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ashikaverma13
20 Jan 2017, 07:45
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So i appeared for the GMAT today and guess what, unlike most of the people on this forum and everyone else said, i had more than 50 points difference on my GMAT prep mock and my actual score. to give a brief background: i started preparing for GMAT in August 2015 but didn't really put my heart and soul in till early november. i also took an off from my office to prepare for the exam in the last weeks of my prep.
My journey in terms of weird GMAT prep scores:
GMAT prep 1: 550 (Q36, V29)
Prep 2: 600 (Q40, V32)
Prep 3: 650 (Q43, V35)
Prep 4: 660 (Q47, V36)
Prep 1 (again) just a day before the exam: 670 (Q45, V37)
Actual exam 620
(Q39, V35)
i want to retake the exam. so i don't want any suggestions regarding whether i should or not. i really really want help regarding how to improve my quants score. Sometimes when i used to go through the posts on this forum, i used to feel like i am the only one who is weak in quants. Every time i read a debrief, it felt like everybody has their quants figured out, which made me feel even dumber coz every debrief (at least the ones i read) started with something like 'i was scoring Q49, ever since the day i was born, so i just focused on my verbal skills'. if something is easy for everyone else in the world how am i only one struggling with it? maybe i am doing something fundamentally wrong. i always knew that i don't have the aptitude it took for maths but i wanted to overcome that with my hard work and i tried my level best. Almost EVERY debrief i read nobody ever complained about not getting enough in quants. on the other hand, my verbal is slightly on the better side. Though by the end of it i could never figure out how to break the V40 barrier.
i want to give myself another 2 months before appearing for the exam again and i really want to do better in quants. i struggled with everything during the exam, managing my time, trying to figure out a way to solve the problem, struggling to come up with a way to tackle the problem and i was hardly sure about any of the answers i marked, especially for DS questions.
Before my rant gets too long to read, if anybody can tell me any strategy for quants, how to begin right from the scratch and how to manage my time and nerves during the exam day, that would really help me. Also, any suggestions regarding breaking the V35-40 barrier would be great as well. Although for now, i think i am just going to focus of improving my quants skills for a month.
People of this amazing forum kindly help my devastated heart. Oh, if it helps in analyzing my failure. Here's a list of materials that i referred to for preparing and thought i was improving but apparently i didn't:
OG - 17 (did it twice, both maths and verbal)
GMAT question pack
GMAT verbal and quants review (although wasn't able to finish the verbal review)
took 4 GMAT prep mocks
Please suggest something which can help build my concepts in quants.
Thanks
My journey in terms of weird GMAT prep scores:
GMAT prep 1: 550 (Q36, V29)
Prep 2: 600 (Q40, V32)
Prep 3: 650 (Q43, V35)
Prep 4: 660 (Q47, V36)
Prep 1 (again) just a day before the exam: 670 (Q45, V37)
Actual exam 620
(Q39, V35)i want to retake the exam. so i don't want any suggestions regarding whether i should or not. i really really want help regarding how to improve my quants score. Sometimes when i used to go through the posts on this forum, i used to feel like i am the only one who is weak in quants. Every time i read a debrief, it felt like everybody has their quants figured out, which made me feel even dumber coz every debrief (at least the ones i read) started with something like 'i was scoring Q49, ever since the day i was born, so i just focused on my verbal skills'. if something is easy for everyone else in the world how am i only one struggling with it? maybe i am doing something fundamentally wrong. i always knew that i don't have the aptitude it took for maths but i wanted to overcome that with my hard work and i tried my level best. Almost EVERY debrief i read nobody ever complained about not getting enough in quants. on the other hand, my verbal is slightly on the better side. Though by the end of it i could never figure out how to break the V40 barrier.
i want to give myself another 2 months before appearing for the exam again and i really want to do better in quants. i struggled with everything during the exam, managing my time, trying to figure out a way to solve the problem, struggling to come up with a way to tackle the problem and i was hardly sure about any of the answers i marked, especially for DS questions.
Before my rant gets too long to read, if anybody can tell me any strategy for quants, how to begin right from the scratch and how to manage my time and nerves during the exam day, that would really help me. Also, any suggestions regarding breaking the V35-40 barrier would be great as well. Although for now, i think i am just going to focus of improving my quants skills for a month.
People of this amazing forum kindly help my devastated heart. Oh, if it helps in analyzing my failure. Here's a list of materials that i referred to for preparing and thought i was improving but apparently i didn't:
OG - 17 (did it twice, both maths and verbal)
GMAT question pack
GMAT verbal and quants review (although wasn't able to finish the verbal review)
took 4 GMAT prep mocks
Please suggest something which can help build my concepts in quants.
