650 Q49/V28-should have been better than that, any advices ?

Question

Hi there, 
First of all, I want to apologize for bad writing, I am so nervous, the things come in my mind, and i am typing them freely, an emotional discharge 
I really want to beat it but I could not. 
I did all waht it takes except 1 thing, doing practice tests. 
I only wrote 1 Gmatprep, in which I saw repeated OG problems in Verbal and scored 700. 
What I did: 
Exhausted all OG guides 
Exhausted all MGMAT Verbal Guides 
Exhausted Bible CR and SC 
Exhausted ALL GmatPrep SC AND CR questions which were compiled by BTGers and GClubbers. 
Exhausted all explanations from MGAMT, especially those from Ron, 
Exhausted all videos by Ron , especially the verbal ones... 
I have tons of Word documents, in which I wrote my errors, takeaways etc regarding all official quesitons including GMATPrep Qs.. 
The list goes on and on... 
So, in the real exam when I sat on the verbal part, I was already torn apart, I even did not understand the last quantitative question... 
I did all the questions in timed conditions and my success rate is for verbal part range from 66%-100%...Lately it was on 80-90% accuracy...But as i said earlier, i did them seperately not in a real exam fashion, I know almost every type of SC and CR tricks, but you know the result 
But i bumped it on the real exam, because although i did them timed and reviewed them till the nitty-gritty details, I did not write many practice tests and did not improve my stamine during a exam session... 
I think my problem is not writting many practice tests, because I can almost solve any SC and CR questoins in required time when they come individiually not mixed the case by the real exam... 
What do you think guys, i really need help 
I am an international applicant from Turkey, my GPA is 3.71/4.00 in mecahnical engineering. 
I exhausted every thing so that if i retake, i will do nothing but pratice tests, what do you think 
I think I did almost everything correctly except doing practice test und building up stamina 
I read tons of your success stories guys, and believe me I really worked hard and harder, I want to be one of you,too

cvsmech · Answer

I'm sorry to hear that. Seems like you put in a lot of hours and effort into GMAT and didn't achieve the results you wanted. It appears that you're interested in re-taking the GMAT. All the best with your 2nd attempt. I know you've finished all the resources but I'd still stick to the official questions only.

IMHO, you can improve your verbal score by a lot since its very learnable and do-able. There's a pattern on how GMAT creates its problems. Try to learn the patterns and pre-phrase the answers in critical reasoning and reading comprehension. Try to identify mistakes in sentence correction questions before going for the splits, stay on the look-out for key words such as it, their, them,him, which, who, like and so on.

GMAT is more of a reasoning + knowledge exam so just going through books won't help anyone's cause. At the same time GMAT is very learnable and the gmat problems can be learned as to how to reason for certain question types. In a nut shell, focus on quality more than quantity. Stick to OGs for the most part to learn how GMAT tries to tricks you on questions and practice with GMAT PREP or POWER PREP exams before the exam if you don't have access to MGMAT tests.

Hope this generic advice helps you. If you have any questions, I am sure experts on this forum will be able to help you further.

amaterasu · Answer

Thanks, cvsmech
I see that quality is better than quantity. However, although I solved every question in OGs and made Error Logs and came up with Takeaways, I think that my actual problem is stamina.
At the time I saw the last quantitative question, I was torn apart and when I reached to verbal I was already out of the game.
I think the best way to gain stamina is doing practice exams. I did not know how critical the stamina issue would be

Depaulian · Answer

I feel sorry for you amaterasu... 
btw nice name...bet u got it from some japanese cartoon

lemme tell you, 650 is not a bad score. ya i agree after seeing lots of post of people crying in here after getting 700-710 that there score is low, we feel like 650 is bad.

nw regarding retaking GMAT, i would say, evaluate your profile ( Score + Wrk Exp + Extra carricular) , and makea list of colleges that are SAFE to apply. get some expert advice, there are some real good forums in gmatclub for that. And based on that , take a decision.

