Confusing 670 after 1st 700, & Preps of 720&760. 2 doubts and ESR help

Question

Ok, I am totally confused right now.

I started preparing the GMAT a year ago, but really slowly and with many stops. I did the Magoosh 1 month training during a 12 month period before sitting for my first GMAT. I must admit I didn't really put much effort into the preparation. Anyhow, this was my prep path:

- In  early 2018  aI did the  GMATPREP 1  and got  700 (Q44 V41)  but was kind of false, because the program shut down half way the test and had to redo it from the start.
- Some weeks later I did the  GMATPREP 2  and got  690 (Q 48 V37) , but same issue as the first one, it shut down half way and redid it, so also not too serious.
- Then in september finished Magoosh and redid the  GMATPREP 1  and got  750 (Q50 V42) . I hadn't done it for months and didn't remember any questions, but surely wasn't a real result.

- Nonetheless I sat an  official GMAT  on the 5th October and got  700 (Q49 V38 IR7) . I was happy, specially given that I thought I deserved a lower Q and higher V.

So I thought "if I really prepare the V and keep working on the Q... I think I can get a really good score". I bought the e-GMAT full course 2 months ago and really worked on it together with Magoosh, while doing many Bunuel God-level Quant questions. I learned tons of things out of those 3 sources, and finally scheduled another GMAT for today. I decided to buy GMATPREP Exam packs 3&4 and 5&6. And I did the 3&4 last friday and this monday respectively:

-  GMATPREP 3  last friday:  720 (Q49 V39) . And I thought I had done badly on it, missing 4 out of the last 5 quant questions and not a very good verbal (apart from not missing any CR). Everything as official as possible in a sitting.
-  GMATPREP 4  this last monday:  760 (Q50 V42) . I thought I was a bit lucky on this one, but I did it also as official as posible, except for a work crisis that I had to attend for 30 minutes (saving the test). The pause got me really nervous and came back to the test waaaaay more off minded than I was (and missed some of the questions after coming back).
The conclusion I derived from this 2 results was: "You know tons more than you knew 3 months ago. Magoosh thinks you are around Q49. And the results of the PREP exams show you are around Q49/50, and around V38/42. So expect a 720-750 depending on your performance on the real test."

Sooooooo what did I get today??

-  2nd Official GMAT: 670 (Q47 V35 IR7)

WTFFFFF!!! I was astonished!!! I am really confused right now and have 2 deep doubts I wanted to get some expert opinion on:

- 1)  Can the 2 exam Preps be worthless now that Gmac has changed the timing of the tests??  I bought the Exams to prepare for the test and to get a proxy, and it couldn't be farther form reality.
- 2) During both the Q and V parts, I had the sensation that I was doing pretty well. I was getting medium/hard questions similar in difficulty to the ones I was getting on my last 760. SO the second question is...  has anything changed in the last couple of months, in GMAT score's terms that can justify a sharp increase in the difficulty level needed to achieve high scores??

I will be getting my ESR to check what could have gone wrong. But I am reaaaaally confused and my moral is pretty low right now. Have I been lied by the PREP exams?

Thanks a lot in advance for your answers.

EDIT: Just got the ESR. It seems I started really well, specially on Quant, and then screwed up drastically at the end!! This happened to me on PREP 3. Missed 4 out of the last 5 and still got a Q49. This time it dropped to Q47.

bhavik1995 · Answer

Since the new pattern getting a good score has become tougher. I guess 670 now would be equivalent to 720 of the earlier pattern.
Still ESR would help to get a clearer picture. My exam is on 26th Dec. Any tips?

LGIX · Answer

Hi!! Thanks for the response. Nonetheless, I already got a 700 with the new pattern (it was introduced in april and I sat the first time in october) so any change in toughness should had already been in place.

Tips... not sure now!! Yesterday, I would have told you to practice tons of Bunuel questions and do some PREP exams, but now... don't know what to tell'yah!

AjiteshArun · Answer

1. No. As long as you were not already familiar with the questions on those tests, the scores you got are very likely to be valid.
2. Very unlikely.

Keep in mind that your 760 just means that you  can  get a 99% score on the GMAT, given enough attempts, but it's normally safer to aim for a score around which your practice test scores are clustered, not the outliers.

I think you should take the exam again. Take the 2 remaining GMATPrep tests and  lock down your timing strategy before your next attempt . The 2:36 and 2:54 averages your ESR shows could have really hurt your score.

LGIX · Answer

Hi AjiteshArun,

Thank you very much for your response. I think you are absolutely right, timing seems to be the issue. I tend to spend too much time on some hard questions half way into the test and to rush at the last ones, so my final score seems to depend on how  lucky  I am in the last quarter of the test. This rushing at the end could explain the disparity in test results. I will work on it and do the last 2 Prep tests I have, let's see how it goes.

Thanks a lot!!

AjiteshArun · Answer

My pleasure

Keep going, and all the best!

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Iguerreromeseguer,

I’m glad you reached out, and I’m happy to help. Let’s start with the good news: You scored a Q47, which is not drastically lower than your quant scores on your latest practice exams. Remember, all it takes to drop from a Q49/50 to a Q47 is missing a few lower-level questions. Thus, it’s likely that you missed a few easy questions on the back end of the quant section, and thus your quant score dropped by a few points.

Now, let’s discuss the bigger issue: verbal. Scoring high on GMAT verbal tends to involve using logic and noticing key details. However, it is possible to get some verbal questions right by looking for patterns that you have already encountered in your preparation. Looking for patterns will not always work though, and if the patterns with which you are familiar don’t show up in the questions that you see on the actual GMAT, your verbal score will not be very high.

So, one possible reason for the difference between your verbal scores on practice tests and your verbal score on the real GMAT is that, in your preparation, you have not really learned to do what you have to do in order to score high on verbal. Rather, you picked up on some patterns that were effective in getting you relatively high scores on practice tests. To hit your verbal score goal, you probably have to adjust the way you have been preparing. In other words, you have to focus your preparation on developing skills, such as use of logic, that you can use to correctly answer GMAT verbal questions regardless of what verbal tricks the test presents. In order to develop those skills, you may need to slow way down in your verbal preparation, and analyze questions and answer choices until you clearly see the logic of questions. Your preparation has to be deeper and has to result in your clearly seeing what is going on in verbal questions.

I know that you are feeling down at the moment, but if you can get yourself revved up for one more shot at the GMAT and follow my advice, I’m confident that you can CRUSH the GMAT once and for all, my friend.

Feel free to reach out with further questions.

You’ve got this!!

egmat · Answer

Hi lguerreromeseguer , I would request you to write to us at support@e-gmat.com with your ESR so that we can compare the ESR data points with those in Scholaranium and your course dashboard. In the meanwhile, you may go through this article on Timing Strategies to work on your time management. Looking forward to your mail. Regards, Aditee

LGIX · Answer

Thanks for the advise!! I'll try to apply some of the tips you comment and see how it goes. Thanks!

LGIX · Answer

I think you are right about the timing strategy issue. Anyway, I just did one of your verbal "ability quizzes" and got a 99% percentile. I'll write to support@e-gmat.com, lets see what they can see that can make me better prepared!! Thanks a lot!

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

My pleasure!!

Confusing 670 after 1st 700, & Preps of 720&760. 2 doubts and ESR help

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