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23 Nov 2023, 13:47
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Hi everyone!
I recently took my first official gmat attempt and I am both shocked and lost coming out of it. Below is a description of my preparation leading up to the exam and what I felt occurred but the headline is: has anyone encountered a problem like this before where you scored significantly higher on the official gmat practice exams but then performed much worse than expected on the real thing? How should I proceed/does anyone have any advice for this? What other study resources should I turn to?
Background on Preparation
I took the first official gmat practice exam with no preparation just to see what my baseline performance would be and I got a 630 (Q41, V35).
From there I decided to sign up for TTP given the multiple references I received on the program. After being on and off with my preparation on TTP for a few months (averaging 6 hours/week of studying), I started to buckle down and increased my studying time to 10hours/week for 7 weeks and finally completed the TTP quant section and sentence correction section. At this point, I felt ready to do another mock so I took the GMAT official practice exam #2 and I scored 720 (Q49, V39). I was very satisfied with this given my focus was to really improve my quant first as I previously didn't have a good foundation in this area and I hadn't dedicated any time to preparing CR or RC so I felt that with more time, I could reach an even higher score.
With this enthusiasm, I started studying 14 hours/week for the next 5 weeks. My preparation consisted of the following: For quant, I reviewed all the hard questions I bookmarked on TTP for various sections, did the optional hard level quizzes, completed various hard level questions from the GMAT official quantitative review guide and the Manhattan prep guide. On verbal, given my RC was in a good place already, I completed TTP's critical reasoning section with a focus on the hard level quizzes. After these 5 weeks, I took the GMAT official practice exam #3 and scored 720 again (Q50, V38) with a score almost identical to my prior mock. Although my verbal went down, likely because I had spent all my time review CR and forgot my knowledge on SC, I felt that I was ready to take my first exam. In the week leading up to my exam, I just continued to brush up on my quant review and tried to cram my review on SC.
Exam Day
The day of the exam, I was well rested and did some light review during the day. During the exam, I noticed a few things: 1) the quant seemed harder than what I was use to despite my focus on "hard" level questions. 2) On the Verbal, the RC also seemed more difficult than the official practice exams. After completing the exam, I felt that maybe due to a combination of nerves, first time test taking and being surprised by some of the difficulty that I was likely going to score a 680-690 so I was extremely disappointed to see 650 flash on the screen (Q44, V35). Both scores about 5 points below where I had been previously testing at.
Next Steps
I fell devastated seeing the 70 point drop in my official score and I'm not sure anxiety is sole reason. I think part of the reason is not having exposed my self enough to 700-750+ level questions. I tried to do this by focusing only the "hard" level questions in TTP and the OG guide and usually getting 70-80% of them correct but it seems that I'm still missing something. I plan on taking another exam shortly but I don't want to the same studying strategy if it will just yield the same results. I did find TTP to be a great resource and super helpful but I can't just keep redoing their "hard" level quizzes after I've already exhausted their quant section. Are there any advanced resources I should turn to outside of TTP and the basic OG guide? Should I consider GMAT coaching (I did receive an enhanced score report)?
Thank you for reading through my debrief! Any advice is very much appreciated.
I recently took my first official gmat attempt and I am both shocked and lost coming out of it. Below is a description of my preparation leading up to the exam and what I felt occurred but the headline is: has anyone encountered a problem like this before where you scored significantly higher on the official gmat practice exams but then performed much worse than expected on the real thing? How should I proceed/does anyone have any advice for this? What other study resources should I turn to?
Background on Preparation
I took the first official gmat practice exam with no preparation just to see what my baseline performance would be and I got a 630 (Q41, V35).
From there I decided to sign up for TTP given the multiple references I received on the program. After being on and off with my preparation on TTP for a few months (averaging 6 hours/week of studying), I started to buckle down and increased my studying time to 10hours/week for 7 weeks and finally completed the TTP quant section and sentence correction section. At this point, I felt ready to do another mock so I took the GMAT official practice exam #2 and I scored 720 (Q49, V39). I was very satisfied with this given my focus was to really improve my quant first as I previously didn't have a good foundation in this area and I hadn't dedicated any time to preparing CR or RC so I felt that with more time, I could reach an even higher score.
With this enthusiasm, I started studying 14 hours/week for the next 5 weeks. My preparation consisted of the following: For quant, I reviewed all the hard questions I bookmarked on TTP for various sections, did the optional hard level quizzes, completed various hard level questions from the GMAT official quantitative review guide and the Manhattan prep guide. On verbal, given my RC was in a good place already, I completed TTP's critical reasoning section with a focus on the hard level quizzes. After these 5 weeks, I took the GMAT official practice exam #3 and scored 720 again (Q50, V38) with a score almost identical to my prior mock. Although my verbal went down, likely because I had spent all my time review CR and forgot my knowledge on SC, I felt that I was ready to take my first exam. In the week leading up to my exam, I just continued to brush up on my quant review and tried to cram my review on SC.
Exam Day
The day of the exam, I was well rested and did some light review during the day. During the exam, I noticed a few things: 1) the quant seemed harder than what I was use to despite my focus on "hard" level questions. 2) On the Verbal, the RC also seemed more difficult than the official practice exams. After completing the exam, I felt that maybe due to a combination of nerves, first time test taking and being surprised by some of the difficulty that I was likely going to score a 680-690 so I was extremely disappointed to see 650 flash on the screen (Q44, V35). Both scores about 5 points below where I had been previously testing at.
Next Steps
I fell devastated seeing the 70 point drop in my official score and I'm not sure anxiety is sole reason. I think part of the reason is not having exposed my self enough to 700-750+ level questions. I tried to do this by focusing only the "hard" level questions in TTP and the OG guide and usually getting 70-80% of them correct but it seems that I'm still missing something. I plan on taking another exam shortly but I don't want to the same studying strategy if it will just yield the same results. I did find TTP to be a great resource and super helpful but I can't just keep redoing their "hard" level quizzes after I've already exhausted their quant section. Are there any advanced resources I should turn to outside of TTP and the basic OG guide? Should I consider GMAT coaching (I did receive an enhanced score report)?
Thank you for reading through my debrief! Any advice is very much appreciated.
23 Nov 2023, 22:59
Kudos
Bookmarks
Quote:
If you share it here, people may provide some specific suggestions. May want to wipe any personal info off it first. In case time management was an issue, using question/time markers may help.
How to get a V40 or higher on the GMAT? What about a V51?
24 Nov 2023, 02:43
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Bookmarks
TryingtoHelp
It sounds like you've really put in the effort and have a strong grasp of the material, but sometimes test day can throw curveballs. Your practice scores suggest that your skillset is definitely up there, so it might have just been an off day.
For tackling those tougher questions, you might want to check out the Advanced Official Guide for the GMAT. But more importantly, consider brushing up on concepts and taking 3-4 more mock exams to get even more comfortable with the exam environment and format. Another attempt might just showcase your true potential. Good luck!
