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15 Sep 2014, 21:51
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hello fellow MBA aspirants, hope your application preparation is going steady.
I gave my gmat yesterday(3rd attempt) and was subtly relieved to have got a score of 720(Q50 V38), which falls slightly above the average of my target schools. My previous gmat was about a month ago (2nd attempt), where I managed a 670(Q48, V33) and was hugely disappointed. In a way, the 670 was a blessing in disguise as if it were a 680 or 690, i wouldn't have planned a retake. My first attempt was in June, 2011 where i had managed 640(Q47, V32). The situation in 2011 will probably not be too relevant in the jump from 670 to 720, so lets skip that.
I was fairly confident on my 2nd attempt that I would score a 700+. I had studied quite diligently for about 2 months(~3 hours daily) using the standard gmat materials (OG13, Verbal review, Manhattan tests(avg of 660), Gmat prep test(720,740). Unfortunately on the test day, I didn't perform as per my expectation and got 670. I returned home, sulked for a couple of days, told myself I did everything i could, blamed the GMAT scoring system for this, etc etc. After about 2 days, having contemplated my situation again, I logged on to the GMAC site and scheduled a retake for Sept 15, giving myself about a months to prepare more.
Over the next 30 days I studied about 4 hours each day divided equally between Quant and Verbal.
For Verbal -
I had faced difficulty in CR on the test day, which was quite unusual for me as I always did well in that section(~90% accuracy) during practice. I bought a second hand Powerscore CR (new one takes about 16 days to deliver on Amazon) and read through the book in about 4 days. There was a lot more clarity in my thinking for CR and some more structure. I did about 20 questions each day from different sources (OG, VR mostly) to practice the strategy. I was again getting about 90% accuracy, but that had always been the case. For SC and RC, I practiced each section for about 45 mins each day, ie ~30 questions in SC, about 6 passages of RC. The one thing I emphasised a lot this time was on reading the solution to each problem - even the ones I did correct. I wanted to understand every aspect of that question, and was I doing the question right for the right reason. This was my study plan for verbal.
For Quant -
I wanted to reach a 50 atleast. A 48 to 50 meant getting about 3-5 more questions correct on the test day. The only additional thing I did was the worksets 1-13 from Manhattan Advance Quant book. Those questions gave me a good practice of the concepts and usual GMAT quant tricks and would highly recommend it to someone looking to reach that 50 in Quant.
Tests -
I did not do Manhattan this time as I was getting a feeling that the questions are becoming too familiar. So I went with the free tests that are available.
Veritas prep (710 Q49, V39); Kaplan (760 98%, 79%); Gmatprep1 (760 Q51,V40) Gmatprep2 (760 Q50, V42). I was taking these mock scores as only indicative range as I knew they were diluted.
On the test day -
Quant - Didn't face much challenge except maybe 1-2 questions where I had to guess. I slightly messed up my timing in the last 10 questions, because of 1-2 questions where I spent way too much time, leading to me guess the last question to avoid penalty.
Verbal - CR was the challenge again. The ease with which I usually managed CR during my practice was not the case here. I had to really think hard to reach the answer. SC was slightly more difficult than my usual practice . RC was smooth. I enjoyed reading each passage that came, in fact I was engrossed in it. Maybe my high accuracy in RC helped push my verbal score to 38 - i would never know.
Overall -
I feel the gmat test gets tougher as you keep retaking them - so try to get done with it in your 1st 2 attempts. The material is limited, and most of them (specially for verbal) are sub 700 level. If you are doing it for the first time, an improvement in your mock score shows that you are on a rising trajectory, and you can expect to do along those line on the real gmat. However, if its your 3rd or more attempt (like me), especially if the retake in a short span on 1 month, the mock tests show a plateau trend, meaning you are highly likely to get lower than what you are getting because of dilution of the study material. If you want to retake, and have the luxury of time, give yourself about 3-4 months to unlearn everything and fall as low as possible on the scoring graph that an effective 2 months of study puts your scoring on a rising path.
Things I could have done better -
IR section. I bombed this one completely - got 3 in this section. I had reached the 8th question when time ran out. I probably got too engrossed in a few questions which cost me this. I had managed a 6 previously. Maybe GMAC puts a penalty for not completing the section, but not sure as few things I read someone on the internet says otherwise. The instructions that appear before the test might have it, but I hadn't paid much attention to it. My advice, spend some time reading those initial guidelines, even if you belong to the chain of thought that life is too short to read terms and conditions. Lets see how much this score hurt my application. Though people say this section doesn't matter much as its fairly new therefor not sufficient sample scores and not all applicants this year will have this score in their gmat, but a avoidable low score surely doesn't help.
Better time management in the sections. Make sure you plan sufficient amount of time for the last 3 questions. If you are already short of time, the time pressure towards the end with the risk of penalty causes huge distraction to be able to answer them. Preferably rush earlier in the section and keep sufficient time for the last few questions.
Hope my experience benefit you in your preparation and help you get some stellar GMAT score. Good luck - go get it tiger !
