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16 Apr 2019, 09:59
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Hi All,
Could really use some advice. I took the GMAT 3 weeks ago, after about 2-2.5 months of prep and scored a 680 (Q46 V37). I took that really more as practice, so I could better know what to expect when I took my test three weeks later on 4/13.
The three weeks following the 680 exam, I really hunkered down and was averaging about 3 hours a night M-F and 7-9 hours on Sat and Sun each. I also took the week off from work before my exam and had my own "bootcamp" where I took a practice test every other day, analyzed the results of each and spent the next 1.5 days practicing my weaknesses in the test.
I finally took the exam this past Saturday and I scored worse than before: 660 (37Q and 44V). It destroyed me. To put in that much time and effort and see that was tough.
This was really shocking because by the time the exam came around, I had taken 10+ practice tests (ranging from when I started studying in January) and had NEVER seen my Quant score dip below 41. And that 41 came early on in my prep.
With all that being said, I'd like to see if anyone has guidance on where I go from here. To give you more context:
• The course I used to prepare:
○ Kaplan live course with materials
• How I prepared:
[*]1. Step 1: Laid the Foundation When I started, I was very rough on all areas, more math.
i. So, I spent the first month of prep on my own, going through Magoosh's math videos, taking notes, flashcarding, and doing question sets. I also did about 100 of the OG PS questions to get my mind used to the questions
ii. Once I had a good foundation, I took the first GMAT prep pack and scored a 640(46Q 32V) and 620 (42Q 33V)
[*]2. Step 2: Get More Formalized Help Seeing that I needed more help, I enrolled in the 4 week Kaplan course that included Quant and Verbal prep
i. I spent the next week using everything from that course. I attended each class on the weekends, did the homework and qbank associated with the lessons learned from Sat and Sunday.
ii. After the course, I spent 2 weeks prepping on my own and took that first GMAT test and scored a 680 (Q46 V37).
[*]3. Step 3: Attack the Weakness: After my Kaplan practice tests and the 680, I saw a pattern where I would get the first 10 problems on Quant but then start missing many of them, showing my lack of comfort with higher level problems. That's when I bought the Manhattan Advanced Quant book and started reading through it and did the first few workout sets.
[*]4. Step 4: Finish Strong: Then I took this past week off from work, and held my own bootcamp.
i. In the first three days, I did a practice test every morning. After this, I would analyze the results, and redo all problems I got wrong. I would then look for any patterns of what I did wrong, and try to practice those.
ii. For Quant: I wasn't seeing any patterns among specific content that troubled me, but more that when I got to advanced problems after 10, I would struggle. So rather than focus on content, I focused on difficulty level for quant, and did the next 10 or so workout sets in the manhattan prep book, averaging 1-1.5 each night of the week before the exam.
iii. For verbal, I actually became quite strong but to make sure I didn't lose steam, I would do 10-15 SC and CR questions a day, with the occasional RC passage thrown in. However, 2-3 days from my exam, I became worried at some PT results showing me missing some easier RC and CR problems so that became my emphasis towards the end.
iv. My last 2 practice tests, which were GMAT PREP, were on the Tues and Thurs before the exam, Tuesday's was a 680 (48Q and 35V) and Thursday's was a 710 (49Q and 38V)
v. I spent the next 1.5 days reviewing notes, doing a few more questions to keep my mind focused, and 2 more workout sets in Manhattan prep
• My practice tests scores (in order):
○ GMAT Prep 1: 640 (Q46 V32)
○ GMAT Prep 2: 620 (Q42 V33)
○ Kaplan: 650 (Q42 V37)
○ Kaplan 620 (Q42 V33)
○ Kaplan 650 (Q41 V38)
○ Kaplan: 680 (Q47 V36)
○ Kaplan: 710 (Q48 V39)
○ Kaplan: 660 (Q45 V36)
○ GMAT Prep 3: 680 (Q48 V35)
○ GMAT Prep 4: 710 (Q49 V38)
• Materials I used:
○ Kaplan adaptive Qbank (for math and verbal)
○ Magoosh lessons and questions (initially for math but then towards the end just for SC and CR)
○ Manhattan Prep advanced quant book
○ OG (Primarily for CR & RC, but did the first 100 questions in math problem solving)
• What I think happened, but an very open to other opinions:
○ I think I panicked. I opened the quant section on 4/13, didn't know how to do the first or second within 2-3 mins and lost my composure. I took the 8 min break after and walked to the water fountain, and felt deep down that I had bombed the section.
