Hi Experts/Members,
Long time lurker here.
This is my first post on GMAT Club. Sorry for the long one
First of all huge respect for all the members who have contributed to this amazing community. A lot of guys, like me, out there look up to you guys for advise without you all knowing so.
Now, I just came out of my third attempt at the GMAT and to say that I am disappointed would be an understatement.
My first attempt was in the year 2016, when I was in my final year of undergrad. I managed to score a decent 690(Q47/V38).
Years passed and I focused on my job and put my plans for an MBA on hold, that was until last year. I figured that I have to retake the GMAT and started preparing for it in December-2020.
The story of the 2nd attempt:
I used the veritas prep videos and guides for foundational knowledge for both Verbal and Quant, supplemented with some practice from OG and the free
GMAT Club tests for Quant. I attempted 4 official mock exams, including Official mocks 3 & 4.
GMAT Prep Mock 1(14,March,2021)- 710(Q49/V38)
GMAT Prep Mock 2(4,April,2021)- 730(Q49/V41)
GMAT Prep Mock 3(18,April,2021)- 730(Q48/V41)
GMAT Prep Mock 4(27,June,2021)- 680(Q45/V38)- My prep got derailed for 2 months as I first came down with Covid in the first week of May-2021 and then got engaged in an important project that totally throwed me off the rails till mid June-2021.
Official GMAT Online(6,July,2021)- 640(Q48,V29) I thought my verbal score could be a symptom of long covid as I was completely zoned out for most of the section.
Moving on:
I signed up for the TTP course and built my SC fundamentals, which I figured were the weakest link in my Verbal prep.
I also practiced a fair bit of Quant so that I can maintain the Q48-49.
For CR I went through the
Manhattan GMAT CR Guide and practiced using the OG 2016, which I owned thanks to my first encounter with the GMAT.
For RC I didn’t use any resource as I was doing fairly well on OG 2016 passages and during my prep for the second attempt I didn’t face much challenge on the RC.
Watched the entire GMAT Ninja series on Youtube and did fairly well on the questions and was able to relate to the explanations by Charles.
Retook 3 official GMAT prep mocks:
GMAT Prep Mock 1(20,Nov,2021)- 700(Q47/V39)
GMAT Prep Mock 4(27,Nov,2021)- 770(Q50/V44)- Full disclosure: I was familiar with some of the questions prior to taking the test.
GMAT Prep Mock 3(05,Dec,2021)- 720(Q49/V38)- breezed through the Q section with ~20 minutes to spare, ran short on time for V and had to rush through the last 8 questions in 5 minutes, got 4 incorrect as a result.
Time for the 3rd attempt, this time I decided to go for a test center appointment.
The result *drum roll* the glorious 640! (Q48/V32) I cancelled my score in disappointment and walked away.
Some reflections on my nerves during the exam:
I started with verbal first and was able to confidently answer the first two questions, both SC, correctly. Question no.3 RC, I don’t know why but I zoned out again and was not able to comprehend the passage. I remember being distracted by the loud thumping on the keyboard by the gentleman sitting next to me, probably taking the GMAT in AWA first order, he added to the ambiance the squeaking sound of his chair by rocking it back and forth. I looked at the clock and completely lost the track of the passage and had to guess 2 RC questions and move on. Felt a little calm after inserting the noise isolating earplugs.
Quant section felt a little challenging than on the Mocks but I managed to finish it on time with some confidence that I would have done enough to get a Q47-48. I wasn’t so sure about the verbal but even to my surprise I did so poorly AGAIN!
So finally I get to my question:
Experts, where do I go from here?
Please feel free to ask further questions that will help you assess my situation.
Thank you for being patient and making it to the end of the post.