Scored lower on the GMAT than all 7 practice tests

Sandeepsharma - thank you for your reply and additional recommendation of EGMAT. I have never heard of it before and am now taking a look at their website. Very much appreciated.

Ardsouza - thank you very much for your detailed response! You're an excellent GMAT therapist!

- #1, I am more sure now that nervousness played a big factor on the Verbal section (you're right because Quant was unaffected, it was only the Verbal score that took a direct impact).
- #2, I did not have a long break after prep but prior testing day. I actually took the 750-scored GMAT Prep Test two days before the exam, so this also makes me feel a little more confident that a 50 point drop over the course of 24-48 hours can't be an issue of subject material. It quiet possibly could have been that I just had a bad day.
- #3, thank God that timing was not an issue. I took the 7 practice tests to make sure that timing wouldn't be and I absolutely credit practice tests to reducing score variance as affected by timing and testing rhythm.
- #4, I did feel the actual GMAT verbal section was someone trickier than what I was used to, but not by much. I actually spoke with a GMAT admission consultant who told me something pretty interesting: if you miss a verbal question very early on (i.e., the first one) then it is just impossible to score over a certain %ile because the test put you on a different score trajectory right away. I will admit that the first question I saw was just about the only first question I EVER had to think twice about. Perhaps I got it wrong and this severely hurt my score potential early on in the test? It would be great to be able to see my test and see what went wrong and where, however GMAC doesn't supply a detailed review of your exam.

Thanks to you both! (and to anyone else with feedback). I just ordered The Powerscore CR Bible and Powerscore LSAT Reading Comprehension book and will be using these to supplement my Manhattan GMAT guides for Verbal.

Prior to taking my first exam, I had already read and completed the below books. As you can see, my advanced supplements were only for Quant. All my verbal resources were through the OG Guides and Manhattan GMAT. I provided a couple Advanced Quant recommendations below if anybody is curious about additional resources for Quant. Once I read Powerscore CR and RC I will post my thoughts on those books as well.

1) Manhattan GMAT 8 Volumes
2) OG 12th Edition
3) OG Verbal Review 2nd Edition
4) OG Quant Review 2nd Edition
5) Manhattan GMAT Advanced Quant - this book does not really cover actual material as much as it does tricks and strategies for understanding the test and eliminating answer choices. I would read it only once you cover all Quant material as this book assumes you know the material already. The biggest plus-side to this book is that it has over 150 700-Level Quant questions with detailed answer explanations. The book is rich with Number Property/Equation type problems, but could use more probability/combinatorics/stats problems as these tend to be more of a challenge for most. That's where the below book comes in.
6) EZ Solutions Math Practice Advanced Workbook this has a lot of tough probability/combinatorics as well as Geometry questions that the MGMAT Advanced Quant book may be slightly short on . This together with MGMAT's Advanced Quant book covers all types of Quant questions and plenty of them. I would note, however, that the EZ Solutions does not master replicating real GMAT questions as well as the MGMAT Advanced Quant book does, which is why I would use it only for Logic/Stats and Geometry type questions. You could use it for the rest, but in my opinion the MGMAT Advanced Quant book does a better job with the other types of questions. Also note that this book is purely quant problems. There is no coverage of material.

All the best,

Orid

Orid,

A few observations:

# MGMAT in Verbal penalizes you less heavily than on the than GMAT. You got 99%ile on MGMAT but 90%ile on the GMAT Prep tests. So suggestion would be to review the GMAT Prep tests for Verbal and see in which area you made most of the mistakes - SC, CR , RC ? Then work on that that area.

# You did a lot of tough questions in Quant but couldnot manage 50 ? Its a bit surprising ? Did you face questions from tougher topics in the GMAT.

Hey AbhiJ,

Thanks for your comments. I did not know that MGMAT Verbal penalizes you less heavily than the actual GMAT so thanks for that!

As for Quant - most people who get a Q50 will miss no more than 2-3 questions, so getting a Q51 or higher requires a near-perfect execution on the Quant section. In my particular case, the material for Quant is completely in the bag, but my timing strategy on Quant can use some work. Although I miss around 2-5 per Quant section, they are almost always near the end of the test. One of my weaknesses (and areas to improve) is to let a problem go if I cannot solve it. Previously, I would be very determined to solve a question and while I would consistently get the first 15-20 questions correct, I would miss 2-5 on the second half due to time! In fact, when I review my exams afterward and have a second attempt, there is usually only one question per exam that I cannot solve. So I don't mean to hype up my experience with Quant (as I too still have room for improvement), but I can confidently say that I've read a variety of Advanced Quant books on the market (MGMAT, Veritas, EZ) and would definitely say that these 3 books (but mostly MGMAT and EZ with the selected sections I mentioned) will prepare you very well for Quant. Also, the MGMAT practice exams cover many Quant questions that are more difficult than those on the actual exam.

