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30 Aug 2013, 23:54
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Hi everyone, this is my very 1st post on the GMAT Club. And m devastated to say that i am reporting failure. Gave my GMAT yesterday and got a horrible 560 (Q 43, V 25). A 25 on a verbal. 
I just can't believe it.
A little bit history so that i can justify why i am shell shocked indeed!
I am Indian, female, 22. Just done with my graduation (Electronics and Communication). I have a job offer in hand with a Indian IT giant. I start this September there. Since i graduated recently, i had about 3 months on hand full time to study well and get a good score. Before even setting myself targets, I brought the OG, Understood what exactly the GMAT was. Familiarized myself with the question patterns and answered few questions from all sections. Then Somewhere around May this year i gave my first GMAT Prep exam to know where i stand.
I got a 560 (Q 41, V 26).
I was a bit disappointed as i thought my verbal was always good. I've been exceptionally good at English all through out high school and life in general. I am an avid bookworm. I do read a lot from all sorts of books, magazines and journals. I was a tad bit concerned about my concentration powers. I noticed a drop and i was easily distracted by mundane and silly stuff while studying. Apart from this i realized CR was a slight weak point along with RC. Funnily enough (or not) i was good at SC right from the beginning.
Quant was always going to be a problem for me as i was average at Math all my life. Anyhow i chalked up my study plan from mid May and bought the Manhattan Review Strategy Guide Set. All the set of 10 books. I studied devotedly, put in almost 7 hours daily. I knew that this free time was damn valuable as once i started my professional career i was not going to get anytime for something as important as the GMAT. I studied every topic related to Quant from the strategy guides. Practiced the relevant OG problems. Did all of this dutifully and with a eye to learn rather than just score correctly. I did 3 hour Quant 3 Hour verbal daily. I did meditation as well to channelize my inner power and get my concentration back. I exercised daily (Jogged 4kms daily). I started giving MGMAT tests from the first week of July after really studying all the basics for a month and a half. I took considerable breaks between study as well.
MGMAT Test 1 : 590 (Q 42, V30) 1st week on July
MGMAT Test 2 : 670 (Q 45, V36) 3rd week of July (You can see that considerable practice made all the damn difference here)
Kaplan Test 1 : 610 (Q 44, V 31) 4th week of July (My confidence was really hit).
MGMAT Test 3: 680 (Q 46, V 36) 1st week of August
GMAT Prep 2: 690 (Q 49, V 34) I was really happy with this, because i knew i had to schedule the test within last week of August and this convinced me that i was on track. Kept my target as 680-690. Scheduled a slot for Aug 30th (5:00-9:00 pm)
MGMAT Test 4: 690 (Q 46, V 37)...confidence was high (August 3rd week)
MGMAT Test 5 : 670 (Q 45, V 36), wasn't really concerned with the 20 point drop, told myself i was on track. (2 days before test).
30th Aug 2013: D-Day. I went about my exercise routine as usual. Was slightly concerned with the time slot, but told myself it was fine as most of my mocks were during 4:00 pm to 8:00pm. I never really had any timing issues during mocks. I knew my concepts were strong and it was all about applying the same on the test day.
Anyhow got Gatorade and snickers for my breaks, arrived before schedule for the exam. I was pretty cool and calm.
AWA and IR were pretty smooth. I was asked to remove my sweater before the exam and i found the AC pretty distracting. However I found the IR easy after the MGMAT practice IRs. Took my 1st break and drank half the Gatorade and had half the chocolate. Told myself that i would nail quant.
Started quant, and the downfall started as well. The very 1st question stumped me, it was a weird sequence question, and i took 3 mins to get past it, though i wasn't convinced i did it right. Got some medium level questions and then the hard level started. I found i was having trouble even understanding the questions, The damned Air Conditioning troubled me very much. Anyhow i kept at the exam, guessed a few questions and around 25-32, got a whole bunch of fairly easy questions. I knew i blew quant. The last few were a bit hard, but i did them anyway.
Took my break finished the Gatorade. I told myself that i will own Verbal no matter what. The first 5 questions were SCs, and m sure i got past all of them correctly, few CRs. Fairly medium level. Then two back to back RCs. I found them tough. 2 tough inference questions. I knew i nailed them as the passage was easy to understand. Along came two back to back boldface CRs. I always nailed the bold face questions in practice and m sure as hell, i nailed these too. More tough SC questions came along the way. I guessed on one coz it was hard to spot the damned error and the options all looked the same to me (dunno why). along 20- 23, the Air Conditioning was really getting to me. I told myself to shut the hell up and concentrate. Looked to me as if my brain and all the damned neurons froze right then and there. I got a really tough RC with convoluted information (Biology)
. Then came a bunch of SCs, another RC (medium this time) and 1 more bold face CR question. Found the last few questions fairly tough. So i judged that overall, i must have done fairly well enough on Verbal. Finished the exam, completed the damn survey. I knew i was going to see a 35 above on verbal for sure. Not 40, but at least a 35. Clicked report my score and there it was a 25! I was the last person to finish the test that day and had trouble even getting up from my seat and getting home. Could there be any way that the 25 verbal was wrong? I know i blew quant.
