Dissappointed :( 470

Question

Hello, I have been using the GMAT club forum for the past few months. It is my turn to share my experience. I took the GMAT today and did horrible, I received a 470. This is my second time, I took once before in 1998 and received a 500. I had been studying for the GMAT since September. I have spent hundreds of hours pouring over thousands of questions. I have gone through the OG, the Kaplan Verbal Workout, Kaplan GMAT 800, Princeton Review Cracking the GMAT, Kaplan Higher Score. I got a 34 on Quant/ 21 on the verbal. I know this cant be an indication of my abilities because I have masters degree already in Accoutnting from a major university and I am a CPA. I am self-motivated so I didnt think it would be worthwhile to pay $1000 to take a GMAT prep course. I am now having second thoughts. I would benefit greatly seeing how others approach the problems or think through it. I know according to ETS, the objective of the GMAT is to test how well you are able to think creatively in a short period of time. I have never been a fast taker. It seems sometimes if I have not done and seen a similar math problem, then I struggle in short period of time to solve it.

My verbal score is very disheartening. When I took the full length practice tests (I took 7 of them), I never got below 500. On the verbal, i was around 32-34. My highest score on practice wa 620. So I am at a lost at what happened. In fact, while doing hte verbal section that I did so poorly, I actually felt like I was doing very well on it. I finished all of the problems in the allotted time.

It seems those with low GMAT scores rarely post on here. At first sight, it seems everyone on here scores very high. I would appreciate any tips or advice you may have. Should I do a prep course, If I do, which one is the best one? I am leaning towards going with Veritas since they have the best instructors which would be invaluable for me to see how they think through a problem. I have tried to find local independent GMAT tutors in my area (Phoenix, AZ) but seems impossible to find. You can email me at [email protected].

Despite my low score, I do find this board very helpful.

Sincerely,
Scott

sallenj · Answer

I would like to add that I am shooting for a 650, a high enough score to get accepted in to Arizona State university WP Carey MBA program.

Sameer · Answer

While I have taken the GMAT only once, I have started from a very very low score on prep tests. I have also seen my score climb on these tests. But it did take a lot of time and of course the Club helped. I am one of the few people who have taken GMAT after almost 10 years of work ex ! so my mind was very rusty. Please go thru some of the earlier posts and you will read stories of how people have climbed to the higher GMAT scores.

The OG may be the better prep for initiating the climb from 400-500's. I assume that when you say you have done the OG, you do mean you have gone thoroughly through the explanations. perhaps, it would do well to do a repeat, this time from the last question first. And take 20 questions from each section (take 3/4 full passages for RC) at a time. What is important is to know where the failure is occuring. At the 500's accuracy rather than speed is essential and as you cross over to 600 plus and gravitate to 700's (it is possible for everyone and the club members do NOT have high gmat scores only!), speed needs to be built up. Therefor I would request you to settle on review-check-re-review process for all mistakes. See BB's posts on this front and an excel sheet that he has posted for doing methodical reviewing. 
best of luck.

sunniboy007 · Answer

sallenj,

Please don't think that your the only one scoring low on the GMAT. I have taken the exam twice and scored low five hundred the first time, and high four hundred the second. I know what you must be going through. 

I saw that you mentioned Veritas in your message, and I wanted to address that. I have recently used a Veritas tutor, and found it to be a real waste of $1500.

I guess it depends on the tutor, but my experience wasn't great to say the least. I feel less confident now then I did before. If I could do it again, I would spend my money with one of the larger prep companies - most probably Kaplan. The fact of the matter is I don't have another fifteen hundred dollars to spare.

Again, this is just my experience, so yours may vary.

Lucyloo · Answer

I would say definitely do a prep course, or get a tutor specifically for verbal since that's your weak point. I would also suggest doing the PR course, because verbal is their strength.

With more guided help I am sure you will do a lot better. Don't give up!

R12345 · Answer

SallenJ,

I also feel your pain. I recently took a Kaplan course and scored a mid-500 on their "diagnostic." While they guarantee a score increase, I actually went down on the real deal and scored in the low 500's. it was the lowest score I received on any GMAT I've taken and needless to say, when I got my score I was such a wreck that you would have thought a family member had died! I too am looking for advice from people. I need to crack a 600 on this damn test. I ahve great experience and an excellent GPA and hate the fact that this test makes me look dumb on paper! I would not recommend taking a class though as I did not find it very helpful. I did not use the Official Guide before my last test as my Kaplan instructor said it wasn't necessary. IS that guide the key to a high score????? 

Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

Paul · Answer

R12345, I strongly urge you to buy and practice on the Official Guide. No other problems compare to actual GMAT problems than actual OG GMAT problems. However, if you do the OG, make sure you do it AFTER you completed the Poweprepp tests on CD in order not to contaminate your score.

R12345 · Answer

Paul - 

Many thanks. I don't know what happened on test day. On my 2 Kaplan CAT tests I was still scoring near my mid 500's diagnostic score. Then when I took the PowerPrep CAT's I scored a 600 on both. So needless to say, I felt prepared to score about a 600. Then, the real deal sent me plummeting to the low 5's. 

Any other recommendations - or should I just focus on plowing through the OG?

Praetorian · Answer

I would suggest you participate in our forums. it will truly help you learn different strategies of working on a problem.

Paul · Answer

R12345, I can see you're new to this forum. My heartfelt welcome and please participate in the discussions here as Praethorian previously said. You will learn many things and believe me, I think I learned more in this forum than in any other book that I purchased!

