560 V-25 Q-43, Please Help.

[vivek.nanda.1]

Today I took my GMAT and got the biggest shock of my life. I m feeling very low and looking for help on how can I reach to 750.

Verbal has been my weak as well as inconsistent section but in Quant. my score's have ranged between 44(on a really bad day) and 49 in the mocks, but today when I was giving my test a very unusual thing happened. I want to share with all of you here- when I took the break after my AWA and when I started the QUANT. section somehow I got into Panick mode. Though in my last many mocks I have scored well between 47 and 49 and with similar problems coming in actual GMAT instead of solving it, I became clock paranoid, my mind was just not working. I was getting stuck on the ordinary problems and in the end I had to guess 8-9 questions, I completely messed up with my Quant section.

In GMAT, I got 25 again I was not able to attend 10-11 questions with real activeness due to less time. Verbal has been a mystery for me since day 1. I have been really inconsistent with this section. The max. I have scored in mocks is 34. So, I was really hoping for a not more than this in the actual one but now that I have been literally stabbed in the middle of my heart by the GMAT, I think its high time I work hard to increase the Verbal to 40+.

I m really struggling with my SC. I want to restart my preparation for SC, how to improve the SC accuracy and speed. I know if I can do well here each SC question can be done correctly in an avg. time of 1.5mins.

One major problem, which I have been suffering is RC. Somehow, I m not reading the passage very actively because of the fear of losing a lot of time while reading, as a result I suffer on accuracy. I need help in two things in RC- how can I increase my reading speed what I mean is ACTIVE reading speed. Also, from where should I practice the RC?

I would also need your help in understanding how can I reduce my nervousness and panic attacks, do I need to practice mock again and again? What should I do?

Kindly, help. I m too desperate for a 700+ and now that I have already made a blunder I want to score no less than 750.

With Kind Regards
Viv

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry you had a bad test experience. You're asking good questions, though - we just need to figure out what to do from here.

First, can you give me some detail about how you have prepared so far? Did you take a class or work with a tutor? What books have you been using? For how long have you been studying? Did you take your practice tests under full official conditions (including essays, length of breaks, etc)? I need to know these things before I can advise you about what to change / how to study going forward.

Our task now is to figure out (a) what went wrong, (b) why they went wrong, and (c) what you can do to prevent those things from happening again. Here are some resources to help you figure that out.

This article will help you try to diagnose what went wrong on the real test. We know part of it already, obviously - nerves and timing - but let's figure out everything we can. Do the analysis described in this article and then come back here to tell us what you found and to discuss (if you'd like).
http://www.beatthegmat.com/a/2009/10/26/my-score-dropped-figuring-out-what-went-wrong

These two articles have ideas for how to handle nerves / anxiety:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/stress-tips.cfm
http://www.manhattangmat.com/strategy-series-stress.cfm

Have you ever experienced a similar stress attack during other (non-GMAT) tests or high-pressure activities?

[vivek.nanda.1]

Thanks Stacey for your much needed words. As suggested by you, I have seen the links and now I know what are the reasons of my downfall.

Regarding my preparation, I joined Manhattan Review classes. Mostly I studied the OG and Manhattan Official Guides. But due to my busy work schedule I had a long break between the regular classes and my resumed self study post classes. The break was a bit too long almost 3 months. As a result, I have to start afresh again as my memory lost it completely.
By now I was already in the early DEC-09, just one and half month away from my GMAT.

I have to say that because of the nerves and anxiety I did bad in Quant. section. It has not happened to me before but I guess I took the GMAT a bit too seriously. As a result, the anxiety levels rose to new highs. I think if I have to do the same Quant. test again I would certainly score no less than 49.

My bigger problem has been Verbal Section. I have been out of sorts with my inconsistency in this section. According to my analysis, here are few problems that I have faced in Verbal-

1. I m NOT a native English Speaker as a result my ACTIVE READING SPEED is on a slower side. In all my mocks I was never able to complete the verbal section. The best I have done is by attempting 37-questions actively.

2. I have a tendency whenever I m reading my tongue or throat starts processing my reading. As a result, there is a bit of mismatch between the eye speed and tongue/throat processing speed. This mismatch causes a slow reading speed overall. So, I have to get into the practice of reading quietly.

3. SC has been my biggest worry due to my inconsistency. I have to start again from the basics. Actually, I have observed that I m doing well in the Hard SC questions as compared to the easy SC questions. My weaker areas- tenses and subjunctives. I m strong with Modifiers but parallelism is average.

4. In CR my understanding is generally good but again when there is less time to read big CR questions I make mistakes. I get into inactive mode.

5. In RC, I think I need a good practice to improve speed as well as understanding.

6. Other than these reasons, I feel I m a kind of person who needs exercises to be in the best of mental and physical shape. Au Contraire, I barred myself from exercises due to my busy schedules. So, personally I need to manage myself better.

Please suggest me from here how can I prepare to better my GMAT score?

[StaceyKoprince]

You mentioned that you took a Manhattan Review class and that you used "Manhattan official guides." Do you mean that you used Manhattan Review books, or do you mean that you used Manhattan GMAT books? I want to know what resources you have available. (For others who might be confused, Manhattan Review is a different company.)

So:
1. you took a class with Manhattan Review
2. you took a long break after the class and forgot a lot during that time
3. when you resumed studying, you only had about 6 weeks.
4. you had a lot of anxiety during the test, especially on the verbal.
5. you also struggle with timing / speed; this is usually only on verbal, but on the real test, you also had a problem on the quant.

First, your actual ability is certainly better than your test score. The fact that you had to guess on so many questions at the end of each section really brought your score down. So, one thing we need to fix is this timing issue.

