qbank. One thing that can really help is the silent timer. You can purchase it from silenttimer.com. It's a neat little gizmo that you can set to certain time constraints.

You can find the Qbank at kaptest.com.

thx,


wiseguy

Hi Praetorian,
I want to do the challenges.....I'm going to start posting more by responding to other people's questions in the forums until I hit 200. I'll always remain active of course, but can you review me as soon as I hit 200? I promise they will be quality posts. Also, do my posts count where I posted questions? I think I posted some helpful problems along the way.