CANCELLED My Scores: Finished GMAT

[kdog3490]

Hi Erin,

I've been a silent observer on this board, and just wanted to share my experiences, so no one goes through what I've just been through. I wrote my GMAT this morning, and decided to cancel my score about 15 questions into the Quant. section. First, here's my background:

- Studied for about 2 months (total 150 - 200 hours)
- Fully completed OG, Kaplan, PR, Insiders Guide
- PP#1: 730 (without reading official guide)
- PP#2: 710 (about a third of the way through the guide)
- Kaplan CD: 610, 600, 600, 600
- Princeton Review: 720 , 710
- Aiming for a 700+ score

For the AWA, I was surprised that the Issue essay came first, instead of the Argument. No matter, both were straight from the OG, and were not too difficult.

For some reason, I was really nervous about the Quant. I have an engineering background, which makes this even more unusual. I did very well on the PP practice tests (#1: Q49 and #2: Q50), but I got totally RATTLED when I hit a question (#4 or #5)that I couldn't find an answer to (in the choices). So I started to doubt myself, redo my work, worry about the clock, and essentially freak out. This behavior started to perpetuate itself as more questions came around, even really simple ones that I'd had no problems solving in practice.

Believe me, this is not atypical test-taking behaviour for me, so I was really disturbed by how I reacted. I'm not sure how to make sure this does not happen again. In retrospect, I feel that I started to think more about how the questions were going to screw up my score, rather than focusing on the question itself. This cost me dearly (not to mention the $200).

I decided to stick around for the Verbal, which was actually quite reasonable, and very similar to the OG. If you can do the questions in the book, you'll be fine.

I feel I should emphasize that I don't think the Quant. on the real thing is any harder, so please don't get discouraged. It just looks a little different than some of the stuff in the OG (more steps, wordier, etc.). And that apparently was enough to throw me off.

Any suggestions folks? I feel like my effort in studying has been wasted, as I was really looking forward to getting this off my back. I am at a loss at what to do. Take a break for a few weeks? Schedule another exam right away?

Thanks for your input.

[Sri]

I never took GMAT, but, I can understand what u r going thru...If I were u, I will definetely take a couple of weeks off and then think about taking the test. Right now, my suggestion is that u shud start meditating for atleast 10 minutes a day....During these 10 minutes just dont think anything else, not even iabout time..Just keep ur mind calm, try to bring ur concentration to one point...If u belive in GOD try to just think of your favorite GOD and nothing else during that time...Its hard in the beginning but as days go by u will just love those 10 minutes of ur day and u'll definetely feel completely rejuvenated after that...This will help u to improve ur concentration on the task at hand from next time...

Good Luck next time and I hope to hear that u cracked ur GMAT...
Go for it,
-Sri.

[davvy]

Hi sri
what if I dont have any favourite god? can i meditate , concenterating on any trivial name or person or even my lost soulmate?

[Sri]

That's why I said , 'IF YOU BELEIVE IN GOD" and if u dont then try to concentrate on something that u strongly beleive in or something, this is just to give u a kind of aim, that's all!!

[kdog3490]

Thanks for the advice and encouragement Sri. I will definitely need to think about why I panicked during the Quant. section, and how to handle the stress during the test. I'll definitely look into some meditation and relaxation techniques....it's amazing how 24 hours can put everything back in perspective...the GMAT is not life or death by any means....I'm just a few dollars poorer now... =)

[roborob]

Hey kdog,

I felt just like you during the test. I, too, have an engineering background and the quantitive section has never been a problem for me. I scored in the high forties and low fifties in all the practice quantitive sections (including Kaplan), so I thought I was fully and mentally prepared to face whatever ETS threw at me.

I was not! I spent so long on the first 10 questions that I panicked, started hurrying and then finished the test with 20 min to spare. In retropspect, I should not have hurried because (1) I felt that the questions got easier as the test went along, and (2) I had freaking 20 min left over! Just bad pacing on my part... simply horrible. Anyways, I can count one question that I missed, two which I spent about 3-4 min, and one that I guessed on. So, I'm thinking that I missed about 2??? (maybe one or two more.) I ended up scoring a 49 scaled score. What threw me off was that the questions that I spent 3-4 min on were EARLY in the test.... I panicked on time as well.

Cancelling the test was not even an option for me. I told myself that no matter what, I was walking away from that test center with a score! My advice to you would be to sign up for the test ASAP. You sound like you're ready... and now that you are mentally prepared to face the quantitive section and know how the questions come, you can show the world that engineers can score above 700! :o

Good luck!

Rob

[kdog3490]

Rob,

Thanks for the advice and encourgagment. I know that in my next attempt, cancelling is definitely not an option, no matter how good or bad I think I'm doing. It's comforting to know that even excellent Quant. scorers like yourself have some difficulty with a few of the questions. So I'm not completely out of my mind.

I find it surprising that you went through the first 10 slowly, and then finished the next 27 so quickly that you had 20 mins. remaining! What do you estimate was your pace per question?

[roborob]

Kdog,

First of all, I wouldn't listen to all those test takers here that make it seem so easy to score a 700+. That's just plain BS. Truth is, everybody studied their butts off for this test. They were just fortunate enough to score so high and they want people to think that they did it effortlessly - I don't know why.

Now, I'm not saying that there aren't people out there who don't need to study and can kick butt on the test with only their left eye, but I highly doubt there are so many in this forum. (I'm using my Critical Reasoning skills logic for this next statement.) If most of those here did it effortlessly, then why would they even join a GMAT forum for help?? (I'll leave that statement alone now... I know that it can be weakened or strenthened with additional info. )

Now, on to your question.... be to honest, I panicked so much after the first 10 Qs that I really kicked it into high gear. I stopped checking my answers (which is something I NEVER did when taking practice tests anyways) and just went with my first answer. On DS Qs, I answered most of them in about 30 seconds. As a trick that I developed on my own, I sometimes read the second statement first and then the first statement. I get tricked sometimes because I would think that I need both when the second statement alone is suffice. By doing it my way, I can see through the trick and get the answer right. :o I think I also panicked in the beginning because I think I got all PS Qs. Those usually take me about a minute and a half or two minutes, but like I said earlier, I had a few that took me 4 min... and I panicked. Lastly, the PS Qs were definitely LONGER than the Qs in the OG... I needed to take more steps to solve each problem.

Look, kdog, it sounds like you are similar to me in that your confidence in your math skills are high. Don't sweat it too much. You now know what to expect now. Just go in there and kick butt. (And then you can write a post to tell everyone how easy it was to score a 700+ )

Rob