Devastated - 700 Gmatprep to 610 on actual exam

Question

Hi,

After months of preparation, I finally sat for the GMAT on 7th March 2020 and scored 610 (Q42 V31). This came as a shock for me as I was scoring in the 700 range on gmatprep CATs. My recent gmatprep CAT scores are below.

Dec 19 610 (Q43 V31) - retake
Feb 05 670 (Q46 V36)
Feb 15 700 (Q48 V38)
Feb 23 730 (Q48 V41) - retake
Feb 29 720 (Q49 V41)
Mar 05 690 (Q49 V34)

For the prep, I relied mostly on the MGMAT guides for Quant, Aristotle SC Grail for SC and practiced OG questions on gmat club. I felt the quant section on the actual exam was a bit tougher than the gmatprep CATs, however, the Verbal section was more or less the same. I'm unable to figure out what went wrong on the actual exam. Would appreciate if experts can share some insights. I have the ESR and would be happy to share.

SamuelWitwicky · Answer

You should pay for the official breakdown of scores for your actual exam. It helped me a lot. If possible, get your hands on the breakdown of all your past official tests

Sharozhameed · Answer

Hi Samuel,

Would be really helpful if you can share your experience in detail. What was your score on the first attempt compared to gmatprep cats and what strategies did you use to improve your score in the later attempts?

Posted from my mobile device

SamuelWitwicky · Answer

Sure, I never did those extra curricular tests. I focused purely on the gmat club forum, which is an immensely helpful resource. What I did was:

1. Started with the level 700 questions and kept working my way up to 1000. ESP for quant, Bunuel is the king. Only attempt questions which have him provide the solutions. For verbal, I only attempted those that have an “ER” mark beside the question which means expert reply. That way, I can cross-check my wrong answers with their explanation

2. Every time I attempted a question I made sure I answered it within the time limit per question based on the exam format. I forgot how long we’re given; I think it’s 1.5 mins per question? Just divide the duration you’re given in the real exam with the no. of questions you need to answer.

3. I also participate in discussions on the question thread and clarify my doubts others as a form of reinforcement. This helped me a lot with Verbal. For quant it’s easy, it’s just right or wrong.

Did the actual test once, didn’t get the score I wanted, so I paid for the official report which gave a detailed breakdown of my performance per section and so I knew where to focus on, which was my SC. Hence I’m highly recommending you spend that 50USD for the report (hopefully they didn’t increase it).

Took the second time and got a 730.

Hope this helps,
Sam

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Sharozhameed,

I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as planned. 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. Before we discuss any of those potential issues though, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied? How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far? Which "brands" of CATs/mocks have you used?
3) On what dates did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks and how did you score on EACH (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
4) What is your overall goal score?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

While the ESR doesn’t provide a lot of information, there are usually a few data points that we can use to define what went wrong on Test Day (and what you should work on to score higher). Since you have your ESR, I'll be happy to analyze it for you. Before you can include attachments with your posts/PMs, you need to have at least 5 posts in the forums (right now, you have just 2 posts). If you would rather not go through those extra steps at this point, then you can feel free to email me directly (at [email protected])

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

freedom128 · Answer

Buy OG2020. You know, answer explanations from gmatclub on OG2020 may not be as comprehenesive as those from OG book itself.

Did you pause during your mock exam? That would inflate your score a lot.

Posted from my mobile device

Sharozhameed · Answer

Hi Rich,

1) I studied for almost 2 months averaging 6-8 hours a week. But this was not the first time I was covering the material. I had studied for the gmat two times before but did not gave the exam. So this time I quickly went over the concepts again and focused mostly on practicing.
2) As I mentioned in my post, I used MGMAT guides for Quant, Aristotle SC for SC. I felt I did well on RC and CR hence only practised questions for these.I only used gmatprep Mocks
3)My mocks tests were:
Dec 19 610 (Q43 V31) - retake
Feb 05 670 (Q46 V36)
Feb 15 700 (Q48 V38)
Feb 23 730 (Q48 V41) - retake
Feb 29 720 (Q49 V41)
Mar 05 690 (Q49 V34)

My Goal is a 700 plus score. I plan to apply to top 20-50 US schools and target a scholarship

I have emailed you my ESR.

Posted from my mobile device

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Sharozhameed,

I’m sorry to hear how things went with your GMAT. Assuming that you took your official practice exams under realistic testing conditions, the results show that, on a good day, you are capable of scoring higher than 610. Thus, 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. Although I’m unsure of how you prepared, it’s possible that, in your preparation, particularly in verbal, you did not really learn to do what you have to do in order to score high on the actual GMAT. Rather, you picked up on some patterns that were effective in getting you relatively high scores on practice tests. So, for you to hit your score goal, your preparation, particularly for verbal, probably needs to be more complete, meaning that you have to go through the various types of GMAT questions carefully to find your exact weaknesses, fill gaps in your knowledge, and strengthen your skills.

For verbal specifically, you have to become more skilled at clearly defining the differences between trap choices and correct answers. Otherwise, you will get stuck guessing between two choices or be surprised to find that you incorrectly answered questions that you thought you answered correctly. Becoming more skilled in this way takes carefully analyzing all of the answer choices to lots of verbal questions to develop an eye for the logical differences between the choices. In other words, you have to go beyond answering practice questions and reading explanations to doing deep analysis of questions to learn to see everything that is going on in them.

In order to follow the path described above, you may need some new quant and verbal materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the  best quant  and  verbal courses . You also may find my article with more information regarding
 how to score a 700+ on the GMAT  helpful.

If you’d like more specific advice on how to improve your quant and verbal skills, feel free to reach back out. Good luck!

shameekv1989 · Answer

That scares the hell out of me. Just follow what experts say here. You might recover from a bad day well given you scored so well in your mocks. All the best.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Sharozhameed,

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

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

freedom128 · Answer

Will you retake the exam soon? It is going to be interim GMAT exam form mid April

Btw since you got Q42, you can subscribe to gmatclub Quant test. It has a lot of quality gmat-like quant questions to improve your skills

Posted from my mobile device

CareerGeek · Answer

The level of Quants in real gmat is higher than that of the gmat prep mocks.
ESR will help us to tell where it has gone wrong in the exam. Pls do share if you have

Posted from my mobile device

egmat · Answer

Hey  Sharozhameed

Did you give the GMAT again. What all you did for your preparation.

Prawee (550 to 740)  used all the books and local coaching classes but was unable to improve her GMAT score beyond a certain point. She changed her approach and finally scored 740 in her 5th attempt and got a $180,000 fellowship cumulatively from 3 top business schools. She is currently pursuing MBA from Kellogg. Kellogg was once not even on her radar.

7 Steps – How to score 700+ on the GMAT

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Devastated - 700 Gmatprep to 610 on actual exam

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