Still in the smoke...

[aasha86]

I took the GMAT this past Saturday and unfortunately missed my target score (700 range).

I took the 10 week Mgmat course and studied diligently for about 4 months everyday for at least 3 hours a day. I ended up taking 11 CAT exams (Mgmat, Kaplan, GmatPrep) and my scores ranged from 650-710. I also completed all of the mgmat quiz banks, kaplan quiz banks and sets of timed OG problems. I ended up getting a 640 on the actual test. I plan on retaking the exam, but I'm not really sure what I can do beyond doing additional timed sets and improving my timing/controlling my test anxiety.

So about the test:

Quant Section:
One thing that really surprised me was the number of probability/combinations problems I saw. My instructor told me that the actual GMAT rarely has probability problems, and that the odds of seeing one problem was really low. Well, I saw AT LEAST 4 problems, maybe more.
I remember 2 combination problems and 2 probability problems. Generally, probability problems take a lot longer for me to work through and they really threw me off as I just wasn't expecting to see that many. I ended up having to rush at the end/guess.
Otherwise, in general the quant was pretty tough but in line with what I saw in MGMAT/Kaplan. I ended up getting a 44 on quant. My practice ranges were 42-47.

Verbal Section:
Overall, it was pretty tough and I agree with other posts, the problems were a lot more convoluted than most of the practice problems I had done. I think I even saw a problem that tested COLONS! I was pretty disappointed in my verbal score, 33! The last test I took I scored a raw score of 51v and my range was 35-51! It’s just nuts that my scores/performance can vary so much.
Near the end of my prep I noticed that I was missing a lot of the CR problems. I reviewed Ron’s session on CR S/W and that really helped.

Test Center:
I went to the Pearson center in Queens, since all of the centers in Manhattan were full. The people working there were very friendly and the process was very smooth. I'll probably go back to that center again. Oh, the test center’s address is wrong, the actual address is 97-39 Queens Blvd not 97-77 Queens Blvd.

Not sure if this was helpful but I thought I'd share my experience. Let me know if you have any advice on how I can better prepare for round two next month.

[kyle.s.price]

Hang in there! I had a very similar experience this past weekend. Like you, I took the Manhattan GMAT course and was studying 15-20 hours a week. I was scoring in the 720-740 in practice exams but put up a 680 on test day. I took a huge hit on my Verbal and Quant was a little below my practice level.

I'm planning to take a few days off and then hit the books again to take it one more time in 30 days. So you're not alone.


Hang in there!


Best,

Kyle