I NEED A FRANK ADVICE FROM STACEY KOPRINCE- THREE ATTEMPTS

by **don2007** Tue Dec 23, 2008 7:55 am

Hi Stacey,

I don't know what is going wrong. Maybe I should not have gone for the third attempt. After three attempts, I still cannot beat the GMAT. GMAT is the first exam I would do twice and now thrice. Find below my scores:

1. First attempt- 550 (Q-38,V-28) AWA-4
2. Second attempt-590(Q47,V-25)AWA-4.5
3. Third attempt- 570 (Q47,V-22) AWA-5

I cannot explain why my verbal score keep getting worse with each attempt. As you can see the improvements in my quantitative and AWA scores. I don't know how to type very fast. So a 5 in AWA is a very good score for me. I don't know what to do because it seems I have come to the end of the road. What will ADCOM say about me after three attempts? How come I got my best verbal score when I did not prepare very well i.e a year ago.I have a very good undergraduate GPA. Almost a first class in Engineering. Is it advisable to take the GMAT for the fourth attempt and how will it affect my application?

Thanks.

by **kylo** Tue Dec 23, 2008 8:00 am

believe me - the number of attempts wouldnt matter much if u crack GMAT in ur 4th attempt. But the main challenge is to identify the problem areas & finding their solutions before going for the 4th attempt.

Thanks!

by **esledge** Fri Dec 26, 2008 4:49 pm

I agree with Kylo. The number of attempts is not most important; the ultimate score is most important.

Congratulations on your improvment in Quant and AWA. The good news is that you can focus your efforts on Verbal to maximize your score.

I'd also be interested in knowing whether there were any test-day peculiarities on Verbal. Fatigue? Running out of time? Getting totally unfamiliar questions?

Try the following diagnostic exercise:

(1) Choose 5 random OG problems of each verbal type (5 SC, 5 CR, 5 RC from 1 passage= 15 problems). As the OG is ordered by difficulty within each section, select 1 from each fifth of the problems to ensure a full difficulty spectrum. For RC, chose a passage somewhere in the middle. It does not matter whether you have seen/done these problems before.

(2) Don't time yourself, but do pick an answer as you complete the main activity (see #3).

(3) Write your own complete answer explanation, as you might find in the OG.
--Write a brief synopsis of the issues (e.g. the point of the CR argument, the errors in the original SC sentence, a summary of the RC passage and a mention of where specific answers may be found in the passage).
--Write an explanation for each of the answers. Justify the correct answer (with proof from the RC passage, or by explaning how it fits with the CR argument or fixes the grammar errors on SC). For wrong answers, explain everything that is wrong about them. Find all the faults! You might also note what is appealing about those wrong answers--what words are tempting yet objectively wrong?

(4) Compare your explanations to those given in the OG. Were you wrong about anything, even wrong answers that didn't adversely affect your answer selection? Were there things you didn't notice? Such errors might not cost you every time, but could hurt you on the official test.

This is meant to be a rather qualitative diagnostic. If there is anything "off" about your thinking in verbal, you'll notice it as you compare your work to that of the GMAT writers. It should give you some direction, and maybe a fresh way of seeing problems.

by **don2007** Thu Jan 01, 2009 8:57 am

Hi Emily,

Thanks for your feedback. I am really psychologically down right now. I did a lot of practice tests,focusing primarily on verbal. They were Mahattan,GMATprep,1000SC,CR,RC, Kaplan and OG. My verbal score was superb in all of them. But when it came to the actual GMAT, i did not know honestly what went wrong.

I think I have a problem concentrating for too long when reading on screen. But it is not an excuse because I did practice tests and I was able to overcome the problem,scoring very high on them.

Emily, I had new questions on the GMAT verbal. Please I really need help on this one. This is the first time I would do an exam twice and now thrice. It is had to swallow.

Emily, Ron I seriously need your help and advice to overcome this problem.

Thanks

by **JonathanSchneider** Thu Jan 01, 2009 6:30 pm

Hi Don2007,

First of all, don't despair. You can take the test again without raising too many eyebrows from an admissions committee. For what it's worth, I know a student at Fuqua who took the test 8 times. While I wouldn't recommend it, it's not an absolute bar. Taking the test a fourth or even fifth time will not disqualify you for admission.

You mention that you saw new problems on the test. Were you not expecting this? Remember that no matter how much you study, you will always see all new problems on the test. The GMAC constantly creates new material. For this reason, taking lots of practice tests in order to memorize questions is not a good idea. Instead, you should spend your time focusing on making small improvements in specific areas across the board. I'd follow Emily's advice above. And keep your chin up. The GMAT is meant to be hard. If it were easy, you wouldn't find a discussion forum like this one dedicated to the many, many people fretting over it.

Remember: small measurable increases is the way to go.