First attempt-610 NEED an advise

[sanaa770]

Hi Manhattan team!
First of all thanku for such a great platform, i attempted gmat today and got 610 Q 44 and V 30
Though i was scoring Q48 and V34 in mocks, i couldn't get why i have scored so low at real test. I was really great at quant questions with difficulty level of 700+ level and way too good at cr and rc questions.
However, as today was my first attempt to gmat and i was really confused so i did few mistakes. I got few easy questions but i was so blank that i couldnt understand what actually the examiner has asked me. so i am planning to cancel my test and reappear in 10-15 days.
I want to ask is this a good decision? i am right now in practice and hoping to score 650+ in next attempt but i am not sure if this works. So need ur advise.
Help me!

Sana

[StaceyKoprince]

I know you want to get a higher score, but first, congratulations on going into the real test and getting a 610! Make sure you actually praise yourself for the progress that you do make - it's still good, even though you want more.

Also, just a practical comment: you are required to wait 16 days between official GMAT tests, so you cannot take the test again in 10-15 days. I wouldn't recommend doing that anyway. You need to figure out what happened during the test and take steps to get better for next time, and 10 to 15 days is not very much time to accomplish that.

Finally, just FYI: your real test score is lower than your practice scores, yes, but it's not surprisingly lower. These tests do have some variability - just want to make sure you are aware of that as you get ready to take it again.

Okay, you mentioned feeling "blank" and "confused" at times. It sounds like you were experiencing anxiety or mental fatigue - likely some of both.

For anxiety / stress, try this:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... mat-score/

For the mental fatigue, we have to talk about a broader topic that will affect how you take the entire test - and it will help you to maximize your performance.

Read this:
http://tinyurl.com/executivereasoning

The GMAT is really a test of your decision-making capability. The test will (always!) try to overload you to see whether it can suck you into trying to do everything. A good business person knows when to turn down a business opportunity. By the same token, you need to learn when NOT to try to do a certain problem on the test.

https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -the-gmat/

How do you learn to do that? First, here's your overall mindset:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2016/02/ ... n-the-gmat

Next, you'll need to develop a decent 1-minute time sense. See section 4 of this article on time management:
http://tinyurl.com/GMATTimeManagement

And then you'll need to learn how to apply: what do you decide and when do you decide it?
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2015/09/ ... gmat-quant

Typically, getting good at that is more like a 3 to 6 week process. You're hoping to go from 610 to 650, so for you it might be closer to 3-4 weeks. (But you'll really just have to try it out and see how long it takes you to develop.)

Let me know what you think!