GMAT - damm you .....

Question

I am writing this post mostly because I need to vent it out ..... Am retaking GMAT on May 20th and thought my preperation was going good until this morning ....... This is how my practice scores have been so far

Knewton Diag (2/20) - 590 (Q-38, V-34)
Knewton Test 1 (4/07) - 640 (Q-46, V-31)
Knewton Test 2 (4/13) - 680 (Q-44, V-40)
GMAT PREP V2 (4/23) - 690 (Q-49, V - Dont remm)
GMAT PREP V1 Test #1(4/27) - 730 (Q-50, V - 40 - I think)
GMAT PREP V1 Test #2(4/30) - 640 (Q-47, V - 31- I think)  
GMAT PREP V1 Test #1(5/1) - RESET - 740 (Q-50, V - 41) (Had lot of repeat so cant take this seriously) 
MGMAT Test #1 - (5/4) - 680 (Q47, V-36) (Felt a little better)
Knewton Test 3 (5/5) - 640 (Q-45, V-33)  
GMAT PREP V2 Test #1 (5/7) - RESET - 760 (Q-51, V-42) (This def is inflated as I got lot of questions which I had seen either in the exam or on the forum)
MGMAT Test #2 - (5/9) - 670 (Q48, V-33) 
Knewton Test # 4 - (5/10) - 680 (Q47, V-36) 
MGMAT Test #3 - (5/15) - 680 (Q48, V-34) 
Knewton Test # 5 - (5/16) - 570 (Q38, V-32) 
MGMAT Test #4 - (5/17) - 650 (Q44, V-35)

so what is going on in my mind ....

DAMM you Knewton ... 
DAMM you MGMAT...
DAMM you GMAT PREP (for only having 2 exams) ..... 
and DAMM you GMAT ..... 
 
so now its 3 days before my exam .... dont really know what else do to .... what to do differently, how to analyze the performance so far .... am just stumped .....

I know the usual advice that my wife gives me dont think about it ... dont overanalyze ..... but i guess when there is so much at stake not sure how not to think about .....

Anyway ....thanks for reading .... will update this again on Friday .... hopefully with some good news ......

rnjbond · Answer

On the exams with lower scores, is there something holding you back? Is it a particular topic?

Anyway, your wife is right. Just relax, destress, and you'll be fine. Good luck!

mn2010 · Answer

Hey njbond

Thats the problem, its not one particular thing that goes wrong .... sometimes its the timing when i spend too much time on early problems and then have to rush through the later ones, sometimes its just nervousness .... 
its not any particular topic which i screw up .....

For starters, am not even sure how representative are NON GMAT prep question banks and they scoring .... 
i.e. when i do SC and CR questions from GMAT prep (from the docs posted here), i get around 80-90% questions right (with time) but in MGMAT and Knewton my accuracy is too low ....

and then i have read some posts about accuracy of knewton algorithm .... so dont know if thats a reason but then even MGMAT gives me a low score sometimes .... so may be its me and am not just able to pinpoint the cause .....

skbjunior · Answer

I would stick to the official stuff in the last week of the prep. (rather I am. my test is on 24th May.) Don't think about things that are out of our control namely, accuracy of algorithms. Just stay focused and calm. Review the strategies that work for you best. Also, be prepared to stay clam for the contingencies during the test such as, encountering stuff you are not comfortable with. Figure out a couple of ways to tide over nervousness during test. Most people take few deep breaths. So, staying calm and focused is the key; freaking out will only hurt your performance. Just my 2 cents.

Good luck to you!

rnjbond · Answer

Sleep well the night before, too! Seriously, melatonin will force you to fall asleep, evne if you're nervous.

mn2010 · Answer

thanks for the sugestions guys ....

I was feeling pretty confident until last week .... i know shud have just stuck to official material ...... but ohh well ....

mn2010 · Answer

2 days to go..... feeling a little better today not that I gave another CAT ...no more CAT's for me ... just the real thing .... 
after worrying and thinking about my practice tests yesterday ... i started to think this morning if I was confident of my preperation until last week then there is no reason to doubt it today ... its not that I will forget maths and english in a few days ....

i know its an important test but is not end of the world ..... BRING IT ON GMAT .....

rg1 · Answer

Good luck @mn2010.

l0rrie · Answer

Good luck, I know the feeling because I've been having the same thing.. Let us know how it went..

Topaz · Answer

Good Luck!...

Topaz · Answer

mn2010- How was the test and can you share your score?

e1s · Answer

yeah, how was your test?

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GMAT - damm you .....

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