530 on Official GMAT :(

Question

Hi all,

Here to share about my first gmat exam experience. I wrote my gmat a few days ago and scored a 530 (Q40, V22, IR 7) and I'm completely devastated.

I devoted the last 2.5 months in prep with a hectic work schedule yet about 24 hours a week. I used GMAT Club questions, a 5 day free trial of TTP and official guides to study.
My mock scores were as follows: 
MGMAT (free) : 610 
Princeton Review 1: 610
Princeton review 2: 640
Princeton review 3: 660
Official Prep 1: 580 (Q48) 
I always scored a 40+ in quant. Verbal ranged from 30-39.

I do feel test anxiety to have played a role in my scores, as I read plenty of reviews about the exam day experience - which also contributed to settle a fear in my mind about my own experience.

I plan to reappear for the exam in a month, I also will be able to devote 30 hours a week. My target score is 700+.

Any kind of suggestions in preparation are welcome!  ScottTargetTestPrep   bb   egmat   GMATinsight

Posted from my mobile device

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

The ESR may be helpful to get. Have suggested Manhattan-Prep's 6th Edition for SC and CR. If you feel your fundamentals are solid, consider working on your solving approach. May help boost your score a bit. Had a 6-hr student for example who went from a V31 to a V40 in about 30 days. Perhaps work with a study buddy who is really strong on Verbal.

Fair to say including Official-Mocks 2-6 would be a solid choice. May want to save one or two in case you retake for any reason.

5 Verbal tips

Fair to say including Official-Mocks 2-6 would be a solid choice. May want to save one or two in case you retake for any reason.

5 Verbal tips

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi slk00,

I have the perfect article for you to check out!

How to Improve Your GMAT Score

bb · Answer

Hi. This is quite a disparity between practice test send the final score.

Did you by chance send up running out of time and guessing a bunch of questions or anything like this?

Would you have a number of people who mention that there surprised about the score between asked about the time management, they say that they totally lost control and had to complete the guess the last 10 questions on the test. I wanted to ask this to get this out of the way because timing is one of the main components of the GMAT.

PS. Your integrated reasoning looks really strong however. Seems like your strongest sections so the focus test format may be a better fit potentially but it’s a little too early to tell I think.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi slk00,

I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as planned. When these types of score drops occur, the two likely "causes" involve either something that was unrealistic during practice or something that was surprising (or not accounted for) on Test Day. Before we discuss any of those potential issues though, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

1) On what dates (or approximate dates) did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks and how did you score on EACH (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)? Did you take just the one Official CAT/mock?
2) What Schools are you planning to apply to - and what specific applicaction deadlines are you facing?

If you took your Official GMAT at a Test Center, then you might also choose to purchase the Enhanced Score Report. While the ESR doesn’t provide a lot of information, there are usually a few data points that we can use to define what went wrong on Test Day (and what you should work on to score higher). If you purchase the ESR, then I'll be happy to analyze it for you.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Contact Rich at: [email protected]
www.empowergmat.com

slk00 · Answer

Hi  bb ,  EMPOWERgmatRichC ,

Happy to answer your questions.

bb , I did have to run against time in quant and verbal both. Quant did go smooth for me initially, but I came across a modulus problem in DS and it completely threw my speed off. I had to read and guess about 4 questions towards the end in Quant. 
As far as verbal is concerned - I had 3 long passages and 1 short passage, which came at equal intervals. I had about 7 mins remaining for the last 10 questions with a passage. Completely messed up for time. But none of the questions were too hard to tackle in both sub sections, had I more time, I'd definitely be able to answer all of them with at least an 80% accuracy.

EMPOWERgmatRichC  - pls note - I never had this kind of experience in my mock - 3 long passages.

My mocks were on every weekend of the last month of my prep. My last exam - 580 (Q48, V22) was 3 days before my official gmat, where in I worked my way up through CR and RC (7/10, 9/13 correct respectively) but SC score had gone down heavily (4/13). Up until that point, I had a knack for SC without even having read any rules of it, and scored right 11/13, 10/13, 11/14 in questions on mocks leading up to my exam. I made the mistake "half knowledge" in the case of SC, and that could have made my scores drop in Verbal on test day too.

IR - I did not do any kind of preparation for this, but did not face any time issue. I enjoyed the questions on this section.

I've always enjoyed math overall, so I don't think I need to be worried too much about quant - not to forget that I was definitely shocked to see a 40, but I can definitely push it.

I'm not so sure about verbal.

After lots of contemplation I purchased MGMAT, and plan to purchase a month of TTP. Hope they can both help me achieve 700+.

My deadline for first round is around December - I'm applying to INSEAD, ESSEC, LSB, EDHEC, HEC for Masters in Management. I've got quite a bit of time, and the average GMAT for the course is not too high, people do get in with an average score in between 600-680. But I do want to secure a 700+ just to be safe, since I'm in Indian FEMALE from the IT sector. (Not sure if this is considered an overrepresented sector 😅)

Posted from my mobile device

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi slk00,

Since you are interested in some highly-competitive Schools, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile and plans. Those Experts should be able to answer your Admissions questions and help define the specific areas of your profile that could use some improvement (and the more time that you have to implement those suggestions, the better). There's a Forum full of those Experts here:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/ask-admissio ... tants-124/

I've also sent you a PM with some notes and additional questions.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Contact Rich at: [email protected]
www.empowergmat.com

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530 on Official GMAT :(

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