I passed out during IR... test anxiety horror.

Question

I am mortified at my text experience, but I wanted to share it with others hoping it would be helpful - and make sure people do not feel alone.

I recently discovered, I have severe test anxiety. I will occasionally, get sick.. start sweating... have a racing heart ... get dizzy....OH, did I mention this was during a practice test? I started researching my symptoms and realized this is probably why my grades are so poor when it comes to courses with tests... but so high when I had courses with projects - I only realized this now. So how was I supposed to write the GMAT?

24 hours before the exam, I was so nauseous, I could barely eat... I couldn't sleep. I felt this impending doom. I tried to work out the morning of the test to try and pump some endorphin's... then headed off for the test. I sat in the parking lot almost getting sick outside of my car... I told the proctors at the facility that it was highly likely that something terrible would happen and that I wanted them to let me keep going (I paid for the stupid test, I want to at least try to finish it and cancel it if I have to).

The AWA went as expected, a bit rushed at the end... but my hands were shaking - so when the IR started... I got the first question and I had no idea what the stupid graph was trying to say... I started to feel dizzy, I started sweating... I forced myself through a few questions and then I couldn't take it anymore... I put my head between my legs to let the blood flow to my head and, well, I'm not sure how much time had passed... but it must have been a lot because I only had 15 minutes left. I think I only completed 4 questions. I took my 8 minute break.. went to the washroom - and a part of me thought, I should just walk out of here right now. It was that bad. The proctor was worried because I was so pale and I was utterly embarrassed.

I decided to go back to the Quant, and actually came back into the room a little bit late... my life is over (that is what I thought). I decided, who cares... this is another practice test. I'm just going to cancel this score... after that, I'm not sure what happened. It is a blur... my score appeared (after their lengthy survey... what is that by the way?!). I got a 650?! Q48V31 - don't get me wrong, this is not an amazing score but I passed out... it was the highest score I had ever achieved.

I wanted to share this story to let people know not to give up when you're in there because... I fainted. I guess I could have actually gotten sick and they would have probably forced me out of the room, so it could have been worse... but if this happened to me, I feel like others can overcome their anxiety as well.

With that said, I need/want to improve my score to at least a high 600. Obviously my IR score was awful (I fainted.. so that was doomed) - and I think I can improve my verbal. I'm a bit worried I over achieved on my Quant as my average is usually around 44/45... so if anyone has advice for someone who faints, and wants to improve their score... please help me!

WayneHam · Answer

I went from a 2 in the IR to an 8 (8 is the max score). The first time I got caught up on a couple questions and it ruined it all for me and probably spilled into the quant section where I think I ran out of time too. You need to work on your timing, monitor how long you're spending and move on so you can do the next question. Also some of them aren't that hard but they seem really intimidating, especially when there's really big calculations or the question take a long time to read. If you can't do it then move on and don't ruin your chances for future questions. I had the same problem for the first time around on the quant, in the end I was guessing on them all so the questions are getting easier and I'm still getting them wrong (IR isn't adaptive btw). Better off to get the hard one wrong so you can answer the easy one instead of spending a ton of time on the hard one, which you'll probably get wrong anyways and be unable to do the easy one.

inishantsingh · Answer

This post is nothing short of an inspiration. Hope you are doing well

. PS: I wrote my first GMAT today and can totally relate to the level of anxiety (630, Q49, V27, IR 6).

GMATPILLBILL · Answer

Hey stephyw,

When it comes to psychological aspects of the test and stress management - make sure you think extreme positivity and pay attention to this critical element of the test. We highly recommend that you read through the psychological tips that we put together for you on this blog post:

https://www.gmatpill.com/about/studying- ... trategies/

As for the IR, you want to score decent enough on the IR section so as not to draw negative attention to a low IR score.

You don't want the admissions committee to focus on a really low IR score of like 1 or 2 -- that shows lack of effort or ability

That said, it's not that much more beneficial to have a perfect 8 versus a 6 or 7.

So ideally, you want to stay in the 4, 5, 6, or 7 range to efficiently get a score that is decent without putting a crazy amount of effort.

As for the verbal and quant sections, how much study time do you plan on allocating before taking the exam again?

You might find this customized 2-3 month study plan helpful: https://www.gmatpill.com/gmat-practice-t ... study-plan

Use this as a guideline. You don’t have to follow it exactly but the structure of the study plan should be the same structure that you take in your approach. This helps to optimize your retention and learning.

As you study, we recommend that you focus on one particular subsection for multiple consecutive days before moving onto the next. You can see this in our study plan where we recommend 5 days on nothing but SC -- before moving onto CR and then RC.

Here is a sample SC video to help you start your journey: https://www.gmatpill.com/sentencecorrect ... ythons.mp4

Best of luck- we are here to help.

dina98 · Answer

Similar experience. I got the flu two days before the exam. I was on medication the day of the exam so when I started the AWA, I thought I was going to pass out. I did feel pale for the first ten minutes, was not able to pay attention until the last ten minutes of the AWA. Rushed through and was able to complete it. Started feeling much better as the test went on.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi dina98,

How did you end up scoring on that GMAT? And how did that score compare to your expectations/goals?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

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I passed out during IR... test anxiety horror.

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