my score

[nitin_jhurani]

hiya

3-4 months of preparation had helped me to score consistenly in the range of 650-680. The last 3 preparation exam scores were 670, 650,650.(all three within 2 weeks before actual exam and with AWA's).

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry you had a disappointing test experience.

If you did take the course or one of our Guided Self-Study packages, then you're eligible for a free Post-Exam Assessment. This is a phone call with an instructor to figure out what went wrong and come up with a plan to re-take the test. If this applies to you, please send an email to studentservices@manhattangmat.com and request the Post-Exam Assessment.

If you don't qualify for the PEA, then we can still help you here in the forums. The first thing to do is to figure out why your score on the real test was so much lower than your practice test score. There are a number of reasons this can happen (and, in many cases, it's a combination of several reasons). Read the below article and do the analysis described, then come back here and post again to let us know what you discovered.

http://www.beatthegmat.com/a/2009/10/26 ... went-wrong

Once we have a pretty good idea of WHY things went wrong, then we can come up with a plan to fix those things.

By the way, try to do this analysis right away - whether via the PEA process or here - so that the testing experience is still very fresh in your mind.

[nitin_jhurani]

Thanks for response Stacey.

Well it looks like the second and the last points of ur article does hold some merit in my case. Here's the pointwise assessment.

1) Took atleast 5 exams(2 gmatprep and 3 ManCat) under strict official condition and at around the same time of day when my i took my real exam. Scores were 650,670,650,660,650.

2) well taking no. of practice mocks certainly helped to build stamina to sit for 3.5 hrs. but taking a mock couple of days before actual exam and studying till last day doesnt seem to hve turned out to be a gud idea. also mocks were taken at home after taking a shower whereas i had to drive for around 40 minutes to test centre before taking the real exam.so i did felt bit tired during verbal.

3) Reg. timing it wud be difficult for me to say how I went since both sections were finished at around the last minute. had to struggle a bit in verbal whereas math i realised i wasnt going pretty well since last few q's did seemed to be quite easy.

4) Anxiety and Nerves seem to hve played an imp role here. wasnt able to sleep properly a night before exam. infact managed to have a sound sleep of around 3 hours only. this does seems to hve affected my rational thinking in a big way as i found verbal on exam to be much more tougher than gmatprep or manhattan cat's and still scored only 28.

Wud like to elaborate and know some more details related to last point. my last four verbal scores on Manh CAt's were 38,37,39 and 37 and in atleast 3 of them AWA's were also written. So i am just wondering that whether score of 28 in exam was a result of lack of concentration or real exam verbal is much tougher than manhattan. I am saying this b'coz i did struggled quite a bit on CR during exam and generally questions looked harder to me.

Nitin

[StaceyKoprince]

Certainly the stress, lack of sleep, and over-work during the final few days would have affected you, and those factors would most likely affect you more as you get later in the test (and more tired out). So those factors are certainly at least some, if not all, of the cause for the score drop on verbal.

It's also possible that you over-studied from MGMAT sources and didn't study enough from OG sources. On verbal especially, there can be subtle differences in language and structure between different question writers - and the people writing MGMAT stuff are obviously not the same people writing official questions. It's important to make sure you do a good mix of the two - our explanations are often easier to learn from, but their questions are written by the same people who write the questions that you'll see on the test.

Reg. timing it wud be difficult for me to say how I went since both sections were finished at around the last minute.

While it sounds like you did finish both sections on time, you may have misallocated your time between questions. We can't, unfortunately, get any data from the real test, but you can do an analysis of your MGMAT tests to see whether this might be an issue. Use this article to do the analysis:

http://www.beatthegmat.com/a/2009/09/23 ... tice-tests

Also, here are some articles on stress management:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/stress-tips.cfm
http://www.manhattangmat.com/strategy-series-stress.cfm

In terms of studying better for the next time, try these articles on how to analyze various kinds of verbal problems. And, in particular, concentrate a bit more on OG and GMATPrep sources for verbal Qs. (Note: you should go back and look at problems you've already done. Do the below-described analysis on those problems.)

http://www.beatthegmat.com/a/2009/10/09 ... ce-problem

http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/03/ ... c-question
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/01/ ... r-question
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/02/ ... e-question

Also, as you get ready to re-take, mimic the official test-conditions even more. Get in your car and drive around for 40m if you have to. Take the test in a library or someplace not very physically comfortable. (We're generally way too comfortable at home. :)

And if you weren't doing this already, make sure you have a very consistent sleep schedule leading up to the test. Go to bed at the same time and get up at the same time every day for at least a week before the test. Think about what you should eat and drink to give yourself long-term brain energy (complex carbs, protein, and a little fat - sandwich on whole-grain bread, eggs and whole-grain toast, nuts, granola or sports bar without too much sugar, etc.)

[nitin_jhurani]

I used OG 12 and verbal. will definitely go through both again and as analyse question as advised by you.
Would you recommend to use OG 10 or 11?
Are most q's in these two different from the ones in former two I already used?

Nitin

[StaceyKoprince]

Most Qs in the older versions are the same actually. About 600 of the 800 questions in OG11 are also in OG12.

The older books might be a good source of *some* new questions AFTER you have already learned everything you can from OG12. But don't go there yet. Really learn what you need to learn from your current books first.

[nitin_jhurani]

Thanks for all the inputs Stacey. Will try my best to remain calm and fit and well prepared for exam next time.

BTW got my official report card today and scored a 5.5 in AWA. Atleast now there's something to cheer for ;)

Nitin

[StaceyKoprince]

Hey, that's great! Now you know you don't need to worry about the AWA for next time. (You still have to write it, of course, but you don't have to worry about really going all out or even studying for it!)

It's more minor, yes, but that's still good news!