Feeling very down because of low score in real GMAT :

Question

Hi, I took the real GMAT last week and scored a pityfull 480 ( Q:32 :cry:

; V:25 ). I was almost shocked seeing my total score especially quants. To give a brief intro, i am a engineer working in GE woth 3.5 years of work experience ( Which includes 14 months internatinsl work exeprience ). I plan to do MBA in latin america ( The place i like to settle ). I needed a score of about 580. Some of my practice scores are 1. Veritas prep : 580 2. GMAT prep 1 : 560 ( Q : 43 ; V : 25 ) 3. GMAT prep 2 : 500 ( Q : 37 ; V :21 ) I have taken lot of sectional tests ( Either quants alone or Verbal alone ). Most of the time i score between 42 - 44 in quants. But i was so shocked to see my quants score ( Q : 32 ) in real GMAT. One thing to note is i have finished my quants session 15 mins earlier in real GMAT. I feel very down guys. It was a 2 months preparation inspite of the stressfull work in my office. Please sugget what can i do from now, to increase my score to above 600. I have 1 - 2 months time to take my second shot, in order to appply for the colleges which i am looking for in sep '13. You suggestion would help me greatly.

AtlanticGMAT · Answer

Hi there,

Congrats on taking on the challenge of the GMAT and the opportunity of an MBA. You have done well on the Quant and that tells me that you have potential to move your Quant even higher than your practice tests. One thing that I see from your test history is that you are inconsistent (your scores have a rather large range). On Verbal you have a lot of space to improve. That is very possible. A few questions:

1. What materials besides the tests that you mentioned have you used to prepare?

2. Do you read an English language magazine/newspaper daily?

3. How was your timing on your verbal on the real GMAT?

4. Why do you think you finished the Quant 15 minutes early? Could you have used that 15 minutes effectively, were you rushing?

Let me know and I will give you some specific advice.

Happy Studies,

HG.

VeritasPrepRon · Answer

Hi kabilank87, the good news is, the worst is over. The first GMAT test is always the most daunting because you're not sure what to expect, the location is unfamiliar, etc. Now that you've got one under your belt, you can start feeling more confident for the second one!

The good news is, if you've been scoring higher on your practice tests, then you have reason to expect a better score next time. Much like the runner who completes his run in 3 minutes in practice, but goes to the competition and finishes in 4 minutes, you know you're able to do it in 3 minutes. It's just a question of not letting the stress and bright lights get to you on test day.

HerrGrau asked some very good questions above, but since you seem to be concentrating on your quant score, I want to draw special attention to point number 4 (15 minutes left in quant). You've undoubtedly heard numerous times that the GMAT is an exam that seeks to trap you with answer choices that are not the answer to the question stated. Generally, when someone finishes with a lot of time left on the clock, they fell into a few tempting traps along the way. I would definitely recommend rereading each question once you have the answer to make sure you're answering the correct question. It's very frustrating to make all the correct calculations but provide the wrong answer because the GMAT was asking for a percent increase, a different variable than the one you solved for or the compliment of your calculations (to name just three common traps).

If your test preps are ~580 and you want your final score to be above 580, the good news is you don't have to do a major overhaul. Just concentrate on the things you're already doing, practice and review your practice tests. Are you losing points mostly in data sufficiency? Are you struggling in algebra? Etc. Identifying these areas is the best way to determine where you need to put in effort.

Again, stay positive as much as possible. The exam is tricky (or Trixy as Gollum from LotR puts it) but you can get the score you want if you know where to devote your time. The community can help, so posting this kind of synopsis is helpful and hopefully motivating for you. Please feel free to elaborate on some of the points HerrGrau or I have brought up and we'll take it from there.

Hope this helps!
-Ron

kabilank87 · Answer

Hi HG. Thanks for your reply.

here are the answers for your questions.

1. What materials besides the tests that you mentioned have you used to prepare?

I went for classes at 4GMAT. I mostly used their study materials.

Quants - 4GMAT study materials and practice tests. 800 and princeton sectional practice tests.
Verbal - 4GMAT study materials and practice tests. 800 and princeton sectional practice tests.

Apart from these i used some other for verbal

Sentence correction :- ( I am aware of the rules , but often confused )
1. Manhattan sentence correction ( Only in last 1 weak )
2. OG 13 practice questions
3. Kaplan premier practice questions

CR :- ( I am relatively good at CR ( scoring average 8/12 , since because of my engineering backround ))
1.OG 13 practice questions
2.Kaplan premier practice questions

RC :- ( Very weak )
1.OG 13 practice questions
2.Kaplan premier practice questions

2. Do you read an English language magazine/newspaper daily?

Yes, but i don't know about the standard. I read " Times of India " daily. Mostly sports and lifestyle sections.

3. How was your timing on your verbal on the real GMAT?

I mostly spend time in CR and SC questions in verbal. Since i thought RC is quite difficult for me i allocate time for RC depend upon how fast i complete CR and SC. I usually take 2.5 min for CR and 1.5 to 2 min for SC depending upon difficulty range.

