Hi everybody,
Welcome to my first Gmatclub post. As I rode the bus to my third official GMAT exam earlier today, I thought about how amazing it will be when I finally get to go home and write my success story after slaying this exam. Four hours later, I'm here, I've taken my exam, I'm ready to write my post as I had planned... but I don't have a triumphant story to share... yet. I am desperately asking the many experts on here what I should do next so please.... HELP!!
A quick rundown of my study history...
To kick off my studying, I signed up for a
ManhattanPrep (MGMAT) in-person class, which ran from April - June of this year. The class was helpful in motivating me to get serious but I didn't feel like I really absorbed the material from the in-person classes. It seemed to me that the course was geared towards students who were just beginning their GMAT journey and needed a lot of general guidance to just get to the 600 mark. I felt like I had an OK understanding of most topics so I lacked direction on where I needed to honed in on for extra practice. I, however, did the homework diligently and did a practice test every week to build up my stamina. Below were my CAT scores:
13 May - 590 (Q38, V33)
MGMAT3 Jun - 650 (Q48, V31) GMATPrep free test
10 Jun - 610 (Q38, V35)
MGMAT11 Jun - 620 (Q39, V35)
MGMAT -- I had refused to believe that I scored a 610 on the test from the day before... so against all advice I took another test instead of spending time analysing what went wrong
17 Jun - 580 (Q38, V31)
MGMAT 18 Jun - 640 (Q44, V33) GMATPrep free test
I took the official GMAT on 20 Jun and got a
630 (Q44, V33). I was obviously disappointed, but judging from my practice tests, it seemed like a likely outcome.
I then switched over to focus on
Magoosh as I found reading some of the
MGMAT explanations to be too lengthy and unnecessarily confusing. I liked
Magoosh's video teaching style better - it was much more concise and straightforward. I found that I absorbed the material much quicker watching/listening to the videos, and since I was understanding the material better, I found studying a lot more enjoyable... fun, even! I was doing
Magoosh practice problems everyday for about 2-3 hours on weekdays and 4-6 hours on one weekend, along with one practice test on the other weekend day. I spent about 80% of my study time doing Verbal prep and 20% doing Quant prep since I knew that small improvements in the Verbal section could mean bigger improvements in my overall score. I continued to wrack up the practice tests...
8 Jul - 620 (Q39, V36)
MGMAT15 Jul - 650 (Q44, V36) GMATPrep Pack 1
23 Jul - 690 (Q44, V40) GMATPrep Pack 1
And then on my second official GMAT attempt on 27 Jul, I got a
660 (Q47, V34).
After getting a 690 on my last practice test, I felt like I definitely had potential to hit 690+, so getting to 690 became my goal. I continued to study hard and daily, with the exception of 1.5 weeks off in the beginning of Sep due to work commitments. Once work died down again, I got right back to daily studying. I continued with
Magoosh's videos, but also started doing more questions from the
OG. I would sit down every day for 2-3 hours on weekdays or 4-6 hours on weekends and just pound out sets of 10 questions, either from the
OG (using their Wiley online programme) or from
Magoosh's Practice feature. I tried using
PrepScholar but didn't enjoy their material - there were too many technical errors in their programme that frustrated me, or the lessons didn't adequately prepare me for any of the quizzes, causing me to stay stuck on certain courses with no progress. I also purchased
e-Gmat's Verbal pack as I heard that they're a good resource for Verbal improvement, but as I was enjoying
Magoosh so much that
e-Gmat kind of faded into the background.
I got right back into taking regular practice tests so that I didn't lose stamina...
9 Jul - 670 (Q44, V37)
MGMAT redo - at this point, I had run out of
MGMAT tests so I had to reset the tests to redo them. I didn't notice any repeat questions, or at least remember any of the questions that I might have encountered before, so I figured this was still a very accurate test
30 Sep - 690 (Q47, V38) GMATPrep Pack 2
8 Oct - 640 (Q44, V34) GMATPrep Pack 2 - I screwed up timing for both sections on this practice test and fell into quite a few silly mistake traps... I really dug deep when reviewing this exam to hopefully safeguard myself from any future mistakes
15 Oct - 670 (Q43, V38)
MGMAT redo
22 Oct - 690 (Q47, V38) GMATPrep free test redo - I ran out of GMATPrep tests but I had read on several forums that resetting and retaking the GMATPrep programme generally wasn't a problem since the question bank was so large. I didn't recognise any repeat questions, thus felt that this was a pretty good indicator.
25 Oct - 740 (Q47, V44) GMATPrep free test redo - this stunned me. I went back into the test and reviewed each problem to see if there were any repeat questions that might've given me a leg up. I only recognised one question in Quant, and even then I went through the entire process step by step as if I hadn't seen it before, so I felt that my Q score was quite accurate. When I went through the Verbal, I realised that I had recognised 1 of the RC passages, 1 SC question, and 1 CR question, which could have inflated my score. I chalked this one up to be an inflated score, but still felt confident that I was probably at a 690 Q47 V 38, given I had scored this on the other GMATPrep exams.
I bought the GMATPrep Question Pack 1 because I felt like I was starting to see repeats from the
OG Wiley. I was practicing every day for 3-4 hours, again with the breakdown of 80% Verbal and 20% Quant. I was getting all the Medium questions and about 80% of the Hard questions right, so I was feeling really quite confident at this point.
5 days since my last practice test and I am off to sit my third official attempt... the sections zip by as my stamina has really built up at this point from the
17 tests I had now taken since April (this includes the 2 official tests). I felt good and was even quite enjoying myself when I got to the IR section (I've been choosing the following order for all my practice and official tests: Verbal, Quant, IR, AWA). Then boom. The score screen.
650 Q44 V35.
I was in shock. I didn't know if I should punch the screen or start sobbing. I hastily cancelled my score without even reading the screen and rushed out of the centre.
And now I'm here. I feel so defeated, I don't even think I have the tears to cry. I definitely know I'm going to have to resit the exam because I don't think 660 is good enough for the schools I'm considering, but I don't know where to turn now. Are my CAT scores inflated because of all the repeat exams? Maybe even though I don't consciously remember many of the repeat questions, could there be something subconsciously giving me an unfair advantage during my practice tests? Should I stop using GMATPrep tests and use another programme? If so, what would you recommend?? Furthermore, should I look to other practice programmes outside of
Magoosh, OG, and GMATPrep? I really like the video lesson formats of
Magoosh, which
e-GMAT has as well, so I think I might tap into that resource a little more.
Any tips and guidance is greatly appreciated at this point... I know I'm not the best standardised test taker, but I definitely don't think a 660 is an accurate reflection of my capabilities!
Many thanks in advance... hopefully I'll soon be able to update this post with a happier ending.
close
30 Oct 2017, 10:09
