Re-Taking the GMAT Advice

[tony_stark]

Hello,

I took the GMAT on May 12 and scored a 460 (Q26 V27). I was extremely frustrated because leading up to the test, I was consistently scoring around 650. Below are my MGMAT test results:


Source Date Quantitative Score Verbal Score Total

Manhattan GMAT 11-Mar-2012 43 35 640
Manhattan GMAT 18-Mar-2012 44 39 690
Manhattan GMAT 25-Mar-2012 36 30 550
Manhattan GMAT 01-Apr-2012 32 33 540
Manhattan GMAT 09-Apr-2012 45 35 660
Manhattan GMAT 28-Apr-2012 42 36 640
Manhattan GMAT 06-May-2012 42 34 630
Actual Test 12-May-2012 26 27 460

My target score is 650-660.

I've been reading up on how to plan for a retake but was wondering if the MGMAT staff had any particular suggestions.

All of my practice tests were written under test conditions; 8 minute breaks, AWA was completed, etc. I felt the Manhattan question set was simpler in both verbal and quantitative questions. During the test, I didn't manage my verbal time sufficiently and had to guess the last 4. My time management was solid on the quantitative section. I felt like I had to guess a significant amount of the questions (10-12).

During the break and before I got my results, i honestly felt like I was doing "okay" but not below 500.

Going forward, I was thinking if I should re-do the "basic" question sets from the Manhattan Guides/OG12 and reinforce the basics as it seems like I don't have them and considering my results, use the GMAC practice tests.

I feel that I can still achieve a 650-680 but am somewhat at a loss of where to begin analyzing where I went wrong.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry you had such a rough time with the test. It's important for us to try to figure out why both your quant and verbal scores dropped so much compared to your practice tests.

You mention some timing problems. It's actually very possible to have severe timing problems and yet finish the test on time. In order to tell whether this might apply to you, use the below article to analyze your most recent MGMAT CATs:

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

I'm suspecting that you have at least serious timing problems because you had quite a variety in your practice tests - and such fluctuations typically point to problems with both timing and mental stamina. You went from 690 down to 550 a week later. Why? Whatever happened there may be similar to what happened on the real test. Later, in April, you lifted your score again. Why - what changed in that timeframe?

This article might also help you to brainstorm what went wrong:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ent-wrong/

Also you mention having to guess on the last 4 in verbal, which means your timing problems started before that. Any detail you can remember about when and how you got into trouble on the timing will be useful.

Also, read these two articles and start doing what they say:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... to-win-it/

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

I felt the Manhattan question set was simpler in both verbal and quantitative questions.

This remark is notable because I don't think I've ever heard anyone say that the though our quant was *easier* than the real test. Some people think it's similar, most people think it's harder. This tells me that this might have happened: you were performing really well, you were getting very hard questions, you spent too much time on the really hard questions, you rushed to catch back up and started making careless mistakes on things that you knew how to do, your score dropped. Could that have happened?

[tony_stark]

Stacey,

Thanks very much for the reply. I want to say one thing before I type the rest of my message: Thank you so incredibly much for your help here and in your articles. I actually exclusively used your articles for prep (in it to win it was a game changer for me). I've been studying over a year and last week was my first attempt. I went from 360s on GMAT prep tests to 690s on MGMAT tests - so I know I'm doing something partly right and it's exclusively because of your articles.

In regards to what I've been doing to remedy my issues:

I'm working on re-doing OG12 problems and really trying to understand why all of them are right/wrong in addition to more stringent timing exercises.

When I did sentence correction problem before, I was able to categorize some problems but to be quite honest my own internal sense of what was gramatically correct usually trumped and I was usually right; I'm going to work very dilligently to be more objective about sentence construction and move away from using a "gut feel" approach.

In regards to my test fluctuations, I noticed that my scores dipped when I experienced anxiety prior to taking even a practice test OR I ate something really heavy during a break (i.e. 2 slices of pizza and a glass of milk in 8 minutes lol).

I will definitely use this advice, re-read your articles and report back in a month with my progress.

Again, thank you for your efforts, advice and extremely useful articles!

Bhavin

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm very happy we can be of help. :)

Note: I had an issue with the link to one of my articles - I was double-pasting "in it to win it" when I actually wanted the second article to be the time management article. Since you've read so many of my articles already, you've probably already seen that one too, but I just wanted to note that I've fixed the link in my previous post so that it now points to the time management article instead.