Will this nightmare ever END?!?!?!?!

Sorry to hear that man.

I know the Q44 does not reflect your actual quant capability, but lets ignore that score for now. Even Q47 your original score would not have pushed your total above 700. So the real culprit here is verbal (stating the obvious here).

I dont want to come off as insensitive. But did you feel you were making progress in your verbal for the past month? You probably remembered the questions in OG11 and GMATPrep so I guess those were not accurate measurements of your improvement.

Did you see any improvements from solving previously unattempted material like the OG verbal supplement and SC/RC/CR 1000 lists?

Ya I was seeing lots of improvement in the CR and SC's. RC was consistent throught the entire time.

I know its Friday night and I should be out, but i just don't have the desire to go out.

I really want a 700+ score. I'm not signing up for another GMAT til I know I can get a 700+. I just don't know what materials to use or how to even approach the GMAT this time around.


I need some serious input. And I prolly need to go out

if you're going to retake, next time double check on all math problems before you click "NEXT". Plug in the wrong answers and MAKE SURE they are wrong. Don't let the math section (whether you think you did good or bad) affect the Verbal. Good luck man.

I think your math is a bit low. You can probably get 47 - 48 if you are more careful. Remember, there are A LOT of traps in Q.

As for verbal, have you tried Kaplan800? I found the book very helpful. It has very detailed explanations and they make sense to me. You have already improved V though but to get 700+ you need to either keep your V at 35 and score 50-51 on Q or improve both to Q 47 V 40.

Don't get down. Go out and forget about it for a few days. Then come back and start tackling again with fresher mind.

I am living the same nightmare and my worst fear came true, I got a lower score the 2nd time around. from a 640 (Q42 V35) to a 600 (Q35 v38). My quant 35 is 44%, I feel like a total dumbass, since math has always been my strong point.
I studied for a month straight, focusing on verbal, SCs mostly, while still keeping up on my quant. I did a few challenges, i thought a quant score of above 40 was a shoein for me and just working on verbal would put me closer to 700. On my most recent gmatprep I got a 680, then a week later a 700, I thought I was good to go.

I have thought about the quant over the past 12 hours and I really think I must have bombed the DS completely because of traps and made some small errors on some of the PS and that combo, put me at a much lower quant. My strat this time for quant was to try and finish all the problems, last time I guessed on the last 5. I don't think this is a good strategy.

I think i must have been racing thru the Quant and made careless errors.
Either that or the questions were much harder this time, and maybe traps existed that i didn't see.

The verbal was the opposite, i ran out of time having to guess on about 4 questions, this cost me for sure and put me below v40.

I can't believe that you got a Q44 V35 and only got a 640, My quant was 2 points lower (Q42 v35) and I got the same score, this was on sept 20th.


I don't know if I have the energy to study again and be disappointed. I have exhausted all OG material. The gmatprep is useless now for me since I can remember the questions. Going a third party route I don't think is accurate of the real test, so I don't konw what I am going to do.

Maybe I was overprepared this time, and overconfident and therefore wasn't on guard for traps. Or maybe I was on guard for traps and there weren't any, who knows. After seeing that score yesterday I almost felt like throwing the monitor, so the test is somewhat of a blur.

I am thinking about going cold turkey for a month and retaking it after only brushing up on a few forumals/concepts. Maybe this is a dumb idea.

I'm so sorry to hear that. I know how frustrating that can be, when you know that your score is not showing your true ability. Have you exhausted all of the study materials at this point? I would suggest taking a breather before you dive back in again...

I am no expert on the GMAT since I am struggling myself to get an above 700+ score. But my friend scored a 790 on the GMAT. She did not use much material, she sticked to OG and the SETS. You want to know how many times she has done OG problems or read the OG book? 19 times. I am not kidding. OG is the bible. Whenever I ask her questions from OG, she can recite all those OG explanations without missing a word. By reading the OG so many times, she knows exactly what the test makers want to test. By doing the reading comp, she just need to read the passage one time and she can tell me where the test makers will ask a question and 95 percent of the time happened to be correct. I am planning to use the same strategies she used.
Don't feel discouraged. Let's together beat this GMAT.

