A few queries regarding GMAT exam

Question

Hi All! Someone please take out time to address the following general queries that I have regarding GMAT exam.

Q1) Can I take my notes, for revision, along with me to exam center? I will obviously leave them stuffed in my back pack that will be kept in the locker during exam time. Or are we not allowed to keep any notes even in lockers and hence must not carry them with us?

Q2) Are we allowed to take water bottle with us in the exam room? A simple transparent plastic water bottle. Water really keeps my nerves calm.

Q3) Are the questions appearing on real GMAT the ones that we've never seen? I mean has anyone ever come across questions they had already attempted somewhere? GMAT Prep or any other source..

Q4) After attempting a few mock tests I feel a need to spend a little more time than available average time per question (1 min 49 sec) on the first ten questions of Verbal section as it sets my rhythm and boosts my confidence. I plan to spend total 20 minutes on 1st 10 questions of Verbal. Is this strategy okay? Need some advice from people who have already given the exam. (For quant I have 2 min available per question. So for 1st 10 questions of this section I already have 20 mins with me)

Q5) How crucial is your IR score for your application? What is a safe IR score?

chaitanya87 · Answer

Here are my answers to some of your questions.
1. You can take your notes to the centre but they are not allowed in to the locker or reception. 
2. Water bottle is not allowed in to the computer area and you have to keep it in the locker. If they caught you accessing any notes during the breaks, you ate eligible for policy violation.
3. There are some experimental questions in GMAT. However GMAC has not confirmed them. If you think you have seen a repeated question either from GMAT prep or third party, it may belong to experimental question category. No marks will be awarded for this category.
4. Yes you can follow the strategy that you're comfortable. But please plan accordingly for the remaining 31 questions. GMAC penalises heavily if you didn't answer at least one question.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi sudhirgupta93,

You ask some important questions. Beyond how they apply to Test Day, the answers to these questions can help you to better train for what you'll face during the Official GMAT.

1) To start, if you've studied properly, then you shouldn't need to take any study materials with you to the Testing Facility. To your immediate question though - do NOT take any study materials into the Testing Facility - simply carrying in those materials is a violation of the Exam rules and can get you kicked out of the Test Facility (and you will not be refunded your Exam fee).

2) You are not allowed to take anything into the Computer Lab with you (no phone, no food/drink, no jacket, no watch, etc.). You are allowed to eat/drink during your two 8-minute breaks though (when you're outside of the Computer Lab).

3) The concepts and patterns that are Tested on the GMAT are consistent and predictable, but you will NOT have seen any of the specific Test Day questions before. With the proper study materials and Tactics, every question that you face on Test Day should remind you of questions that you've already answered before though.

4) One of your goals on Test Day should be to be efficient with each question that you face (even if that means 'dumping' the question because it's too hard or too weird). As such, 'blocking off' a specific amount of time for a group of questions can be problematic to your overall performance (as the questions might require more or less time than you've allotted).

5) Many Business Schools have publicly stated that they do not use an applicant's IR score when evaluating an application, so it's unclear what you mean when you ask for a 'safe' IR score. The current average IR score is between 4-5.

As far as your studies are concerned:
1) How long have you studied?
2) What materials have you used?
3) How have you scored on each of your CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores)?
4) What is your goal score?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

sudhirgupta93 · Answer

1) I've devotedly studied for about 3 months. Before that it was kinda on n off. 2) For verbal I enrolled in e-gmat online course. For quant, I didn't use a specific material. It was mostly my school curriculum books to grab basics and then bunuel's notes here on GMAT Club. I've done entire practicing here on GMAT Club. 3) These are scores, in chronology, of GMAT Prep CATs that I appeared for after my preparation: 730 Q49 V40 740 Q49 V41 760 Q50 V42 680 Q50 V31 760 Q50 V42 I already mentioned in a previous post of mine that in many of my CATs I encountered already attempted questions although I did attempt even a few of them also wrong :oops:

4) I will skip this one.. :!:

sudhirgupta93 · Answer

PS: You talk about some "proper study materials" in your post and how the questions on real GMAT would remind me of the already attempted questions in these materials. Could you please shed some more light on this?

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi sudhirgupta93,

You mentioned how you had seen some questions during your CATs that you had already answered - and that can lead to unrealistic score results - so I have a few questions about how you took your CAT:

1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?
2) Did you take them at home?
3) Did you take them at the same time of day as your Official GMAT?
4) Did you ever do ANYTHING during your CATs that you couldn't do on Test Day (pause the CAT, skip sections, take longer breaks, etc.)? 
5) Did you ever take a CAT more than once? Had you seen any of the questions BEFORE?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

sudhirgupta93 · Answer

Hi Rich!

1) Yes I took each of the CATs in 1 go including AWA and IR.

2) I took them at home but in my personal room in complete isolation.

3) Yes I took them at the same time of day as my Official GMAT exam time. My exam is at 1 pm and I've taken all my CATs around this time only (starting between 1 and 1:30 pm)

4) I did a few things that I will not be able to do on my D-day but I wonder if they count. I drank water from my water bottle during the test, but I got to know today only after you mentioned that this is a privilege I won't be getting during the exam. Taking into account all the CATs I took, I paused my test twice- once to switch off the AC because the room got too chilled for my comfort and other time I got a call I couldn't avoid. That's all. I immediately got back to test without lingering. Optional breaks I took after IR and quant both were not for more than 5 mins and that's what I'm going to do even on exam day.

