Hi there,
I took the GMAT last week after having studied for a month, and I have to say I was very disappointed. I'm not quite sure whether I should retake it, and wanted to hear your advice.
Preparation
I studied conscientiously every day for a month, with one day break a week. I used mainly the
MGMAT Guides, OG13 and Kaplan 800.
I would do one mock test a week (every Friday morning).
The last week before my GMAT, I did 3 CATs:
- Monday: GMATPrep Test 1: 720 (Q45, V44)
- Wednesday:
MGMAT CAT6: 690 (Q45, V39)
- Friday: GMATPrep Test 2: 710 (Q48, V40)
I was feeling very confident for the real test. I relaxed on the weekend, and went to my test on Monday.
Test day
My test was in the morning - I'm not a morning person, yet I prepared for it, as I did all my mock tests at the same time the real test was scheduled.
I arrived at the test center, registered and was ready to nail it.
I started with AWA - loved the topic, felt great, finished 5 minutes earlier - score: 6/6
I was very confident for the next part, IR, which went also very well and finished 2 minutes before the end - score: 7/8
I took a break, kept motivating myself for what was going to happen. I was still very confident and motivated the 1st hour of the test.
Quant: 1st question was so easy that I did it 3 times to make sure I made no mistake. The following 6-7 questions were also very easy, had 5 minutes ahead of my schedule. Then it started becoming much harder. I started spending more time on the questions, having less time for the end, and rushed at the end. Finished a few seconds before the end. I was confident though. It was a bit much harder than the mock tests, yet I felt I did good - score: 45 (a bit disappointed here)
I took another break and started verbal, still very motivated.
Verbal: my first 3 questions were only on idioms. I am non native. I am great on structure and grammar, as it is very logical, yet really bad on idioms (either you know them or you dont). I knew my first 3 answers were wrong. I started getting anxious. Yet I kept motivating myself. Then I had a text, hardest test I have ever seen. I still have nightmares about it. Overall, verbal was a struggle, whereas it was a piece of cake for me during my preparation. I would always score above 40, with ease. I struggled till the end, and saw my score 650 (Q45, V34), I wanted to cry.
I don't understand how my scores from mock tests can be so different from my final score.
I did another mock test two days ago, after my GMAT, to see what I had to do (did some Kaplan CAT this time): again 710.
I am really in doubt, and do not know if I should trust these mock tests anymore... I feel they are worthless.
I thought (and read) that the GMAT Prep tests would be the most accurate of all (that's why I kept them for the end), but at the end of the day, I found the real test much MUCH harder than any other mock test I had.
In conclusion: should I retake the GMAT?
What if 650 is really what I'm worth, and that these mock tests are not accurate?
If not, what mock tests would you recommend me?
Thanks a lot!
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11 Dec 2014, 10:02
