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10 Mar 2019, 14:36
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi Everyone,
I am really looking for some help/insight/support on my GMAT journey. Needless to say, it has been long, stressful, and somewhat discouraging. I have taken the GMAT twice now, with my third attempt scheduled next Tuesday, March 19th, 2019.
January 2018 GMAT 1 590 (Q41V31) - It was clear to me I did not prepare enough for this exam
August 2018 GMAT 2 620 (Q48V29) - I used Economist GMAT + 1 month of EMPOWERgmat prep. This really helped my Quant score, but verbal score was all over the place. I took some time off and re-started again in January 2019.
Starting in January 2019, I signed up and re-did the entire EMPOWERgmat curriculum. I followed the curriculum religiously, and really felt that my fundamentals were rock solid. I kept detailed error logs of all my mistakes, both from the OG and my practice CATs. These were things I did not do in the past. I also used the Official MBA practice CATs for all my practice exams. This is where things get rocky.
CAT 1 680 (Q48V35) - After a few weeks of studying, this was great news. I had 2 months to go and I started off at a 680!
CAT 2 710 (Q48V40) - I focused mostly on verbal and saw an improvement in my second CAT. As it should be right? I was ecstatic!
CAT 3 660 (Q47V34) - So I went down slightly. I had a bad week, I was stressed as well, I attributed it to this. My target score is 680, so I thought to myself, hey, if on a bad week I got a 660 and on a good week I got a 710, I'm right in the ballpark.
Today:
CAT 4 620 (Q48V27) - My heart sunk. I am now less than 2 weeks away from my third (and hopefully last) attempt at the GMAT, and this was my result.
At this point I am really looking for some help/guidance from the experts. The amount of time I have left to study is limited, and due to a huge work project that is happening the week after my GMAT, I will be out of commission for 2-3 weeks. This was my intent in giving myself 10 weeks to study prior to taking the exam.
Unfortunately, this seems all too familiar to my second attempt at the GMAT, where I had scored 720 on my second to last practice CAT, a 600 on my practice CAT closest to the exam, and then ended up with the inevitable 620.
My specific questions to anyone are as follows:
1) I have one more practice CAT left. Should I take it next Sunday (before my exam?). This is when I have taken all of my practice CATs. On one hand, I am concerned the CAT may drain or discourage me further, on the other hand, I would really like to know if this score is an outlier.
2) For studying, what should I do between now and my exam? I have access to the OG and GMATClub practice questions. My thinking is I should really review problems I have done incorrectly, to further my understanding of concepts I have done incorrectly vs. trying new problems. In parallel, I plan to go through my entire error log in detail.
Any help is much appreciated. I have not done an in-depth review of my CAT 4, this will be posted shortly. Going to step away from the computer for a bit but felt that posting this would be a good idea prior to doing so.
Thanks in advance!
Anton
I am really looking for some help/insight/support on my GMAT journey. Needless to say, it has been long, stressful, and somewhat discouraging. I have taken the GMAT twice now, with my third attempt scheduled next Tuesday, March 19th, 2019.
January 2018 GMAT 1 590 (Q41V31) - It was clear to me I did not prepare enough for this exam
August 2018 GMAT 2 620 (Q48V29) - I used Economist GMAT + 1 month of EMPOWERgmat prep. This really helped my Quant score, but verbal score was all over the place. I took some time off and re-started again in January 2019.
Starting in January 2019, I signed up and re-did the entire EMPOWERgmat curriculum. I followed the curriculum religiously, and really felt that my fundamentals were rock solid. I kept detailed error logs of all my mistakes, both from the OG and my practice CATs. These were things I did not do in the past. I also used the Official MBA practice CATs for all my practice exams. This is where things get rocky.
CAT 1 680 (Q48V35) - After a few weeks of studying, this was great news. I had 2 months to go and I started off at a 680!
CAT 2 710 (Q48V40) - I focused mostly on verbal and saw an improvement in my second CAT. As it should be right? I was ecstatic!
CAT 3 660 (Q47V34) - So I went down slightly. I had a bad week, I was stressed as well, I attributed it to this. My target score is 680, so I thought to myself, hey, if on a bad week I got a 660 and on a good week I got a 710, I'm right in the ballpark.
Today:
CAT 4 620 (Q48V27) - My heart sunk. I am now less than 2 weeks away from my third (and hopefully last) attempt at the GMAT, and this was my result.
