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06 Aug 2020, 07:27
Kudos
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Hi all,
I take the opportunity of this post to thank everyone, from the forum's founders to the moderators and contributors, for the unquantifiable value they provide to people who prepare the exam.
I just came back from my first exam, where I scored a 620 (Q44, V32, IR5).
I have studied for the past 15 days for an average of 6 hours a day, after having studied for more or less 50 hours during the previous 45 days (2 hours a day, not every day).
The score is very disappointing to me, especially regarding the Verbal section, in light of the following scores of my GMAC mock's:
- 25 July: 710 (Q46, V41)
- 29 July: 700 (Q46, V40)
- 01 Aug: 660 (Q42, V39)
- 04 Aug: 720 (Q47, V41)
It is frustrating because during the exam I didn't perceive any particular clue of a bad performance: I was pretty relaxed during the whole exam; I thought that I had answered consciously to all the questions in the Verbal section. I ended both the sections with good sensations.
I feel desoriented because I can't understand whether the actual Verbal section is tougher than the mock's one or my preparation was not solid enough to avoid result's variance.
Now, I would like to take the exam again (after a 2 week summer break) preparing it for another 2/3 weeks.
How should I spent this time? What could be the reason underlying my bad score in Verbal and how could I manage the problem? Should I lower my 700 goal?
Thank you very much in advance!
Gabriele
I take the opportunity of this post to thank everyone, from the forum's founders to the moderators and contributors, for the unquantifiable value they provide to people who prepare the exam.
I just came back from my first exam, where I scored a 620 (Q44, V32, IR5).
I have studied for the past 15 days for an average of 6 hours a day, after having studied for more or less 50 hours during the previous 45 days (2 hours a day, not every day).
The score is very disappointing to me, especially regarding the Verbal section, in light of the following scores of my GMAC mock's:
- 25 July: 710 (Q46, V41)
- 29 July: 700 (Q46, V40)
- 01 Aug: 660 (Q42, V39)
- 04 Aug: 720 (Q47, V41)
It is frustrating because during the exam I didn't perceive any particular clue of a bad performance: I was pretty relaxed during the whole exam; I thought that I had answered consciously to all the questions in the Verbal section. I ended both the sections with good sensations.
I feel desoriented because I can't understand whether the actual Verbal section is tougher than the mock's one or my preparation was not solid enough to avoid result's variance.
Now, I would like to take the exam again (after a 2 week summer break) preparing it for another 2/3 weeks.
How should I spent this time? What could be the reason underlying my bad score in Verbal and how could I manage the problem? Should I lower my 700 goal?
Thank you very much in advance!
Gabriele
06 Aug 2020, 16:46
Kudos
Bookmarks
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 V32. 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 it helpful to read the following articles:
how to score a 700+ on the GMAT
Why Was My GMAT Score Lower Than My Practice Test Scores?
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 V32. 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 it helpful to read the following articles:
how to score a 700+ on the GMAT
Why Was My GMAT Score Lower Than My Practice Test Scores?
06 Aug 2020, 20:44
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi Gabriele,
I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as planned. Many GMATers spend 3 months (or more) of consistent study time before they hit their 'peak' scores - and from what you describe, your studies were a lot shorter (and a lot less consistent) than that. In addition, 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:
1) What study materials have you used so far?
2) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
3) What Schools are you planning to apply to?
You might also choose to purchase the Enhanced Score Report. 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). If you purchase the ESR, then I'll be happy to analyze it for you.
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as planned. Many GMATers spend 3 months (or more) of consistent study time before they hit their 'peak' scores - and from what you describe, your studies were a lot shorter (and a lot less consistent) than that. In addition, 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:
1) What study materials have you used so far?
2) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
3) What Schools are you planning to apply to?
You might also choose to purchase the Enhanced Score Report. 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). If you purchase the ESR, then I'll be happy to analyze it for you.
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
