Exposed by the GMAT: 580 first exam

[kimd6746]

I took my first GMAT exam on 7/7 and I scored the following:

SCORE: 580
QUANT: 32 34%
VERBAL: 37 81%

My original goal was to score a 650 or higher on the GMAT. I'm not trying to get into a top ten full time program like Harvard or anything like that. But I do need a good GMAT score to compensate for my low undergrad GPA. Therefore, I was very depressed by my score because it was the exact same score I had when I took my first practice exam a few days before I started my 9 week session! Basically, I made no improvement whatsoever from my first exam I took stone cold without any studying or prep work to my official exam which I devoted 15 weeks of studying to. What's so frustrating is that I was scoring pretty well in my MGMAT practice CAT exams so I thought the worst I could do was get 600 minimum. In addition, my quant really took a nose dive on my official exam even though I felt pretty confident I really understood the subject material in all the quant books. But I knew I was exposed right from the get go as I was stone cold stumped on 10 questions (majority DS questions) which I had no idea how to setup and I wound up strategic guessing a lot of questions too much which resulted in me having way too much time left over (6 minutes) by the time I finished the quant section. It was frightening how easily intimidated I was by the DS questions and I didn't realize just how weak I was in that area. What was heartbreaking was that I wasn't asked a single FDP question and very few word translation questions, particularly overlapping set/double-set matrix questions which I consider my bread and butter. It was a never ending cascade of inequalities, probability, and all things EIV. The GMAT quickly found my greatest weakness and exploited it for all its worth. As for my Verbal, to be honest I was expecting a much higher score because I felt like the Verbal section was a breeze compared to the Quant. I was answering the questions quickly and felt like I had no trouble with the Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension questions as they were my strong suit going into the exam, and I felt like I really nailed most of the sentence correction questions which were my greatest weakness going in. I would give anything to see my score breakdown on my real exam because I'm dying to know which questions I got on my exam. At least it would explain how I got questions wrong I felt so confident with!


My practice exam breakdown is as follows:

Exam 1: 580 64%
Quant: 38 55%
Verbal: 32 67%

Exam 2: 520 44%
Quant: 26 19%
Verbal: 36 81%

Exam 3: 590 67%
Quant: 37 52%
Verbal: 34 72%

Exam 4: 640 80%
Quant: 40 61%
Verbal: 37 83%

As you can see from my practice exam results, I'm pretty weak in math. Therefore, I spent the bulk of my time studying for the Quant section. What's heartbreaking is that despite all the hours I put in studying and restudying the SG books and answering every single OG question twice over, I had no better mastery of the quant material than I did when I first started. Obviously my studying strategy was flawed and I realize I have to make serious adjustments to my studying technique if I am to take the exam again. Maybe I all I ever did was just learn how to memorize better and not fully master the concept behind it. In hindsight, I shouldn't have relied on my practice CAT exam results as a predictor of my official exam outcome. Once I scored a 640 on my last practice exam, my confidence level was way up and I thought I was going to only improve on that when I took it for real. I thought that the real GMAT was much harder than the CAT exams (particularly the quant questions).

I have already registered to sit for the exam again on 9/6. I intend to get my personal exam assessment from MGMAT and with their help plot out a new studying plan. My goal is to really understand the quant SG books inside and out and get more comfortable with DS questions because I was totally bullied by them in the real exam. I hope to post again but with better results so stay tuned for post exam assessment after I take my 2nd attempt.

PS: Congrats to everyone who reached their exam goals and best of luck to those who are on their way!

[Iknowhowyoufeel]

unfortunately, i am also in the same situation. i will be taking the cat exam next friday and i really pray that i don't end up in a loophole. your verbal score looks great. it's not that hard to improve the quant from a 32. you would probably have to master all the easy to medium questions correct and hit a couple of hard ones. time management is important. you seem to finish too quickly and that could result in careless error in the math section. i agree that doing the official guide over is not that helpful when you have done it before. especially if you have a great memory, it can give you great hopes that you will do well in the quant math section. i'm really sorry to hear what happened to you. but at least you know you have to change your strategy. doing the official guide over and over will not increase your score. understanding the concepts and applying it to different types of math problems will help. best of luck.

by the way, did you do the gmatprep? how was your scores?