○ My big mistake is that in the last 2 practice tests I took (and I'm hating myself that I did this with a fury), I was unable to do the first question on each and would also go into a panic. So I would pause the exam on that question only and take a deep breath, calm myself down for 30 seconds, and then resume the exams.
○ I also think that towards the end of my exam prep, I may have spent a disproportionate amount of time on Verbal, because I saw my CR and SC scores starting to dip. I still maintained doing 1-1.5 workout sets a night, but maybe this wasn't enough?
• My timeline
○ I hope to apply this coming fall. I unfortunately haven't visited any campuses yet and my plan was to visit them this month, after the exam this past Saturday. Obviously, my focus has shifted to getting my score in place before anything else.
○ I've scheduled my next exam for 5/6 because my goal is to get this done asap and at least try to get some campus visits in May done. Also, work will get very very hectic in May and I will be unable to devote as much time as I'd like.
○ I'm also mentally very tired of studying and want to be done with this as soon as I can
MY QUESTION(S) TO YOU:
• Where do I go from here? I'm very lost on what the best next step is. I'm not sure if my GMAT prep tests were actually wrong and I'm awful at quant or this 4/13 test just hit all my weaknesses at once. So do I start from scratch here, and go back to the basic lessons and diagnostics, or do I just keep practicing and try again.
• Is 5/6 a good timeline or do you think I should move it?
Fortunately, and I mean this with the most humility possible, because of certain life decisions I've made, I have the budget for a 1:1 tutor and am strongly considering that. Let me know if you think that's a smart idea please!
APPRECIATE ANY AND ALL ADVICE!
Could really use some advice. I took the GMAT 3 weeks ago, after about 2-2.5 months of prep and scored a 680 (Q46 V37). I took that really more as practice, so I could better know what to expect when I took my test three weeks later on 4/13.
The three weeks following the 680 exam, I really hunkered down and was averaging about 3 hours a night M-F and 7-9 hours on Sat and Sun each. I also took the week off from work before my exam and had my own "bootcamp" where I took a practice test every other day, analyzed the results of each and spent the next 1.5 days practicing my weaknesses in the test.
I finally took the exam this past Saturday and I scored worse than before: 660 (37Q and 44V). It destroyed me. To put in that much time and effort and see that was tough.
This was really shocking because by the time the exam came around, I had taken 10+ practice tests (ranging from when I started studying in January) and had NEVER seen my Quant score dip below 41. And that 41 came early on in my prep.
With all that being said, I'd like to see if anyone has guidance on where I go from here. To give you more context:
• The course I used to prepare:
○ Kaplan live course with materials
• How I prepared:
[*]1. Step 1: Laid the Foundation When I started, I was very rough on all areas, more math.
i. So, I spent the first month of prep on my own, going through Magoosh's math videos, taking notes, flashcarding, and doing question sets. I also did about 100 of the OG PS questions to get my mind used to the questions
ii. Once I had a good foundation, I took the first GMAT prep pack and scored a 640(46Q 32V) and 620 (42Q 33V)
[*]2. Step 2: Get More Formalized Help Seeing that I needed more help, I enrolled in the 4 week Kaplan course that included Quant and Verbal prep
i. I spent the next week using everything from that course. I attended each class on the weekends, did the homework and qbank associated with the lessons learned from Sat and Sunday.
ii. After the course, I spent 2 weeks prepping on my own and took that first GMAT test and scored a 680 (Q46 V37).
[*]3. Step 3: Attack the Weakness: After my Kaplan practice tests and the 680, I saw a pattern where I would get the first 10 problems on Quant but then start missing many of them, showing my lack of comfort with higher level problems. That's when I bought the Manhattan Advanced Quant book and started reading through it and did the first few workout sets.
[*]4. Step 4: Finish Strong: Then I took this past week off from work, and held my own bootcamp.
i. In the first three days, I did a practice test every morning. After this, I would analyze the results, and redo all problems I got wrong. I would then look for any patterns of what I did wrong, and try to practice those.
ii. For Quant: I wasn't seeing any patterns among specific content that troubled me, but more that when I got to advanced problems after 10, I would struggle. So rather than focus on content, I focused on difficulty level for quant, and did the next 10 or so workout sets in the manhattan prep book, averaging 1-1.5 each night of the week before the exam.
iii. For verbal, I actually became quite strong but to make sure I didn't lose steam, I would do 10-15 SC and CR questions a day, with the occasional RC passage thrown in. However, 2-3 days from my exam, I became worried at some PT results showing me missing some easier RC and CR problems so that became my emphasis towards the end.