Geethu · Answer

Scott & R12345
I understand how difficult it is, when we don't get the score we expect. But with enough studying you can surely increase the score. When it comes to Verbal we need to do a lot of practice to understand the way gmat works. and for quant we need to a lot more practice than we can imagine of doing to get the top score. this forum gives us a way to reach out to others and get our doubts clarified. and in the process we will learn other shortcuts. so, don't get disheartened. lets study together with gmatclub to reach our score.

bb · Answer

Dear Scott, don't fee disadvantaged by a low score. It is nice to have a high one, but nobody is ever measured here with a ruler of GMAT. We had a number of great members who could solve and answer any question, but they could not do it on the GMAT. There is a history already :wink:

Back to your question, I had a lot of experience with English as my undergrad was in English and I had a job at a US company, but a silly habit of reading classic books seemed to have helped a lot. I would consider reading books at night or in public transportation (unless you are in LA and are cursed

well you can read in traffic). -Bogdan -=-

R12345 · Answer

Thanks for the encouraging words. I should have joined this forum before I took the test the first time. I think what I'll do is buy the PR book and CD as well as the OG. I have already plowed through all that Kaplan offers through their class. Now I need to get my refund from them as my score dod not improve from my diagnostic. Does anyone believe in diminishing returns or brain drain with respect to the GMAT? I was studying every waking moment for 2 months. I was averaging about 35 hours of study a week. I am wondering if I burnt myself out....

While a 700 would be great, I really would be happy with an even 600. The top 10 MBA's are excellent programs, but so are many 2nd tier schools (i.e. Perdue, Vanderbilt, etc.). However, a low 500 score will get me nowhere! 

And yes, I will use this board for as many tips as possible!

Thanks again!

natasha · Answer

I also got a low score after going over the OG and Princeton. Prictice tests were above 600 on PR and PP, and 510-560 Kaplan. However, I bomed the real test completely.

Where do I start from here? Is there a way to imrove by more then 100 points? I am hoping for over 600, below 550 will not get me into the program that I am interested in.

Praetorian · Answer

what was the problem on the actual test? were you just nervous or just did not give sufficient time for prep.?

let us know. then i can suggest something based on your situation.

Sincerely
Praet

natasha · Answer

Actually, I thought I was very calm and confident. Actually, I was doing very well on math - wrong.

Verbal was hard, I got two back to back reading comps, 65 line passage after question #30 and had to basically guess the last 8 verbal questions. I was studding for the test since March, almost every day for at least 2 hours.

Praetorian · Answer

1. Two back to back RC's is not that scary, but it might have thrown you off for a moment. 

2. Its possible that you got a lot of the first 5-10 questions incorrect and that is why the math might have been easier. Remember, the initial questions count most toward your score. 

3. Do you have any specific concerns about Math? any weak areas? did you practice with a clock? 

4. What about verbal? Is RC your big problem? We solve RC's on the forums regularly. 

Another area i think you should look at is maintianing a log of your errors. everytime you make an error, write it down somewhere and makes notes on what you did wrong and what is the correct approach. We have recently started offering personal error log forums right here on GMAT Club. Our only requirement is that you committ to participate on our forums and contribute atleast 100 posts. Please read our site announcements forum for more information.

Let us know how we can help you further. The more information we have about your specific issues, the better i and other members can help. There is also a lot of advice posted by several members on this forum. Just read through them and i am sure it will be of help.

Sincerely
Praet

natasha · Answer

Thank very much for your advise.

Is it doable to increase my score by over 100 points? I have ordered OG today. Other than probability, I really did not have many problems with math while practicing. I still can not understand what happened with math on the real test.

You are absolutely right, RC is my weakness. I will rest a week or two and then back to books. Will a rather low score on the first test decrease my chances of getting into the grad school?

Praetorian · Answer

1. How low a score? What schools are you looking at. I will recommend that you discussing your admission issues in the Ask Accepted.com forum at GMAT Club (the Accepted forum is the first one on the main forum page). Discuss your profile with Linda. Linda is much much more qualified to answer your admission and application questions than anyone else is on this forum. you can also ask MBA Game Plan about it. 

2. Yup, if you know its probability ,then work on it. If you are ready to work hard, we are ready to help:) I ask that you participate here, discuss your solutions. learn from others and let others learn from you. I am surprised that you did not look at the OG before your test.

3. 100 points increase. It only depends on how hard and systematically you want to plan your prep. I always ask our members to maintain a log of the errors that they make. Everytime you start your prep, go over this log..no matter how boring you think this is .. i would strongly recommend that you start doing this

4. time yourself. Whenever you think you are doing well...stop right there.. take a clock ...take some new set of problems...and try to solve every problem within 2 minutes. then see what the results are. if you are doing errors, update it in your error log....

If you can maintain this discipline and maintian your composure on test day, you might do a lot better... Again Ask Linda and MBA Game Plan about the schools you are considering and share your academics and work experience with them. I hope they can help you.

Sincerely
Praet

natasha · Answer

Praetorian, thank you very much for your advice. My score today was 490. The reason I started posting to this topis is, as other people in this topic, who recieved low scores, I have a good undergrad GPA of 3.75, I have 7 years of accounitng and internal audit experience with 2 Fortune500 companies and I hold two (CIA and CISA) professional designations. I should be able to do at least decent on GMAT!!!!

Anyway, I will definately have to try to take this test again.
I will keep the log and try to do better timing my answers.

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Dissappointed :( 470

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