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sidoknowia
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Hi sidoknowia,

I'm sorry to hear that Test Day did not go as well as hoped. Before I can offer you the specific advice that you’re looking for, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied?
2) What materials have you used?
3) When you took your CATs, did you take the FULL CAT (including the Essay and IR sections)?

Goals:
4) What is your goal score?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
6) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

I’m sorry to hear about your recent GMAT. I’d be happy to provide some advice on how to prep for a retake. Before doing so, it would be helpful to learn some more about your GMAT experience and MBA goals. I have a few questions:

1) What is your GMAT score goal?

2) Did you get your enhanced score report? If not, could you do so and share the score breakdown from your GMAT?

3) Can you provide the dates and score breakdowns of your official MBA.com exams? When you took the practice tests, did you take them under realistic conditions (e.g. in a quiet environment, no extended breaks)?

4) What is your study routine? For how many hours a day have you been studying and for how many total months? What resources have you been using for your prep?

5) For how many hours a day and for how many total months can you study for your retake?

6) What deadlines are you targeting?

Once you provide that information, I can give you some more tailored advice.
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GMATNinja
AustinLM is spot-on -- and I just wanted to add a couple of small things.

First, I think we sometimes underestimate how exhausting it can be to take the actual GMAT exam for the first time. You're in a strange environment with palm vein scans and overly short breaks and maybe some unusual background noise. Maybe you're nervous on some (perhaps subconscious) level -- but even if you aren't, you're probably expending more energy than you do when you take a practice GMAT in the comfort of your own home. So by the time verbal rolls around, you might be a little bit tired, even if you don't really notice it. And verbal is exactly where fatigue will start to hurt your score.

Also, you'll definitely want to concentrate on official GMAT verbal materials from now on. I obviously don't know which resources you've been using -- but follow AustinLM's advice about active reading, do every official GMAT verbal question you can get your hands on, and supplement the GMAT OGs with official LSATs if you need some extra CR and RC material. Focus on making your verbal approach as mind-numbingly consistent as you can, so that you'll do the same thing on the real exam -- even if you're a little bit fatigued in hour #4 of the GMAT.

And keep at it. Don't let one crappy day ruin your goals!

Yes I agree, the test conditions were different then what my home test conditions - There was a lot of noise in the testing room, I was allowed only 5 min of break and stress to might have its own effect.
Resources that I had used
OG 15, Veritas Prep books (for quant as well as verbal) , Manhattan Advanced Quant, Gmatprepnow online video library.
I had even solved Aristotle prep SC.
I was indeed reading nytimes and harvard gazette to improve my RC skills.
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sidoknowia
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EMPOWERgmatRichC
Hi sidoknowia,

I'm sorry to hear that Test Day did not go as well as hoped. Before I can offer you the specific advice that you’re looking for, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied?
2) What materials have you used?
3) When you took your CATs, did you take the FULL CAT (including the Essay and IR sections)?

Goals:
4) What is your goal score?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
6) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

1) Approx 3.5 months
2) Resources that I had used were : OG 15, Veritas Prep books (for quant as well as verbal) , Manhattan Advanced Quant, Gmatprepnow online video library. I had even solved Aristotle prep SC. I was indeed reading nytimes and harvard gazette to improve my RC skills.
3) Yes, all the CAT were full length.

4) 720+
5) Round 2 this year.
6) ISB, Foster, Mays, Tepper
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Hi sidoknowia,

From what you've described, you used a variety of different resources, but it wasn't clear whether you were actually following a formal study plan or not. The significant drop in your Verbal score also makes me wonder how you were taking your practice CATs:

When 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?

Raising a 590 to a 720+ will require some significant time and effort - and you'll have to make some big improvements to how you handle BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections. It's likely that you'll need another 2-3 months of consistent, guided study to hit that goal. Thankfully, the GMAT is a consistent, predictable Exam, so you CAN train to score at a higher level.

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