740 GMATPrep, 660 Actual

I had a similar issue with the test. My first 2 takes I breezed through verbal and consistently scored lower than my practice tests. On my third take I really focused on the verbal section to make sure I read very carefully. I wound up increasing my verbal to a 46 from a 36. I would suggest taking a few days off from studying before you get back in.

Posted from my mobile device

Think this was definitely an issue.. My 8th question was a long RC, and it really threw my timing off. I thought I was really behind and felt rushed, and then the urge to pee kicked in around the 30th question, which definitely did not help me relax! Haha..

What materials did you look to for SC? It felt.. different. I wonder if others share my sentiment- like the test wasn't as grammatical. I had a much harder time narrowing answer choices.. perhaps I just hit a patch of SC that covered areas of weakness. I'll admit, I didn't "study" SC at all- just did the 100 some odd OG13 questions to make sure I could get them right. My verbal score was always solid so I didn't worry much more about it.

Need some help guys.. just took my first practice exam since the real deal and 740'ed again (Q51, V42. I had 8 minutes left for quant, and 20+ for verbal again. I was also out late drinking and felt foggy.. yet I still pulled this score. I still have 25 days until I can sit for the exam, but I feel ready. I believe my 660 was more of a fluke than a lack of preparation. What can I do to keep my motivation high? Of the 8 incorrect for my V42, 3 were CR, 2 were RC, and 3 were SC.

My resources are dwindling as well. I have 12 GMATClub Quant Tests left that I suppose I will do slowly through the remainder of my 25 day waiting period to keep my Q fresh?

Are there recommended CR/RC materials for practice? I remember both of these being extra-difficult on the real deal..

Hi shanek, I like how you're staying positive throughout this experience with the disappointing verbal score. If you keep that mental focus you'll hit the score you want on your next go round with the GMAT.

I'm not sure about recommended CR/RC materials to proactice. Obviously the official stuff is good and the various other resources have been debated numerous times on these forums. Let me say that pretty much any material you go through will likely help you if you focus in on your weaker areas, and the more exposure you have, the more techniques you can adapot as needed to answer the question in front of you.

As for the whole drinking/needing to pee issue... am I the only one who sees a correlation between the two? I know I can't concentrate when my bodily functions are disrupting my neurons! May I recommend sticking to water until the test day, there'll be plenty of time to celebrate once the 740+ is achieved!

Best of luck!
-Ron

Ron,

I've got no idea what to fill my time with over the next 25 days! Haha.. that's why I said "screw it" and went out last night. I still woke up this morning and 740'ed. I suppose I need to contribute my lack of success on the real exam to my least expected enemy: nerves. One of the things that I noticed during this practice test is that I felt like I really didn't care = Q51! I suppose it's hard to trick a man that surrenders.

I never would have thought my nerves would get the best of me.. I've always been the stoic test-taker. This is an area that I'll focus on in the upcoming weeks.

That said.. I still have NO idea what to do over the next 25 days. Do I take a week or two off and then review?

It certainly looks like that you had a bad day and you should do well on your re-take.

You have a timing issue as well. Completing sections 20 minutes ahead of stipulated time is an issue I think. Do you feel you could have answered your incorrect questions correctly, if you had spent a few more secs/minutes on them ? If yes, you need to slightly tweak your test taknig strategy and slow down on checkpoints.

12 GC tests are more than enough - make sure you review them thoroughly. For CR/RC, I'd say stick to the official material if you haven't exhausted it yet. GMAT prep questions, Verbal Pack, Official guides/supplements, paper tests etc. For you 25 days, practice tests with AWA and IR - sometimes CR/RC are not that hard but they come so late in the test, making it difficult to comprehend them.

Finally, you can't ask for tips to keep your motivation high. Are you happy with a 660? How bad do you want it? Really, how bad do you want it?

good luck!

I was finishing my verbal section with 30+ minutes.. 20 = a marked decrease in speed! Lol.. When it was 30 minutes, it absolutely was a timing issue. I was rushing. I routinely finish my sections with 20+ minutes though- I read, find the answer, reread, double check my answer, move on. I've actually been wondering where people spend their time on the verbal. Of the 8 verbal incorrect this round, there was most-certainly a question that I hit "submit" and immediately knew it was B not D. However, I spent extra time on 2 other questions and ended up changing my answer at the last second, so I think the speed tends to work in my favor? I V45'ed a practice test with 30 minutes remaining and have really tried to slow down as of late- I think it's been detrimental / causing anxiety? (All of this said, I have a TERRIBLE timing issue in quant, finishing with 15+ minutes and scoring in the mid 40's.. when my time-remaining is < 10min, my scores are substantially higher).

I should be solid with the 12 GC Quant tests.. I have, however, exhausted all of my OG materials except QP1. How are the GC Verbal tests? I have 6 of those, but as you said, I've been wary about using outside sources.

In regards to the stamina issue hinted at for the verbal section- I wholeheartedly agree. I think this is where your nerves really play a role as well. You can be nervous all morning and get through the AWA, IR, and Q, and then start to settle down. However, your synapses are exhausted at this point, and you start doing the "read this sentence twelve times and it still doesn't make sense" syndrome. I am thinking about picking up some of the suggested reading on this forum- do you think this will help?

Finally, "Finally, you can't ask for tips to keep your motivation high. Are you happy with a 660? How bad do you want it? Really, how bad do you want it?" - you hit the nail on the head. Excellent advice. My first 740 on a practice exam made me dance. This 740 I shrugged. Perhaps my new goal will be 750+.. now THAT is something to aspire to.

I meant for both the sections. You are pretty comfortable with verbal so I would not suggest a dramatic change in your strategy, but definitely quant needs some more thinking. Especially, because you have 15-20 mins at the end of the section; I think you can break the Q50 barrier with an optimum strategy.



