Extremely down after 3 shots 560, 580, 580

Question

4 weeks after the third attempt to give GMAT, I could not forget the frustrated feeling when I saw the ashamed score of 580 (48, 22) on computer screen although I would expect much difference, my strong confidience based on several features.

Quitting the job in order to pay 100 percent attention to GMAT preparation, I spent 2 months full time to study GMAT with a hope to touch the glory of getting 700 barrier. 
 
I already took GMAT twice with unconvincing scores and temporarily accepted the second to apply for MBA in Europe. A year after finishing the program, ambition to follow PHD ignites my desire to take GMAT again because I know I hardly get financial aid for doctoral degree with such score.

What is more, reading quite a lot English articles of either printed or electronic versions and brushing skills through working on OG, cracking GMAT, Kaplan â€¦. attributed my thought to go ahead with the third try.

â€¦â€¦. But, in the end, in contrary to my expectation, what I can get from all my endeavor was the same score as the second that entirely freaked my out, after seeing the score, I had to stay still 10 more minutes in the test room to calm down and convince myself before signing out. The score beat me so bitterly that it takes me one month to get the courage, come back this forum and post my embarrassing experience. Right after the test, I determined to get rid GMAT of my mind and never think about it.

However, after one month living with unstable conscience and feeling, I have changed my mind, and am thinking a plan to take the test again. But I really donâ€™t know how to start, especially push up the verbal, a burdensome part of GMAT that brought me down all three times.

All contribution and experiences are highly appreciated.

Paul · Answer

Hi wunderbar03, I know how it feels when you poured heart and sould to the GMAT and don't end up with a score representative of your dedication. As crackgmat750 once said, it is unfortunate that sometimes long time members just vanish because they feel embarrased to come back and share their story. One thing is for sure, we are here to support and assist you should you need some solace or a helping hand to continue this journey of yours. Remember that the GMAT is NOT representative of your intelligence level. I'm sure that there are many 500 scorers who are more street smart than some 700+ book smart only type of people.

There is much resource on GMAT club which you can read to improve your verbal score, which is also everybody's burden including mine. For RC, check out this thread viewtopic.php?t=11569 For CR, you should really analyze OG questions in Excruciating detail. Make sure you know understand and find the patterns in typical CR questions like assumptions and how to str/weaken arguments. The new types of BF CR have been a late GMAT darling and you can read a bit about it here viewtopic.php?t=13782
I also have a good collection of BF CR if you want to practice:
viewtopic.php?t=8325
viewtopic.php?t=7716
viewtopic.php?t=7419
viewtopic.php?t=7422
viewtopic.php?t=7510
viewtopic.php?t=7511
viewtopic.php?t=10451
viewtopic.php?t=10597
viewtopic.php?t=10933
For SC, make sure you go through this site and learn about advanced sentence corrections concepts such as phrases(participial,absolute,gerund,prepositional,appositive) vs clauses, ellipsis, restrictive vs non-restrictive clauses, run-on sentences, parenthetical elements, complex verb tenses. Those concepts can be found here: https://ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/index2.htm
The above, I swear, is my SC bible. I learned most of my concepts and I believe all I really needed there.

You may also want to go through crackgmat750, gayathri's experiences as they gave REALLY good advice for how to approach the GMAT and set up a good study schedule. Should you have any question, do not hesitate to ask us.

Rupstar · Answer

Dude that SC bible is quite amazing yet very overwhelming after sitting with it for a couple of hours...
But thanks

greenandwise · Answer

Hey wunderbar03,
If you have the time you should look through some of the stories on this sight. I'm sure you have but there are many people like you so you need not be ashamed dude! I agree with Paul in that the GMAT is not a test of your smarts in general. Personally I disagree with Paul in that a good score is a statement of your book smarts because it isn't. I know quite a few "book smart" people who did horribly on the GMAT. If you do well on the GMAT, to me that just means that you are really good at taking the GMAT! THAT IS IT!

Wunderbar, I'm sure if you follow a fixed study schedule as explained by Paul, gayathri or really any of the gmatclub vets, you'll do great on your fourth attempt. I know that because I see from your post that you are the type of person who doesn't give up easily, of all the qualities you have, that itself will ensure a great score for you! Good luck man! :-D

Paul · Answer

Hmm, I just want to analyze this statement. I believe I did not say that all 700+ were just book smart. What I said was that many 500 scorers were more street smart than some 700+ book smart scorers

. In general, I agree that the GMAT is just another test of perseverance. Just give the GMAT what it's asking you and you will vanquish it.

greenandwise · Answer

And you can see why I am having trouble with Critical Reasoning! :-D

Paul · Answer

greenandwise, you may be right after all, I forgot that "some" word. I'll change it so as not to confuse other people.

Hjort · Answer

Wunderbar03,

Your dedication to preparing for the GMAT is clear and this site will help give you additional guidance regarding how to prepare.

It appears that your true score is around 570 and has remained there. We (collectively) need to help you find a way to move off of this plateau to higher ground.

Hjort

gayathri · Answer

Wunderbar03, I am so sorry to hear about your score. You have a good quant score so I would guess you need to focus atlest 70-75% of your effort in verbal section. 

That leads me to ask you: Have you maintained an error log? Have you identified you weak spots in verbal? Is it SC, CR or RC? 

If the problem is SC, you need to tackle basic grammar. If its CR, I think practice and analyzing the questions the way OG does is the key. Try as many different questions as possible. There was a mega CR bank in this forum use it. If its RC again practice and concentration are the key. I realized that for RC. I had to completely disengage from everything else and read the paragraph as if my life depended on it. Once you are done with it move on and dont think about it until the exam is over. 

