First GMAT try, need some help and advices

Question

Today was the day, I sat my first Gmat exam after several months of hard study. The score was devastating but I won't stop, I can't stop like a famous singer used to say (P.Diddy)

I have scored a disappointing 580 V27 Q42 IR7. A little bit of background before speaking about my GMAT journey. I am a French/Turkish/Kurdish male (yes that's possible) working in a big 4 company in management consulting in Europe. I have close to 3 years of experience so far in consulting and my dream will be to attend a top 10 MBA. I have an undergraduate degree from an American university where I was a student-athlete (Football player, the real football

). I have 3.65 GPA and multiple honors. In addition to that, I have a master degree in Wealth Management from a European University. I am thinking about an MBA since my undergrad studies, and this is only possible with a great GMAT score. My aim is 700+. The beginning of My journey I have started my journey using the MGMAT books 6 months ago, but I was going nowhere. I had no structure at that time. I had wasted 1 month studying this way. Then, I enrolled with a GMAT tutor, but I had a bad experience, I wanted to get some structure and he didn't give me any structure but just doubts. By that time I took my first GMAT mock, and I a scored a 550, I can't remember the score details. The rise After 2 months of study, I knew from my mock and my studies that my weak point was the Quantitative part. I started from the bottom to be honest. I had to start everything back from solving a simple equation to simple geometry question. It was really painful to see that I had to review all my basic before thinking about the mid-level question. I enrolled at Target Test Prep, such a great program and bumped my score to Q45. I felt good about the improvement that I had witnessed. In addition to that, I was always scoring at minimum V30 on all my exam. However, I decided to enroll with E-GMAT to improve my SC and my CR. Even though I have increased my SC ability, my CR ability remained poor. After 4 months of intensive studies, at least 1-2 hours after work and 4 hours on the weekends I decided to take MGMAT mock. There are my scores: MGMAT1 Q45 V35 - 660 MGMAT2 Q44 V37- 670 MGMAT3 Q41 V37 - 650 MGMAT4 Q42 V37 - 650 GMAC1 Q48 V36 - 690 Test day experience: The fall Started with Verbal, I felt good when I sat the exam, but I did one terrible mistake, I was just focused about ending the section quickly as I wanted to go to the bathroom (Don't ask me why I don't know why myself). The first lesson, don't drink too much before and always go to the bathroom before the test. When I started to see easy SC correction question I knew I was doing bad, so I started to let myself go. At the middle of the test, I was not even able to think on simple CR question. At the end of the section, I knew I had bombed the test. The Quant part started and I told myself to take it seriously, so I can train myself for my future attempt, but even during this section, I was just thinking about how stupid I was and how badly I have done on the Verbal part. I have finished my test with IR7 and I don't know my AWA but I think I did pretty good, I wrote a structured text with 5 paragraphs (Intro- Flaw 1 + advise - Flaw 2 + advise - Flaw 3 + advise - Wrap-up and conclusion). Advise and help Now it's time for me to think about what I did wrong on my prep and how I can enhance my score. The only thing is that I am running out of ideas. It's not really my type to ask for help, but I hope that this wonderful community will help me in my journey. If you have any pieces of advice please PM me. If you have any question do the same, I will gladly answer your questions. Material used: Target Test Prep E-GMAT Verbal MGMAT Cat Just a disclaimer, I don't blame the courses, those are great courses. I just think that something is wrong with my prep. Thank you in advance for your help people.

JeffTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi mehmet56600,

I'm excited to hear that you enjoyed our course! With that said, I'm happy to disscuss your study plan moving forward. Feel free to PM me and we can set up some time to chat.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi mehmet56600,

I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as planned. From what you describe, your drop in score might simply be due to the distractions caused by your bathroom 'issue.' That having been said, 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 - so we should really analyze your situation in more detail to see if anything else may have also been a factor in your score drop. 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 took 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

yifuqiao · Answer

Hey, bro, Your Verbal score is amazing and you should be proud of it as a first attempt. I wish we could combine our scores

(Mine was Q50, V23) To improve quant scores, you really need to practice a lot of quant questions and make sure you always mark down the questions you have problems with so that you can review the questions later. While reviewing Quant questions, you need to abstract strategies. Sometimes, there are many questions we don't even know where to start. For example, what is value of A-B? The answer or the format of the given numbers may not be obvious. In this case, I always train myself to think A-B in (√A + √B)(√A-√B) whenever I see a "-" sign. This kind of muscle memories helped me a lot in quant sessions. How do you gain more muscle memories? As mentioned above, you need to practice a lot of quant questions and keep abstracting strategies from solutions, so it becomes natural to you. IMO, Quant is a lot easier to improve compared to Verbal, because the beauty of math is that you only have one answer to each question. However, the answers in Verbal session just seem a lot more fuzzy to me

I wish you good luck! Yifu

mehmet56600 · Answer

Hi,

Rich thank you for your reply, see below my answers:

1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?

Yes, I did, even though I had not a clear strategy on the section selection. 
Sometimes I started with Quant, and on other Mock I started with Verbal.

2) Did you take them at home?

Yes, I took all my test at home.

3) Did you take them at the same time of day as when you took your Official GMAT?

I took my last two mocks at the same time of the exam. However, I took the others tests on different times.

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.)?

I took longer break during my first mock but on the last two CAT I have tried to take the test on "real conditions"

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)?

It happened sometimes but no more than 2 or 3 questions.

If you have other questions, do not hesitate,

Thank you Rich

mehmet56600 · Answer

Hi yifuqiao,

Thank you for your feedback.

I am building memory by training again and again. I think now it's time for me to take this week off and go again on Monday.

Don't give up, I am pretty sure that we will get our desired score, if other people did it, we will do it. 
Whatever it takes.

Have a good day.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi mehmet56600,

From your prior post, there were some 'red flags' in terms of how you took your CATs. Before we discuss those issues, I have a few additional questions about the lead-up to Test Day and Test Day itself:

1) What did you do in the 3 days before your GMAT?
2) How did you sleep the night before your Test?
3) How long was the ride to the Test Center from your home?
4) Were there any distractions at the facility or during the Test?
5) What did you do during the two 8-minute breaks?

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

mehmet56600 · Answer

1) What did you do in the 3 days before your GMAT?

I did not study that much to be honest, I had a 90 Hrs week at work

2) How did you sleep the night before your Test?

I slept really well

3) How long was the ride to the Test Center from your home?

I had to take the train from Luxembourg to Paris, it's about 1h45 minutes.

4) Were there any distractions at the facility or during the Test?

Some back and forth from students and people of the test center

5) What did you do during the two 8-minute breaks?

I ate a protein bar and put some water on my face as I was really pissed off about my mistakes

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi mehmet56600,

While the bathroom situation you described likely hurt your performance, there are a number of other issues before Test Day that we have to address.

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 practice scores can become - and that's what happened here. By taking the CATs at home, taking them at different times of day, taking longer breaks, seeing 'repeat' questions etc., you weren't properly training for the FULL GMAT 'experience.'

Test Day involves a variety of really specific steps and parameters (including steps before the Test even begins - such as leaving your home, traveling, etc.). Every factor matters, including the psychological ones. Having to travel for almost 2 HOURS before your Exam would have impacted your energy levels and alertness - and I have to assume that you did not account for that travel when you took your CATs. In addition, seeing even a few 'repeat' questions during a CAT throws off the 'realism' of the experience as well as your pacing, stress and energy levels. Thus, going forward, you have to take NEW CATs (with questions that you have NOT seen before) and be more realistic about how you take your CATs.

Beyond that, I would not expect any Test Takers to perform at their best after coming off of a 90-hour work week. Most Test Takers perform at their best on a Monday morning AFTER having the weekend 'off' from work. A well-rested mind almost always performs at a higher level than one that is 'burned out' from too much work/activity.

Thankfully, these should all be relatively easy issues to address - now that you've taken the Official GMAT, you know the EXACT details of what happens on Test Day, so you can better train to mimic those details during your CATs. That having been said, raising a 580 to a 720+ will likely take at least another 2 months of consistent, guided study - and you'll have to make significant improvements to how you handle BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections.

1) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
2) What Schools are you planning to apply to?
3) Going forward, how many hours do you think you can consistently study each week?

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

mehmet56600 · Answer

Hi  EMPOWERgmatRichC

Sorry for the late reply, I would like to thank you for your advice, looking back, I can see where I did some mistakes in my prep.

To answer your questions:

1) When are you planning to apply to Business School?

I would like to apply for round 1 in September 2018 to the schools of my list.

2) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

I would like to apply to Columbia, Wharton, Booth, and INSEAD

3) Going forward, how many hours do you think you can consistently study each week?

I can devote 1-2 hours on weekdays and 4-6 hours in weekend, so if I take the lowest scale I will say 13 hours per week.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi mehmet56600,

You have plenty of time before this year's Round 1 application deadlines, but you'll need to be efficient with your studies going forward - so that you don't end up having to rush to take the GMAT, work on your applications, etc. several months down the road. There are enough factors that impacted your performance on Test Day that you might be able to 'fix' them all without having to change your study routine too much. This is all meant to say that you can decide whether you want to invest in any new study materials or not. I suggest that you study as you like for the next 2 weeks, then take a NEW, FULL-LENGTH CAT in a realistic fashion (take the FULL CAT - with the Essay and IR sections, take it away from your home, at the same time of day as when you'll take the Official GMAT, etc.). Once you have that score, you should report back here and we can discuss how best to proceed.

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

mehmet56600 · Answer

Hi  EMPOWERgmatRichC ,

I will follow your advices and let you know how it goes.

I agree that I have plenty of time, but I would like to get it done.

Thank you for your help Rich.

Have a good Sunday

souvonik2k · Answer

Hi
Sorry to hear that your Gmat didn't go well. I see that you have gone through a number of courses and in my opinion that can be pretty confusing. I say this because each course will have separate tips and strategies and sometimes it may be difficult to choose which one is appropriate for you. Anyway, I think there are good reviews on Gmatclub about these courses and so there may be some gaps in your understanding or application of the strategies. I suggest to revise all the strategies and basics and then start solving OG questions in a timed way. Then you can take Gmatprep tests and know your current level. Hope it helps.

	Manhattan Prep: $99 Bonus Score Higher on Your GMAT Exam. Guaranteed.
	Target Test Prep - Save up to $599 $400 Discount + $99 Bonus GMAT Club Tests
	e-GMAT: 60% Off on GMAT Focus Get to 735+ from any starting point
	Magoosh increases your score, guaranteed - 15% off ALL Magoosh GMAT plans with code GMATCLUB15 + Free GMAT Club Tests.
	Experts' Global - ~~$1720~~ $960 End-to-End GMAT Prep + App Support: 150+ Videos, 2000+ Questions, 15 FLTs +
	GMATWhiz - $299 ~~$499~~ Experience the course through a free trial.
	GMAT Club Tests - Free Included with every course purchase of $149+ View all deals

First GMAT try, need some help and advices

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