woops....660 q: 47 / v: 33 AWA 6.0

[TemermariousTaker]

Took the gmat a few weeks ago - very disappointed and confused with my verbal score, seeing as how I didn't score below a 38 on any of my 3 practice CATs (even scoring as high as a 42). Don't remember the exact breakdown of my 3 practice cats but it went as follows:

MGMAT CAT1: 700
MGMAT CAT2: 720
GMAC CAT1: 720

So naturally I was very disappointed in my 660.

One question for those of you familiar with scores - Is there typically a correlation between essay score and verbal score? Seems like a disconnect to me to get a 6.0 on my awa but fare so poorly on the verbal section.

Anyway, I'm totally convinced my verbal performance was an aberration and I plan on retaking in the next 1.5-2 months (hopefully before the NFL starts lol only good thing about the looooong offseason). I don't plan on applying to b-school for another 3-4 years so I've taken the proper measures to safeguard against a low score.

I think taking the exam in the morning was a mistake - I have never been a morning person and I did most of my studying at night. I was initially very pissed off at myself but relaxing these past couple of weeks and hanging out with my friends has really put me at ease. I am very confident that I can retake the exam soon and get the score I was shooting for

Good luck to you all

[Guest]

Sorry to hear about your score. I am sure you can crack the nut next time. Good luck.

Could you please provide a debrief ?
What was the difficulty level like ?
If you were to take the test next time, what would be your prep like ?
Have my test in few weeks from now ....

[TemerariousTaker]

I thought Manhattan's quant was more difficult than the actual test - however, my very first question was extremely difficult and similar to some of the questions I saw on MGMATs exams so I would still advise that you practice with their problems. The verbal section was pretty consistent with Manhattan's material. I do recommend practicing only with OG problems in the last week or so leading up to the test so that you get a better feel for the questions and how they try and trick you (This is especially true for data sufficiency - you definitely notice their tendencies).

I thought I was doing ok on verbal but I got a little antsy the last few questions because I wanted to see my score (probably a big mistake). I finished the quant section with about 30 seconds left and the verbal section with about 5 mins to go. AWA section I used up all the time I could, I made some last second changes which I think bumped me up to the 6.0

I think I crammed too much the last 2 weeks of my studying, except for the last 1.5 days before the test when I didn't do any studying whatsoever. I am going to try and limit myself to 1.5-2 hours of studying per day and I am going to focus a lot on sentence correction for my retake.

And my last piece of advice is to use the official CATs provided to you by GMAC. The format is exactly the same as you will see on test day and it has a calming effect to know that you have seen this exact exam & format before. Good luck on your test, I'm sure you can do well if you prepare properly.

p.s. Get to the testing center as early as you can - they let you start your exam as soon as you are set up - they set you up based on the order you came in.