GMAT Forum
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- 590
Gmat retake
Hi Stacy, I was a Manhattan Gmat student, and I took the Gmat yesterday, and I got a 590. 42 (Quant) and 28 (in verbal). I am really sad esp because I studied so hard. I was quite tired by the time I got to the verbal, and I also noticed prior to the exam that my verbal level had gone down. I do not know how else to improve and will be very grateful for any advice that you give me. How do I schedule a meeting with a tutor to re-evaluate how I could attack the verbal on my next try. Please help me out.
- RonPurewal
- Students
- Posts: 19744
- Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2007 8:23 am
it appears that fatigue is playing a considerable role here: not only is there a huge discrepancy between your quant and verbal scores, but, as you've admitted yourself, you were consciously tired going into the verbal section.
--
first, your question about scheduling a meeting with a tutor: that one's simple. call our office (212-721-7400 or 800-576-gmat), tell them who you are, and tell them you're interested in private tutoring. they'll get the ball rolling from there.
--
now, for the gmat specific advice. you haven't provided a lot to go on here as far as specifics, so i'll just say a couple of things about the possible genesis of your poor verbal performance.
* are you wasting mental energy on the essays?
- remember that the essays simply are not as important as the quant and verbal sections, so it's a mistake to go into them full-blast with the same energy and gravitas that you would devote to the quant and verbal.
- in order to avoid wasting this mental energy, you need to do TWO THINGS:
(1) develop a STANDARD PLAN OF ATTACK for the essays, so that you can just scribble them out without a lot of forethought or anxiety. in other words, you should have a plan that makes the essay writing more or less automatic. this is another area in which a tutor can help you, if necessary (and it shouldn't take a lot of tutoring time, either). yes, the essay isn't that important, but you can justify spending some time on it by thinking about the positive effects that will redound to your overall concentration and performance if you can nail the essays without a lot of effort.
(2) GET USED TO TAKING ENTIRE PRACTICE TESTS, INCLUDING THE ESSAYS, AT ONCE. do not take practice tests in small chunks. do not skip the essays very often, if at all. you NEED to get used to the full length of the test, because the sheer length of the test is one of the most important factors that can mess with your verbal game.
* when you go over verbal questions with which you have trouble in practice, are you getting TAKEAWAYS from those questions?
- DO NOT focus overly much on the specific details of any particular verbal question. instead, try to GENERALIZE any advice that helps solve that particular question; problem-specific advice is ultimately of no use, because you're not going to see that particular problem again on the exam.
on EVERY problem, try to extract at least one takeaway - maybe two, for quant problems - that will fit in the following template:
"if i see ______ on another problem, i should ______."
if you can't fill in this sentence with anything meaningful, then continue to study the problem until you can.
those are the major themes. if you have anything to add about the particular sources of your verbal sturm und drang, please feel free to post back with that more specific information.
thanks and good luck.
--
first, your question about scheduling a meeting with a tutor: that one's simple. call our office (212-721-7400 or 800-576-gmat), tell them who you are, and tell them you're interested in private tutoring. they'll get the ball rolling from there.
--
now, for the gmat specific advice. you haven't provided a lot to go on here as far as specifics, so i'll just say a couple of things about the possible genesis of your poor verbal performance.
* are you wasting mental energy on the essays?
- remember that the essays simply are not as important as the quant and verbal sections, so it's a mistake to go into them full-blast with the same energy and gravitas that you would devote to the quant and verbal.
- in order to avoid wasting this mental energy, you need to do TWO THINGS:
(1) develop a STANDARD PLAN OF ATTACK for the essays, so that you can just scribble them out without a lot of forethought or anxiety. in other words, you should have a plan that makes the essay writing more or less automatic. this is another area in which a tutor can help you, if necessary (and it shouldn't take a lot of tutoring time, either). yes, the essay isn't that important, but you can justify spending some time on it by thinking about the positive effects that will redound to your overall concentration and performance if you can nail the essays without a lot of effort.
(2) GET USED TO TAKING ENTIRE PRACTICE TESTS, INCLUDING THE ESSAYS, AT ONCE. do not take practice tests in small chunks. do not skip the essays very often, if at all. you NEED to get used to the full length of the test, because the sheer length of the test is one of the most important factors that can mess with your verbal game.
* when you go over verbal questions with which you have trouble in practice, are you getting TAKEAWAYS from those questions?
- DO NOT focus overly much on the specific details of any particular verbal question. instead, try to GENERALIZE any advice that helps solve that particular question; problem-specific advice is ultimately of no use, because you're not going to see that particular problem again on the exam.
on EVERY problem, try to extract at least one takeaway - maybe two, for quant problems - that will fit in the following template:
"if i see ______ on another problem, i should ______."
if you can't fill in this sentence with anything meaningful, then continue to study the problem until you can.
those are the major themes. if you have anything to add about the particular sources of your verbal sturm und drang, please feel free to post back with that more specific information.
thanks and good luck.
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