I gave my gmat yesterday(3rd attempt) and was subtly relieved to have got a score of 720(Q50 V38), which falls slightly above the average of my target schools. My previous gmat was about a month ago (2nd attempt), where I managed a 670(Q48, V33) and was hugely disappointed. In a way, the 670 was a blessing in disguise as if it were a 680 or 690, i wouldn't have planned a retake. My first attempt was in June, 2011 where i had managed 640(Q47, V32). The situation in 2011 will probably not be too relevant in the jump from 670 to 720, so lets skip that.
I was fairly confident on my 2nd attempt that I would score a 700+. I had studied quite diligently for about 2 months(~3 hours daily) using the standard gmat materials (OG13, Verbal review, Manhattan tests(avg of 660), Gmat prep test(720,740). Unfortunately on the test day, I didn't perform as per my expectation and got 670. I returned home, sulked for a couple of days, told myself I did everything i could, blamed the GMAT scoring system for this, etc etc. After about 2 days, having contemplated my situation again, I logged on to the GMAC site and scheduled a retake for Sept 15, giving myself about a months to prepare more.
Over the next 30 days I studied about 4 hours each day divided equally between Quant and Verbal.
For Verbal -
I had faced difficulty in CR on the test day, which was quite unusual for me as I always did well in that section(~90% accuracy) during practice. I bought a second hand Powerscore CR (new one takes about 16 days to deliver on Amazon) and read through the book in about 4 days. There was a lot more clarity in my thinking for CR and some more structure. I did about 20 questions each day from different sources (OG, VR mostly) to practice the strategy. I was again getting about 90% accuracy, but that had always been the case. For SC and RC, I practiced each section for about 45 mins each day, ie ~30 questions in SC, about 6 passages of RC. The one thing I emphasised a lot this time was on reading the solution to each problem - even the ones I did correct. I wanted to understand every aspect of that question, and was I doing the question right for the right reason. This was my study plan for verbal.
For Quant -
I wanted to reach a 50 atleast. A 48 to 50 meant getting about 3-5 more questions correct on the test day. The only additional thing I did was the worksets 1-13 from Manhattan Advance Quant book. Those questions gave me a good practice of the concepts and usual GMAT quant tricks and would highly recommend it to someone looking to reach that 50 in Quant.
Tests -
I did not do Manhattan this time as I was getting a feeling that the questions are becoming too familiar. So I went with the free tests that are available.
Veritas prep (710 Q49, V39); Kaplan (760 98%, 79%); Gmatprep1 (760 Q51,V40) Gmatprep2 (760 Q50, V42). I was taking these mock scores as only indicative range as I knew they were diluted.
On the test day -
Quant - Didn't face much challenge except maybe 1-2 questions where I had to guess. I slightly messed up my timing in the last 10 questions, because of 1-2 questions where I spent way too much time, leading to me guess the last question to avoid penalty.
Verbal - CR was the challenge again. The ease with which I usually managed CR during my practice was not the case here. I had to really think hard to reach the answer. SC was slightly more difficult than my usual practice . RC was smooth. I enjoyed reading each passage that came, in fact I was engrossed in it. Maybe my high accuracy in RC helped push my verbal score to 38 - i would never know.
Overall -
I feel the gmat test gets tougher as you keep retaking them - so try to get done with it in your 1st 2 attempts. The material is limited, and most of them (specially for verbal) are sub 700 level. If you are doing it for the first time, an improvement in your mock score shows that you are on a rising trajectory, and you can expect to do along those line on the real gmat. However, if its your 3rd or more attempt (like me), especially if the retake in a short span on 1 month, the mock tests show a plateau trend, meaning you are highly likely to get lower than what you are getting because of dilution of the study material. If you want to retake, and have the luxury of time, give yourself about 3-4 months to unlearn everything and fall as low as possible on the scoring graph that an effective 2 months of study puts your scoring on a rising path.
Things I could have done better -
IR section. I bombed this one completely - got 3 in this section. I had reached the 8th question when time ran out. I probably got too engrossed in a few questions which cost me this. I had managed a 6 previously. Maybe GMAC puts a penalty for not completing the section, but not sure as few things I read someone on the internet says otherwise. The instructions that appear before the test might have it, but I hadn't paid much attention to it. My advice, spend some time reading those initial guidelines, even if you belong to the chain of thought that life is too short to read terms and conditions. Lets see how much this score hurt my application. Though people say this section doesn't matter much as its fairly new therefor not sufficient sample scores and not all applicants this year will have this score in their gmat, but a avoidable low score surely doesn't help.
Better time management in the sections. Make sure you plan sufficient amount of time for the last 3 questions. If you are already short of time, the time pressure towards the end with the risk of penalty causes huge distraction to be able to answer them. Preferably rush earlier in the section and keep sufficient time for the last few questions.
Hope my experience benefit you in your preparation and help you get some stellar GMAT score. Good luck - go get it tiger !
21 Sep 2014, 15:48
Kudos
Bookmarks
Congrats! Great to see the gradual process from the 600s to over 700! It looks like you bombed the IR -- it might not be a big deal yet fortunately. Some consulting companies look at the IR score of your GMAT exam -- but if you're not going down that route, don't worry too much.
Understanding why you got answers correct was a good strategy.
I think you're in good hands and congrats again.
Understanding why you got answers correct was a good strategy.
I think you're in good hands and congrats again.
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