I scored 370 in my GMAT today and I need help :(

Hi ramaswamy,

I am sorry that your test result was not in line with your expectations. GMAT is a difficult exam and it tests the skills in a completely different way than we Indians are used to. At this point I would only recommend that you take a break of a couple of days to a week to regroup yourself.

Once you are ready to prepare again, please get in touch with our team through this page. We would be happy to listen to your challenges with respect to GMAT and guide you to your target score.

Regards,
Aditee
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Don't be sad. You must start your preparation with a different strategy.
Can you tell me how did u prepare for GMAT, how many days or months did you prepare?
You can also pm me for discussion regarding the same.


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I am in your place but keeping my head high, so you should also forget the past and ignore everyone if they are criticizing or making fun of you.
I also scored 350 in my first gmat attempt Q30 V10. I used only official guide for my prep which was a huge blunder.
I am now using Target Test Prep for Quant and Sentence Correction, Manhattan SC for extra practice, all official guide of Quants and Verbal. Currently practicing from 700-800 pdf and GMATCLUB. You can try all these because I am improving a lot. I gave my first kaplan mock with 360, then in the second mock scored 430, now in the third mock 510. I am targeting 600+ score. Avoid All negativity around you and talk with your parents. You will later think that you should have done all these in the first attempt. Forget the Past now. Again, have a nice Talk with your Parents!! because if they support you, you will automatically forget about everyone and will feel motivated.

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Hi Saransh123

Please I hope that you know that 700-800 pdf contains many questions from official mocks, so if you haven't still exhausted your official mocks, please don't use the 700-800 pdf now.
You can do that pdf later after taking official mocks.

Happy Learning


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ramaswamy

Take 2 days off. Forget that this is a disaster which it is. But there has to be a reason behind this disaster. You need to understand what you did for this and whether you deserved this on test day or not.

Take a FREE demo class with us (if you are considering taking professional help on GMAT PREP) and let us assess your level and make a concrete suggestion.

It will be a one-on-one interaction and might help you understand the problem area better

You will get better at GMAT that s certain.

Hello GMATBusters, No I did not know that mocks contain questions from 700-800 pdf, but I never realize that I am solving repeated questions but if you are saying then I will stop doing those sums.
Thank You

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Did you feel that your test strategy was "off"? Maybe you mistimed the sections and answered questions in unplanned manner. That can quickly reduce your score, no matter how well you answered some questions.

Such a low score may indicate problems with your strategies. In your next attempt, your score will likely be higher because there is good room for improvement. If you can set aside the test and start afresh after some time, focus on weaker spots, and refine your strategies, you may improve quickly.

Thank you, I am planning to start with manhattan prep leading up to solving the official guide again. I might also do more mocks this time I think, I guess the only way is doing more. I might look into the things you have mentioned, thanks for being helpful.

I had a simple strategy leading to approach the questions I gave 20 mins for every 10 questions and that's about it. I might have spent an uneven amount of time on certain types of questions but that shouldn't lead to a bad score should it? what do you think I should do to fix upon the strategy end?

There is no fixed rule that states that you must spend two minutes on each question. Some questions will need more time, so to plan for this, you should solve other questions that you find easier in lesser amount of time. Accuracy on initial questions is very important to getting a good score. This way you will get harder questions and your score will go up even if you get some of these questions wrong.

So, you must carefully map out your timings and approach to the test. Once you practice solving questions untimed, you will know how to quickly and accurately answer questions. Then during a timed test, you will be able to better manage your time. Try out your strategies first on practice problems and make changes if you need to do so.

Sorry to here this. Don't worry .Its just an experience . I would say after taking 1 day off , Comeback stronger with a better strategy . Have a better concept building first . Once you are comfortable in concepts you can move forward to solve hard ques in a time bound manner.

I don’t think first few ques are too imp. What is imp though is the length of your correct answer streak. I had a Q49 on gmat prep mock few days ago and I had 3/7 wrong (first 7 ques). But in the middle I had a long streak of 11 correct questions.

ramaswamy - I would suggest take a few days off and don’t think about this. It may be simply that you had an off day. Do put in work in quant - there is no reason why you can’t hit a 40 plus Q score if you have a math background.

Take a break and regroup and study in a systematic manner. One good strategy that I would suggest is to make flash cards - of imp concepts, tricky questions, common traps. Those help and your eye gets trained to be on the lookout for such traps.

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Hi @ravigupta2912

I don’t think first few ques are too imp. What is imp though is the length of your correct answer streak. I had a Q49 on gmat prep mock few days ago and I had 3/7 wrong (first 7 ques). But in the middle I had a long streak of 11 correct questions.
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I won't say that you are correct about this observation. GMAT Prep scoring are not always correct and can sometimes be anomalous. First three questions are way too important for good scoring in any section.

Don't get carried away with just one such experience out of the blue. Just a suggestion!

Hi ramaswamy,

Many Test-takers find the GMAT to be challenging - so you're not alone. One of the important things to realize is that the GMAT 'tests' you in ways that you might not realize. For example, the Quant section of the GMAT is not actually a 'math test'; it's a 'critical thinking test' that requires that you work through lots of little calculations as you go through it. In addition, Business Schools generally do not care if you take the GMAT more than once, so having to do so is not a big deal. What IS important is that you use this Test Day 'experience' to better prepare for your next attempt. You almost certainly have the capacity to score higher than you did on this attempt, but you will have to make significant adjustments to how you "see" (and respond to) the Exam to score a lot higher.

