640 on Offical GMAT despite high scores in GmatPrep and MGMAT

Question

Hello everyone,
I took the test yesterday and received an embarrassingly low score, 640 (IR 7, Q50, V25...). I was devastated and frustrated. This was my 2nd attempt. My goal is to score above 720
Here are my preparations:
I practiced all OGs questions
I completed 6 GMATPREP exams and scored consistently above 700 (750, 740, 750, 720, 770, 730) with less than 3 repeat questions in each exam.
I did MGMAT CAT 5 and scored 740 (Q47, V44) with no repeat questions
I registered for e-gmat and my accuracy is above 85%
I am an voracious reader and I have been reading the economist, wsj, and many books over the last several years. I am not a native English user.

On the test day: IR seemed easy, Quant was a breeze (I had about 10 minutes left on the last 2 questions). Then it came the dreaded verbal. I was rushing on time. If my memory served me well, I think i was behind by 4-5 questions based on the timing strategies posted on this forum. My weakest area is CR. For RC and SC, I am confident to say that I did fairly well. Could it be the reasons that I guessed on multiple questions in a row and thus my scored was reduced substantially?
I am planning to take it in another 16 days (new regulations by GMAC). Is there any advice on what I should do to improve my verbal score? I have exhausted all the materials and I have been practicing diligently for the last 6 months.

Many thanks

HiLine · Answer

Do you have your enhanced score report handy? If not, I would strongly recommend that you get it; it is the most powerful tool there is to evaluate yourself. If you post your report here, I and others will be able to give you more specific advice.

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Posted from my mobile device

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi loivoq,

First off, a 640/Q50 is a strong score (it's right around the 80th percentile overall), so it could be enough to get you into your first-choice School. 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.

If you can answer a few questions, then we should be able to figure this out:

When you took your CATs:
1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?
2) Did you take them at home?
3) Did you take them at the same time of day as your Official GMAT?
4) Did you ever do ANYTHING during your CATs that you couldn't do on Test Day (pause the CAT, skip sections, take longer breaks, etc.)? 
5) Did you ever take a CAT more than once? Had you seen any of the questions before (in this Forum)?

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

loivoq · Answer

HiLine Thank you. I am still waiting for the GMAC to post my score. I'll get the ESR asap

EMPOWERgmatRichC Thank you for your encouragement. Here are my answers to your questions:
1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)? I only skipped the essay since i find it repetitive
2) Did you take them at home? Yes I did
3) Did you take them at the same time of day as your Official GMAT? I took the last CATs two days prior to the test day.
4) Did you ever do ANYTHING during your CATs that you couldn't do on Test Day (pause the CAT, skip sections, take longer breaks, etc.)? I'd say I only drank water when I was taking my CATs
5) Did you ever take a CAT more than once? Had you seen any of the questions before (in this Forum)? For the GMATprep Exams, I took them more than once. For the MGMAT CATs I only took it once, hence, there was no repeat questions

If there's any advice on how I can improve my verbal scores, I'd really appreciate it. I scored between 95% - 98%-tile on the SC section in all my Preps, I missed between 1-2 questions

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi loivoq,

The extra information that you've provided is quite useful, as it helps to define what went wrong on Test Day. In real basic terms, you took your CATs in such a way that you were NOT properly training to face the Official GMAT - so you were not ready to face it on Test Day (not either time).

Test Day is a rather specific 'event' - the details are specific and they matter, so you have to train as best as you can for all of them. The more realistic you can make your CATs, the more likely the score results are to be accurate. The more you deviate, the more "inflated" your scores can become - and that's what happened here. By skipping sections, taking the CATs at home, drinking water during the Tests, etc., you weren't properly training for the FULL GMAT 'experience.'

Thankfully, this is a relatively easy set of problems to fix. The big question now is "how long will it take you to properly get 'used to' taking the full GMAT under realistic conditions?" Unfortunately, that will probably take more than 16 days. You'll certainly need a new set of practice CATs to work with and you have to put in the necessary time to train your brain (and body) for the FULL GMAT. You might also need to invest in some new GMAT training materials.

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

loivoq · Answer

EMPOWERgmatRichC  Thank you for your advice. I think I have problems with my timing strategy in verbal

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

You did really well on your last few practice exams, and even though you didn’t take them under completely realistic conditions, I think that you are probably capable of hitting your GMAT score goal.

Do you think that your nerves got the best of you on test day, leading to the drop in your verbal score? If so, I suggest that you take another GMAT ASAP in the hopes of raising your verbal and hitting your score goal. In your prep for the upcoming exam, I don’t think you should drastically adjust your study routine. Again, based on the scores of your previous practice exams, you have shown that you are capable of a high verbal score.
 
For your retake, I suggest practicing official GMAC verbal questions (whether from older versions of the OG or question packs), as those questions will provide the most accurate depiction of what you will see on test day. After doing each problem set, analyze each question you missed and fix any weak points. Also, to get ready for your retake, consider reseting and retaking the two free MBA.com exams; you should see different questions from the first time you took the tests. When taking those practice exams, try to replicate the test day experience as much as possible: Go to the library instead of taking the test in your house or apartment. If your official GMAT is scheduled for 8:30am in the morning, take the practice test at 8:30am in the morning. Don’t drink water during the exams. Make sure you do the IR sections. Once complete, analyze your mistakes and figure out remedies for them. Do not take any practice exams within 48 hours of your actual GMAT. At that point you want your brain to be relaxed for the big day!

If you find that test day jitters are an issue, I wrote a detailed article that provides some valuable  test day tips and strategies  that should help calm your nerves on test day.
 
If you need any further advice, feel free to reach out.

HiLine · Answer

No problem. Looking forward to analyzing your test day performance. :-D

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi loivoq,

While you could very well have pacing issues in the Verbal section, those issues do NOT exist on their own - they're the results of other issues. If both of your Official Verbal scores are in the V20s, then you really to need to work on your Verbal Tactics (especially how you take notes and deal with the specific Verbal questions that the GMAT will ask you to deal with). This is additional support for the idea that you'll probably need more than 16 days of additional practice before you retest.

1) How many hours do you study during a typical week?

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

pantanshum · Answer

I'd say that it's primarily luck or hardwork. You can blame either

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

loivoq · Answer

HiLine  I just got my ESR. I really messed up on my verbal. My timing was way too off (all the 3 sections, CR, RC, SC percentile were really low to my practice exams). In the first set questions, I spent an average of 4:30mins on incorrect questions. As a result, I rushed through the remaining questions and made a lot of mistakes
 EMPOWERgmatRichC  Thank you for your advice. I will see what I can do. Otherwise, I'll have to change my testing date 
 ScottTargetTestPrep  Thank you. I will try to replicate the environment. I just finished a few sets of verbal questions on gmatprep and scored above 90% with 2 repeat questions and no easy questions.

HiLine · Answer

There may be key things on the report that you're glossing over. Would you mind sharing your ESR with us? (You can pm me if you'd rather not make it public). Glad you've already detected some of the issues!

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640 on Offical GMAT despite high scores in GmatPrep and MGMAT

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