Everything had gone terribly wrong the past year and i was really looking for the GMAT to motivate me. I have to go away for 4 months tough training for my new job. Now i am beginning to question my abilities. Really gutted. Will i excel at my career, will i ever get a 650 above on GMAT? Was my approach wrong? My basics for sure are not that pathetic to deserve a 560. What can be more worse than getting the same score on your actual GMAT that you got on the first mock before start of prep ? I really had trouble getting out of bed today morning. Kinda Lost. Anyone offering help or advice or change of strategy are most welcome. Should i let the GMAT go for now and focus on building a good career? I won't be applying for any sort of program for another 3-4 yrs anyway. What should i really do? Can i write to the GMAT and ask for a check on the verbal? i know no good can come of that deep down, but still. I know for sure that i am worth much more than a stupid 560. I don't deserve that whatsoever. . Is the real GMAT quant pretty hard than the MGMAT and GMAT Prep. I remember not finding similarly patterned questions as the OG on the real GMAT. Does the OG suck? Or did i have a bad day anyway?
Please do Help!
I just can't believe it. A little bit history so that i can justify why i am shell shocked indeed!
I am Indian, female, 22. Just done with my graduation (Electronics and Communication). I have a job offer in hand with a Indian IT giant. I start this September there. Since i graduated recently, i had about 3 months on hand full time to study well and get a good score. Before even setting myself targets, I brought the OG, Understood what exactly the GMAT was. Familiarized myself with the question patterns and answered few questions from all sections. Then Somewhere around May this year i gave my first GMAT Prep exam to know where i stand.
I got a 560 (Q 41, V 26).
I was a bit disappointed as i thought my verbal was always good. I've been exceptionally good at English all through out high school and life in general. I am an avid bookworm. I do read a lot from all sorts of books, magazines and journals. I was a tad bit concerned about my concentration powers. I noticed a drop and i was easily distracted by mundane and silly stuff while studying. Apart from this i realized CR was a slight weak point along with RC. Funnily enough (or not) i was good at SC right from the beginning.
Quant was always going to be a problem for me as i was average at Math all my life. Anyhow i chalked up my study plan from mid May and bought the Manhattan Review Strategy Guide Set. All the set of 10 books. I studied devotedly, put in almost 7 hours daily. I knew that this free time was damn valuable as once i started my professional career i was not going to get anytime for something as important as the GMAT. I studied every topic related to Quant from the strategy guides. Practiced the relevant OG problems. Did all of this dutifully and with a eye to learn rather than just score correctly. I did 3 hour Quant 3 Hour verbal daily. I did meditation as well to channelize my inner power and get my concentration back. I exercised daily (Jogged 4kms daily). I started giving MGMAT tests from the first week of July after really studying all the basics for a month and a half. I took considerable breaks between study as well.
MGMAT Test 1 : 590 (Q 42, V30) 1st week on July
MGMAT Test 2 : 670 (Q 45, V36) 3rd week of July (You can see that considerable practice made all the damn difference here)
Kaplan Test 1 : 610 (Q 44, V 31) 4th week of July (My confidence was really hit).
MGMAT Test 3: 680 (Q 46, V 36) 1st week of August
GMAT Prep 2: 690 (Q 49, V 34) I was really happy with this, because i knew i had to schedule the test within last week of August and this convinced me that i was on track. Kept my target as 680-690. Scheduled a slot for Aug 30th (5:00-9:00 pm)
MGMAT Test 4: 690 (Q 46, V 37)...confidence was high (August 3rd week)
MGMAT Test 5 : 670 (Q 45, V 36), wasn't really concerned with the 20 point drop, told myself i was on track. (2 days before test).
30th Aug 2013: D-Day. I went about my exercise routine as usual. Was slightly concerned with the time slot, but told myself it was fine as most of my mocks were during 4:00 pm to 8:00pm. I never really had any timing issues during mocks. I knew my concepts were strong and it was all about applying the same on the test day.
Anyhow got Gatorade and snickers for my breaks, arrived before schedule for the exam. I was pretty cool and calm.
AWA and IR were pretty smooth. I was asked to remove my sweater before the exam and i found the AC pretty distracting. However I found the IR easy after the MGMAT practice IRs. Took my 1st break and drank half the Gatorade and had half the chocolate. Told myself that i would nail quant.
Started quant, and the downfall started as well. The very 1st question stumped me, it was a weird sequence question, and i took 3 mins to get past it, though i wasn't convinced i did it right. Got some medium level questions and then the hard level started. I found i was having trouble even understanding the questions, The damned Air Conditioning troubled me very much. Anyhow i kept at the exam, guessed a few questions and around 25-32, got a whole bunch of fairly easy questions. I knew i blew quant. The last few were a bit hard, but i did them anyway.
