Hi,
I had my first attempt a month ago and going in for my second attempt within next 10 days (I cannot postpone any longer due to admission deadlines).
I had a disastrous experience and scored a 540 Q42 V24. I've hadn't any practice test below 640 so it wasn't that I was lacking in concepts but I was so anxious and in panic mode that I could barely process anything. The verbal section felt like I was guessing everything. Timing wasn't a big issue but still screwed it up a bit because I lacked confidence clicking "confirm" for each question. AWA/IR couldn't be blamed since I'm applying for Msc programs and do not care about them so during the test I spent only 15 mins on each trying to save myself for the sections that matter.
How can I avoid panicking during the real test? At home I feel calm and confident while in the test center it feels like I'm about to undergo a surgery. I've read loads of generic advice articles on this. It's not under my control to stay calm. I've been meditating, it has mainly helped my focus on RC but not sure whether it will help with anxiety on the test day.
Is it time I see a doctor and get some beta blockers? I've been reluctant because I'm skeptical about them impairing cognitive function.
Also I took my last MGMAT and scored a 680 (Q45, V37). On analysis I found that 35/37 problems in quant were 700-800 level so how inaccurate my quant score might be?
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- abhishek.gpta
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- StaceyKoprince
- ManhattanGMAT Staff
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- Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:05 am
- Location: Montreal
Re: Seeking advice
Sorry I'm just seeing this now - it looks like you may already have retaken the test (or, if not, you'll be retaking it in the next couple of days).
If you haven't taken it yet, then the best advice I can give you is NOT to do much in the last couple of days. You know what you know. What you don't know... it's too late for that now. Do some light, high level review and rest your brain (like an athlete gearing up for the big game).
In terms of how to reduce anxiety, some ideas are here:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... anagement/
The biggest thing that I can tell you, though, is NOT to tell yourself that "this is it." You're trying to hit a deadline this year but if it doesn't work out, you can always postpone till next year and give yourself proper time to prepare to take it again. I know you've probably told friends and family that you're planning to apply this year, but you can tell anyone that you simply decided it made more sense for your career to wait until next year. (And that would be 100% true if you don't get the score that you think will help make you a good candidate for whatever school you want to attend.)
If you can, try to get to the test center early and just sit there in the waiting room and let your body acclimate to your surroundings. There's also a video on the www.mba.com website that shows a testing center and talks about the testing procedures. Find it and watch it 10 times (or more!). Get used to looking at the surroundings - repeated exposure can reduce those anxiety responses.
Also, don't fight the anxiety. Everybody feels nervous at least a little bit - that's totally normal. Don't tell yourself that you shouldn't feel nervous - that just makes you even more nervous! (And it's unrealistic - everybody's nervous.)
It's possible that you would benefit from some kind of medication, but <10 days isn't enough time to test out the medication and make sure that you can still perform well and you don't have any other unexpected side effects. If you need to take the test again, you can explore something like that at that point. But maybe you won't need to. :)
There's nothing here that indicates any kind of increased inaccuracy (beyond the normal standard deviation that exists on any of these tests). Your score is not some kind of average of the difficulty levels or anything like that. The algorithm is really complicated - you can't just look at the difficulty levels of individual problems and translate that into a score.
Let us know how it goes - good luck!
If you haven't taken it yet, then the best advice I can give you is NOT to do much in the last couple of days. You know what you know. What you don't know... it's too late for that now. Do some light, high level review and rest your brain (like an athlete gearing up for the big game).
In terms of how to reduce anxiety, some ideas are here:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... anagement/
The biggest thing that I can tell you, though, is NOT to tell yourself that "this is it." You're trying to hit a deadline this year but if it doesn't work out, you can always postpone till next year and give yourself proper time to prepare to take it again. I know you've probably told friends and family that you're planning to apply this year, but you can tell anyone that you simply decided it made more sense for your career to wait until next year. (And that would be 100% true if you don't get the score that you think will help make you a good candidate for whatever school you want to attend.)
If you can, try to get to the test center early and just sit there in the waiting room and let your body acclimate to your surroundings. There's also a video on the www.mba.com website that shows a testing center and talks about the testing procedures. Find it and watch it 10 times (or more!). Get used to looking at the surroundings - repeated exposure can reduce those anxiety responses.
Also, don't fight the anxiety. Everybody feels nervous at least a little bit - that's totally normal. Don't tell yourself that you shouldn't feel nervous - that just makes you even more nervous! (And it's unrealistic - everybody's nervous.)
It's possible that you would benefit from some kind of medication, but <10 days isn't enough time to test out the medication and make sure that you can still perform well and you don't have any other unexpected side effects. If you need to take the test again, you can explore something like that at that point. But maybe you won't need to. :)
Also I took my last MGMAT and scored a 680 (Q45, V37). On analysis I found that 35/37 problems in quant were 700-800 level so how inaccurate my quant score might be?
There's nothing here that indicates any kind of increased inaccuracy (beyond the normal standard deviation that exists on any of these tests). Your score is not some kind of average of the difficulty levels or anything like that. The algorithm is really complicated - you can't just look at the difficulty levels of individual problems and translate that into a score.
Let us know how it goes - good luck!
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
2 posts Page 1 of 1