Did I make GMAT history? I think I did.

Question

I have now taken the GMAT twice. The first time was last month and I ended up with a 610. In order to be better prepared for Round 2, I did many things: GMATPILL frameworks, Magoosh hard/very hard questions, LSAT Logical Reasoning for GMAT Crit. Reas. and MGMAT books.

One would think that would push me higher right?

Result of 2nd test: 510. How the hell did I end up with that score? I have no idea! I'm stumped. I understood the concepts and I am able to solve tough questions in all sections in under 2 minutes. Even on the test, I was marking answers for the quant section with confidence after solving them. For the reading comprehension I got passages I liked and I was marking answers with confidence. Sure there were some questions where I guessed. But before landing on the scoring page, I was NOT expecting a disgusting 510, worst case I was expecting a 650 or so. I got a 510 on the very first practice GMAT I took and the highest I got on a practice test was a 660. I cancelled the score the moment I saw it and ran out of the testing center!

I'm beyond the whole "depressed about the score" phase because I just don't understand how my performance could drop that low.

Needless to say, I'm trying to break into the 700 zone.

If experts could weigh in on this, I'd really appreciate it. I have devised another study plan for the next 4 weeks. I really want to do better. Sure I have some weak areas such as sequences, mixtures, reading comprehension. I still can't believe I got a 510. I've always been a good student.

Thoughts?

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi ggoyal,

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.

1) To start, what were your Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores on each of your two Official GMATs?

If you can answer a few questions, then we should be able to figure this out:

When you took your CATs:
1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT (including the Essay and IR sections)?
2) Did you take them at home?
3) Did you take them at the same time of day as your Official GMAT?
4) Did you ever do ANYTHING during your CATs that you couldn't do on Test Day (pause the CAT, skip sections, take longer breaks, etc.)? 
5) Did you ever take a CAT more than once?

Thankfully, the GMAT is the same predictable, standardized Test that it was when you took it the first time, so you CAN train to score at a higher level. Something was clearly 'off' about this recent round of studies though, so we'll have to take a good look at how you've been studying (and fix whatever wasn't working) before you retest.

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

ENGRTOMBA2018 · Answer

Sorry to hear about your GMAT experience. I have moved your post to a more relevant forum that is frequently visited by many GMAT experts. I have tagged a few of them to get the conversation started.

FYI,  mikemcgarry  ,  egmat  ,  EMPOWERgmatRichC  ,  VeritasPrepKarishma

gmatkickedmybutt · Answer

Thanks for the feedback.

1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT (including the Essay and IR sections)?
No. I will now though.
2) Did you take them at home?
Yes. Where would you recommend? The test center was quite and I had noise blocking headphones. I didn't get distracted even one.
3) Did you take them at the same time of day as your Official GMAT?
No. I will now though. I didn't pay much attention to that. I wish I could take the test at night time because my brain is most active then.
4) Did you ever do ANYTHING during your CATs that you couldn't do on Test Day (pause the CAT, skip sections, take longer breaks, etc.)? 
No.
5) Did you ever take a CAT more than once?
Yes, highest was 660, lowest was 510 (first one).

But still, I got a 610 on my first official GMAT. I still don't understand the reason for such a big drop.

gmatkickedmybutt · Answer

Thanks. God, I've seen so many Mike McGarry solutions on Magoosh. Love that guy. But still disappointed I couldn't get the results even after all that effort. One problem with Magoosh was that I guess I ran out of questions? I mean I can do most of their hard and very hard questions from all sections. I guess I need new questions?

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi ggoyal,

With the information that you've provided, we now know a number of ways in which your studies were not completely realistic. Test Day is a rather specific 'event', which you CAN train for, but the way you chose to take your CATs ultimately trained you to face a different event - so you weren't properly prepared for Test Day. Thankfully, all of that can be fixed.

1) What were your Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores on each of your two Official GMATs?
2) When are you next planning to take the GMAT?
3) When are you planning to apply to Business School?

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

egmat · Answer

Dear ggoyal,

Sometimes “life happens” and we are not able to get the desired results. You should not think about the last attempt and approach the next one with a positive mindset.

In life, especially in post MBA life, you will face setbacks. Frankly, a failure on the GMAT is a small failure. If you come back strongly from this failure, the confidence you will get will help you throughout your life.

First of all, I would suggest you to attend our Strategy Session 2 on the weekend (Sunday at 7 AM PST). Click here to register for the session: https://goo.gl/v12os8.

This session shall help you in

1. Figuring out the root cause of your performance in current mocks.
2. Get you tools that will help identify the areas that you needs to work on.
3. And correspondingly plan you preparation for the next attempt.

How can you improve

Preparing for GMAT is a very scientific process and we make sure that you are follow a methodical and strategic approach for the same.

You can only succeed on the GMAT when you have the right combination of concepts and application. A student should know how to apply the learned concepts properly to get a good score. In the actual GMAT exam, tricks and shortcuts tend to fail and only students with a proper approach to questions succeed. This is what we do at e-GMAT. We teach our students a foolproof process to solve questions and make them follow the same. This is the reason for our high rate of success.

Have a look at some of the links below to understand. These folks were in your shoes at one time.

1. Learn how Nikhil, currently a student at ISB Hyderabad, improved from V19 (19 percentile) to V38 (85 percentile). In the interview (https://goo.gl/UqfcbW), Nikhil articulates his struggles, outlining what worked for him and how was he able to finally improve to V38.
2. Badri could achieve a maximum score of 660 on the GMAT despite 4 attempts. View the video (https://goo.gl/WWoMio) to know what kept him going and how he was finally able to score 740 in his fifth attempt.
3. Learn how Aakash (https://goo.gl/xMBZSI) aced the GMAT in his third attempt. He scored 730 improving his Verbal Score from 45 percentile (V27) to 90 percentile (V39).

Few Questions for you

In order to guide you properly, I would need the answers to the following questions from you

1. Can you tell me the Quant and Verbal splits of both your GMAT attempts?
2. Also, what are your target Quant and Verbal scores (for your next GMAT attempt) for your overall target score of 700+?
3. How do you approach SC, CR and RC questions? List the process (in detail) you follow to answer the questions?
4. When are you planning to take the GMAT again? How many hours can you devote towards your GMAT preparation (from now)?

I look forward to hearing back from you on the above.

Also, I would suggest you to go through the following files and tell me if you learned something new

1. Verb-ed and Verb-ing Modifiers: https://goo.gl/50GBms
2. Bold Face: https://goo.gl/uprgDB

We have 100+ such beautifully designed audio visual files in our courses. To view more such content, just log in to our Free Trial from here https://e-gmat.com/login/.

I look forward to your response.

Regards,
Rajat Sadana

Did I make GMAT history? I think I did.

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