Orid

Orid

I feel your pain- after reading through your posts, I believe that some focused strategizing and smart studying should ensure you score in the range you deserve.

I had myself, depended almost exclusively on ManhattanGMAT the first time around and scored 730 (48, 42). Though it's a great course, I think there are certain factors that could make sole dependence on this course a touch risky.

Some points that I believe could work for you:

- Keep the following important rule always in your mind for quant: Give yourself 30 secs to 1 min max to decide whether you would want to attempt a quant problem. If you think you are not 100% sure that you will be able to solve it, make an educated guess, else a random one, and MOVE ON. I have a quants background and am one of those quant heavy, Indian engineers you will see aplenty on this forum. So, my ideal quants score should have been 50-51. However, I got into skirmishes with a few obstinate problems, and ended up having to guess 3-4 of the last 10 problems, denting my quants score. In my second attempt (760, 50, 42), I was always ahead of time and skipped a couple of questions I was not confident of solving. The 50 speaks for itself.

- Although I encountered many, many difficult quants problems during the MGMAT mock tests, I believe the very difficult problems were too difficult and obtuse and thus not of GMAT standard. Also, the MGMAT quant scoring algorithm is lenient and lulled me into a false sense of security. I think you would be better served solving the GMATPrep quant portions twice each and taking the free PlatinumGMAT, Veritas, Knewton and Kaplan quant sections for a more true and well rounded feel of the actual GMAT quant test.

- On verbals, my sense was that MGMAT verbal sections, although comparable to GMATPrep, were repetitive in their structure and solvable once you learned the various rules and applied them. I was helped immensely by sifting through the various SC, CR and RC threads on GMATClub itself. In specific, the thread that has 60-odd difficult SC questions and the document that has 100 odd CR problems from GMATPrep were very helpful in broadening my verbal preps. Also, please go through the SC, CR guides by whiplash, SC guides by Gayathri and TestMagic.com. If you do not find these documents on this forum, let me know - I shall send you the links.

- I believe the MGMAT SC book is a great book and should be used as a base for your SC preps.

- On e-GMAT, I had gone through their free sessions and found them helpful and the instructors responsive and very willing to help. I think it is a good, structured course at a bargain. Most people who enroll with e-GMAT till now are admittedly quant-heavy Asians, but I don't see why anyone wishing to improve his / her verbal score should not be helped by this course.

All the best and feel free to ask questions if any!

Santanu

Santanu, Your post calarifies some of the misconceptions regarding MGMAT Tests. I couldnot have said it any better.There is no denying that their strategy guides are the best in the market. However tests are far from perfect.

* Quant simply sucks. Once you solve 7-8 questions correct in a row, it starts to give brutal questions which is unlike in GMAT, where you can solve almost all of the questions in 2 mins timeframe. GMAT Club tests are much better IMHO. And people have got Q51 using them.

* On MGMAT tests you can make 10-15 mistakes on the Verbal and still get a V40. On GMAT Prep if you make more than 7-8 mistakes you wouldn't get a V40.

Hi Santanu,

- Thanks for your advice! You have really helped clear some things up for me regarding Verbal and timing with Quant early on in the test. You're right, there is a difference between "finishing on time" and allocating the right amount of time to different stages of the test when it comes to Quant. I seem to have enough time to complete Quant in its entirety, but would focus more heavily on the beginning. I will be taking some practice tests with a new time management mindset for Quant, and will try to let a problem go if I cannot get a process going early on within the first 30 sec - 1 min. I feel fortunate at this point that I am at least at the stage of becoming comfortable with the test as opposed to having to learn a significant amount of new material. Still, it is a goal of mine to consistently get a 50/51 and get out of any 48-49 ranges.

- For Verbal, thanks so much for those additional resources. I can already see my increased activity on this site is helping! I just received in the mail my PowerScore CR and LSAT RC books, so I'm going to sift through these, take a practice test or two, and then start using those resources you mentioned above. I want to make sure I take a practice test after these two books but before those other resources as I would like to see how my scores correlate with the introduction of each new study resource. I will absolutely use the resource mentioned, so thanks Santanu for providing those for me.

- Thanks both Santanu and AbjiJ for your clarifications on the Verbal scoring algorithm. I suppose those V44/45's on the MGMAT practice exams misled me. Better to know now than later! I will be aggressive over the next two weeks using the resources from this thread so thanks to everybody for your input! I will make sure to report back if things turn out as I hope they do!

Orid

Abhi - Agree with you on both counts.

Santanu