Wednesday 22 June 2011

Diagnostic Test Disaster

Everyone’s been saying I should take a practice test, just to gauge my level. To determine my strengths and weaknesses. To know what areas to work on in the coming weeks. So I went ahead and took a test this morning.

The result was disastrous. I scored a 600.

I read on the BTG forum numerous threads on people losing track of time and hence rushing in the last few minutes to get all their answers in. Hence I slightly panicked; every time I spent a little too long on a question, I would just give up and select an answer at random, thinking at least the next question would be easier. Looking back, that’s probably the worst approach, given that I finished each section about 20 minutes early, meaning that I finished my test almost 45 minutes before time!

I reviewed my answers just an hour ago, and I was shocked to see that only a few questions were answered wrongly due to a lack of knowledge. The rest of the questions were incorrect due to nothing more than pure carelessness.

The bright side? Well, I’ve not started any studying for the test yet, so things can only get better. Plus I have time on my side – the next three months to properly focus and give this a go. I’ve got the resources too, plenty of books that contain plenty of practice questions to keep me going. Additionally, knowing that negligence and inattention to key words is what separates me from a decent score is definitely encouraging.

Time to start learning then.


10 comments:

  1. Its just a practice. And your first time. You'll improve, surely.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Completely agree with the post above!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks, Carl and Emily. Hope you're right! Fingers crossed.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I don't think you should worry too much about the first diagnostic test. Specially since you did not practice or prepare for it. You have the books with you to work with now, and I believe the real result that you should look forward to and that would mean something is when you'll do a few practice tests 1 or 2 months down the road.

    Anyway, best of luck!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I don't think you should worry too much about the first diagnostic test. Specially since you did not practice or prepare for it. You have the books with you to work with now, and I believe the real result that you should look forward to and that would mean something is when you'll do a few practice tests 1 or 2 months down the road.

    Anyway, best of luck!

    ReplyDelete
  6. You can read more about how the GMAT algorithm works here:

    http://www.crackverbal.com/blog/gmat-scoring-demystified-partly

    Arun

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks Arun, found it quite helpful.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Ali, yea I guess, but I'm still gutted. Its kinda discouraging isnt it? BTW, why are you using your old account on Blogger to comment?

    ReplyDelete
  9. No, i don't think this should discourage you. Like I said you should worry about your score after you have practiced enough.

    Don't think about it too much, I am sure you'll do great in the actual GMAT!

    And I don't know why i used my old account, my computer auto-signed me using that account i guess.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Yea, I'll take another practice test after I finish CR to see if there's any improvement :D

    Thank you, I hope so!

    And you only have one old account, but each profile pic there is different :O MYSTERY.

    ReplyDelete

Thoughts, suggestions, ideas, opinions - feel free to add them here! Thanks!