My G-day turned out to be the Gowk day!

Question

I am a not native English speaker, but pretty good at quants.

I initially took 1st GMAT prep test, and got 660 (49Q, 31V). It took me 1.5 months to prepare for the GMAT. A week before the actual exam, I took Kaplan test scored 690 (50Q, 35V) and 2nd GMAT prep test scored 730 (50Q, 38V).

So, I was pretty confident that I score at least 700+. Alas! Today I took official GMAT exam. The quant questions were way too difficult, then I expected. Confused with the quants section, I took a break and started verbal. I was feeling pretty good with verbal, the questions were quite simple and straightforward.

Then I clicked on the "report the score" button, closed my eyes, opened them and saw a miserable 600 (47Q, 26V). I couldn't believe my eyes. In a very depressing mood, I left the exam room. Cursed myself for overconfidence and boldness.

I was always good at quants, and during my GMAT preparations I usually made a couple of errors primarily due to negligence. Questions on the actual exam were in fact time eaters. Almost every question was 5-6 sentences long. Being a non-native speaker, SC was the weakest area, so I read MGMAT SC three times from cover to cover, and reduced my mistakes by 50%. I didn;t concentrate on CR and RC during preparation, cause I rarely made mistakes on those. So both my quants and verbal score are a mystery to me.

I know I still have time to sit for the next GMAT to be in time for the second round of applications deadline. But right know I feel exhausted, depressed and ashamed.

. Also my car engine broke today, what a day!

smuvern · Answer

Sorry man. It happens to the best of us, just gird up your loins and shoot again. Did u do all the manhattan CATS? It seems pacing may have been a problem for you. I'll also recommend doing the GMAT club tests just to ensure your QUANT is rock solid going into the next exams.

bakfed · Answer

Trust me; most of us know how you feel. But don't give up!!

Take a few days off from GMAT just to clear your mind, then go kill that beast again!!

shaselai · Answer

overconfidence kills ya... you gotta go in with a neutral mind so you dont get cocky while taking the test. make sure you use error logs on verbal and see what your weaknesses are

suyashjhawar · Answer

leave all past behind.....learn from your mistakes.....i am sure...its achievable......all the best ahead bro....

srivicool · Answer

dont lose heart.. u can beat it next time... as some said, identify the weakness n work on it.

kimakim · Answer

Wow, this forum is the best psychotherapy! Woke up today with a terrible hangover, read the posts that lightened up my day :-)

Ready to go for a second round this time to knockdown the GMAT!

smuvern · Answer

Give it all u've got! use good resources and take a ton of practice exams to reinforce the concepts, you'll be better prepared next go around

bb · Answer

Wow, sorry to hear that. Yes, sometimes we do feel as though the world is crumbling around us or rather falling hard on our shoulders.
Take a look around, see the wind, sun, and birds - they keep going no matter what. In the grand scheme of things - it is just 2 nasty things (that happened to happen on the same day) - at least look at it that way, your Engine won't fail on you again any time soon and you already have a 660 on the GMAT -  the only way is up!

mainhoon · Answer

Well said bb...

Posted from my mobile device

krishna3891 · Answer

My god man! It was not your day. Don't get bogged down. Take a week off and get back with renewed energy. Am sure you will do good looking at your GMATPrep scores. Good luck!

kimakim · Answer

OK, so today I sat the official GMAT the second time.

This time I scored 680 Q50 V31.

Well, again I am not satisfied, since Iduring preparation I scored over 700. This time my verbal was pretty low, although I usually score above V35, at least that was happened on MGMAT CATs.

So do you think I should apply with this score? I aiming at Stanford and Wharton. Here is my info:

1. I am from exotic country, 30 years old
2. Undegraduate from local university (economics) with distinction, MA Economics from UK university with distinction.
3. 6 years work experience, primarily in business. Including 4 years as a head of department.
4. I have some international experience primarily in EU. I have done a few projects in EU countries.
5. Completed a couple of not-for-profit educational projects for people living in rural areas.
6. Was engaged in volunteer work for orphans.

I pretty tired of GMAT, in addition I have to start prep for CFA level 3. So your advice would be more than welcomed :-)

devashish · Answer

Amazing quote smuvern ! U kind of made my day. :lol:

@kimakim: Well the above quote should you take the score with a pinch and move on !

BlitzHN · Answer

Congrats! glad to see that you got a better score on round 2. anything particular that you did to improve the verbal score?

thanks...

kimakim · Answer

OK, since there were a number of personal messages about my preparations I decided to put it here: After I got a miserable 600, I realized my mistakes. I thought I would be able to trick the system. So I spent a LOT of time on first 10 question both on Quants and Verbal sections, to ensure that I got the right answer. I thought that if I nail first 10 and last 10 questions I surely get 700+. Since during the first questions CAT determines your ability and the last ten questions are usually never experimental and will give me a strong finish. So during those 10 first questions I checked each answer three or four times, by solving the question straight, applying POE method, looking with left eye alone and right eye alone :-)

. As a result, I totally mismanaged my time and screwed up the whole exam. It appeared that after first 10 questions I had so little time left, so that it was impossible to solve other questions correctly. This time, I ignored all the "strategies" and simply solved all the answers as quickly as possible, so i finished Quants with 10 minutes spare and Verbal with 15 or so minutes spare. MGMAT CATs really helped me to beat the time management problems that I had. I would also like to point out on the explanations to the answers that MGMAT CAT provides. That what really helped me to identify my weak areas. Besides MGMAT has a much harder Quants section, so the real GMAT quants was just a piece of cake. BUT, Verbal section was really pain in the ... But, even on MGMAT I scored minimum 35 and max 40. So real GMAT verbal 30 is definitely well below my abilities. Perhaps I was too cocky after nailing my quants section. Again I find MGMAT SC very very useful. Also MGMAT CAT explanations helped a lot to spot idioms, so that I never made the same mistake again. RC was always a good area for me. And I really didn't concentrate much on this. CR appeared to be problem. MGMAT CAT has some really difficult CRs. I mean it either the weird logic of test constructors, or my impaired logical abilities :-)

. I still don't understand some of the CRs from MGMAT CATs. Today I received my AWA 5.5! Well friends suggested me to score over 720 on real GMAT to have a chance be admitted to Stanford or Wharton. So, i ll probably give it another shot. So again, do you think I have any chance be admitted with 680?

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