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28 Apr 2018, 04:15
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Hi Guys, this is my first post on GMAT Club & i was expecting to write a very positive & overwhelming post regarding my results since my expectations were very high & my target score was 630.
Overview of my preparation:
I am working in a leading telecom company in Sales & Distribution department & having 7 years of experience so pursuing an MBA was an absolute requirement of my job. So in December 2017 i decided to prepare myself for GMAT exam but i knew i am not one of a guy who will just open a book and start practicing questions & start understanding the concepts. Since English is not my native language so Verbal wasn't a cup of cake for me and as far as Quant is concerned, i was good at it. Anyways as per behest of one of my senior colleague, i signed up for a premium account of Magoosh and started following 3 months study plan. Things were going perfectly fine and smooth. In March 2018 i was almost done with 80% of my GMAT prep so i planned to give a Mock test so that i shall have a clear picture where i stand and i ended up taking 450 in my 1st mock exam which was very demotivating after giving almost 2 and half a month of rigorous time to GMAT. After 2 weeks i was done with my Magoosh plan and finished all PS & DS questions from OG and Magoosh as well. so i was like, let me give another mock exam and i ended up taking 560 this time. it was a good improvement and i was quite confident that before my actual gmat exam i will be able to touch my target score i.e. 630. My exam date was approaching near and i was quite confident since my prep was pretty well but the worse part was that i had only a single attempt of GMAT to apply for the business school i was planning to pursue an MBA since 30th of April 2018 was a deadline to submit the GMAT scores and my exam was exam was on 26th of April 2018. from 16th April till 24th April, i kept practicing RC, CR, SC, PS & DS from Magoosh and OG 2013 as well & i was so optimistic since things were going in a flow & i was almost done re-practicing all the questions from OG and Magoosh till 24th April. On 25th April i kept myself relax, slept pretty well all day and hungout with my friends & family and slept on time. I dont know but i was a bit stressed out since it was my first actual GMAT exam and that feeling was terrifying me but somehow i kept myself motivated. When the test started, i was bombarded with hell of a Word problem questions and i was like WTH in the world is happening. Why am i getting 70% of the questions from word problems. Likewise my confidence level dwindled & i was feeling like a hopeless dude finding answers in the air & i was broken & ended up with 300 scores
it was a worse day of my life and i was broke but i am still motivated and i wont give up.
Need your expert advice on how to catch up with retaking the GMAT exam and what approach should i use this time since i have an ample time for preparation now ( almost an year) and this time i want to make sure to touch a crazy score of 650. I am planning to hire a tutor for my verbal part as well since English isnt my native language.
Please advice guys!!!
Overview of my preparation:
I am working in a leading telecom company in Sales & Distribution department & having 7 years of experience so pursuing an MBA was an absolute requirement of my job. So in December 2017 i decided to prepare myself for GMAT exam but i knew i am not one of a guy who will just open a book and start practicing questions & start understanding the concepts. Since English is not my native language so Verbal wasn't a cup of cake for me and as far as Quant is concerned, i was good at it. Anyways as per behest of one of my senior colleague, i signed up for a premium account of Magoosh and started following 3 months study plan. Things were going perfectly fine and smooth. In March 2018 i was almost done with 80% of my GMAT prep so i planned to give a Mock test so that i shall have a clear picture where i stand and i ended up taking 450 in my 1st mock exam which was very demotivating after giving almost 2 and half a month of rigorous time to GMAT. After 2 weeks i was done with my Magoosh plan and finished all PS & DS questions from OG and Magoosh as well. so i was like, let me give another mock exam and i ended up taking 560 this time. it was a good improvement and i was quite confident that before my actual gmat exam i will be able to touch my target score i.e. 630. My exam date was approaching near and i was quite confident since my prep was pretty well but the worse part was that i had only a single attempt of GMAT to apply for the business school i was planning to pursue an MBA since 30th of April 2018 was a deadline to submit the GMAT scores and my exam was exam was on 26th of April 2018. from 16th April till 24th April, i kept practicing RC, CR, SC, PS & DS from Magoosh and OG 2013 as well & i was so optimistic since things were going in a flow & i was almost done re-practicing all the questions from OG and Magoosh till 24th April. On 25th April i kept myself relax, slept pretty well all day and hungout with my friends & family and slept on time. I dont know but i was a bit stressed out since it was my first actual GMAT exam and that feeling was terrifying me but somehow i kept myself motivated. When the test started, i was bombarded with hell of a Word problem questions and i was like WTH in the world is happening. Why am i getting 70% of the questions from word problems. Likewise my confidence level dwindled & i was feeling like a hopeless dude finding answers in the air & i was broken & ended up with 300 scores
it was a worse day of my life and i was broke but i am still motivated and i wont give up.Need your expert advice on how to catch up with retaking the GMAT exam and what approach should i use this time since i have an ample time for preparation now ( almost an year) and this time i want to make sure to touch a crazy score of 650. I am planning to hire a tutor for my verbal part as well since English isnt my native language.
