I am absolutely devastated - I took the GMAT today and received a score of 450

[sudi760mba]

Excellent effort and score!

so i take it you practiced with OG10? what about practice tests? manhattan, princeton scores?

Thanks!

Originally Posted by m.campanella

Hey Barely,

My friend, let me tell you right away: you are not the first nor the last person to be a casualty of their first few GMATs.

I know firsthand because on my first GMAT I got a 480.

You have to realize a couple things. The GMAT isn't a math test. The GMAT isn't a test measuring your verbal ability. It doesn't measure your intelligence or IQ and it certainly doesn't measure how well you will do in graduate school. The GMAT tests how well you can do the GMAT, period. Because of this, your training needs to be structured around this concept. Don't try to learn math, or verbal properties. Focus on learning how to destroy the GMAT.


This is why I am convinced that there are ONLY two effective ways to study for this test.

1) Answering timed question packets.
2) Doing timed tests.

Looking over math concepts, studying grammer concepts, reading about probability etc. is a waste of time. It doesn't test you. You may know how to do Work word problems, but when confronted with a tricky work word problem, do you freeze up and re-read the question multiple times or do you spring into action??? You must literally SPRING into action at every question!

On the GMAT, odds are you will not use half the knowledge you might acquire. What you need to practice is speed and reaction time. You can only do this by doing question after question on various subjects, and timing yourself.

You seem to need practice both in Quant and in Verbal. Structure your own practice packet that fits your needs. Your practice packet could be: 20 SC, 20 critical reasoning, 3 reading comprehension, 20 PS and 20 DS. These questions need to come from Official Guide 10 (the best, hands down) and OG 11 (also good). Use Princeton, Kaplan and other sources sparingly as their question writers can be sloppy. Do the packet AT LEAST 5 times a week. Take a TIMED test once or twice a week, or more, to learn the scoring and the timing you need to get a good grade.

Above all, DON'T GIVE UP and stay hungry. You can and WILL succeed in business school. Don't let this test make you give up on your dreams.

Good luck bro. You can do it.

[phdgurl]

If this is really what you want (and I think it is), don't give up. You just need to approach it differently.

First you need some type of strategy to cover a 8 to 10 week period. 15 to 20 hours a week of practice and practice tests. If you're not feeling confident with your math, check out the EZ Solutions books. Start with the basic Basic Wk book for Math Practice, then the Advanced. So far I'm still working with the basic and it has helped my confidence tremendously.

I scored a 570 with verbal being in the 80th percentile and quant in the 40th percentile!

That was last year.

This year I googled "How to study for the GMAT" and found lots of useful information. This is how I found out about this site and the EZ solutions workbooks.

Good luck to you!