Hi guys,
I've been reading your posts for over six month and often I found your advice incredible helpful. Today, I hoped I could post a huge GMAT success story. Instead, I received a 640 score (Q45, V34). I can't possibly imagine what went wrong during the exam, I consistently scored around 700 since June and I've started preparing in May. My first GMAT score back in August 2013 was 680 (Q46, V36), so you can imagine my despair.
Short-summary and backgroundI am a non-native speaker, but I've been studying Economics in English for the past 4 years. I have always been considerably good with quant. Last time I attempted the GMAT, I prepared 4 weeks full time during the summer, right after a course in Game Theory. I was slightly exhausted by the preceding semester and felt I could have greatly improved my score back then with just 2 weeks more. I didn't have time to re do the test though, because I went on with an internship and went on exchange. Official score first attempt: 680 (Q46, V36).
2. attempt I started studying for the second attempt in Mid May this year. I went all over all 8
Manhattan books, rather fast because I remembered most of the concepts. After, I went through
OG questions (
OG 13, Quant and Verbal supplement). I maintained an
error log and went trough all missed questions at least 4 times. By the end of last week I was able to solve all (more than 95%)
OG questions within 2 minutes (I did 20 minutes sets a 10 min). Then I went again through the ones I couldn't solve and understood what I had done wrong. Over the summer, I also improved my major problem areas: DS in Quant and SC in Verbal. By the end of the prep I had a hit rate of over 90% in these areas in all of my CATs (I did 10.). Remaining problems areas were complex probabilities (the sort of you need for Q50,51), and advanced overlapping sets (I knew the two major rules, but some still did screw me). When I started to get Q47s and Q48s on the Veritas Prep and GMAT Prep, I went through the Manhattan Advanced Guide twice to internalise the advanced concepts, i.e. quick and dirty concepts, C-traps etc. I also did the 150 problems from the Advanced guide and went 3 times through all wrong ones. Eventually, upon concentrating for two month (August, September) on the tough ones, I spend the last weeks before the exam again on the
OG and did again the last 80 problems timed in 20 minutes sets. All seemed fine.
For Verbal , I scored consistently above 40. In the beginning, as I explained before, my weak area was SC. After doing the 100 Advanced Questions from this Forum (thanks Brunei!) and understanding all
OG problems (13 and supplement), my hit rate for SC was very high and I scored better than on CR and RC. Then I started doing all CR problems again, just to get into the rhythm and could confidently pin point the right answers in 9/10 cases in the high ranges. I also realized that for RC I usually needed a bit more time (especially Science/Astronomy related questions) and thus invested some of the time I got from SC into RC. This strategy worked well for me in all CATs.
I studied all day for the past 10 days and close to about 6-8h everyday through September and October. I admit that I got slightly mad over the exam, but I wanted to get it done, and I felt just on the edge from a great score (710,720,730) to a fantastic score (750, 760) with just a bit more concentration in Verbal. My worst case scenario was a 680. I may be a big optimist, but from my CATs (Official and Veritas), I saw that I could get a Q49 and improve my Verbal on test from my usual 42ish to a V45, just by being pumped with adrenaline and more focused than on prep tests, because during those I tended to slack off slightly towards the end of verbal thinking about the great things I could do with my GMAT. Needless to say that a main part of my preparation was to go through all CATs and identify what the problem was. I had categorised the mistakes in three areas: Too complex, Complex and Stupid Mistake. By the end the majority of wrong questions on CATs were in the complex area, meaning that I was able to solve them on second attempt within 2 minutes (+ the two minutes thinking during the CAT).
This failure is extremely discouraging after month of studying. My first intention was to book the exam right again to take the test in 31 days, but now I am going over all my prep material and don't know what to work on. Seriously, I know most
OG problems by heart and I think that the marginal revenue from doing further Advanced Sets from the Forum or the Manhattan Advanced guide is very low at this level (I don't actually seem to be at Q48, Q49). Throughout all prep, I was also concerned about the Veritas prep accuracy, because my very first Veritas CAT started off with a 700. During my first attempt I had only worked with Manhattan guides, but this I decided (for the better or the worse) to not use them again, because I remembered that I got very discouraged by their tough Quant part. I couldn't stand the feeling and calmed my doubts reading Veritas explanations all over the place, claiming the high accuracy. Too be honest, I still think they are accurate, because they were very close to my GMAT Prep scores, just I can't possibly understand a 80 score drop to the real thing. Perhaps if a Veritas instructor reads this, could you kindly have a look at my tests, because I can't find any coherent line of reasoning for what happened.
Test Day Experience
Today was the real thing. I didn't study yesterday because I felt slightly exhausted from the months of preparation, but I had a good nine hours of sleep last night and felt very confident the entire morning. I did a short warm up set this morning (5 PS, 5DS, 5SC), all correct. Was 30 minutes earlier at the exam and started at 9am (just like for the previous 4 CATS). I tried to wire my brain in such a way that it would be at full power at this time. AWA and IR went well, I wasn't nervous, just pumped and very alert. Finished IR 5 minutes earlier, relaxed a bit. Took the 8 minute break (Had a banana, some walnuts and Gatorade). Started the Quant section slightly (really only slightly) nervous, solved the first two definitely correct and then was very concentrated. Today, like in all my CATS, I made sure I even more concentrate on the first 10 questions and the last 10 questions, of course without rushing through the middle. Went through the first 10, usually then I am at min 53, today it was min 56, fine I thought and continued with my routine. Until questions thirty I had only 1 probability question, which I thought was strange, because in Veritas I tend two have two or three. I got two in the last 7 then though and was relieved. Finished with 1 minute 30 sec left. Again, 8 minute break, same procedure as for the first on, then went on to Verbal. As usual the first one SC, solved confidently, concentrated on the first 10, was really at ease for the whole exam. I made sure I had enough time for the last 10 questions (I had 25 minutes left) and finished Verbal with a good feeling. Only thing is that I received only one Boldface questions, which meant that I definitely missed the very high ranges of Verbal. Clicking through all the stuff.... BOOM. I see the score and I can't possibly believe it. 640. Q45, V34. Scored extremely low, especially in Verbal. Then two minutes to decide whether to cancel or not. Canceled. Left the prep center completely devastated.
Do you guys have any recommendation for the next month or any suggestions on what could have gone wrong? I studied with another friend who scored a 740 2 weeks ago, he doesn't understand it either, we had very similar prep scores. I'd need some kind of an action plan, because at this point I feel that I have exhausted all my possibilities. I thought about hiring a tutor, but I usually tutor Math and I am the type of learner that is more efficient by himself.
Thank you very much in advance for your input.
Cheers,
Fasano
Prep tests:First 6 without AWA, but with IR
12.07 Veritas 700 Q47 V39
23.07
MGMAT 1 640 Q42 V35 (here I decided to stick to Veritas)
03.08 Veritas 2 710 Q47 V40
15.09 GMAT Prep 1 690 Q47 V38
29.09 Veritas Prep 3 730 Q47 V43
06.10 GMAT Prep 2 720 Q49 V39
Last 4 under exam conditions
18.10 Veritas Prep 4 720 Q49 V40
20.10 GMAT Prep 3 700 Q45 V41 (here I screwed up some very easy quant in the beginning)
30.10 Veritas Prep 5 730 Q48 V42
02.11 GMAT Prep 4 720 Q48 V42