Thanks
20 Jan 2017, 11:48
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Bookmarks
Hi ashikaverma13,
I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as planned. Based on what you've described, there are a variety of different issues that you'll have to deal with before you can score at the desired level (which is essentially 700+). As an aside on the Quant Scaled Scores that you frequently read about - the Q49+ is a score that's achieved by only about 20% of Test Takers (and some of those are people who take the GMAT repeatedly), so that score is NOT as common of an achievement as you think it is. Thankfully, the GMAT is a consistent, predictable Exam, so you CAN train to score at a higher level.
To start, I have a few questions about how you took your CATs:
1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?
2) Did you take them at home?
3) Did you take them at the same time of day as your Official GMAT?
4) Did you ever do ANYTHING during your CATs that you couldn't do on Test Day (pause the CAT, skip sections, take longer breaks, etc.)?
5) Did you ever take a CAT more than once? Had you seen any of the questions BEFORE?
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as planned. Based on what you've described, there are a variety of different issues that you'll have to deal with before you can score at the desired level (which is essentially 700+). As an aside on the Quant Scaled Scores that you frequently read about - the Q49+ is a score that's achieved by only about 20% of Test Takers (and some of those are people who take the GMAT repeatedly), so that score is NOT as common of an achievement as you think it is. Thankfully, the GMAT is a consistent, predictable Exam, so you CAN train to score at a higher level.
To start, I have a few questions about how you took your CATs:
1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?
2) Did you take them at home?
3) Did you take them at the same time of day as your Official GMAT?
4) Did you ever do ANYTHING during your CATs that you couldn't do on Test Day (pause the CAT, skip sections, take longer breaks, etc.)?
5) Did you ever take a CAT more than once? Had you seen any of the questions BEFORE?
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
ashikaverma13
20 Jan 2017, 23:30
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Bookmarks
EMPOWERgmatRichC
Hi ashikaverma13,
I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as planned. Based on what you've described, there are a variety of different issues that you'll have to deal with before you can score at the desired level (which is essentially 700+). As an aside on the Quant Scaled Scores that you frequently read about - the Q49+ is a score that's achieved by only about 20% of Test Takers (and some of those are people who take the GMAT repeatedly), so that score is NOT as common of an achievement as you think it is. Thankfully, the GMAT is a consistent, predictable Exam, so you CAN train to score at a higher level.
To start, I have a few questions about how you took your CATs:
1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?
2) Did you take them at home?
3) Did you take them at the same time of day as your Official GMAT?
4) Did you ever do ANYTHING during your CATs that you couldn't do on Test Day (pause the CAT, skip sections, take longer breaks, etc.)?
5) Did you ever take a CAT more than once? Had you seen any of the questions BEFORE?
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as planned. Based on what you've described, there are a variety of different issues that you'll have to deal with before you can score at the desired level (which is essentially 700+). As an aside on the Quant Scaled Scores that you frequently read about - the Q49+ is a score that's achieved by only about 20% of Test Takers (and some of those are people who take the GMAT repeatedly), so that score is NOT as common of an achievement as you think it is. Thankfully, the GMAT is a consistent, predictable Exam, so you CAN train to score at a higher level.
To start, I have a few questions about how you took your CATs:
1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?
2) Did you take them at home?
3) Did you take them at the same time of day as your Official GMAT?
4) Did you ever do ANYTHING during your CATs that you couldn't do on Test Day (pause the CAT, skip sections, take longer breaks, etc.)?
5) Did you ever take a CAT more than once? Had you seen any of the questions BEFORE?
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Hey! Thanks for your response!
I agree that the percentage of people scoring 49+ is less but I still believe that the same percentage must go up to 50+ if we talk about people who get Q45+.
In any case, to answer your questions:
1) I did take the entire exam at once along with the AWA and IR sections.
2) I did not take the exams at home
3) I did take all of them at the same time of the day as my scheduled appointment.
4) I am guilty of taking certain pauses during the CATs. this happened only during quants though as I struggled with the questions and could see that my time was running out, at the same time knowing that I CAN solve that question. I dIdnt take more than the allowed break tIme on actual GMAT during these tests. also, didn't pause my exam during the verbal or any other section except maths.
5) as I said, I took GMAT Prep CATs 1 to 4. So I didn't see a lot of repeated questions. I only repeated the Prep 1 again and I did see one or two familiar questions but I gave the first prep exam almost a month ago and therefore most of the questions seemed new to me.
