Hey all,
This is going to a long and meandering post. In summary, I've taken two online GMATs and didn't get the score I want (710+), what should be my next steps for my in-person on November 21st?
To expand on this, I've been studying since the beginning of the year after getting a diagnostic score of 570. I started off with Manhattan but switched to
TTP for Quant which helped me learned the material incredibly well. Once I finished all Quant modules in
TTP, I used
TTP, Manhattan, and GMAT Ninja for Verbal. Once that was complete, I started to do practice tests for my first Online GMAT using Veritas and GMAC practice tests. Going into the practice tests, I knew my strength was Quant and that Verbal was scary. However, something clicked the week leading to the first online exam and I started to do really well on Verbal questions. I went into the first exam thinking if I could maintain my Quant performance and keep this verbal performance up, I could get the score I wanted on my first exam.
Veritas 1 (Aug 3rd): 660 (Q46, V35, IR 4)
Veritas 2 (Aug 8th): 680 (Q47, V37, IR 6)
Veritas 3 (Aug 18th): 660 (Q44, V37, IR 7)
GMAT Official Practice 1 (Aug 26th): 700 (Q49, V37, IR8)
GMAT Official Practice 2 (Aug 29th): 690 (Q48, V35, IR5)
GMAT Online Test 1 (Sept 5th): 690 (Q45, V40, IR7)
After the first test, I remember thinking that I did worse than average for Quant but much better on Verbal and the score that I got later reflected that. I also remember the Quant being much more difficult than what I usually got on practice tests. The Online GMAT Quant had a bunch of strange questions that just looked alien to me in what they were asking. Even on hard questions that I got wrong on the practice tests, I could at least understand what they were asking of me. I thought that might have just been nerves because I was nervous going into the exam and panicking a bit due to the questions I was seeing. The Verbal and IR felt about the same. I was depressed and the thought of studying for the test again filled me with massive amounts of dread and anxiety. I decided to take a week break and, with my confidence regained, I scheduled my online retake for three weeks later. I took one more Veritas test and two more GMAT Official Practice tests before the Online retake. During the practice tests, I felt that I did really bad on every single quant section, but my scores were better than I thought. Verbal, on the other hand, I felt pretty good about every single section that I took.
Veritas 4 (Sept 26th): 670 (Q45, V37, IR4)
GMAT Practice Test 3 (Oct 3rd): 730 (Q48, V41, IR8)
GMAT Practice Test 4 (Oct 10th): 720 (Q48, V40, IR5)
GMAT Online Test 2 (Oct 17th): 670 (Q44, V38, IR4)
After the exam, I once again felt that I did worse on Quant than I usually did and that I did pretty well on Verbal, but my score was 20 points worse than before. Quant again had a bunch of questions that just felt alien compared to the practice tests I had seen, the questions on
TTP, and
OG Practice questions. I believe that I had 5 hard Inequality DS problems in a row which just felt super wrong to me even though I understand it's totally possible. Verbal again felt normal, while I felt that IR was harder than ever. As soon as I got my score yesterday, I immediately scheduled an in-person for Nov 21st which is the earliest I could take the exam in-person in my area. Today I am not depressed not am I feeling any dread or anxiety about studying again, I'm actually pretty furious, angry, and determined. I'm on vacation so I physically can't study until I get back on Monday, but I want to kick this test's ass.
I finished
TTP and scored high on all of the tests on there. I study about 4 hours every day and use primarily
OG problems so that I practice actual GMAT problems. I got permission to go into the office on weekends so that I may recreate actual test conditions. I have the test booklet and markers to use for practice. I go on GMATclub to learn from particularly hard questions. I am determined to get a score that best represents to my abilities. So the big question is what do I do to make sure that I am actually factually prepared for my in-person test? Apologies for the long post but I feel like I needed to get this out there.
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