740, but !%$ed up the quant.

Question

Hi all,

I've been lurking this site the past 8 months during my GMAT prep and firstly want to say THANK YOU.

I took the GMAT for the first time in late December, 2005 and got a 740 with a 47q (81pct) and 45v (99pct).

I got rattled on question 17 in the quant, couldn't figure out the trick quickly, lost disclipine, and brute-forced the question, eating clock. I finally got the answer 6 minutes later (!), was chasing time the rest of the quant and probably missed a quite a few on the way. I also had to blind-guess the last 2 quant questions.

During the break I was pretty irate because of this bumble and I think this drove me to really try to make right on the verbal.

The score is OK, so should I just chalk this up to test day jitters or should I consider re-taking? I don't know if the 99pct verbal is something I can repeat, however - some of the CR on that were mind-bending in the depth of the thought-processes to reconcile the correct of the 2 marginal "right" choices.

Just wanted to get some thoughts. Thanks!

bewakoof · Answer

your score is more than enough.. no need to retake the test.. oh yes, congratulations!!!!

sperumba · Answer

conratulations ur sore is really good. 
I don't think you should retake it.

good luck with ur apps .

andy_gr8 · Answer

Fabulous score buddy,
Your verbal score is something to die for..Would you like to share your strategies how you tackled the verbal part,how was the preparation like?

sperumba · Answer

good wuestion Andy..

yeah please tell us how u tackled he verbal section.

k-rag · Answer

Hi all, Firstly, thanks. I will apply Strategy / BizDev or Entreprenuership where hopefully the quant score won't throw up too much alarm. I'm probably over reacting to the quant score. I have an EE undergrad, and as such I feell a little embarassed about the quant score, to be perfectly honest. But again, probably blowing it out of proportion.

Hypothetically speaking, if I were applying i-banking, would this quant score be a problem? My prep was pretty straight forward. It included PR + PR Verbal & Math Workbooks + Kaplan + Power Prep. I went over the PR book for concepts and did the entire verbal workbook. After this, I was pretty confident on my SC and CR, but was still felt rushed during the practice tests and needed to get accustomed to the pacing. I took all practice tests, although my PR software wasn't giving me a score - this seems to be a common problem. The PR practice tests were also ridiculously easy. I got zero wrong answers twice in a row on two of the PR tests, but couldn't get the score. The PowerPrep and Kaplan were more indicative of the real thing. What really helped me were the Kaplan drills on the CD, particularly in reading comprehension. The RC are typically not too difficult, particularly when making liberal use of POE, but reading the passages can become time consuming. At first I lacked the discipline to read slowly to really grasp the main point, then to accelerate through the details. The artificial speed-up on the Kaplan drills really made this necessary. Before the drills, the Kaplan timing breakdown showed that I was spending almost 3min / question on RC, and I needed to improve this. After the drills, I was down to 90-110s / question on RC. The Kaplan drills also helped with discipline on the SC. Often, an SC question will come up and the faults are obvious on first inspection. I would say maybe 1/4 to 1/3 of the time. Before I would take my jolly time with these, but being under the artifical time pressure on Kaplan, I would attack these and try to get them answered as quickly as possible, some times in the order of 10-15 seconds if I was chasing clock. At that point the drills were really showing their worth on the practice test scores and also in my general demanor while taking the practice tests. No longer did I feel too rushed if there was a CR or SC that needed extra time because I knew I could make up clock on the RC and on the pretty frequent percentage of SC that just "pop out" and are a quick, less-than 30-second check-and-click. On test day, the drilling really paid off. The leading SCs and CRs were a little more time consuming than I was seeing on the practice tests, and I got about 3 minutes behind by the end of the first RC passage. I wasn't too stressed at this point, however. The SCs (about 3/4 of them) and CRs continued to stay time consuming and by the end of the 2nd RC passage I was 5 minutes behind. The CRs in particular were getting really marginal between the top 2 options and this was really eating clock. By the beginning of the 3rd RC I knew I had to make time, so I really hustled on reading the remaining RCs, something I'd been doing all along in the time-anemic Kaplan drills. I also made a point to kill off the "pop out" SCs as quickly as possible, as in the drills. By the end of the final RC, I was back within 30 seconds of pace. Another really tough CR came up, but I got lucky and got a run of "pop out" SCs prior to it and had some time to spare. Finished with 30 seconds on the clock. On the quant, I'm confident my prep was good, and I was getting 50+ regularly on the practice tests. But on test day, I ran into that quant question 17 whose contents I don't remember, but whose impact I will remember always...

It's interesting how the whole CAT plays out like a video game. The concepts are really pretty simple but the time pressure is so overarching. I race cars with the Sports Car Club of America as a hobby and the time pressures of the test, particularly when you're behind, are a lot like having to really push on the final parts of a race to make up ground to the leader. For me, the Kaplan drills were great preperation for when I really did have to make up ground on the real test. I knew how hard I could push to make up time and was accustomed to such a pace by that point.

vivek123 · Answer

Hey Congrats! Thanks for sharing the experience

giddi77 · Answer

Congrats on your successful finish in your Car Race :wink:

Thanks for sharing you "clock chasing" prep strategy. Good luck with your apps. Enjoy!

nj_for_mba · Answer

You must be some glutton for pain if you want to remount the beast.

I think your score is high enough to not be an issue at any program. Also, though I understand how you must feel about choking a bit on the math, you did hit the magical 80/80 (80th percentile in both Q/V) that I've heard some top programs desiring.

k-rag · Answer

LOL looking back at the post, it does read like a car race.

Thanks everyone for all of the advice. I gave my prep materials to colleague who will be taking the GMAT and I'm looking forward to ceremoniously burning the paper notebooks I used during prep. Thanks GMAT Club!

sperumba · Answer

thanks for all the details man.

I sure did sound like a care race.

good luck with your apps.

k-rag · Answer

hi all,

i can't say thanks enough for all the advice and well wishes.

i got the official score in the mail today (took about 3 weeks).

official score:
740 (47q/45v)
awa 5.5

hey, on apps do you guys think racing accomplishments would be worthwhile to put on there? in 2004 i assembled a team of a few guys and with the team i put the car into 5th place at the sports car club of america's solo2 national championship in the street modifed class... also in college won 2 world championships in the formula sae (society of automotive engineers) collegiate design competition, where about 120 schools compete from almost every continent. worthy to mention or irrelevant?

kwest80 · Answer

I think you should definitely do it. It's a big accomplishment and would help you stand out from others, not to mention that it could highlight your leadership/managerial abilities.

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740, but !%$ed up the quant.

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