Stamina screw up? Help! Gmat in less than two weeks!

[anjita87]

Okay. So I gave my Gmat prep 2 yesterday under official conditions(essay+break+quant+break+verbal+sulk :| ).

Essay went okay. Quant, well I got a 50 but I knew a couple of questions. Irrespective of whether a question is familiar or not, I solve it completely-step by step.

Then comes verbal. I answer, move on. Answer, move on. After a while, around the 26th question, there came a point when my brain simply stopped responding! The English language looked japanese to me! I took deep breaths and tried to focus again. Solved a few with my brain active and then came the RC. I knew I had no stamina and was short on time as well, so I breezed though the RC. I love SCs because they save time, but somehow even the SCs were dancing. And I remeber Ron saying that, if you end up staring at a question for long, might as well guess and move on. So thats what I did.

Test finishes, and I score a 720 with Quant-50 and verbal-38.

I check my verbal status and saw that my first 25 questions were all correct! And in the last 16 questions, 11 of them were wrong
:( Sucks!

Please help. I always percieved the test as step by step process. When a question is in front of me, I solve it and move on. I dont think of my previous questions or my coming ones (difficulty level blah blah). But this has sort of back fired today.

Have my GMAT in less than two weeks. Please help. Thanks!

[StaceyKoprince]

Don't psych yourself out. Also, you got a 720 even with this stamina problem! Wow! :)

If you haven't been taking practice tests under official conditions in the past, make sure you do so from now on. When you sit down to study, plan out everything you're going to do for 2 hours. Then GO for 1 hour WITHOUT taking a break - no talking, no email, no food, whatever. Take a 10-min break, then do it again for another hour.

Then take a substantial break (1+ hours). You need to let your brain recover from trying to make all those new memories for 2 hours before you study again. (This is different from the real test - you're not actually trying to *learn* during the real test, just recall.)

Also read this:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... you-crazy/

Make sure not to tire your brain out in the few days before the real thing, and make sure to eat and drink on the breaks. Right before verbal, have some sort of glucose hit - pure orange juice, energy drink, whatever. (Don't do this all the way through or you'll be peaking and crashing for 4 hours. But at the end, a sugar hit will help your tired brain for that final 75 minutes.)

Also, read this for ideas about what to do if you do find yourself stressing out in the middle of the test:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... anagement/

You're going to be fine! :)

[anjita87]

Thanks Stacey! I had read your reply a little too late, a day before my gmat. Somehow, all I could register in my head were the last words in your reply - You are going to be fine!

Thanks!!! :)

Managed a 700. A little less than my target score. Will have to work really really hard on my applications now.

But, thanks a ton! You guys are great. You have no idea how much I have learnt from each one of you. Ron is obviously awesome! Tommy's random doses of humour along with some really strong fundae are fun! :) And Stacey, your theoretical approach in solving problems is awesome!

Thanks again. Hopefully, I wont need to take GMAT again :)

[StaceyKoprince]

700 is awesome! Congratulations! (I know you wanted more, but it's not like 700 is a bad score. It's a great score!)

I'm glad that I finished my post with those words (You're going to be fine!) and I'm glad that they stuck in your head. And, see, I was right, wasn't I? :) Now if only I knew what the winning lottery numbers were going to be ahead of time.

Good luck with apps - let us know how it goes!