Cheers

sudhir18n · Answer

How i wish there were a "Like" option on gmatclub ( FB style). Very well said Depaulian . 650 is not a bad score. It looks bad becasue 70% of people on the forums are still worried after scoring 700/720. I feel if you arent confident of getting into a school at 700/720 ; then you probably dont stand a chance even at 750 .

What makes ur score look bad is V28. Its a very unbalanced score, has it been a Q47V34 ,I'm sure a few doors would have opened for you. Q49 is pretty solid . Your best friend till retake should be Verbal ..live eat sleep SC and CR. Understand the concept , know why is something wrong , read as many correct answers as possible . Avoid your ears, and read lot of posts of RON ( manahttan gmat prep folder) .

Keep coming back to the forum . We all are here to help each other.

amaterasu · Answer

Yeah Depaulian, thank you for your encouragement and empathy. Yeah, you nailed it, I got it from the japanese cartoon you already figured I did not want to retake it, but I want to go to a top 10 school, because of that, although my other credentials can recoup it, I feel that I must retake it. If my other credentials, GPA, WE, Extracurriculars, Essays and Recs are rock solid, can I still be go to Stanford or HBS, or MIT, or Wharton ? If GMAT is only a checkpoint to figure out how you will do in B-School, and considering my GMAT, can my Engineering GPA 3.71/4.00 from one of the top school in my country, my master's GPA 3.56/ 4.00 from the same univeristy while FT working, and a international article published by an international journal covered by Science Citation Index recoup my lowish GMAT. I do not know, if they investigate my whole application, they will see them, but if they reject me by this hygiene factor, namely GMAT, they will not see them... By the way, I work as an mechanical engineer in Mercedes-Benz, which is a brand name but did not even send any employee to b-schools, at least for 10-15 years I can say this is the case. My native language is Turkish, as foreign languages my English, German and Italian are also solid. I do not want to turn this out to a profile evaluation but, I do not know... I know nobody knows the answer whether I will be accepted by a top school, maybe Sandy Kreisberg's handicapping series in Poets and Quants made me feel so

) When one's GMAT is low, then he nullified one's chances for Stanford and HBS, even if I think people have some other merits

amaterasu · Answer

Man, sudhir18n thanks a lot
I am also one of those who support the idea you mentioned "I feel if you arent confident of getting into a school at 700/720 ; then you probably dont stand a chance even at 750 ."
That's why I am confident and I do not want to retake it, I do not think they will reject someone directly with a 650, without even looking other parts of the application.
But, they say always that you have to reach these magic numbers...
 "Your best friend till retake should be Verbal ..live eat sleep SC and CR. Understand the concept , know why is something wrong , read as many correct answers as possible . Avoid your ears, and read lot of posts of RON ( manahttan gmat prep folder) ." 
Thans for your kind advice, I already learned from you, people here, that these sources are indispensable. I have done them.
As I said earlier, I think my problem is stamina, I only wrote 1 pratice test, nothing else...
By the time I reached the verbal, I lost my all mental power

Depaulian · Answer

Cheers How i wish there were a "Like" option on gmatclub ( FB style). Very well said Depaulian . 650 is not a bad score. It looks bad becasue 70% of people on the forums are still worried after scoring 700/720. I feel if you arent confident of getting into a school at 700/720 ; then you probably dont stand a chance even at 750 . Well... dere is a Kudos button

sudhir18n · Answer

How i wish there were a "Like" option on gmatclub ( FB style). Very well said Depaulian . 650 is not a bad score. It looks bad becasue 70% of people on the forums are still worried after scoring 700/720. I feel if you arent confident of getting into a school at 700/720 ; then you probably dont stand a chance even at 750 . Well... dere is a Kudos button

u just "earned" urself a kudos

gaurav2k101 · Answer

congrats man 
best of luck

amaterasu · Answer

Thanks bro
I really appreciate that my Indian fellow comrades are pushing their limits to get accepted by a top american school, whether in engineering or in business etc.
You guys really rock
I do not even wonder that many top universities have so many Indian scholars
Mannn, you have almost conquered high education in US. I really really appreciate that
You have great mental and intellectual capacity, your nation have a bright future
Keep up the good work

amaterasu · Answer

amaterasu · Answer

Brothers and Sisters,

I already made up my mind to retake.

