480 and want to kill myself

Question

Hello everyone!

I am an MBA from India and UK from reputed institutes; MDI Gurgaon in India and ESCP-EAP London.

I have 6 yrs of working experience and I took GMAT without much prep due to my work schedule.

I got a stock of my life looking at my score of 480. I had got a score of 580 in GMAT prep. I thought I could manage 650 easily given the fact that I had higher 90+ percentile in India's CAT in 2006.

I have two questions:
1. Can I score 750 odd from here?
2. Even if I score 700-750, will this score of 480 affect my chances in getting a call from top institutes for Masters or PHD?

Also, it will great if someone can guide me how to start preparing.

thanks.

Sachan

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear Sachan, Courage, my friend! I am happy to help. :-)

First of all, please remember that no score on a test is a measure of your inherent worth as a human being. All of us are precious as human beings. Standardized testing is a challenge with which we have to wrestle in modern times, but whatever it does measure (which is debatable), it most certainly doesn't measure human value and worth. Now, as to the more practice question: yes, you can improve, but it will take a great deal of hard work. Let's talk about the verbal section. Here is a free idiom ebook that I think might help you. https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/gmat-idiom-ebook/ Here is an article about GMAT CR, with many links to other articles: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/save-time- ... questions/ Here is an article about GMAT SC, with many links to other articles: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/gmat-grammar/ My biggest recommendation for strengthening your verbal score is a magic one-word piece of advice: READ . Read every day, at least an hour a day (that's in addition to any GMAT preparations you do). Read hard, challenging material in English. If you don't already read the Wall Street Journal and the Economist magazine, I highly recommend them as excellent publications to inform you about the modern business world. Here are some recommendations about what else to read: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-reading-list/ When you read, look for main ideas; analyze why details are mentioned where they are mentioned; summarize paragraphs; analyze arguments, considering their assumptions & possible strengtheners and weakeners; and analyze the grammar & rhetorical features of each sentence. In any WSJ article or Economist article, there are always complex sentences that would be worthy of the GMAT SC section. On the math section, make sure you do everything without a calculator. Do mental math in your head every day --- add, subtract, multiply, and divide in your head. Here's a blog about preparing for the math section: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/how-to-stu ... gmat-math/ Here's a three-month study schedule: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/3-month-gm ... beginners/ If you have the time, I would recommend a six-month study schedule, for even more thorough preparation: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/6-month-gm ... -schedule/ Finally, I think Magoosh could really help you. Here's a SC lesson: https://gmat.magoosh.com/lessons/944-substantive-clauses Here's a SC question: https://gmat.magoosh.com/questions/3221 Here's a CR question: https://gmat.magoosh.com/questions/3113 Here's a DS question: https://gmat.magoosh.com/questions/1030 For each of those questions, when you submit your answer, the following page will have a full video explanation. Each one of our 700+ practice questions has its own video lesson, for accelerated learning. Even if you decide not to take advantage of the Magoosh product, I hope you get everything you can from that free blog. There's a great deal on this blog that can help you. Best of luck, Mike :-)

KarishmaB · Answer

A score of 480 will certainly be shocking for an MDI grad. You must have obtained atleast a decent CAT score so you cannot be very bad in Quant and Verbal. I think your problem lies in understanding the question format instead of the core concepts. I would suggest you to go through our entire study kit in which we explain the question formats, the strategies and the expectations of the GMAT (along with a detailed discussion on the concepts tested). With dedicated effort, it should take you about a month to complete the package. You should definitely see a lot of improvement in your score thereafter.

If you score 700+ in your next attempt, the previous score of 480 will be ignored by the schools. They focus on latest/best score. Many factors can easily explain a single previous low score so don't worry about it. Just try to ensure that you don't get a similar score again.

PiyushK · Answer

Do more practice on GMATCLUB, buy an OG and take mock test every month.

480 and want to kill myself

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