700 Practice, 640 Actual - Need Advice for Online GMAT Prep

Hi,

First of all, so sorry to hear about how things went with your GMAT. But don’t get disappointed. In my journey, I have helped many students identify what’s stopping them from a getting a good score and improve their score. To give you a brief introduction, I’m a GMAT Strategy Consultant and I like to analyse stats. I’ve been in this industry for more than 8 years now, so, hopefully, helping you shouldn’t be a big problem.

Looking at your scores on mock and the actual test, I can only think of two possibilities for the difference. Ideally you should be able to reflect the mock score on the test day but this case seems pretty ironic. Anyway, the two possibilities are:

• One reason might be the nervousness on the test day. It is quite common to feel nervous on the test day and if that is the reason, then I guess you are good to for a retake because your mock scores are pretty consistent. This time make sure you take the test with a relaxed mind.
• The other reason might be you are not likely following a specific approach for all the tests. If your approach is not consistent, then I think there is some work to do.

I think the second reason would be the plausible reason in this case. But it would be really pre-mature to jump into conclusions without knowing the actual reason. I would like to know a few things before suggesting you what to do next.

• Did you follow any specific approach while solving questions?
• Did the approach change for every test?

And as you have an ESR, analyzing it should provide us more insights on what actually went wrong. I can help you in analyzing the ESR if you are open to discuss it with me. Instead of uploading it here, I think a better way would be to discuss it over a zoom call. That way we can analyze it better and quickly narrow down what is actually stopping you from reaching your target score.

I recommend you to book the slot only when you know the exact reason and you are confident that you have worked on it and overcome it. This time let’s make sure you crack this test and achieve your dream score. I strongly believe that when approached in the right way, the result should automatically fall in place. So, if you are open to analyzing the ESR with me, you can schedule a free consultation call using the below link.

Click here to schedule a call

I think you should work on quant score consistency, this will definitely help you attain your goal score

Posted from my mobile device

Hi atlashands,

Believe or not, the good news is that your actual GMAT score came in right around your practice test scores, so I would not say your GMAT was a total disaster. Regarding how to move forward to improve your GMAT score, I agree that you need to improve your quant skills. In order to do so, you should follow a linear and structured study plan that allows you to learn each GMAT quant topic individually and then practice each topic until you’ve gained mastery. Let me expand on this idea further.

Let’s say you are learning about Number Properties. First, you should develop as much conceptual knowledge about Number Properties as possible. In other words, your goal will be to completely understand properties of factorials, perfect squares, quadratic patterns, LCM, GCF, units digit patterns, divisibility, and remainders, to name a few concepts. After carefully reviewing the conceptual underpinnings of how to answer Number Properties questions, practice by answering 50 or more questions just from Number Properties. When you do dozens of questions of the same type one after the other, you learn just what it takes to get questions of that type correct consistently. If you aren't getting close to 90 percent of questions of a certain type correct, go back and seek to better understand how that type of question works, and then do more questions of that type until you get to around at least 90 percent accuracy in your training. If you get 100 percent of some sets correct, even better. Number Properties is just one example; follow this process for all quant topics.

When you are working on learning to answer questions of a particular type, start off taking your time, and then seek to speed up as you get more comfortable answering questions of that type. As you do such practice, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get right. If you got a remainder question wrong, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not properly apply the remainder formula? Was there a concept you did not understand in the question? By carefully analyzing your mistakes, you will be able to efficiently fix your weaknesses and in turn improve your GMAT quant skills.

So, work on accuracy and generally finding correct answers, work on specific weaker areas one by one to make them strong areas, and when you take a practice GMAT or the real thing, take all the time per question available to do your absolute best to get right answers consistently. The GMAT is essentially a game of seeing how many right answers you can get in the time allotted. Approach the test with that conception in mind, and focus intently on the question in front of you with one goal in mind: getting a CORRECT answer.

In order to follow the path described above, you may need some new quant materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the best quant courses.

You also may find it helpful to read my article about how to score a 700+ on the GMAT.

Feel free to reach out with further questions.

Good luck!

Hi Rich,

Thank you for your reply. While the Official Scores are remarkably similar. The percentile rankings were vastly different. For example, in February 2020 for the V38 score, I was 49th in CR, 85th in RC, and 87 in SC, but in August 2019 for the V36 score I was 94th in CR, 88th in RC, and 57th in SC. After the August exam, I focused my efforts on SC and thought I was maintaining CR skills, but the February exam proved otherwise.

To answer your questions.
1) I have not done any studying since February. During previous studying, I was working late into the night after my full time job (45 to 60hrs/week) and extra-curricular obligations (~10 hours/week) causing me to sleep under 6 hours a night. I got sick a week after the February exam so have taken this time to develop a healthy sleep, exercise, and eating schedule which I plan on maintaining once I start studying again.
2) The ones that were listed were the only ones under ideal testing conditions. I was practicing questions out of the OG books (I have 2018 & 2019) and using the online wiley efficient learning site for shorter mock exams
3) Ideally a 730, but I'd be happy with a 700 at this point
4) MIT Sloan, Berkeley Haas, Michigan Ross, and Duke Fuqua

I appreciate the offer to look over my ESRs! Out of concern for spamming the forums, I'll send you an email shortly.

Thank you!

Hi Aakarsh,

DS I have definitely consistently scored lower on. I did go through how to analyze the mocks during the MPrep course I took but looking back, I think I was focused more on timing/pace than concept cementing. As far as particular topics, it depends on the day. The Arithmetic vs. Algebra/geometry split were inverse of one another between my two official exams.