I always will update about my process and progress in this thread.

By the way, my retake date is 18 October.

I have written 3 practice tests so far.

1) GmatPrep 2 & Review

GmatPrep 2: 730 (Q50/V38)---> Does anyone know how to diminish those stupid mistakes in quant, everytime I feel that I am so close to the top, but I generally come up with 49-50, I know this is not bad, but my quant is stronger than verbal as you see, and I need my quant to be some higher to leverage the overall score. 
My verbal target score is 40, but I did not manage to get that level, so far.

When I review my exams, I solve them 1-1,and miss questions that I should not have missed, this is really disappointing because I know I can solve them, but in exam conditions, so close to top, but never managed to get to the top.

--

2. MGMAT Cat 1 & Review

Q49; V 41, 730 97%--> how come ? Is 97% not equal to an overall score of 740 ?

Could anyone clarify the issue that does not 97% correlate to a overall score of 740, I think MGAMT CATS are calculating overall scores, somewhat lower. 
--

3: MGAMT CAT 2 
Q46 (, V:35-->670 89%--> how come ? Did not 89% correlate to a total of 690 or 700 ?

I guessed 5 or more questions in quant because I ran out of time. Mann, these MGMAT Quants are really long quant questions, from geo to numbers they require a lot of calculations.

-- 
That's all, more update will come

Thanks

samramandy · Answer

Best of luck amaterasu...and don't use other prep companies' tests for benchmarking...just use them for identifying your weaknesses and strengths...Nothing can match the algo of GMATprep.

Also read a lot for verbal. Try to understand things from a holistic point of view.

BR
Mandeep

amaterasu · Answer

Thanks, I will try to try my best

samramandy · Answer

You are most welcome. I hope you hit your verbal target of 40

amaterasu · Answer

Update, I wrote the exam today and again 650. Man, I am stuck here. Only one point improvement in quant--> 49 before, and now 50. Verbal is the same, 28

I do not know, whether I had better give up

AbhiJ · Answer

That's a gross overstatement. Precision Essays has (on BTG forum) mentioned that a very high GMAT score can make for other weakness in profile. Not everybody who is getting an MBA is a rockstar (why would they need an MBA anyway). Another consultant mentioned that its justified that Indians retake after 700 as 90%ile for Indians in 720 and not the global equivalent of 700. The statement you made is applicable if you are a front office I-Banker or similar profile.

amaterasu · Answer

Maybe you are right, I do not know. I am a Turkish applicant, not of those who begin their GMAT early at undergraduate. I prepared for one year while FT employed, maybe as many other non-rockstar applicants did. But after such a hustle, I cannot accept this score. Where is the problem, I did not know. Only one point improvement in quant from 49 to 50 !!! I thought that I did everything OK this time, but

My practice scores are below: GMATPrep 1: 700 GMATPrep 2:730 MGMAT 1: 730 MGMAT 2: 670 MGMAT 3: 730 MGMAT 4: 760 MGMAT 5: 730 What do you think, what could be the problem ?

AbhiJ · Answer

Part time MBA require lower GMAT score and 650 should be worth a shot.

For verbal you need to have a strategy for attacking questions before you write the GMAT.

For an analogy - when you see a CR -strengthen, you must know exactly how to attack the problem, where to look for weakness etc. Similarly for other CR types.

This can be gained from studying Powerscore CR chapter wise and solving the corresponding question from the list at the bottom of the page.

https://www.powerscore.com/crbible/question_ref12.cfm

When you read the book fully once and they try to solve problem its not the best strategy IMO.

For RC - Study Manhattan CR and follow they strategy - their two most useful strategies are - Main Point Question(point system based on para/occurance, Infer the least - stay as close as possible to passage)

For SC you can refer to site e-gmat.com. Frankly SC is my weakness as well.

I would suggest taking some other tests like Kaplan/ Princeton.

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650 Q49/V28-should have been better than that, any advices ?

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