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poot
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700 (49/36) With testing center distraction. Retake? 15 Sep 2012, 10:15
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Hey guys,

Took the GMAT this morning, scored a 700 "unofficially". Pretty sure I nailed the AWA; felt good about IR, but I've been all over the map on the practice tests. I'm not really upset, but not really pleased, either. Was aiming for the 710-730 range.

Here's the rub: 5 or 6 questions into the verbal section, loud construction noises started on the floor below the testing center, and I could hear (and feel) the hammer drill even with the over-ear earmuffs. Loud enough that when I finished, the lady who ran the office offered up the fact that I could complain, and possibly get a freebie test.

Aiming for a handful of top 10's, I have an interesting story and background (military/some native American), but I fell just short of my goal. Wanted your opinion on if it's worth torturing myself to squeeze out that extra 20+ points, or just say "**** it" and play with the hand I've been dealt. With this score I'm 10-15 points below the average for the schools I'm targeting.

Thanks in advance.
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piyatiwari
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700 (49/36) With testing center distraction. Retake? 15 Sep 2012, 11:44
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I would say, retake, why not!

Also check with GMAC for free test.

Good luck.
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shreerajp99
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700 (49/36) With testing center distraction. Retake? 16 Sep 2012, 08:14
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Congrats man!I suggest u retake since u managed to get a 700 with all these distractions.
Can you please answer my below queries:
What kind of questions did u encounter during the exam,especially in quant.Which topics u feel one should stress more on in quant?
Do u think the level of difficulty was the same as that of gmatprep exam?

Thanks,
Shreeraj
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poot
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700 (49/36) With testing center distraction. Retake? 17 Sep 2012, 08:41
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piyatiwari
I would say, retake, why not!

Also check with GMAC for free test.

Good luck.
Show more

shreerajp99
Congrats man!I suggest u retake since u managed to get a 700 with all these distractions.
Can you please answer my below queries:
What kind of questions did u encounter during the exam,especially in quant.Which topics u feel one should stress more on in quant?
Do u think the level of difficulty was the same as that of gmatprep exam?

Thanks,
Shreeraj
Show more

My hesitation is that on the GMATprep, my best score was 710, which roughly translates to a 720 according to the GMAT scoring tool. So I am in a situation where I was hoping for an additional 20 points - if I was scoring in the 740s, it would be much easier to justify a retake, hoping for an additional ~50 points. In addition, I'm under time pressure - I am going to submit for regular decisions at the end of the calendar year, which means 30 days spent studying are 30 days not spent putting together butt-kicking application(s).

As far as the difficulty, I was actually very nervous throughout the test because I thought the questions were very easy in comparison to the Kaplan Premier tests I took for practice - I finished the Quant with 8 minutes to spare, finished the Verbal almost 20 minutes ahead of schedule. The difficulty was slightly easier than the GMATprep, in my opinion.

Other than a single Quant question that I knew I screwed up (stupid mistake) about 15 questions in, I felt reasonably comfortable that I was not making any serious errors, and any guesses were between two choices, as I had dismissed the others by process of elimination.

I was all psyched up for some combinatorial problems, but only got one that was so easy I just drew it out on the scratch pad instead of trying to do the math and making (another) stupid mistake. All the work rate problems I encountered were DS, which made it much easier than coming up with an actual answer. Additional Quant questions that caused me some issues were exponent related - I encountered more than expected (seven if I recall correctly), and while certainly solvable, they have historically slowed me down, which is perhaps why I was in a rush.

For Quant, my suggestion is to memorize simple formulas like internal degrees in an N-sided polygon; formulas for sums of consecutive odd, even, or both, integers; the values of 10! and 15!, so you can spend lots of time struggling with the truly difficult problems instead of doing a bunch of back-of-the-envelope math.
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