At this point I am really looking for some help/guidance from the experts. The amount of time I have left to study is limited, and due to a huge work project that is happening the week after my GMAT, I will be out of commission for 2-3 weeks. This was my intent in giving myself 10 weeks to study prior to taking the exam.
Unfortunately, this seems all too familiar to my second attempt at the GMAT, where I had scored 720 on my second to last practice CAT, a 600 on my practice CAT closest to the exam, and then ended up with the inevitable 620.
My specific questions to anyone are as follows:
1) I have one more practice CAT left. Should I take it next Sunday (before my exam?). This is when I have taken all of my practice CATs. On one hand, I am concerned the CAT may drain or discourage me further, on the other hand, I would really like to know if this score is an outlier.
2) For studying, what should I do between now and my exam? I have access to the OG and GMATClub practice questions. My thinking is I should really review problems I have done incorrectly, to further my understanding of concepts I have done incorrectly vs. trying new problems. In parallel, I plan to go through my entire error log in detail.
Any help is much appreciated. I have not done an in-depth review of my CAT 4, this will be posted shortly. Going to step away from the computer for a bit but felt that posting this would be a good idea prior to doing so.
Thanks in advance!
Anton
10 Mar 2019, 14:52
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi Anton,
Considering how well you've been performing on your other CATs, it's possible that this recent CAT might just be the result of a 'bad day.' At higher-and-higher score levels, the GMAT becomes really 'sensitive' to little mistakes (especially on 'gettable' questions), so your analysis of this performance is really important (re: you need to properly define WHY you were getting questions wrong). There's a big difference between getting a bunch of questions wrong because you made some little mistakes and getting questions wrong because they were too difficult and you just could not figure out how to solve them. While a full Mistake Tracker would provide a lot more information, there are some basic questions that you should be able to answer about your performance on this CAT (and the more EXACT you can be with your answers, the better):
After reviewing each section of this recent CAT, how many questions did you get wrong....
1) Because of a silly/little mistake?
2) Because there was some math/verbal that you just could not remember how to do?
3) Because the question was too hard?
4) Because you were low on time and had to guess?
5) How many Verbal questions did you 'narrow down to 2 choices' but still get wrong?
The process of taking (and reviewing) a CAT requires a significant amount of energy and effort - and takes time to 'recover' from. This is one of the reasons why you typically shouldn't take more than 1 CAT per week - and your last CAT should be taken about 1 week before Test Day. Since your next Official GMAT is March 19th, you should NOT take a CAT on the 17th; you would be far more likely to experience some 'burn out' on Test Day (and that is something that we want to avoid). Your last few days before your Official GMAT should be spent on light practice and review. You will be better served by getting some extra rest, so that you can go into Test Day calm, clear-headed and ready to work.
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Considering how well you've been performing on your other CATs, it's possible that this recent CAT might just be the result of a 'bad day.' At higher-and-higher score levels, the GMAT becomes really 'sensitive' to little mistakes (especially on 'gettable' questions), so your analysis of this performance is really important (re: you need to properly define WHY you were getting questions wrong). There's a big difference between getting a bunch of questions wrong because you made some little mistakes and getting questions wrong because they were too difficult and you just could not figure out how to solve them. While a full Mistake Tracker would provide a lot more information, there are some basic questions that you should be able to answer about your performance on this CAT (and the more EXACT you can be with your answers, the better):
After reviewing each section of this recent CAT, how many questions did you get wrong....
1) Because of a silly/little mistake?
2) Because there was some math/verbal that you just could not remember how to do?
3) Because the question was too hard?
4) Because you were low on time and had to guess?
5) How many Verbal questions did you 'narrow down to 2 choices' but still get wrong?
The process of taking (and reviewing) a CAT requires a significant amount of energy and effort - and takes time to 'recover' from. This is one of the reasons why you typically shouldn't take more than 1 CAT per week - and your last CAT should be taken about 1 week before Test Day. Since your next Official GMAT is March 19th, you should NOT take a CAT on the 17th; you would be far more likely to experience some 'burn out' on Test Day (and that is something that we want to avoid). Your last few days before your Official GMAT should be spent on light practice and review. You will be better served by getting some extra rest, so that you can go into Test Day calm, clear-headed and ready to work.
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
10 Mar 2019, 15:05
Kudos
Bookmarks
EMPOWERgmatRichC
Thanks Rich - I will analyze tonight / tomorrow and provide feedback. In the interim, do you have any tips on how to approach studying over the next week leading up to my exam?