Before I can offer you any additional advice for your studies it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) What type of study routine did you follow over the last 5 months? How many hours did you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far? What "brands" of CATs/mocks have you used?
3) On what dates (or approximate dates) did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks and how did you score on EACH (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
4) What is your overall goal score?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Hi ramaswamy,

Sorry about how things went with your GMAT. But do not get disappointed. You can definitely improve your score provided that you identify what went wrong in the previous attempt and work on your weak areas. Let me help you here.

The probable reasons for scoring low:

The key to scoring well on GMAT is doing the prep in the right way. And the right way to do your GMAT preparation is to focus on learning the methodology along with the concepts. But if you have just learnt the concepts and practiced questions, then I'm afraid that's not the right way. The better your application skills are, the better your performance will be.

Having said that, it would be premature to give you any suggestions without knowing the complete information about your GMAT preparation. I can suggest you in a better way if you can give me some more information about the way you prepared till now, your weak areas and the way you approached questions. This will help me understand your concerns and guide you in a better way.

I think a one-on-one discussion would be more effective than replying here. We can get in touch over a call and have a detailed discussion regarding the study strategy and plan of action. You can use the below link to schedule a call with me.


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I studied 2 hrs every day and practiced from the official guide. I did solve some questions from the Princeton review but those questions were way easy, so I dropped them. There was nothing more to my prep than that. I used the GMAT prep kit and solved the full-length mocks I scored about 28 Q and 23 V, with a total score of 450.

Yes, start over. Engineering related Math and GMAT Math are very different beasts. What you need in GMAT is high school Math. Go back to your 8th/9th and 10th grade Math books and review. Even 7th if you are unable to solve 8th grade questions properly. It is something I get my students to do routinely in case they do not have strong basics or have forgotten them. Since you are an engineer, once you review, everything will come back to you. GMAT material will add value only after you have done this. Also try to review topics more holistically. It will be easier for you since you are starting from scratch, so to say.
To do that, check out our blog here: https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-resource-links-no-longer-available-399979.html#/catego ... om/page/9/
Start from the oldest post and work your way up.

For Verbal, start investing at least one hour everyday in reading - national daily/good quality magazines/non fiction
Also review your 10th grade grammar book and work on GMAT curriculum of some test prep. Once you are done, then work on official questions thoroughly. Evaluate each correct and incorrect option. Consider this - to evaluate one question properly, it takes about 15-20 mins. You might need to review some concept in light of an option, you might need to re-read the prompt a few times to understand why some option is incorrect etc.
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It isn't about "first few" questions, or in your case, seven questions. You had a streak of correct answers and were able to make up for your initial mistakes. The OP may not be so lucky or they may get a set of questions on topics they are less comfortable with. Then they won't hit any streaks like you did. I suggest that you do not rely on getting lucky streaks to get you over mistakes in earlier questions.

Flash cards are just one of many strategies to learn, but that alone will not help the OP who scored only 370. There are bigger issues that need to be addressed. One of them is to learn proper test strategies in terms of tackling questions in the order in which they are presented.

Hello ramaswamy,

Don't give up. You can surely do better.

GMAT club is one of the great platforms to get information about the GMAT official test, Study plan, Section wise instructions, and many more.

You are recommended to visit various posts and utilize this forum in the best efficient way.

Your score is shaky. I fully understand your frustration. You were not probably on the right track or wrong direction in your study plans.

You can schedule a comprehensive counseling session for 30 mins with one of our experts:https://calendly.com/mathrevolution/1-on-1-session for detailed advice on your current study plans.

A score of 370 tells that neither the Math nor the Verbal is above average. Hence, both sections have to be taken care of simultaneously. To improve, you will require consistent learning and practice. Also, keep motivation high to learn.

Since we are a math expert, we will recommend you go through our post on the GMAT club, which gives a complete Breakdown of GMAT math questions and types: https://gmatclub.com/forum/overview-of-gmat-math-question-types-and-patterns-on-the-gmat-211809.html#p1641411

Also, make a note of various possible combinations to achieve your score. The possible scores will help you track your performance after taking the mock or practice test. It will also help you maintain balance in both the sections, and you will always be in a great position to allot the study hours to a specific area accordingly.

After visiting the post, now is the time to start with the basics. To strengthen the basic concept on various topics like arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and word problems, you may refer to many free materials available in GMAT Club. Our website also helps strengthen the necessary skills of math”.

Solve as many questions as you can relate to different topics, and it is recommended that you try to connect with many proven experts. You can visit Math Revolution and get access to our 7-day full on-demand course (27 topics, 490 subtopics, and 1,500 questions) for free trial lessons.

While concept learning, try solving 600 level questions by topic and be habitual of creating the error log. Prepare the list of all the doubts you face during solving and practicing questions. This practice test will help you assess the topics in which you need more time to prepare. After solving as many questions as possible, take the 1st mock test and assess your performance. You may try our free diagnostic test once. Let some experts evaluate it to make you understand it better.

The entire mock test should be completed in a disciplinary manner. Since this is a bit long journey, 1-on -1 tutoring can also be helpful to shorten the study period if your study budget is affordable.

Regular tests will reflect the positive change in the score, and hence, your confidence will boost up. Gradually, with the help of mock tests, you will be able to compete with time and hence will be able to learn time-management.

We appreciate your time and patience in reading this reply.
If we can be of assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.

You can reach us at info@mathrevolution.com.

Success is within your reach.
Good luck!
Punit Joshi