The word is DEVASTATION!!

Oh Boy...I completely agree with Vivek...I have been following your posts...either you deserve a much better score...or God help me

Rahul, it's not bad at all!!! ...I also follow your posts and feel that you can , sooner or later, hit the 700 score range . Good lucks to your GMAT next time and application to NTU or NUS!!

Also Rahul, clearly, you were (and we were as well) expecting a 700+ from you. Now that you are GMATwise, it would reallly help benefit if you could share with us as to what you think you could have done better...or where you think you erred.

hey..rahul 670 is good score...and you can definetly make it to 700+..

btw please share your experience....how hard was quant? verbal? how does it compare with gmatprep?

Hey guys,

Many thanks for all the kind words! It really helps to regain that sense of self worth - coz when i said devastated, i was not overstating! I am angry at ETS for it destroyed my confidence and forced me to doubt my capabilities!

There is no use to brood over it now. I know it. But sadly, it aint that simple!

I want to share with you all the difficulty level of GMAT! My GMAT preparation, I wont write much as it was pretty much standard - OG, Kaplan, PR, 1000-docs, and a number of mock tests.

Quant Section

Im sure you guys will agree that level of difficulty is indeed relative. Probably a HongHu or a Wilfred will find literally nothing difficult. But I did find some problems pretty difficult. Quite early on - 4th, 5th and 8th questions - I got P/C and probablity questions, but of average difficulty.
One question on triangles, nothing from co-ordinate geometry.
I had 3 quite contorted problems on sequences/series - I found them very difficult and I had to guess 2 out of those 3. I got a couple of questions on work/rate, average and mixture. The rest were the usual ones - absolute value DS, prime number/integers DS and so on. Surprisingly, I found myself running against time - something that never happened in any of my practice tests.

Overall, I felt that the level of difficulty was almost on par with that of GMAT Prep. It was not easy by any standard. I also felt that OG does not reflect the actual level of difficulty of problems. OG is just to cover the basic concepts. After that it aint of much use!

Verbal Section

Much has been said about the difficulty level of the three different sections in verbal. I agree with that general view.
RCs were much simpler - my first passage was 85 lines business passage, two 65 lines passages on women emancipation and women employment and one 45 lines passage on philosophy. Overall, RCs were pretty smooth.
SCs were alright - not easy, but not tough either. The regular practice here in the forum and working out SC 1000 really did help a lot. But one thing that I observed was that most of the SCs were 3-4 lines long and quite twisted - nothing simple or straight forward.
CRs were the toughest of the lot. Many CRs were tougher than the usual L-SAT culprits. I found myself reading the question stem and choices repeatedly before deciding the answer. Again OG CR is not at all reflective of the real ones. I feel 95% of OG CR questions are pretty straight forward with the ocassional challenging ones. CR-1000 is indeed the right collection and I'd say a good indicator of the actual CR difficulty level.

I guess thats about it. Hope it helps.

Before I end, I must say that GMAT Club has indeed helped a lot. The many members here are just awesome. My special thanks to Wilfred who helped me out with the silliest of questions and simplest of problems. Many thanks indeed to Paul, HongHu for thier great posts and explanations. Thanks to Gayathri for that excellent note of grammar. Thanks to CLF, nakib, himalaya, ranga, gsr, fresinha, krishna, antmavel, vivek and all the others for the many wonderful discussions!

Hi Rahul,

I have been following your posts, and your detailed replies. You are definitely of 700+ caliber. Unfortunately, I have seen that the GMAT CAT scores tend to fall in a +/- 50 bracket. In other words, if you average 700, you can score 650 on your worst day, or 750 on your best day. Although most test takers fall closer to the mean score, many other can have wildly varying scores. In fact a GMAT taker who takes the exam on two consecutive days can get two different scores. The point it - it is obvious your GMAT scores falls under the lower end of the range I mentioned. So buck up, review the material once again, and take it again next month.

All the best,
Darth

I agree with Darth. You are are 700+ material Rahul, your posts in the maths sections leave little doubt.

Was this your first time taking the test? My first time I choked big time, I was rushed for time and when you get rushed you fall for every trap they lay out for you.

Look at this as a bump in the road, stay the course and you will get the score you are looking for.

B.

Worry not.

I was in the same situation as you. I had studied and was expecting (and would be happy with) 700+.

I took the GMAT and got a 690 (Q46, V38). The test was EXTREMELY difficult. I had scored a 690 on my first PowerPrep, then did more studying and scored a 760 on my second PowerPrep.

I found the math to be really tough as well as the verbal. On my practice tests, I wasn't finishing the math early but I wasn't feeling time-crunched. I would finish verbal 10-15 minutes early on all the practice tests.

On the actual GMAT, I didn't even get to answer the last math question. On the verbal, I had skip an entire reading comprehension passage because I simply had no time.

I was really upset - while there's no difference between a 690 and 700, I wanted to make my application as strong as possible, and I felt that meant I needed a 700. However, what could I do? I had already studied as much as possible - I don't think any more studying would yield greater results. I strongly felt that the I was prepared and that the luck of the CAT was against me. The questions it chose to give me were tough.

So I signed up to take the GMAT a second time, one month after the first one. I reviewed material so I wouldn't forget anything, but I still feel I knew the exact same and was equally prepared going into each test. The second test was a breeze. I finished verbal with 25 minutes and had 5 minutes left on math. I could do all the questions without any problems.

The result?
780 (Q51, V47).

So, it's quite possible you just had some bad luck - the test for your particular CAT was just abnormally difficult. That's what I felt, so I took it again and you see the result. Best of luck.

Hey Rahul!

670 is definitely a very good score. Congrats!!
If you want to take the exam again, your score can only go up! Just take a few days off. Keep thinking and if you want to go for it again, just give it a full blast!
Again, 670 is a very good score. It may be more than enough for most of the schools. Just check with the schools on that!

Good Luck!

Not sure if I have anything to add to what has already been posted here by others but I agree 670 is not a bad score (though like the others I thought you were definitely in the 700+ class).

But do keep sharing your problems, solutions and strategies on the forum, they are really helpful.
I'm sure this would help you improve on your next shot at the GMAT.... !!

All the best!

670 is an excellent score. I know you're disappointed and you're strategizing on how to improve... but before you do, pause for a minute to appreciate and celebrate your 670. That's in the 89th percentile. Think about the 89% of people whose scores are lower than yours, and realize you're definately top-caliber with a score like that.

Many thanks indeed to Darth, Smith, gsr, Vikram, CLF, jimbob, mohish, vivek, lax for writing in to cheer me up!

It has almost taken me 2 full days to recover from the shock! I agree that 670 is not a bad score when I compare it with that of others who have scored much less! But I was really aiming for atleast a 720, so it came as quite a shock!!
I have decided to give GMAT again in a months time. Its back to preparation once again!

So i aint goin nowhere! I'l be back with my posts and questions!

Hey Rahul!!

That's the spirit! Most people take more than one attempt to hit 700+ and I'm sure with that you'll go into the next GMAT with more confidence and experience. The fact you got some P/C meant you were doing well. The P/C problems usually come up if the test engine decides you're doing good to move into a 'difficult' band. I think maybe it's a real test, and so you became more cautious with your workings and answers, and thus you had less time. The fact you did not experience this on practice suggests the tension of the real thing got to you. But don't fret, since you've done it once, the second time won't bother you!
Have a good rest! And come back for more discussions!! It has been enjoyable discussing problems with you

Yeahhhh! that's the spirit, let's not give up!