[Guest]

First of all, don't lose heart! The GMAT is ALL about tricks....there is nothing fundamental that is tested so don't despair. I know several people who have improved their scores by 100+ points on their second attempt.

I think your Verbal score poses absolutely no problem (you probably only need to keep practising a bit until your next test) and you are definitely doing the right thing by addressing the quant section first. I have a couple of suggestions. Also I am sure the folks at MGMAT would give you more professional advice, but here are my two cents anyways:

1) Did you practice questions from OG11 under a timed environment? Every question in OG or elsewhere can certainly be answered given enough time. Would definitely suggest timing any practice questions, regardless of where you practice.

2) It wasn't clear from your post whether you took the GMATprep tests. Ideally, spend the last 1-2 weeks practising the GMATprep tests since they are the most accurate indicators of your score. Also, you can get feedback about your wrong answers. Although you can't get explanations for the wrong answers, in GMATprep, you can try to approach the incorrect questions, by yourself, after taking the test to see if you can come up with the right answer the second time round. From personal experience, that helps build confidence and reinforces techniques that you learn elsewhere.

Hope this helps and wish you the very best in your forthcoming test!

[kimd6746]

To answer your questions:

1) Yes, I did all the OG and Review questions under a timed environment. The OG Tracker spreadsheet was of great help because it showed that for the questions I got right, I would solve in in a minutes time (except for overlapping set/double-set matrix questions because they take time to setup). But for the questions I got wrong, I would average around 3 minutes. Therefore, it showed that I was only able to answer the questions correctly if I knew how to setup the problem right away. But if I didn't recognize how to setup the problem, BAM, I was dead in the water and fumbled my way around until I just guessed. That's my problem, if I don't know how to setup the problem in less than 10 seconds, I panic and end up getting stuck. I would then try the "brute force" method with mixed results. Either I took way too much time to get the right answer or took way too much time chasing my tail. For the real exam, "brute force" does not cut it because you can't afford to waste time going around in circles. During the official exam, whenever I came across a problem that I didn't know how to setup right away, I just cut bait and guessed. However, I obviously did too much of this because I had way too much time left over when I finished. :-(

2) Sorry I forgot to mention it beforehand, but I only took the MGMAT CAT practice exams but not the GMAT Prep practice exams. To be honest, I got cocky after I scored a 640 on my last MGMAT CAT practice exam and thought that was good enough for me. I intend to finish up the remaining CAT exams at my disposal (the 2 MGMAT CAT exams and the 2 GMAT Prep practice exams) before I take the real exam again. I will be getting my PEA from one of the MGMAT instructors any day now so I'm anxiously awaiting his/her guidance as well as register for some additional one day workshops just to make sure I truly comprehend the fundamentals I should have down solid before I take the exam again. I think $90 per workshop (for 9 week session alumnus) is a pretty reasonable price to ensure my memory of the 9 week session material doesn't fade out because it's already been 7 weeks since I completed my 9 week course. Another point regarding my 9 week course, I was constantly behind in keeping up with my homework during the course. I don't mean to make any excuses, but I have a full time job on wall street with a long commute back home to Jersey and by the time I get home, I'm beat. The majority of my studying was done on the weekends, but I don't need a PEA to tell me that is not such a great way to study. My advice to anyone who is currently in their 9 week course is to keep on top of your homework and don't wait until after your 9 week course is finished to settle up on all the homework requirements. Your 9 week course is a golden opportunity to ask questions and get feedback from your instructor. Thank god MGMAT posts the class recordings because without it I would have been totally lost, but there is no substitute for live feedback and interaction.

My ultimate goal for my 2nd exam is get to a point where I know how to setup a problem right away so I won't be in a position where I'm blindly guessing. That's the worst feeling in the world when you have no idea how to setup a problem because your confidence takes a nosedive thereafter. I felt like the GMAT exam was like a shark smelling blood in the water because it was ferociously attacking me what seemed like nonstop inequalities, VIC, probabilities questions. In hindsight, me showing up at the test center was like throwing chum into shark infested waters because I got eaten up. >_< I'm on www.beatthegmat.com and MGMAT forum everday and I see a lot of great tips and suggestions on there, especially study habits. It's been 10 years since I graduated from college so I'm learning how to study all over again. But it's so true what the MGMAT instructors say, it's not how hard you study, but how smart you study. Once again, thanks to all those with words of encouragement and great advice on these forums!