680 (Q45, V38) - Help Analyzing ESR

Hello Rich

Thank you for your reply.

1) I have been studying non-stop for a little more than four months, around 40 hours a week. I had to overcome some initial difficulties with the Quant section since I had forgotten most of the content tested and had to familiarize myself with the Verbal section. The GMAT was completely new to me in every aspect and I had to learn everything about the exam.
2) I have used the Manhattan books and the PowerScope Bible for CR. I solved every question in OG 2019 and in the Verbal and Quant Reviews. I also solved hundreds of questions from old versions of the OG. For Quant I took all GMAT Club tests and diligently categorized and analyzed my mistakes.
3) All my application deadlines are October 22.

Some additional info about my practice. My accuracy in Sentence Correction is much higher during timed practice than in mocks and than in the actual test. So, every time I think I'm prepared but end up blowing SC. Same for Quant: Word and Rate Problems are some of the questions I am usually better at, along with Percents and Ratios, but somehow these were my worst sections.

I believe I panicked during the exam because I cannot understand how I could have had such a bad performance on the second block and then managed to get the whole third block right, even with the same level of difficulty.

Hi Dillesh

Thank your for your advise. I have already solved both the OG and the Review books and I was quite confident before the exam. I believe I started panicking during the Quant section and my bad performance in the second block hurt my overall score. I will just keep practicing and try to control my anxiety next time.

Hi amandaabr,

I've sent you a PM with an analysis of your ESR and some additional questions.

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

Hi amandaabr,

I’m glad you reached out, and I’m happy to help. I see that you scored Q49 on your latest GMAC practice exam, so I really would not say that Q45 is a total disaster, though I do agree that it is a fairly significant drop. Regarding the drop in your quant score, it’s quite possible that nerves, stress, tiredness, or a combination of all three negatively affected your test-day performance. However, it’s also possible that you have some lingering weaknesses that were exposed on test day.

In particular, given that you correctly answered only 60 percent of the Geometry questions that you saw, probably you could be stronger in Geometry, and given that you correctly answered only 20 percent of the Rates/Ratio/Percent questions that you saw, it seems likely that you would benefit from strengthening those areas as well. Yes, your state of mind may have affected your performance. At the same time, if you were stronger in those areas, you probably would have correctly answered more of the questions of those types that you saw, even if you were a bit anxious.

It may be that part of what's going on in certain areas of quant and in Sentence Correction is that you are arriving at correct answers in practice because the questions you are seeing when you practice are similar to questions that you have seen before, and then, when you take the actual GMAT, the questions are somehow different from ones you have seen before, and so you are getting tripped up. To the degree that the foregoing is an accurate description of what's going on, the solution is for you to develop knowledge and skills that are a bit deeper and more sophisticated than yours are now, so that when you see unfamiliar patterns in questions, you are better prepared to handle them.

With all this said, I’m confident with some further, smart prep, you can improve your GMAT quant skills and thus your GMAT score. Would you like some more detailed advice on how to do so?

Lastly, you may find it helpful to read the following article:

How To Increase Your GMAT Quant Score

Hello, Scott

Thank your for your advice.
I believe your assessment of my problems with SC and with some of the Quant questions is correct. Do you have any further advice on how I can develop more sophisticated skills?