Not really in the best mood of my life but i promised myself that i would write down my experiences. All i needed was a 600 but...
My background: Business and Language major. Native English speaker
End of 2005 took the test for the first time and decided to cancel my score. At this time didnt really know much about the GMAT test, had practiced a few questions. Then a month later took the test again (didnt really do much studying for this and didnt have access to materials) and scored a massive 500 (Quant 25 (yes this score really does exist!!) and Verbal 31.
Determined not to fail i then sold my business (was going to do this anyway) and concentrated solely on the GMAT for 4 months. Everyday i studied (was inspired by people on this site), occasionally had a day off but started to improve. My main focus area was Quant as my score was so dismal in the first test. Got through a lot material
OG, McGraw Hill, GMAT 800 and had a good solid grasp of all the maths basics.
Took Powerprep quite a few times and Gmat prep and scored between 560 and 660. Got higher than this in other tests.
Then yesterday sat the test proper and had a shocker!! The strangest of experiences really, as i thought that i had nailed it. AWA was fine (had practiced two of these before i sat this test). Quant was manageable too (so i felt..in fact i was on question 12 and thought that the questions were really easy..not a good sign though of course!! but apart from two or three questions i really thought that i had got the answers right because after working out a question the answer was on the screen. In short, after having completed so many practice tests i thought that i had a good idea of when things were going well and when they arent (especially for Quant)
So then onto Verbal. A dodgy SC question first up...got it down to two but then had to guess from there. Other questions were very manageable. Reading Comp texts were kind as well.
So finished the test thinking i had done pretty well and then ermmmmm perhaps not.
Up flashed Quant 34 Verbal 25 Score 500. So four months later after having studied my balls off i end up with exactly the same score as i did a year ago when i knew absolutely nothing about the test. How i ended up with a 25 in the verbal section this time i just dont know. In recent practice tests my lowest ever score was 30. I am a native speaker and spent a lot of time on SC questions as i thought this is where i can get the most value. RC is normally fine providing the text is not on sand dune particles and stars exploding in the stratosphere.. in fact in the test all the texts were quite concise but on topics i understood. Cr questions were ok as well.
So in sum i think that i might have been given the wrong score!!! lol.
I would love to rant on about how much of a joke this test is but will hold myself back!!
So what i am going to do now??? Do i dare go through it all again one last time?? Might have to can the idea of doing an MBA. A bit of shame really after having put so much effort in but you can only try your best right?!!! There are a lot worse things happening around in the world and maybe the big man upstairs is trying to tell me something??
Not so sure about how helpful this posting is to you all out there but promised myself i would disclose my experience regardless of the outcome.