Urgent Help required.

Thanks for your time,
I'm afraid I can't push back my test date for various reasons.

1) For essay, I just outlined assumptions and flaws, as I have memorized chineseburned template for the same and for IR, I scored 5 in it.
2) My real test is scheduled at 9:30AM, but I took my practice test at 11:30AM.
3) No, I haven't paused in the practice test, but during the 8 minutes break I ate and drank some stuff.

Hi drashi17,

To consistently score at a 740+ level, you really have to commit to training for exactly what you will face on Test Day. Among other things, that means you have to take the FULL CAT (outlining the Essay isn't enough, you have to physically type it because that is one of the things that you will have to do on Test Day). The more details that you can account for during your training, the higher the likelihood that you'll be ready to face them when you take the Official GMAT. The more your practice CATs vary/differ from what you'll face, the greater the likelihood that your score will drop (because you weren't properly prepared).

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Please find my answers inline:

1. Did 4 wrong answers among the first 10 questions affect my score?
Yes, this is possible, first 10 questions do play an important role in your final score as they set the base for the following questions.
2. After reviewing I could have got 3(out of 5) SC questions and 1 (out of 2) CR questions right. So how do I avoid silly mistakes in the real GMAT.
This can be avoided by the help of practice. The more you practice, the more familiar you become with the questions and lesser the mistakes.
You can practice the Official Questions from OG, Verbal Review, Question Pack1 and also the Exam Pack1
3. 'A certain tropical island received', this was the other CR question I got wrong. The reason for this was that I didn't understand what 'This result is relevant because....'. How do I avoid such mistakes?
I am not exactly sure about your question here. If you can post the entire CR, that would help.
4. Even after knowing all the SC rules I was pathetic at applying the e-gmat 3 step process in the test (If I had,I would have got 3 SC questions right)
This again reflects a lack of practice. Applying the rules should become an intrinsic nature. As soon as you see the SC, you should start thinking about the rules. Fortunately this can be achieved, but you need to practice for it.
5. With last 5 minutes remaining I had 1RC passage and 2 SC questions to be answered. How could I time my test so as to finish it in time.
Not completing the test attracts a huge penalty. Timing issues can be avoided by making a grid on your scrap book. Put does certain milestones in your test and identify the time. Write it on the scrapbook. Now try to follow it. If your are lagging behind, you can skip/guess intelligently a question to get back on time.
6. While in verbal section, my head was getting heavy (slight head ache). How do I overcome this?
This is again related to practice. GMAT is like a marathon. You need to prepare well for it and to prepare for a marathon, you need to run for 42 kms, before you compete in one. Same with GMAT, you need to sit for 4 hours during the mock CATs. Make sure you take the CATs along with AWA and IR.

Thanks to all,
Finally I took my GMAT and scored 680, which I'm not at all satisfied with. My final score in quant was 49 and in verbal 34. I'm going to take my GMAT again on feb 21. Reasons for my failure were
- Not following the planned strategies in the final GMAT.
- Not timing the verbal part.
And my strategy is to review OG and verbal review, take as many mocks as possible. I welcome any other suggestions. Target score would be around 730.

Hi drashi17,

First off, a 680/Q49 is a strong score (it's above the 85th percentile overall), so you should apply to any Business Schools that interest you. Before retaking the GMAT, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile. There's a Forum full of them here:

ask-admission-consultants-124/

If you're sure that you're going to retest, you should take note of the advice I offered in the prior posts - the way that you chose to prepare before wasn't enough to get you to the 740+ level that you were originally seeking.

1) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
2) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

A 680 is a strong score and an indicator that you can achieve higher with minor tweaks in your preparation.
You can score some points in Verbal and may be Quants too.

The official questions are the best as they are designed by the creators of the test themselves.
I would recommend you to buy the Question Pack1 from mba.com

When you say "not timing the verbal part", do you mean that you did not mark some of the questions on the Verbal section?
If yes, this would have affected your score a lot as there is a big penalty for not completing the sections.

Regarding the mocks, always remember just taking the mock CATs does not help.
Taking them by mimicking the GMA situation and then learning from the mistakes help. So make sure you do not take too many mocks, as then you might not get enough time to evaluate and assess your mistakes.

There are many courses that offer you a score increase guarantee. Even our company offers one.
You can have a look at the courses and see if it suits your needs.