Took my break finished the Gatorade. I told myself that i will own Verbal no matter what. The first 5 questions were SCs, and m sure i got past all of them correctly, few CRs. Fairly medium level. Then two back to back RCs. I found them tough. 2 tough inference questions. I knew i nailed them as the passage was easy to understand. Along came two back to back boldface CRs. I always nailed the bold face questions in practice and m sure as hell, i nailed these too. More tough SC questions came along the way. I guessed on one coz it was hard to spot the damned error and the options all looked the same to me (dunno why). along 20- 23, the Air Conditioning was really getting to me. I told myself to shut the hell up and concentrate. Looked to me as if my brain and all the damned neurons froze right then and there. I got a really tough RC with convoluted information (Biology)
. Then came a bunch of SCs, another RC (medium this time) and 1 more bold face CR question. Found the last few questions fairly tough. So i judged that overall, i must have done fairly well enough on Verbal. Finished the exam, completed the damn survey. I knew i was going to see a 35 above on verbal for sure. Not 40, but at least a 35. Clicked report my score and there it was a 25! I was the last person to finish the test that day and had trouble even getting up from my seat and getting home. Could there be any way that the 25 verbal was wrong? I know i blew quant. Everything had gone terribly wrong the past year and i was really looking for the GMAT to motivate me. I have to go away for 4 months tough training for my new job. Now i am beginning to question my abilities. Really gutted. Will i excel at my career, will i ever get a 650 above on GMAT? Was my approach wrong? My basics for sure are not that pathetic to deserve a 560. What can be more worse than getting the same score on your actual GMAT that you got on the first mock before start of prep ? I really had trouble getting out of bed today morning. Kinda Lost. Anyone offering help or advice or change of strategy are most welcome. Should i let the GMAT go for now and focus on building a good career? I won't be applying for any sort of program for another 3-4 yrs anyway. What should i really do? Can i write to the GMAT and ask for a check on the verbal? i know no good can come of that deep down, but still. I know for sure that i am worth much more than a stupid 560. I don't deserve that whatsoever.
. Is the real GMAT quant pretty hard than the MGMAT and GMAT Prep. I remember not finding similarly patterned questions as the OG on the real GMAT. Does the OG suck? Or did i have a bad day anyway?Please do Help!
31 Aug 2013, 09:39
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hey positiveretaker - we always are so sad to read posts like yours!!! The GMAT is soooo difficult and you clearly have been working hard at it for some time. Your comment of how hard it was to get out of bed today really touched a nerve. This MBA stuff is such an emotional rollercoaster and it can be impossible not to take all of it personally. What we want to say in response to your experience is that we can see you have the absolute right attitude that you need to be a success - the handle that you created for your GMAT Club account is awesome and you've got that amazing pic in your profile - and you aren't giving up, you came here and posted about everything that happened for everyone to see and to give you some help. All of that is completely awesome (the profile pic especially!!) and that shows us that you have what it takes to turn this around.
Since we're not GMATSnark then we can't really comment on your approach to studying and all that, but there's a lot of smart people here who are hopefully going to chime in and give you some advice. Mostly we wanted to emphasize that we see a lot of people who have trouble with this test, and most who take it again improve their score significantly - sometimes we even see 100 point increases (it doesn't happen all the time but it does happen!!!).
So you've come to the right place!
Hope you feel better about the experience - chocolate might help (or whiskey - depending
) . This test is challenging, don't let it get you down!!!
EssaySnark
Since we're not GMATSnark then we can't really comment on your approach to studying and all that, but there's a lot of smart people here who are hopefully going to chime in and give you some advice. Mostly we wanted to emphasize that we see a lot of people who have trouble with this test, and most who take it again improve their score significantly - sometimes we even see 100 point increases (it doesn't happen all the time but it does happen!!!).
So you've come to the right place!
Hope you feel better about the experience - chocolate might help (or whiskey - depending
) . This test is challenging, don't let it get you down!!!EssaySnark
31 Aug 2013, 09:46
Kudos
Bookmarks
positiveretaker
There is nothing wrong with you nor with your basics, else you woudnt have got those scores.....
Regarding your mocks did you take them with complete real day environment,did you take those breaks the way they are? i can see the AC played a spoilsport. Nothing to worry now things will be much easier for you than you think.....Enjoy your free time without prep, join the training and after a week or so start getting into the practice mode...An hour a day will be enough, just maximise your time on the weekend.
You dont have to worry about your basics, it was just not your day thats it.
Cheer up, if you plan to apply for 2014 fall then you still have time for R2 and R3.Start slowly and am sure you will strive...
Keep us posted...
ATB
. Yup 5-6 blocks of chocolate did help eventually 
