I just Beat The GMAT!

Shocking defeat is what i'd term it !

I don't consider myself 800 league but I never thought I was 610 either (Q48 V27). Ridiculously shameful performance on the verbal section. The GMAT test centre had the worst keyboards and I felt quite uncomfortable. Neverthless managed to scribble some AWA rant. Took a break to get a little breather and later found out I was 30 seconds over my scheduled time. Started under stress and carried on to complete the quant within time following straight on to verbal. Thinking I had performed badly on quant, I perhaps found myself a little lost while going through verbal. I wouldn't say verbal was difficult but perhaps my score tells me why the subsequent questions i got appeared easier. I don't know where I went wrong and what went wrong but I am truly disappointed as I had hoped for around 700 and perhaps a good performance on verbal would have got me there.

I am not sure how I could dissect this unexpected drop in performance as we have no way to figure out the underlying deficiencies. I am not a scholar but I certainly am not V27 level either, not usually anyway.

The deadlines for most schools are coming up shortly and I am in a dilemma how to best approach this situation. I had hoped for a good score to mask my dismissal GPA. I do have work experience to support my claim although everybody gunning for an MBA does so I am just disappointed with myself.

Could someone be a lamp to me and help me dig a way out of this all to make it before the deadlines?

Do schools (10th -30th ranked) consider AWA (which I hope went well) as a cover for low verbal? Do they consider conditional admissions or perhaps allow a chance to improve on GMAT post-admission? (although I guess the later consideration is a no-brainer anyway).

All guidance is much appreciated !
Thanks guys

mist3rh wrote:I am not a scholar but I certainly am not V27 level either, not usually anyway

what does being a scholar have to do with scoring well on GMAT verbal section? Usually, scholastic approach is the worst approach for navigating through RC passages as well as it's pernicious for deductive reasoning not requiring any prior knowledge of subject(s).

GMAT tests knowledge + Time management skils + Test taking skills.

the most probable reason for you low score might be test anxiety. Because of test anxiety, test takers sometimes forget to use the strategies they had been following during mock tests and practice problems.

I definitely think that your performance can, at least in part, be traced back to your late start after your break. People tend to panic when they know they're already at a disadvantage, and the fact that you didn't have any time to clear your head prior to the quantitative section may have led you to believe you performed poorly on it. It is important to note that going directly from one section to the next without a break in between will not add time to any section, so you should have taken a breather between quantitative and verbal.

As for your question about the AWA, not much stake is put in the essays so they will not mask your verbal scores. If you're unhappy with your undergraduate GPA, as well as your GMAT score, I would recommend you consider taking the exam again. It's not a solid strategy to rely on work experience alone to compensate for all other parts of the application.

Just took the GMAT. 450 Q29 V23 (March 30 2011)

I've been getting close around 40s on verbal on my GMAT prep and MGMAT. The verbal on this test has gotten ridiculous. My score ranges on the practice tests have been 580s-630s. (Goal is 600)

A year and a half ago, (22 November, 2010 to be exact) I took the GMAT without barely studying and got a 480 Q26 V31. This time around, I studied 6 hours a day for one month. Someone explain that to me?

And yes, to top it off, I AM A NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKER!

Screw this retarded test

I hear you on this one bud ! I've been thinking over it and i kinda get the feeling that, perhaps, to know that English is a natural phenomenon to us makes it an issue in itself.

I've noticed that Verbal on GMAT is about strategies more than your command over English (vocabulary or written). Many non-natives score perfect scores simply by mastering the strategies more than the language itself. At the end of the day -the score is all that matters for the schools so its a frustrating game.

I am now approaching my preparation by reminding myself that I am a weak contender for a verbal aptitude test and that I need to "learn English". And by doing so I am hoping to improve on my score next time around.

I got my AWA score and a perfect 6.0 in it only re-affirms my faith in my language/communication abilities. I also believe that AWA should play as much of a role as Verbal because AWA requires you to think critically, develop ideas and summarize them in writing in a timed environment which requires comprehension of the given topic, tests your ability to think on your feet and that it also tests sentence construction, diction, grammar etc

molibya wrote:Just took the GMAT. 450 Q29 V23 (March 30 2011)

I've been getting close around 40s on verbal on my GMAT prep and MGMAT. The verbal on this test has gotten ridiculous. My score ranges on the practice tests have been 580s-630s. (Goal is 600)

A year and a half ago, (22 November, 2010 to be exact) I took the GMAT without barely studying and got a 480 Q26 V31. This time around, I studied 6 hours a day for one month. Someone explain that to me?

And yes, to top it off, I AM A NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKER!

Screw this retarded test

I don't mean to offend you in this post. But you studied for one month 6 hours a day. By letting off days or not? Even if you let one-two off-days per week that still makes up around 130 hours of pre-exam study. Your math score went up only 3 points in the below 30-s mark, which is easily attainable with no studying at all, just by better focusing on exam you could still score 28 or 29. What does your being NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKER have to do with GMAT? The fact that you read and understand English or can address your daily concerns in your native language doesn't guarantee your automatic aptitude for tackling reasoning stuff which is GMAT about.

pemdas, I am sorry but I would have to point this out that this is the second time you are questioning the intent of being a native speaker or as I mentioned in a subtle tone in my post - a scholar.

Clearly a distinction is made between someone who is a native speaker and someone who isn't and this is a generally accepted view that a native speaker would have a natural edge over a non-native speaker. Ofcourse non-native speakers can 'master' the 'art' of cracking the GMAT (as i pointed out in my response to molbiya), it does become frustrating and disappointing for applicants like molbiya and me when the verbal scores are not quite what we expect them to be.

Besides - your posts appear as a taunt more than a feedback/suggestion. I hope you aren't offended by the reminder of someone being a scholar or a native speaker.

mist3rh, again my intention was not to deride some one. Sometimes a visceral response based on the native speaker's single *edge* or language ability may be flawed. I don't challenge no difference between the "non-native" and the "native" either. You should not be beset with my posts, as their literal meaning - not *implied* by you - the literal one, text only is feedback oriented.

I really feel you are the person with strong critical thinking abilities, yet this is not adequate aptitude for GMAT verbal part, mostly in its RC and CR sections. You have to be critical reader primarily and discard all your inferences beyond the passage's text. If you did so earlier, by reading carefully my prior posts, you would notice that they are mostly of suggestion content.