20 points

by **cholula23** Mon Jul 21, 2008 9:16 am

hi, i took the gmats in February 2008 and scored a 620
I then took the ManhattanGMAt's course (i did all the HW, online labs, questions banks, and practice tests (average 670) and retook the exam in may and scored a 600!

I did the post-assessment and took the advice and the weak points from my comprehensive assessments from all my practice exams...

i retook the GMAT again in June and scored a 610....

Have I reached my potential?

by **StaceyKoprince** Tue Jul 22, 2008 12:04 am

Can you give me some more detail about your two most recent test experiences? How was your timing / pacing? How was your energy / stamina? How were your nerves? What differences do you recall between the two official tests? What differences do you recall between the official tests and your recent practice tests? Did you do complete practice tests under official conditions (that is, including the essays, all in one sitting, not using the pause button, etc.)? Did you take your practice tests at the same time of day as the real test?

Basically, tell me EVERYthing you can remember that was even slightly different between the real tests and your practice tests.

by **cholula23** Wed Jul 23, 2008 5:51 pm

thanks for the reply stacey!!

I took both tests at 9am. I took my practice tests at 9am as well. When I did the practice tests I skipped the essays (after my first real exam), but other than that, I took it in official testing conditions. While I did write essays on the real exams, I finished the essays on the 2nd test in 30 minutes, since I didn't need a high AWA score.

I was pumped both times I took the exam, really going in there confident and expecting to score a high 600. I was shocked both times as you can imagine. The main difference between test one and test two was I found the verbal secion much more difficult in test two, I got a reading comprehension passage right at the end which took me by surprise. The math was easier for me the second time around, I didn't get any probability or combinatric problems.

I found the real exam to be much more difficult. The questions were taking me much longer than 2 minutes each to do. I finished the math section just in time and I had to rush through the last few verbal questions. On the practice exams I was finishing both section with 10 to 15 minutes to spare. I was scoring an average of 670 on ManhattanGMAT's exams.

did i forget anything?

Thanks!

by **StaceyKoprince** Mon Jul 28, 2008 9:30 pm

Timing obviously gave you some trouble. You're actually not expected to be able to answer all of the questions they give in 2 minutes - they'll intentionally give you things you really can't do in that timeframe. The big question is how you deal with that. The wrong way (and what most people do) is to spend more than 2 minutes on average for the first half or two-thirds of the test and then rush at the end, causing your score to drop as your error rate goes up. The right way is to acknowledge when they've given you something you can't do in 2 minutes, find a way to make an educated guess within the acceptable timeframe, and move on!

Did you have these same timing pressure problems both times on the real test? Were you sometimes going over on your practice tests, but just not that much? Or, since you said you finished 10-15 minutes early on the real thing, did you just let go really quickly if you saw something on a practice test that you thought you couldn't do? I ask because one thing that often happens on the real test is that our bad habits get magnified due to the stress of the situation. If you were distributing your time poorly just a little bit, it might have snowballed on you on the real test - you had a much harder time letting go and, if that happens enough times, you get into big trouble.

I'm guessing that, in general, you found it harder to let go - you knew it counted now, so you tried to do everything possible on every problem. That caused timing pressure and you had to rush at the end. Your error rate went up... and your score went down. Could that have been what happened?

Also, you said you were surprised by an RC passage at the end. Had you been keeping track of the number of passages you'd gotten so far? People typically have 4 (and if they don't have 4, the next most common number is 3). So if you're nearing the end and have only had 3 so far, there's a decent chance you'll get a fourth. (And if you've only had 2, you should definitely expect a third!) Part of managing your time is knowing whether you need to have some extra time towards the end for a possible RC passage.

How about your nerves? How have you done on standardized tests in the past - were you able to perform to your expected level or did you struggle a bit? What about stamina? Did you take the breaks and have something to eat and drink on the breaks?