May Success Stories?

Question

I'm taking my test next week. So far on both this forum and GMATClub, I've seen a lot of posts recently about how hard the GMAT was and how they didn't achieve their target score! I've scored well on the GMATPreps which people have said is a good indicator, but now I'm seeing several posts say the actual test is nothing like it. Could it be that this month's problems are harder? If you scored well or similar to what you scored on the GMATPrep this month, please post! Doesn't need to be a debrief - just a line or two to make the other May test takers feel better!

gurpreetsingh · Answer

"So far on both this forum and GMATClub" I guess this post is on GMATclub :lol:

coming to the point, GMAT is a stressful exam, why are you increasing your stress level by thinking such absurd issues. Its right gmat has become harder, but it will be for all. If you have capability to score 750 and because of this increase in level you scored 730. Then this will be for all. Donot worry much and kill the exam..Best of luck

bb · Answer

Are you suggesting may is a bad month? A bit superstitious?

I don't think there is much validity behind that - those questions get tested very well and go through a lot of routine checks...

whatisinaname · Answer

I don't want to instigate any negative feeling but I insist that you be a bit careful out there. I prepared quite a bit for the Exam and my scores on GMAT Prep were 670, 670, 720, 720 respectively. I scored both of those 720's on the day before the exam. Granted there were few repeated questions but there weren't many (not more than 2 or 3).

I scored consistent 47,48 on Quant section and 41, 38 on the Verbal. I relied on a bit of luck to help me on the actual exam. I went in feeling good, started quant very comfortably, and felt almost like I was doing GMAT Prep Exam. There were some very easy questions in between but I didn't get alarmed. I wasted like 5 minutes on a question but comfortably finished the Quant section within the time frame. Verbal Section went well too and I was almost certain that my first 10 answers were absolutely correct. There were some easy RC's and some tough ones. I finished the section comfortably too. I felt confident that I'll see a 700 because the whole experience was not different from when I was writing the GMAT Prep. I must have guessed some questions but that was okay. On my GMAT Prep I missed 12 questions on quant and 7 questions on verbal but scored 48 and 41. Because of this experience I wasn't too afraid of getting some questions wrong.

Okay, after all this when I see my scores it was pathetic 580. Q 40 and V 30. I never scored 580 on any of my previous practice exams. Even on MGMAT tests, which are really tough I scored 600 on my first test (with not much of a preparation).

I have no idea what went wrong. I really trusted GMAT Prep Exams way of calculating score but got screwed big time. I'm guessing the system must have decided my level on the first or second question and never gave me a chance to improve myself. It consistently gave easy questions below 600 level and even though I got them all correct it never picked up from there. I'm incredibly disappointed and currently not in a position to trust GMAT's so called Adaptive Exam.

Please let us know how it fared for you.

bb · Answer

To contrast it: here is a 760 from a few days ago: summary-gmatprep-kaplen-mgmat-princeton-actual-gmat-94103.html

gurpreetsingh · Answer

May is lucky :lol:

770-q-50-v46-detailed-debrief-94193.html Great!!

R2I4D · Answer

I sure hope "May-luck" holds true for me!

serhio · Answer

good luck!

CharmWithSubstance · Answer

Best of luck to you!

chokoloko · Answer

Man, you did great!! Congrats...

After two and a half months of study, I am getting ready to present my GMAT on May 31st... I am a little bit nervous about the exam because I don't really know what my actual level is and how that is going to translate in the real score... I took the online Kaplan course, which came with 9 CAT's and these are my scores.

CAT 1. 570
CAT 2. 660
CAT 3. 630
CAT 4. 660
CAT 5. 660
CAT 6. 650
CAT 7. 670
CAT 8. 700
CAT 9. 690

I was confident cuz I had read that Kaplan's scores were way lower than the real ones... so I thought "Great, then I should expect a 720-above score in the real test" but then I started to read that the latest kaplan's algorithm was different now and that it is not the case anymore in which one can be pretty confident about a potential increase in the real score, the thing is... I don't know how accurate it is.

This weekend I am going to take the GMAT Prep tests... and I had thought "well, this will give me a very good idea of where I am really standing"... but then I read that it has been an unreliable predictor for some people... so... I guess that I am really going to find out what my real level is in 10 days... by the way... I´ve been scoring consistently in the 99% in verbal... but only 60-70% in quant... I am an electronic engineer from Mexico... so I figured that quant, with its universal language, would be the easier part... but man I've been so wrong... I've been doing the same careless mistakes over and over in the quant section... not reading the stem thoroughly, missing some signs and just dumb stuff like that... really frustrating... I wonder if even with a score of 700 but with such an imbalance like mine, top schools would consider my GMAT as strong as another 700 with more balance.

Any suggestion on how to have a better idea of my real level??

I don't usually post messages... but sure I read a lot of posts from other people... really encouraging stories in this site!

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