mss wrote:
I took my GMAT last month. Got 660 (Q 50, V 28). My GMATPrep 1(a month before actual exam) score was 690 (Q 48, V 36) and GMATPrep 2(15 days before actual exam) score was 670(Q 49 V 31). As seen in my scores I actually found Quant easier and questions in Verbal tougher than those in GMATPrep or any other random question that I tried. It might be that since I was having a bad day and was not even sure that I would be allowed to take the exam that I found the tough section (for me Verbal) even tougher which further degraded my verbal score.
Anyways I can't rely on that and go for the next attempt, I plan on taking it in november. I don't have much time since I am planning for R2 and some specialized courses. Though the time for preparation is less I would like to focus on the deficiencies in my preparation for verbal section. People suggested that preparing on my own was not a good idea. So I would like to get some professional help especially in verbal. I found options such as classroom sessions, online sessions, video lectures. Which is a good options for me considering my specific requirements.
Your quant score went from 73% to 87% in one month, which is excellent. However, your verbal went from 80% to 50%. Is there any chance that you put more effort into your quant preparation than into your verbal preparation during that one month?
Some other things you might want to consider:
1. Unless you messed your timing up, you certainly did not see "tougher" verbal questions. The GMAT is adaptive, and the score you got on verbal indicates that the GMAT did not really raise the difficulty too much.
2. More importantly, I hope you can bring yourself to accept that the actual GMAT tests the same concepts that the questions in the GMATPrep or any other official material are based on.
3. Finally, remember that the GMAT indicates how well you did
relative to other people (no
absolute indicator of difficulty level).
All I'm saying here is that you should think about not getting into the whole "the actual GMAT is nothing like the GMATPrep" thing. I've seen people do that, and it is neither true, nor productive. Instead, focus on figuring out what is causing your performance to vary so much.
mss wrote:
So for me test center was not a problem at all except for the writing pad and marker which had to be closed everytime to keep the ink from drying up. If GMAC is listening please provide a simple pencil and paper.
Mine didn't dry up after the quant section. I couldn't even find the cap after finishing quant
I know they tell everyone to put the cap back on, but most people don't do that. Just request them to give you two markers at the beginning of your section.
mss wrote:
Coming to the main thing I found actual GMAT questions more 'tricky', especially SC and CR questions. As for the RC , I found it tough with at least two lengthy and tough passages. I have been struggling to devise the strategy that works for me best. In GMATPrep1 I found easy questions, completed the section on time and scored 36, Now even after struggling with tough questions (in GMATPrep2 and actual GMAT) which means I am at a higher score level during the test, I take more time per question obviously which leads to more errors towards the end as i have to guess to complete the section and score less.
Try to check whether the you'd already seen or done those GMATPrep questions before.
Also, did you get your ESR?
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