Retake Strategy and Advice Needed! Urgent!

[dgmatter]

Hi everyone,
I need some serious advice cause I'm going a bit loony. I have a gmat score that is basically good except for the split: 710(92%), 41Q(54%), 47V(99%). I've my second official exam scheduled for 6 days from now and I'm thinking of canceling. I'm really frustrated. I've had to compress the post-MGMAT timeline to fit in review, official exam, more study, and another official exam in advance of time consuming summer commitments. Please help!

I felt like I was making great progress just before my last exam, and felt that I just needed 2 or 3 weeks more to really solidify my gains and progress further. This feeling definitely has not come back after my first Official Test.

Basic Progression:
My first two CATs during the manhattan gmat class were basically unchanged or lower than my diagnostic, and then I spent two or three weeks immediately following class finishing the remaining strat guides, doing the OG probs I hadn't gotten to, writing out notes, etc. The biggest difference came after finally watching the Timing Lab, which I had somehow overlooked earlier, and regularly hammering away at timed sets. I got a 710 on my first mba.com CAT two weeks before my official test, with a 44Q:44V split that I would've been very happy to get on the real exam. Then my official exam: I was flustered by the first few math probs and then somewhat off for the rest of the exam, knew I was getting easy problems, and was annoyed and ahead of time despite continually trying to slow down and double-check answers. On the verbal I was getting hard prob after hard prob and knew I was killing it. Perfectly on time or a few minutes early. In fact I had the luxury to comfortably spend 3 minutes on each of the last two questions of the test, a pair of CR whoppers.

I took a MGMAT CAT after my exam to quickly ID weaknesses to target, and then took an mba.com one two weeks later after intense study. I squeezed in one more last week; I know MGMAT recommends not doing one so close to test day but I was concerned that my quant score seemed basically unchanged or lower and wanted to get another temperature check. Disaster!

# Q Q% V V% Tot Tot% Source
1 42 57 35 74 640 73 MGMAT
2 38 48 39 88 640 73 MGMAT
3 39 49 36 79 620 69 MGMAT
4 44 69 44 97 710 92 mba.com
5 41 54 47 99 710 92 EXAM
6 37 44 44 97 670 84 MGMAT
7 42 57 42 96 690 87 mba.com
8 38 46 44 97 670 84 mba.com

Obviously my math sucks. Despite focusing on it nearly exclusively. Basic computation could be stronger and faster, and I need to spend time and see more problems and patterns as well as strengthen my use of alternative strategies (which I too rarely use) and iron out subject weakness. My last 4 quant scores have been bouncing around and I'm feeling a bit pessimistic about the upcoming. In fact, I've already started feeling more relaxed, as if I already canceled.

Should I take the exam in a week anyway? I'm feeling a bit burned out (as the above data might suggest) and not terribly confident. I haven't minded most of the gmat study previously but now it feels like a grind, and I'm anxious to prepare for my next phase.

I walked into the last exam without pressure, but now I'm concerned that a second low quant score will confirm a pattern in adcoms eyes and a lower overall might suggest that my first was a fluke. I'm aiming at several top-10 schools (minus the hbs gsb etc), and I know without a quant background or time to demonstrate proficiency via additional classwork several schools will discard me out of hand because of such a low quant score. I may be able to squeeze in another round of studying and testing at the end of the summer or fall, but I'm concerned that it'll take away from the time that I'd devote to essays and applications before round 2 deadlines. Argh!

Retake anyway? Cancel and study/retake? Cancel and put in applications this fall anyway? What the heck is going on with my brain?? If I do study again after a couple of months, how can I do next time whatever I didn't do this time to raise my quant score?

I know this is a bit of an admissions+gmat prep question, but...

Oh Masters of GMAT, please advise!

Thank you!

Frustrated,
dgmatter

ps
Sorry for the long post! I'm deep enough in it and excited enough to be done that I don't have perspective on things. I'm already feeling bad about slacking on gmat for the last many days, and I'm wondering if i'm wasting all my prep by canceling now or if that's thinking strategically... Really appreciate any and all advice.
:(

[StaceyKoprince]

Hi, I'm sorry we're just getting to your question now. As you've probably learned, if you have an urgent question, do NOT post on the forums. (Well, you can still post, but don't expect a quick response.) Contact the office directly for any urgent issues.

I don't know what you decided to do but I'll answer anyway. :)

First, wow, nice job on the verbal. Second, only some schools care about the split - have you checked into that? If you're not planning to apply to those schools, then it doesn't matter; you can apply with your existing score.

That question is best discussed with an admissions consulting firm; I'm not familiar enough with which schools care about the split.

It sounds like you had timing issues during the quant on the first test. You describe going too fast (and likely making careless mistakes). Had you been trying to overcome the opposite problem - spending too much time on some quant questions and then messing up the overall section timing? Often, people will swing too far to the other side at first (go too fast on everything).

As a general rule (for you or anyone else reading this), if:
- your practice scores are lower than you want or are fluctuating significantly, and
- you've lost confidence, and
- you feel completely burned out and are tempted to push through just because you want to get it over with

then cancel. You know you aren't ready. You just *want* to be ready (because you want to be done), so you're being stubborn and not admitting that you know you're not ready. :)

The other details (busy summer, apps in fall, etc) don't matter. If you're not ready, you can't force it.

Now, as to what to do to fix these math problems:
1) If you took our course or one of our Guided Self-Study packages, then you're eligible for a free Post-Exam Assessment (if you haven't done it already). 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.

2) I'd like to get some more detailed data on your strengths and weaknesses in order to advise you. Use the below to analyze your most recent MGMAT CAT(s):
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/

Then come back here and tell us the results of your analysis and what you think you should do based on that analysis. We'll tell you whether we agree and advise you further. (Note: do share an analysis with us, not just the raw data. Part of getting better is developing your ability to analyze your results - figure out what they mean and what you think you should do about them!)

You can skip the verbal analysis - just tell me about quant.

Let us know what you decided to do and how (if at all) we can help.