5) No. I've attempted each CAT only once. But in the particular CAT I came across questions I had attempted during my practice sessions here on the club.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi sudhirgupta93,

Based on what you've described, there are some minor 'red flags' in terms of how you took your CATs (so those score results could be a bit 'inflated'). However, since you have not defined your actual score goal, it's unclear whether those issues should delay when you take the GMAT or not. What is your actual score goal?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi sudhirgupta93,

From your CAT scores, you appear to have most (if not all) of the skills necessary to hit your score goal. While these scores are likely a bit 'inflated', the changes that you might need to make to your study routine are somewhat dependent on how much time you have left to study before your Official Test Date.

1) What is your current Test Date?
2) What Schools are you planning to apply to (and when are you planning to apply?)?
3) If needed, is your schedule flexible enough to push back your Test Date?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

HanoiGMATtutor · Answer

You are on track to your goal score. Whatever you are doing is working, so don't try to change anything. What happened to your second to last practice test in which you scored way below your practice average?
Regardless, you seem ready to conquer the GMAT. I hope you're taking the real test soon.

Posted from my mobile device

sudhirgupta93 · Answer

Hi Rich! Thanks for taking out time to respond to my queries. My exam is tomorrow so I guess nothing can happen now. So just wish me luck. I'm low on confidence and I keep forgetting SC rules..

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi sudhirgupta93,

Since your Official GMAT is tomorrow, I'm not sure if this advice will get to you before then. With this last day, you should try to relax a bit and not do too much studying (a bit of light review is fine, but don't do too much - NO CATs and NO 'cramming'). Your CAT scores show that you have the knowledge and ability to hit your goal score, so now you have to go in to the Exam and do the necessary work to EARN that score. Once you've completed the GMAT, you should post back here with your score results.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

sudhirgupta93 · Answer

Hi Rich!

I screwed! I screwed my exam catastrophically, in all its glory! I came crashing down to 660 Q48 V33. I don't know what went wrong! :cry:

I was so happy and confident after my quant section. I thought I had nailed at least 32-33 questions out of 37 and was expecting a Q50. I honestly found quant easy. (I don't know why I landed to Q48 which means that I attempted around 10-12 questions wrong!) But then came verbal and it all went down the hill. I knew I wasn't in my best form with SC but I thought I would live and was confident about my CR and RC but it seems I couldn't manage any of the three. My timing for verbal went from bad to worse and then worst when I didn't even have 1 minute per question at one point of time. I was having such a HARD (DAMN HARD) time understanding RC passages. It has never happened to me before. I agree that in past at times it took me a while to comprehend the passage when the topic was a little off for my taste but never had I ever got so frustrated that I let go off the passage altogether as I had to do today because time was simply slipping by! I got f**king 4 RCs of which 2 were as long as 4 paragraphs and their answer choices were so lengthy, it seemed as though I kept reading the answer choices for most of the time rather than thinking my solution through. And SC was all the more bad. I kept getting confused with my answer choices more often than not. So frustrated I got with SC and RC that my head simply stopped working and CR seemed lost cause.. I literally gave up on my verbal at one point. I'm in such a demoralized state right now. It seems I won't be able to crack verbal. I need a damn V40. I need a damn 740 or I can't make it to the B school I desire. Time is slipping out of my hands as I need to apply in R2 of most colleges which means I need a good score by November. I don't have time. Please. Help me..

chaitanya87 · Answer

Ooh. Cool down. All these are exam tensions. Still you managed to score V33. Now you need to refine your skills and find out where. It's better you order an ESR and get it analysed here.Then you can concentrate on quant and verbal sections.

HanoiGMATtutor · Answer

Sorry to hear what transpired. I agree that your ESR would be helpful. Also, what else do you remember about the test day? Did the SC questions feel hard, for example?

Posted from my mobile device

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi sudhirgupta93,

I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as planned. From your prior posts, it was clear that your CAT scores were likely inflated, so it's probably more accurate to say that you scored at your 'actual' ability level than say that you screwed up the Exam.

Test Day is a rather specific 'event' - the details are specific and they matter, so you have to train as best as you can for all of them. The more realistic you can make your CATs, the more likely the score results are to be accurate. The more you deviate, the more "inflated" your scores can become - and that's what happened here. By seeing repeat questions (especially if you saw them in the Verbal section), taking the CATs at home, drinking water during your CATs etc., you weren't properly training for the FULL GMAT 'experience.'

Thankfully, this is a relatively easy set of problems to fix. However, you'll need a new set of practice CATs to work with (with questions that you have NOT seen before) and you have to put in the necessary time to train your brain (and body) for the FULL GMAT. You might also need to invest in some new GMAT training materials so that you can learn the necessary Tactics to properly deal with the Verbal section. Raising a 660 to a 740 will likely take another 1-2 months of consistent, guided study - but that would still allow you to make the Round 2 application deadlines that you're considering.

My immediate suggestion is that you take a couple of days 'off.' We can put together a proper study plan to help you with the Verbal section (and help you to squeeze out a few more points in the Quant section). If you do purchase the ESR, then you should post it here (or feel free to PM it to me directly).

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

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A few queries regarding GMAT exam

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