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Mars
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2nd time and lower score! 01 Oct 2009, 15:44
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Hi, I'm new and wondering if anyone has had this experience. I took the GMAT for the first time about a 1 month and a half ago and scored a 660 (48 quant, 33 verbal). During that exam, I ran out of time on the verbal and ended up guessing on the last 10! Focused on verbal for over a month and just took it again this week. My score was disappointing. Went down to 620 (43 quant and 33 verbal). My verbal didn't budge and my quant dropped. I've been trying to figure out what happened. :cry: Anyone else experience anything like this?
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2nd time and lower score! 01 Oct 2009, 15:55
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Mars
Hi, I'm new and wondering if anyone has had this experience. I took the GMAT for the first time about a 1 month and a half ago and scored a 660 (48 quant, 33 verbal). During that exam, I ran out of time on the verbal and ended up guessing on the last 10! Focused on verbal for over a month and just took it again this week. My score was disappointing. Went down to 620 (43 quant and 33 verbal). My verbal didn't budge and my quant dropped. I've been trying to figure out what happened. :cry: Anyone else experience anything like this?
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Welcome to GMAT Club!

You are definitely not alone. Retake is not guaranteed and quite a few folks find that they score less the second time around. My best example is Pathfinder, who got 720 the first time but felt he could have done a lot better. Studied for 6 months, and then took again to score 690. At the end, his 720 was just fine for Wharton.

His story and others are gathered here: should-i-retake-gmat-thread-retaking-gmat-strategies-83339.html
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Mars
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2nd time and lower score! 01 Oct 2009, 16:07
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Thanks, i'll read his story. I just finished reading your posts on moving from a 650-700+. I'd like to shoot for a 730...hopefully it's not out of reach.
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2nd time and lower score! 01 Oct 2009, 16:17
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Thanks, i'll read his story. I just finished reading your posts on moving from a 650-700+. I'd like to shoot for a 730...hopefully it's not out of reach.
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It is not, but depends on the time you have. I am sure you know this, but verbal will be the toughest to improve....
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2nd time and lower score! 01 Oct 2009, 16:30
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Yes, verbal has been difficult. I took the MGMAT course and have all the books. Sadly I don't think my verbal score has improved much despite the studying. I'm beginning to fear that I have missed something in my learning. Do you think doing verbal problems each day and getting familiar with different verbal problem types through practice questions is a good way to spend the next two months studying?
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2nd time and lower score! 01 Oct 2009, 22:55
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Mars
Yes, verbal has been difficult. I took the MGMAT course and have all the books. Sadly I don't think my verbal score has improved much despite the studying. I'm beginning to fear that I have missed something in my learning. Do you think doing verbal problems each day and getting familiar with different verbal problem types through practice questions is a good way to spend the next two months studying?
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Not a huge fan of just doing the questions, at least not just to learn.
MGMAT has good materials - the main reason people don't get good scores after going through these are:
1. Skipping steps in strategy or inventing their own strategies and failing to follow instructions 100%
2. Moving to next section before finishing the previous one. This means that you may have to create hand-written notes and summary of each chapter if that's what it takes. May mean, you have to get up at 6 AM and study for 2 hours before work or manage your time better and lock yourself in a place without distractions
3. Non native speaker who has weak English

Any of these apply to you?
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