I am sorry to hear another sad story
I thought GMATBLACKBELT did very well on this forum, but the GMAT doesn't always reflect the true abilities of the candidate.
I would suggest you relax a little bit (like for a month) and forget about the GMAT. After the refreshner 'hit' the books again and don't give up untill you get your score.
Cheers!

i am with the others.. GMAT is something you have to crack.. it just comes more easily for some then others and it definitely doesn't reflect your true abilities.. standardize tests just suck overall! i agree with the others.. you sound burnt out.. take a breather for a few days and access your next steps.. i think last time you rushed into doing a re-take and over did it. it could happen to the best of us. good analogy with exercising: plateau-ing when you work out TOO MUCH and don't see any results even if you are lifting intensively or running 50 miles a week.. it's quality over quantity at this point for you. i would suggest first looking into the areas for both quant and verbal that are your weakest areas. reading comp? a certain aspect of SC? inequalities? or maybe access your experience from the last two times you took the test. were you very nervous? did you blank out? that could all have a part in your less than desired score. but these things come with experience and should prepare you better next time.. don't lose heart - we're all here to support you

Hard luck man. Plateau was a great example. Please take some time off to forget OG problems and start again.

In the first few weeks my lowest on any test was 680 and the highest 710. I thought I'll never be able to crack that zone. i moved on to do sets for sometime, gave even GMATClub a break for a week. And In the last few weeks, the lowest was a 740 and the highest a 770.

The next time you take it, please wait till you finish all your practice tests, make sure you are crossing 700 comfortably every single time and only then a 700 can be a safe bet.

If you are crossing 700 in tests from different sources, you are almost certain to cross 700 in Gmat. Do not settle for a single <700 score(except kaplan) even in your bad days. If you hit that mark, just tell yourself to practice more before u attempt another test.

Also, You should be in the ballpark of 33-35 in both sets to cross 700 swiftly. You should also be prepared for a +/- 30 from your average provided you are first consistently scoring in a specific range.

If you are scoring a 760 right after a 680, then something is definitely wrong.

My two cents.

Thanks guys for taking the time to respond. I won't ever loose heart :p. Just in my nature to keep going. However, I just have no clue how to continue from this point.

All OG materials, MGMAT materials overly exhausted. I could recite the SC book, answer all questions in the OG w/o even looking at the answers. So i dunno if id gain an ROI by heavily reviewing these.

What other materials should I use now? Other practice tests? I def. need more practice tests.

Hey man, not your best performance, but I know you won't give up. I would take it again if I were you. You can do better than that. Maybe take sometime off to regroup your strategy and relax your brain. After 7 long months of studying, I got 600 on my first test and I remembered not being able to sleep that night, thinking to myself what the hell I did wrong.

Here was what I came up with: For the time I spend on GMAT during those long months, I realized I did not take care of my dog, my friends, my family and worse of all, myself. My hair was growing long and I did not cut it for 3 months. I did not have any disposible contact lenses left and did not go out to get it, and my nose was hurting for wearing glasses for a long period of time. My dog smells because I haven't take shower for him in a month. My laundry was piling up (I think it was total of 4-5 loads when I actually did it). My eyes were puffing. I look in my trash bin and I see pile of subway wrapping papers...Then the next day, I went to work mad tried and ended up making mistake in a number and got yelled at by my boss.

At that time, I thought my life was falling apart because of GMAT. I realized what it has done to me and I changed my strategy. I was determined not only to beat GMAT, but really, take care of myself. This time, I put myself first and GMAT after.

Bud, I can say that I feel your pain and I know you can do better. I am writing to tell you what I did in term of changing my strategy. Try to think of what will work for you. Give it another shot dood...

GMATBLACKBELT, sorry to hear that...

Yet u keep the spirit of a killer !... I did 4 or 5 times the 1000 SC... I propose u to use these questions...

Hope u the best... and... Yes... Do not give up !

Hey Gmatblackbelt,
Am so sorry to hear the news. You've received some great advice so far so don't believe that there's anything extra I can add.
I will say however, take a little break before you start the studying/strategizing again. Like someone said earlier, to some GMAT comes as a piece of cake, to others it comes from a LOT of hard work.
To give u an example, a friend is thinking of b-school and tells me the other day" oh i just took a test for fun and I scored 600" . And, here I am whose had to work pretty dang hard for that 600.
You're an inspiration to many folks on this forum and you're a figher- so i have no doubt that you're not going to rest until you crack 700+. I wish you all the best
CD.

I think u need to concentrate on ur Quantitative score. A low quants can bring down your verbal score, since u will be starting with lower end questions in verbal. concentrate on ur quantitative, you will surely be able to improve ur overall score and ur verbal score.

Guys, Is that really true? I never knew abt this.