iv. My last 2 practice tests, which were GMAT PREP, were on the Tues and Thurs before the exam, Tuesday's was a 680 (48Q and 35V) and Thursday's was a 710 (49Q and 38V)
v. I spent the next 1.5 days reviewing notes, doing a few more questions to keep my mind focused, and 2 more workout sets in Manhattan prep
• My practice tests scores (in order):
○ GMAT Prep 1: 640 (Q46 V32)
○ GMAT Prep 2: 620 (Q42 V33)
○ Kaplan: 650 (Q42 V37)
○ Kaplan 620 (Q42 V33)
○ Kaplan 650 (Q41 V38)
○ Kaplan: 680 (Q47 V36)
○ Kaplan: 710 (Q48 V39)
○ Kaplan: 660 (Q45 V36)
○ GMAT Prep 3: 680 (Q48 V35)
○ GMAT Prep 4: 710 (Q49 V38)
• Materials I used:
○ Kaplan adaptive Qbank (for math and verbal)
○ Magoosh lessons and questions (initially for math but then towards the end just for SC and CR)
○ Manhattan Prep advanced quant book
○ OG (Primarily for CR & RC, but did the first 100 questions in math problem solving)
• What I think happened, but an very open to other opinions:
○ I think I panicked. I opened the quant section on 4/13, didn't know how to do the first or second within 2-3 mins and lost my composure. I took the 8 min break after and walked to the water fountain, and felt deep down that I had bombed the section.
○ My big mistake is that in the last 2 practice tests I took (and I'm hating myself that I did this with a fury), I was unable to do the first question on each and would also go into a panic. So I would pause the exam on that question only and take a deep breath, calm myself down for 30 seconds, and then resume the exams.
○ I also think that towards the end of my exam prep, I may have spent a disproportionate amount of time on Verbal, because I saw my CR and SC scores starting to dip. I still maintained doing 1-1.5 workout sets a night, but maybe this wasn't enough?
• My timeline
○ I hope to apply this coming fall. I unfortunately haven't visited any campuses yet and my plan was to visit them this month, after the exam this past Saturday. Obviously, my focus has shifted to getting my score in place before anything else.
○ I've scheduled my next exam for 5/6 because my goal is to get this done asap and at least try to get some campus visits in May done. Also, work will get very very hectic in May and I will be unable to devote as much time as I'd like.
○ I'm also mentally very tired of studying and want to be done with this as soon as I can
MY QUESTION(S) TO YOU:
• Where do I go from here? I'm very lost on what the best next step is. I'm not sure if my GMAT prep tests were actually wrong and I'm awful at quant or this 4/13 test just hit all my weaknesses at once. So do I start from scratch here, and go back to the basic lessons and diagnostics, or do I just keep practicing and try again.
• Is 5/6 a good timeline or do you think I should move it?
Fortunately, and I mean this with the most humility possible, because of certain life decisions I've made, I have the budget for a 1:1 tutor and am strongly considering that. Let me know if you think that's a smart idea please!
APPRECIATE ANY AND ALL ADVICE!
16 Apr 2019, 11:54
Kudos
Bookmarks
zizzle123
It might be a good idea not to take so many tests so close together (you gave yourself only one day between your last practice test and the actual exam). Give yourself a little more time in between practice tests, and at least a few days before the actual GMAT. You want to make sure that you are "fresh" for the actual test.
zizzle123
This is not all bad news. The score drop in quant could just be underperformance (your score was well below all your other scores) and you managed to get an amazing score in verbal (98%, up from 82%).
zizzle123
1. Get official practice tests 5 & 6.
2. You already know this: don't pause your practice tests.
3. Try to focus on your weaknesses. If you can maintain your verbal, quant is what will drive any significant improvements in your total score.
zizzle123
1. The GMATPreps are not perfect, but they are the most reliable tests around. That said, ensure that you take the remaining practice tests under exam conditions.
2. The first question the exam shows you is unlikely to be very tough, so it is probably your response to the first question that you need to work on. You can think about (a) allocating more time to the first few questions, (b) practicing additional timed exercises to simulate the cold start you'll face on test day, and (c) switching section order.
3. If I were you, I'd take practice test 5 before taking a decision on working with a tutor.
The important thing to keep in mind here is that you are very likely capable of an excellent score. No one "lucks" their way into a V44.
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