Planning to retake the GMAT-Low score- Help!
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21 Jul 2009, 16:39
Hello, let me give you some background information firstly- I am going to be a senior this year and earlier last year I decided I would like to go to Grad School and began studying for the GMAT. I would study off an on until the beginning of June when I was 6 weeks out and began taking my studying seriously. My practice tests ranged from 510 to 580 (510,540,560,580) which I was pretty satisfied with considering the schools I would like to get into have an average GMAT of 550 (I live in Ohio, and my main schools that I am looking at are Akron, Xavier, and Cleveland State- mainly for location reasons). During the practice GMATs, my verbal scores were solid and consistent (pretty much between 70-80 percentile) and my math was slightly low, but after concentrating my studying towards the Quant section, improved to an area I was happy with.
Anyway, yesterday I took the test and the whole time I was taking it, I thought that the real thing was easier than the CATs, but when I got my score I saw to my dismay that I scored a 480- with my quant score being higher than my verbal score! This shocked me because, while my Quant score was consistent with what I averaged on the CATs, my verbal score was waaayyy off track. I plan on taking the rest of the week off and then getting back into studying again and would like to shoot for the retake Mid-September.
Finally, I was wondering if I could get some studying advice. My weaknesses for Quant seem to be Data Sufficiency and putting word problems into algabra equations. Near the end of my studying, I noticed my verbal scores slightly suffered (but not much) from dedicating my time to Quant, so during that time it seemed like my weaknesses were RC (seemed like i had problems with the scope of the passage) and CR.
I have a GPA of 3.5 so I know my GMAT score doesn't reflect what I can do and it really frustrates me- especially since I know I can do so much better on the GMAT. I just feel like this score was a fluke.
P.S. I used mainly the KAPLAN book and materials and the GMATPrep software.