740 (Q 50 V40 IR 7) Things I was not prepared for

There are a ton of well written debriefs on this forum discussing study prep, error logs, timing practices etc. I thought I would discuss things I was not prepared for mentally on the test in hopes that it will be helpful for others. Per GMAC policies I will not and cannot give examples for some of the points below. Also please note that this is not to scare you but help prepare you.

1) Test center operations - As most of you know there are two 8 min breaks (one between the IR and Quant and the other between Quant and Verbal). To leave or enter the room, you must be assisted by an associate of pearsons. When entering into the room you must present an ID and have your palm scanned. On my break between Quant and Verbal the test taker in front of me had trouble with her palm being scanned and I was on the clock. After what felt like ages, but in reality was probably only 1.5 mins, I had to go to the front desk and ask if I could be scanned in at another station. I eventually returned to my seat with 30 seconds left on the clock. This caused extra stress and I do believe that it slightly (not by much) affected my verbal score because I was extremely flustered on the first few verbal questions.

2) Question Patterns and Experimental Questions - There are a lot of blogs or question type descriptions stating that certain question types show up if you're doing well. I experienced none of the major "difficult" question types that I have read about. Please do not mistake this with I didn't receive tough questions, because I did or I would have had no excuse to not score an 800. This idea came across my mind at the end of each section and I was only causing harm to myself by not focusing on the test itself. I am not sure if everyone will experience this situation but if you have prepared properly and you don't see question types that you're expecting, do not worry. Remember your task is to answer each question to the best of your ability and move on.

As far as experimental questions, these little guys can be huge trolls. Looking back, I absolutely had to have received an experimental question near the end of my Quant section. The question was 3rd grade difficulty at best. I had read that experimental questions should be in the middle of the questions so when I saw the question pop up I was devastated. If you have prepared and you see a huge swing in difficulty don't worry about it. This had me really worried going into verbal and I debated cancelling the exam.


3)Unfamiliar question layout/types - All I will say is that the questions the GMAC puts out are retired questions. Do not be surprised if you see a question worded, phrased or presented in a way you have not seen before. I can not give you strategies for how I approached these question types but I will say being comfortable with the question types that the GMAC has released will help combat the stress. It's a great feeling seeing a question and knowing how to approach it



Last but not least I will give a plug for Magoosh. Their question set is extremely good and in my opinion mimics the actual tests most accurately. Couple things to note are the lessons are only OK in my opinion. The video explanations for each question is where the gold is at. Also, do NOT obsess over the score predictor on dashboard. Those scores are conservative.


I hope this helps someone on their GMAT journey and who knows, may be we will be bschool mates.


Bests of luck,

JG