Goodluck and think positive.

wunderbar03 · Answer

Thank Paul, greenandwise, Hjort, gayathri for your sincere encouragement and supportive sharing experiences.

I truly know myself that verbal is a hurdle that knocked me down all three times. Before giving the last test, I thought that I would have to pay appropriate time and energy to that area in order to pump it up. With this in mind, I was taking real English books, magazines, articles, ebooks as important input. And I tried to force myself to be familiar to English by reading novels end of each day or to get my eyes acquainted with reading documents on computer by surfing Economist, or New York Times on internetâ€¦.But, in the end, the result turned out to be something unexpected. 

Paul, I initially checked the posts in this forum and sometimes returned my feedback, however, the frequency was less because of time. From now on, I believe I will stick more with such interesting posts.

Gayathri, as for error log, I also created a so â€“ called error log that keeps all my errors in my practices or tests which remind me to avoid next time. In verbal, RC and CR are my weaknesses, SC is a little optimistic. My scores on ETS sample tests are almost the same the real test, however those on the other software are different, such as
Cambridge Thompson: T1(660), T2(620), T3(620), T4(680).
Kaplan: T1(560), T2(550), T3(580)
And some tests of Princeton.
However, I only trusted the source from ETS software where I got the original from ETS office, other sources like Kaplan, Cambridge or Princeton were unreliable because some were outdated, the other were code-broken copies. Thus the results taken on these sources did not reflect my real score.

One question: I am looking for updated and good test books and CDs like Kaplan workbook, Kaplan 800, GMAT plus, where I can find? As you probably know, in Vietnam we canâ€™t order books on line and hardly find good books in bookstores

Your opinions are much appreciated.

Regards

HongHu · Answer

Ok I'll share something more about myself with you, wunderbar03, and hope it will help. I took GMAT about ten years ago, before I came to the US. My score was 640 with 99 percentile math and 50 percentile verbal. At that time, each and every of the choices for each SC questions sounded very good to me. I mean I literally didn't know why I would pick one over another.

There are ways to study to improve ones' verbal scores. Merely putting time into the studying is not enough. Method is very important. There are many good posters here with good study approaches, as well as detailed tips for each type of questions. Look at you previous experiences. Make sure you know what are the areas that you need to work on. Then work on those areas. With periodical self evaluates to see if you are going toward the right direction. If you are really dedicated to go there, you will get there when you find the right path. Don't give up.

swath20 · Answer

Thats a very good advice Honghu, we need more people like you around to keep motivating us. Do keep visiting the gmat club and give us some inputs. We will all miss you.

wunderbar03 · Answer

Thank HongHu, I will take your advice serious and keep track on it.

Will notice you my progress. Thanks

gayathri · Answer

wunderbar03, have you looked into official LSAT material for RC & CR practice questions? There was a good thread om LSAT materials by Paul in the forum.

mbamantra · Answer

wunderbar03,

I am in the same boat. i took GMAT thrice scored 570 , 580 and cancelled the score the thired time coz i realised
that i have bombed in verbal section. all my hopes went down the drain. i have not touched GMAT books for last couple
of months but now i want to start again. i know my weakness. its verbal. i remeber the fist question of my last GMAT 
attempt. inspite of good practice and enough acquantance of SC concepts i stuck to the very first question. it was SC.
i easily nailed down to 2 choices but din not know which one to pick. i thought something is terrible wrong with
my preparation. why i get so much anxiety during exam? why my mind gets so tired that i loose all the concentration?.
i can recall that RC, SC or CR were not 'tought'. if i am given 2 minutes with calm mind i can correct at least 80 to 90% 
of them. it is a question of being calm and focused during the exam with solid clarity of concepts. 

now, i am charged again. someone on this forum very truly said that GMAT is a test of endurance. train your mind for
stress and anxiety and u can cross 700 barrier. if u have studied well then u must be having ur concepts clear about 
SC and CR. RC is a game of practice. Just take 4 comprehensive tests each week. sit for three hours, write essays, take 
quant sectiond and do ur best for verbal section. for one month 4*4 = 16 tests. monitor ur progress and if u feel good abt
it take GMAT again on one fine day.

u will a get good score.

wunderbar03 · Answer

Sorry for keeping the silence so long!

Your guidance is so valuable that I would like to follow it and record the progress. Hope it will be paid off. Let see.

All the best to your next turn.

Cheers

vikky267 · Answer

hi wunderbar03,
i saw your post today and i can really understand how bad you are feeling at this time. but calm down i give you the example of one of my friends, he gave GMAT six times, i repeat six times, and his highest score was 590, with a high qwant score of 81%, he was big time disheartned.

After a lot of courage he applied to columbia school with 590 score and you won't believe he got through it.At the moment he is working in UK in a big consulting company on an awesome saalry.
See, GMAT is just one of the factors and becasue you always score high on your quantitative side that's really gooda as a high quant score is taken as positive by the b-schools, becasue mba and phd is all about numbers and not about words and you are good at numbers

one piece of advice to you if you are giving GMAT again, please keep a gap of atleast six months because i have seen people who had bad GMAT score if they gave after a gap of six months, their score increased considerably than who give within a span of 2-3 months

Again i say don't loose heart there is always something better for you in the future, all you need is to have a patience to receive it

regards

wunderbar03 · Answer

Thank you vikky267 for your sharing and encouragement.

Actually, I intend to give about 6 month for the next test, my job prevents me from doing the test sooner. I think that your friend is one of the most typical mirors for patience and perseverance who don't give up easily.

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Extremely down after 3 shots 560, 580, 580

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