GMAT 2nd attempt

[VO]

Hi,
I took the GMAT the 2nd time on 17.6.14. My score 650 (Q48,V30). My 1st attempt was 1 yr ago score 570 (Q44,V23). I did the silliest mistake of exceeding my break time after quant which resulted in time deduction from my verbal section. I had to hurry through the first few questions to get back on track but it resulted in a dismal performance on verbal. I was constantly scoring above 700 in my GMAT practice tests. Now I am wondering whether I should retake the exam again. Does the fact that a candidate takes the exam 3 times go against him or her during the application process? Please let me know your views on this issue. Thank you.

[StaceyKoprince]

First, I know you didn't get the score you wanted, but great job on your verbal improvement (and on your overall improvement)! The average improvement from official test 1 to official test 2 is only 30 points - so great work!

Next, schools in general do not care if you take the test 3 times. A few schools start to raise an eyebrow at 4+ times - but even then, lots of schools don't care. So you can absolutely take it again if you like - the schools won't frown on that.

How much time did you lose? I just want to make sure that it was legitimately all or mostly due to that and there aren't other things that you need to remedy before you go in there to take the test again.

[VO]

Thank you Stacey for you reply.
I lost 1 minute from the break time. I lost my focus from the first 4-5 qs of verbal until I got back on track, and covered up that extra time that I had lost. However, I must tell you, I had some trouble with SC questions and conclusion type CR questions. The RC's went wonderfully. I was able to solve all the SC questions very well during my practice, but I started blanking out for few SC questions on the real exam, absolutely not getting what splits or patterns the answers had. Most of strengthen/weaken CR qs went well.
How should I prepare now? What should I focus on and how should I overcome these problems in SC and CR?

[StaceyKoprince]

Read the below; do the mental fatigue symptoms sound familiar?
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... you-crazy/

If so, then part of the remedy is spending less mental energy earlier in the test. When you decide to move forward with a crazy hard IR or quant problem, the decision you're making doesn't only affect the current section. It also affects all future sections, because you have a finite amount of mental energy.

So, first, all practice tests have to be under 100% official conditions, including essay, IR, length of breaks, etc.

Second, build your stamina while studying, too. Let's say that you're going to sit down for a 2-hour study session. In advance, figure out what you're going to do for the entire 2 hours. In fact, plan extra, just in case you finish early. Then GO for 1 hour without stopping. No checking email, no chatting with a friend, etc. Take a 10-15 minute break, then GO again for another hour, no stopping.

Then stop. Don't do the above for 4 hours straight. It's actually a lot more mentally fatiguing to study than to take a test. When studying, you're both recalling existing memories and trying to create new memories to use in future. When taking a test, you're only trying to recall existing memories.

So if you try to study for 4 hours straight, you'll be so mentally fatigued for the last couple of hours that you won't make very good memories... and your study time will be very inefficient.

Next, you may have been missing splits / patterns on SC because you may have been seeing some of the more convoluted types where the answer choices are changing a great deal. Use the below to help you study those types.

First, use this process to answer any SC question:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... em-part-1/

Second, here's how to tackle the harder ones:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... orrection/

For CR - did you notice issues with inference questions in practice as well? If not, it might be the case that you just happened to see a couple of really hard ones in that category, so it makes sense that you struggled with them.

This article talks about CR in general and contains resources for the different question types, including inference:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... reasoning/

Now, back to the timing issue. If you lost only 1 minute, that's obviously not a major timing issue, but if it distracted you for the first 4-5 questions, then yeah, that could've caused a problem. For future, if you ever discover that you're 1-2 minutes behind at any point, that's really not a big deal. Just shrug it off and keep going. :)

[VO]

Thank you so much for your help.

[StaceyKoprince]

You are very welcome!