Disappointed with a 680

[acg.gmat2011]

I had my GMAT scheduled for this saturday (9/10). I started my prep pretty early in the year (March), slacked off for a bit in June and then got back to my original rhythm in mid-July.

My preparation material covered the Official Guides and all 8 MGMAT strategy books for the theory. For practice, I used all 6 MGMAT online exams, the 2 PowerPrep exams, 1 Kaplan test and 1 Princeton test. My score distribution on all of these tests ranged between 660-720. So if I look back now, it does seem like my actual score was a close approximation of my practice scores. However, I am disappointed with a 680 and was really hoping to be in the early 700s.

My score breakdown is 47 Q (76%), 37 V (81%), 680 overall (85 %).

I spent a lot of time over the weekend thinking about what had gone wrong and I have realized that the main issue could be my timing.

While doing the quant section on the actual exam, I felt like the first 10 questions or so were pretty easy and I was well ahead of my time milestones. However, once I hit the 11th question, I hit a series of really hard DS questions. A mistake I made on these was that I spent a significant amount of time trying to tackle each such hard question as opposed to making an educated guess within the 2 min time-frame I had alloted to each question and moving on. A direct result of this was that I ended up guessing on almost 6 of my last questions.

At the end of the quant, I knew i'd messed up and also realized that a good verbal performance could boost my overall score significantly. I thought I'd performed well on verbal but the 37 on verbal let me down and wasn't enough to pull my overall score into the 700s. My timing was not as bad on verbal though it could have been better, as I had to guess on the last 2 questions. I'm not sure how I can pull up my verbal score. Timing will help, but I think a good grasp of strategy on SC, CR and RC questions will also add tremendous value. I have a pretty good hold over written and spoken English, having been an avid reader from a very young age and having pretty strong communication skills. So the low score on verbal has stumped me.

Overall, I'm really disappointed with a 680. I had planned on applying to some top part-time programs (Haas, Anderson) and a 680 isnt going to help my chances. Otherwise I have a pretty strong background, being a top performer at an extremely reputed software company, 4 years of software development and project management work experience, solid extracurricular and academic achievements, a masters from a top tier US university, and strong experience with leadership projects (currently serving on the board of an international NGO that focuses on international affairs). I am not sure if my score was a result of underestimating the complexity of the GMAT questions or overestimating my ability to perform well against time.

I have taken a date for my re-test, approximately 6 weeks out. My goal is to really stretch myself this time around, timing every single problem I do and focusing most on solving practice exams and QBanks rather than on reading theory. I plan to do a review of important concepts and of all my practice exams in the last 10 days. I have also realized that the key to doing well on the GMAT is making sure you spend only the allotted time per question and moving on after making an educated guess. The only thing that was keeping me from taking a re-test was the possiblity of a lower score the second time around. In the eventuality that that does happen and I realize during the exam that this aint going so good, I plan on not reporting my scores.

I would really appreciate some help on:

- Tips on how I can pull up my verbal scores
-Pointers to practice material (I would like to focus on practice exams only)
- What my focus areas should be (apart from timing)
- What my chances are at top schools with a 680
- I also had a couple of unusual experiences while doing my actual exam. I ran out of space while doing my quant section and raised my hand for a new notebook. The administrator came up to me, asked me if I was sure I'd used up all the available space, took away my notebook with her and got back a new one..All of this cost me a precious minute and a half, if not more and also distracted me. Is it common to have your notebook taken away, leaving you with no writing material temporarily? Is there any way I can avoid this in my re-take?

Any help will be much appreciated!

[StaceyKoprince]

Sorry we're late getting back to you - it's been a crazy week (see my new sticky at the top of this folder if you haven't already heard why)!

Yes it does sound like timing was an issue on quant - having to guess on 6 at the end definitely dropped your score. Verbal possibly is a more minor timing issue, but I've met with lots of students who have finished each section on time and still had significant timing issues - so just finishing on time or almost on time isn't a guarantee that there isn't a timing issue.

Use the below article to analyze your most recent MGMAT practice test:

http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/

Then come back here and tell us your analysis (not just the raw data, please - also tell us what you think it means :)

Next, read this article on timing and start doing what it says:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... anagement/

We'll give you additional advice once we have your test analysis.

Also, you may want to bounce your situation off of an admissions consultant. I agree that if you apply to a school with an average score of, say, 710, then a 680 won't *boost* you, but I don't think it'll keep you out either. Most schools use the GMAT as a "threshold" indicator - get a high enough score and then they'll make the decision on other factors. If you've got some truly stellar things on the rest of your app, the 680 may be fine. Serving on a board sounds pretty stellar to me - I don't know how many people come in with something like that. (But I'm not an admissions person - so you should really ask an admissions consultant!)

The only thing that was keeping me from taking a re-test was the possiblity of a lower score the second time around. In the eventuality that that does happen and I realize during the exam that this aint going so good, I plan on not reporting my scores.

A few notes. You can cancel your scores at the end of the test, but it will still show up on your report as a cancelled score - so the schools will still know you were there. The vast majority of schools look at the highest score, even if that was from the first test, so there isn't any real downside to taking it again. (Again, talk to an admissions consultant.)

Finally, the better you do on this test, the harder you think it was (because think about it - if you totally perform at your peak level, that test is going to be giving you some seriously hard questions for whatever your level is!). I've talked to numerous students who debated cancelling their scores but didn't and ended up scoring 700+. I'm telling you this just because we're not really the best judges of how we're doing in the middle of the test - it's really hard to tell.

Re: the notebook thing during the test - yes, they take it away and then bring you a new one. Really annoying. Train yourself to be able to use only one booklet for the entire quant section (it shouldn't be hard if you are organized - you have an average of nearly a quarter page for every problem). Then turn in your booklet at the break between quant and verbal and start verbal with a fresh booklet.