Please advice guys!!!
28 Apr 2018, 11:50
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Hi Imtisal,
I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as planned. When these types of score drops occur, the two likely "causes" involve either something that was unrealistic during practice or something that was surprising (or not accounted for) on Test Day. If you can answer a few questions, then we should be able to figure this out:
When you took your CATs:
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 when you plan to take 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 (re: on a prior CAT, in an online forum or in a practice set)?
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as planned. When these types of score drops occur, the two likely "causes" involve either something that was unrealistic during practice or something that was surprising (or not accounted for) on Test Day. If you can answer a few questions, then we should be able to figure this out:
When you took your CATs:
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 when you plan to take 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 (re: on a prior CAT, in an online forum or in a practice set)?
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
29 Apr 2018, 15:28
Kudos
Bookmarks
imtisalsiddiqui
Hi imtisalsiddiqui,
I'm sorry to hear about your struggles here! It sounds like you've put in a lot of work and made some serious progress, so let's try and figure out what might have gone wrong.
First, I recommend reading the following article about studying for a retake. You'll want to do things differently to increase your score:
Next, here are some specific suggestions for your practice and preparation. Click on the links to read articles about each topic:
- Use the best books and resources.
- Get plenty of sleep — REM sleep is essential for memory encoding, and we only get enough REM when we get a full eight hours at night.
- Cultivate the mindset that enhances memory and intuition and decreases stress.
- If the GMAT Verbal section is a challenge for you, read every day.
- If the GMAT Quantitative section is more difficult for you, read this post on how to study for GMAT math.
You should also definitely spend some time going back through and reviewing your old practice questions. Make sure to keep an error log throughout, and review it frequently. I want to emphasize that the quality of your studies is much more important than the quantity. Learning from mistakes is key. If it were possible to never make the same mistake twice, you would become an absolute master of the test in a very, very short time. So be sure that you go through the explanation, study very carefully the related concepts, research methods or material you're not comfortable with but are mentioned in the solution, and really analyze the questions.
Make it your goal to understand inside-out every single practice question you do, so that if you see that same question in the future, you know that you will nail it. In fact, if you review a question one day, it's good to go back to it four to five days later to see if you still understand it. Always be checking how much you have retained or how much you can actually remember from what you think you understand. Until you can recall something at any time, without any hints or warm-up, immediately and with complete clarity--until you can recall it like that--you don't really understand it as deeply as you need to. The goal in learning is NOT efficiency but rather thoroughness.
I'd also recommend reading through Mike's list of the habits of excellence, and try to incorporate those as much as possible in your practice!
Also, read these articles about overcoming test anxiety:
Finally, it sounds like you would benefit from taking more full-length, timed practice tests. If you've already taken the GMATprep tests and finished all the Magoosh questions, then I'd recommend the practice tests from Manhattan.
I hope some of this helps!
-Carolyn