This test is not just testing you on whether you know the material and can answer the questions. It's also testing you on whether you can set priorities and manage your time appropriately (as any good businessperson should know how to do!). Think about your average workday - sometimes there are things you have to leave till tomorrow or next week, right? Sometimes there are things you have to give to somebody else or say you can't do.

The same thing happens on the GMAT. No matter how good you get, you will still have to guess on something like 5 to 7 questions in the math section.  You don't want to be forced into making those guesses in a row at the end of the section, so choose the 5-7 hardest questions AS YOU SEE THEM throughout the section.  Remind yourself that you CANNOT get to the point where you can answer everything given to you in 2 min - that's just not how the test works.  You have to let those go.

Use the below article to analyze a recent MGMAT practice test (if you haven't taken one in the last few weeks, take another under full official conditions).
http://www.beatthegmat.com/a/2009/09/23/evaluating-your-practice-tests

Answer these questions:
- if you spent too much time, why? specifically, which part of the problem and what caused you to spend the extra time? did that extra time help? did that extra time hurt on a later problem? (if you spent more than 30sec over, the answer is yes, even if you got this problem right) how did that extra time hurt? specifically, where did you then not have enough time?
- if you spent too little time, why? were you rushing b/c you were behind? why were you behind; on which ones did you spend too much time? or did you think the problem was easy and you didn't need that much time? how often did you make mistakes on those "easy" problems on which you felt you didn't need full time? (On problems like that, you should make almost no mistakes - 95%+ accuracy. So if it's anything lower than that, you're hurting yourself by choosing to go fast when you think a problem is really easy.)

I think you would also benefit from a timing exercise: learning about how long one minute is without looking at a watch or stopwatch. If you don't have one already, buy yourself a stopwatch with lap timing capability. When you go to do a set of problems, start the stopwatch but turn it over so you can't see the time. Every time you think one minute has gone by, push the lap button. When you're done, see how good you were - and whether you tend to over or underestimate. Get yourself to the point where you're within 15 seconds either way on a regular basis (that is, you can generally predict between 45 sec and 1min 15 sec).

Now, how do you use that when doing problems? If you're not on track by one minute*, make an educated guess and move on. (The general idea is that if you're not on track by the halfway mark, you're unlikely to figure out what's holding you back AND have time to do the whole problem in the 1 min you have left.)

* For SC, 1min is well beyond the half-way mark (we're supposed to average about 1m15s here), but you can almost always eliminate at least some choices on SC in that timeframe. Once you've got that "I'm around the 1min mark and I'm struggling" feeling, go through any remaining choices ONCE more. Pick one. Move on.

Next, there are presumably some content areas in which you need improvement. The article above that discusses how to evaluate your practice tests will help you to identify what those are. You'll then need to use either your existing resources (books, etc) or new resources to help you fix whatever those problem areas are. (And you already have good ideas about some of your problem areas on the verbal side - so follow up on .)

Finally, I completely agree that you need to train your brain - your brain needs regular exercise to be able to perform at its peak on test day. Given your goal, you are going to need to commit to a regular program of study for several months - 5 to 6 days a week. Why did you take the "break" you took before? If it was due to procrastination / low motivation, then you may want to study with a friend, join a study group, or take another class to keep yourself on a steady schedule.

If you have our books, then you may also want to use our standard syllabus:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/freegmatlearningforum.cfm

Click that link, then look in the top section ("Highlights") for "Official Manhattan GMAT Course Syllabus [pdf]"

[vivek.nanda.1]

Hi Stacey,

I used the Manhattan Review GMAT books along with the OG. The good thing is I m all set, rejuvenated and afresh to begin my most important thing in life again i.e. my 2nd attempt to the GMAT. This time my eyes are set to 750, I certainly don't want to leave any stone unturned this time. As you correctly pointed out timing is the most important thing in the GMAT and once we learn the art of time-management GMAT becomes more of an ordinary exam where we need to apply ourselves, but of course it is easier said then done. I think th e timing exercise you told makes a lot of sense, I have try and implement the same as I begin to start over again. I m giving my self 8-9 days of time before I appear for the practice test. Once, I will be done with it, I will analyze it according to what you have mentioned. I m ready to give myself 3.5-4months of time before I reappear for my test. A daily study session of 2hours and extending the total time to 6-7hrs on the weekends. I took the break because I was working for more hours at work almost near to 70hrs/week.

Hoping to make an ideal start and continuing it till I reach the pinnacle.
Thanks for your words. I appreciate your time.

[RonPurewal]

good luck - it sounds like you are hitting the right track.

it seems that stacey has covered most of the bases. the only thing i wanted to comment on is this:

A daily study session of 2hours and extending the total time to 6-7hrs on the weekends.

does that mean a total of 6-7 hours on the weekend (i.e., sum of the two weekend days), or are you saying that you're going to study for 6-7 hours on each of these days?

the former is reasonable; the latter really isn't. if you try to study for that many hours in a single day, you are going to derive very little, if any, utility from the last couple of hours' worth of material.
you may be able to do 5-5.5 hours in a day, but only if you study for half that time early in the day, then take a LONG break, then study for the other half of that time in the evening.
please don't try to study** for six hours at once! that is essentially impossible, except for small children (and adults with savant syndrome).

also, you should take at least one day off (NO studying) per week.
this is even more important if stress is an issue, as you have indicated.

good luck!

--

**note that this applies to studying (i.e., absorbing material), not recitation.
if part of this time block is recitation (i.e., taking a practice test), then it could be more feasible - but you should still take a long break between the practice test and the subsequent studying.