4. Why do you think you finished the Quant 15 minutes early? Could you have used that 15 minutes effectively, were you rushing?

yes i am rushing. To be honest i am kind of stuck with the first question itself. It was a very simple question from sets but i felt like there is insufficient data to answer the question.So i took educational guess and moved to next question. Since i am not convinced with the first answer itself ( Keeping in mind that " Quants " is my strength and " answering wrong in the beginning will have a great negative impact in the final score ) the pressure built on me. So most of the questions which involves calculations i made an educational guess and completed 15 mins before time.

In my practice sectional tests ( 800 and Princeton ) , on a average my first wrong answers will be 13 th question. I almost always get first 12 correct.

AtlanticGMAT · Answer

Hi,

OK, sounds good. It seems like you had a lot of test stress on the Quant section and never really gave yourself the chance/time to properly solve questions. Test timing and strategy is something that we can discuss closer to a second exam. Here are a few things that can help for your preparation:

1. Re-do the last 1/2 of OG 13 DS and PS keeping track (an error log) of the ones that you get wrong or find difficult. Do these questions under semi-timed conditions:  keep your momentum moving forward, do not dwell , if you are stuck use process of elimination to pick an answer and move on (in general,  keep the time per question between 1 min and 3.5 minutes ). You can do these in sets of about 10 or 20 depending on your time. After you have done the set, analyze the questions for as long as it takes to really understand where you went wrong and how to best solve them. Use the OG explanations, GMATClub, and any other resource to find alternate solutions and re-solve using those solutions.  Often, students look at the explanation and think "ah! got it" but it is not enough to look you have to put pen to paper and resolve yourself.

2. Beyond OG I would  buy questions pack #1 and run through all the medium and hard quant . Same process as above. Do these after the OG because they will be new to you and it would be great to approach them once you have already gotten your process down.

3. After about 10 days of this I would start with timed Quant sections every day or so. I would  use GMATclub or MGMAT tests although my preference is to mix them up because they each have their strengths.   Do not bother with the verbal. Do the same process of error logging and analysis after each sections. Don't worry about the scores, just learn as much as you can and get your timing/rhythm down

4. For verbal do all of the verbal review 2nd edition and all of the SC and CR from the 10 FLTs (available on this forum).  Keep an error log so that you can see which types of questions you are getting wrong so that you can focus studying in those areas.   For verbal timed sections buy the GMAT Paper tests and use the Questions Pack 1. For the paper tests do all the sections in succession and add all the time together. It is OK to give yourself an extra 5 minutes so give yourself 80 minutes total for all three sections.

About 2 weeks before your test re-take GMAT Prep 2-3 times and make sure that you are feeling 100% with your error log for both Quant and Verbal. The week before your test do the three GMAT Focus tests, two GMATPaper Tests (just verbal), and review your error log.

A few notes on studying.  Analysis of wrong answers is just as important as solving questions.  Make sure to leave at least as much time for analysis as you do for solving questions.  Studying when you are focused and rested is so much better than studying when you are tired and distracted.   In fact, I would go as far as to say that studying when you are tired or distracted is counter-productive. Many of my students have found success studying BEFORE work rather than after.  Quality is so much more important than quantity so don't be afraid to take a day off when you need it.

This will take a dedicated month but it is within the realm of possibility and at the end of the process you will have your score and will be a step closer to your goals. Let me know if you need more advice on this or have any questions.

Happy Studies,

HG.

PS: In general, I would stick with only official material for practice and MGMAT and GMATClub for tests (only quant).
PPS: Reading a solid periodical like the economist every day can boost overall verbal score. You can search for posts on this.

VeritasPrepRon · Answer

Hi Kabilank87, everything listed in HerrGrau's response seems good for you to pursue your next foray into the GMAT. I would only like to point out that it sounds like you're putting too much emphasis on the first 10-12 to make sure you get them right. A lot of students think that the first questions are worth more, but it's certainly not worth getting worked up over being unsure about the first question (or even *gasp* getting it wrong!).

One wrong answer out of 37 isn't going to make or break your score, and there's about a 20% chance that the question isn't even going to count in your final score (it's an unscored experimental question). You seem to be on the right track, I just wanted to highlight that the exam is a marathon, getting question 1 wrong doesn't guarantee you a sub-500 score any more than getting the first question right guarantees you an 800 score. Don't get too stressed or nervous about the exam and getting early questions wrong. You're not going to get them all right, so if you get stumped on the first question, well there are still 36 more to go! Even a 99th percentile score gets questions wrong, so don't read too much into it!

Good luck and thanks for posting! 
-Ron

kabilank87 · Answer

Hi HG,

Thank you very much for you guidance. I already started solving OG PS questions as you suggested. I hope this new approach will take me heights.

Really thanks a lot.

kabilank87 · Answer

Great post Ron. Your views of first set of questions and experimental question really give a insight about not to worry about getting first questions wrong and at the same time to give equal importance to all the 37 questions.

It really boost my confidence , when i retake the GMAT for the second time.

Thanks a lot again.

ash890 · Answer

i just tuk my gmat exam and scored a 380...actually evn on my practise teste i never scored above 400.but i urgently has to take the gmat to report the scores as my university had given deadline. what do i do now?

Admissionado · Answer

With a 380, the only thing you can do is retake and apply next year instead of this.

Feeling very down because of low score in real GMAT :

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards