Hi,
actual GMAT was another 80 points drop (460, Q33 V20, IR 4)
To be honest, I was panic-stricken and also pretty nervous on test day so I think that might have also added to this score.
To cut a long story short, below my experience from the two important parts.
Quant: This part started really bad. I was able to solve the first 2 questions but then a pretty tough word problem (one of my weak areas) appeared which
I had no clue to attack, so after around 3 mins puzzling over this problem I guessed and moved on. However, this particular problem threw me out of my rhythm (all concepts I knew suddenly vanished) and I completely lost my cool during the next 5-10 problems which I mostly guessed or rushed through... The upshot was that towards the end of the first 25 questions I got extremely easy problems which I was able to solve in ~40 seconds and at this point I already zoned out and, what is more, at question 37 I had over 13 mins. left. :/
Verbal: After knowing that I bungled the job in quant and that it was impossible to score ~600, I still decided to give my best in verbal. The first half of verbal I did, in my assessment, pretty good and received pretty challenging SC and RC questions, nevertheless, the second ~20 questions I was out of mental power and also pressed for time so that I ended up rushing through the last 10-15 questions (mostly easy questions to my surprise).
On balance, I was expecting a ~550 score but was shocked to see a 460 popping up... In addition, I had the impression that the questions both in quant in verbal were quite different from what I was used to in my prep (
OG, Manhattan and
Magoosh), that is, more confusing and knotty... Can this be true?!?
Fortunately, I received a two months' grace from my business school to retake the GMAT until 1st of September. I really need a good strategy to achieve 600+ now
since I'm confident that my level is on no account in this range (460-540) but rather around ~600+ but due to work (10 hours a day), stress and anxiety I think was way below my level and expectations. Still, can work, stress and some unfortunate guessing explain a 160 points drop in 3 weeks? Do you have some advice for me in terms of strategy and further prep?
Thank you guys!
Btw. I canceled the score!
As you prepare for you next attempt, you need to practice letting go the question that you don't know how to solve more quickly. You should be able to recognize that you can't solve the question at around 30 seconds and then just pick a random answer choice. You can not afford to wait 3 minutes to skip a question. When you are doing practice problems at home, treat them as official problems, meaning, if you are stuck, then you need to move on. This is a critical element that some test takers will overlooked.