I did not use GC verbal tests, but have heard good things about it. But, definitely try the QP1 - I found CR questions to be pretty close to what I got on the real thing. Its not a massive investment $25 for 400 questions is absolutely worth it.



Picking up reading would not help that much in building stamina. That is for someone who wants to improve his/her reading speed, knowledge of sentence structure etc. The better way is to take as many full length CATs (including AWA and IR) as possible. (obviously, take time out for reviewing them, resting your mind/body etc.). Also, when you are practicing questions, do so under timed conditions in a bunch of 15-20 (according to the difficulty level)



Good luck!

In case anyone is following along.. just found these, wish I had found them sooner! :

https://gmat.gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-resource-links-no-longer-available-399979.html#-bank/

Everyone has said it already, but just work on your timing over the next month. It sounds like you know the concepts, but when you bull rush the test you'll make sloppy mistakes.

47 is an ok quant score, but if it feels easy then you must be making simple mistakes which could probably be corrected by using the extra time. I focused almost exclusively on timing for the last month of my prep, and I got to the point where I would finish the math section right on time, every time. I was like clockwork with the questions. My 49Q doesn't sound huge, but considering I hadn't taken math since high school it was a huge jump from my starting point.

As for the V, maybe you psyched yourself out when you got 7 SC questions in a row. You just have to focus on each individual question, don't think about the question you just did, or worry about what might be coming next. Just concentrate 100% on the question in front of you, and pace yourself throughout the test and you should do much better.

First of all.. V50? Damn son. What did you use for practice materials that didn't bore you to tears? The hard quant keeps my mind active, but I'm having difficulty finding quality verbal material to learn from.

All excellent advice.. I Q51'ed a practice test over the weekend after a night of drinking. The fog-brain from poor sleep made me slow down- I finished with 7 minutes left and didn't get a question wrong until the 20's.

You're absolutely right about psyching myself out- I've had more time to reflect on my prior attempt. The 7 SC in a row put me on edge, and then #8 was a long RC. When I check my remaining time I was "oh no!" without properly calculating just how much time reading the passage took. I kicked into "bull-rush" mode. By question 30, I had to pee. I could not have envisioned a more perfect storm. My hats off to the test makers.

My current focus is on maintaining my ability to concentrate. I finished OG13 Verbal with an 89% correct rate- however, I have been doing 20 GC Q Test problems earlier in the day, reviewing, then doing 20 verbal questions (from random sources, not nearly as available!) around 3pm or whenever I get a lull in the work day. This drops my accuracy to 75%. I find myself having to reread multiple times- especially the boring RC passages. It's actually my strongest subject (CR) that drops the most- my SC/RC hover around 80%, whereas my CR goes from 90% to 70%.

My plan is two-fold:

1) I am hoping that by the time I finish the rest of the GC Quant (have about 300 hard questions left, 20 days to go), that the quant section will barely require thought, and will leave additional steam for the verbal. I destroyed my last practice test- I saw 4 hard probability questions and hit them all. Everything was clicking. My verbal score could have been better (V42), but I felt a bit more fresh. I am going to experiment with a quick shot of coffee/piece of chocolate during the 8 minute break.

2) Continue to practice verbal while tired. To accomplish this, I will do sets of 20 later in the day when fatigued from a day of work/an earlier set of quant. I know that most recommend doing full length CAT's, but there's a flaw in this approach (me-specific): I get bored. "I just took a CAT. I don't want to take another." I had pangs of this during the real exam after my first 740. When I sat for that 740, however, I was intrigued. I was ready to go. I had done an enormous amount of extra prep that week, and things were firing on all cylinders. I wanted to take that test. I am going to try to repeat this experience come test day.

3) I know I said that my plan was two-fold, but this needs to be included: I will pee myself if I have to during my retake! My usual breakfast is a fruit/protein/pb blended shake. This combo of ingredients is a great start to my day.... except for when I'm unable to pee when I want! I thought I had sufficiently emptied my bladder, but clearly this was not the case. I will eat a breakfast of eggs/bacon/a carb source, and I will not drink when nerves make me feel thirsty (I'm a dry-mouthed public speaker until things settle).

Anyway, I hope that wasn't too wordy. I know a lot of people lurk these forums, and I'm hoping my experience will help.

Thanks again for the replies.

Thanks man. I really wish I had some good suggestions on what materials to study for verbal because I've had several people ask me, but unfortunately I don't. I'm pretty much the opposite of most people on this site: verbal has always come easy to me, whereas I had to teach myself the quant from the ground up.

On my initial practice test, which I took before I started studying, I think I got a 40 on the verbal. The only ones I missed were SC, so I read the MGMAT SC guide and from there I never really had to study verbal. I just did a few OG questions every day, and my practice tests every week or so, and that was about it for verbal. I was scoring 45+ almost every time. It also helps that naturally I can read very quickly so I can really burn through the tedious RC passages. Sorry I can't be of more help in that regard, but I spent nearly all of my time studying Q.

But anyway, it seems like you've got a good plan. If you can score a 51Q on your practice test then you can definitely score 50/51 on the real test if you're careful.

And it sounds like the 35V was just a fluke, bad luck with the string of SC's. Same thing happened to me. The first time I took the GMAT I got a 730 because I totally bungled the quant, I got psyched out and screwed my timing and ended up getting a 45Q. I took it a month later and got the 780. Just go in confident and focused (and bladder empty haha) you'll own this test.

Check out my debrief if you want more details about my experience. It also has a long section with tips that worked for me on both Quant and Verbal.
finally-done-with-the-gmat-780-49q-50v-123073.html

Retook the test.

Q46 V39 - 690

Frustrated isn't even the word for it..