Disparity between gmatprep and real test (quant) / Should I re-take?

Question

Hi there.
 
Although this is my first post on gmatclub I have been lurking on the site for roughly 5-6 months now. It really has been a great resource, and I wouldn't have come this far without it, so thank-you all.

As for my background, I am:
- Australian
- 24 years old (nearly 25)
- English is my native and only language
- From an engineering background (I studied Civil/Structural Engineering and have worked for 3 years in construction)

I began studying for the gmat July/Aug 2015, but really only began to 'knuckle down' at the end of last year. It really is amazing how easy it is to ‘spin your wheels’ with this test – without full commitment, progress simply won’t occur...for me at least lol.
I took my first gmat on 22/01/2016 and scored 670 (Q41, V40). Today, roughly 1 month later I re-took the test and scored 700 (Q43, V42).

The study materials I have already exhausted include:
- OG 2016 (verbal section only)
- MGMAT guides + exams (highest score was 720)
- All gmatprep materials (exams and question banks)
- Powerscore CR bible
- 7 gmatclub quant tests

While not completely unhappy with my latest score, I am still frustrated and perplexed by the fact that my quantitative scores in both official tests were so much lower than those which I had received in all of my practice tests - I had consistently scored from 47-49 for quant in my gmatprep tests, and generally from 44-47 on my gmatclub tests. Furthermore, I felt that the quant questions themselves on the actual test were of equal difficulty to those I had been experiencing in the practice tests.

So I was just wondering if anybody might be able to shed some light on the above disparity - Could it be possible that the quant on the real test is significantly harder than gmatprep, or is it possible that I just performed badly on the real test…twice?

Sorry for the rambling, I’m just trying to figure out whether I should re-take the test (again), and if it would even be possible for me to achieve a decent quant score on the real test based on the level of effort I have already expended.

Any advice would be much appreciated.
Cheers.

AjiteshArun · Answer

Congrats on the 700. You should back yourself to get a good score on quant if you decide to retake, because GMATPrep quant is representative of GMAT quant. But you should also ask yourself whether you took your GMATPreps under (or at least as close as possible to) exam conditions.

Did you change anything during your actual GMAT attempts (become more cautious)?

toomanynumbers · Answer

Thank-you for the response.

All of my gmatprep tests were taken under exam conditions. Im fairly certain my scores weren't inflated either because my scores for the other sections of the test (IR and verbal) were very similar between gmatprep and the actual tests. I do recall feeling rather nervous on the real exams however...I just don't understand how this could have had such a large impact. There is the possibility that I unknowingly took a 'less risky' approach on the real test, although as previously stated, the questions all seemed to be at the 700 level. I did have to skip the last 3 questions though.

If one were to understand the mgmat guides inside-out, would this be enough to score highly on the real test? Or would this material only be enough to get your Q score to the low 40s as I have experienced?

Thanks in advance.

Posted from my mobile device

AjiteshArun · Answer

Don't ever let yourself run out of time. You probably lost some easy points there!

About the rest: it's good to know that you took those tests under exam conditions. However, exam day factors can have a major impact on performance. You did do very well on verbal, but were those scores lower than expected (were you getting higher verbal scores on the GMATPrep tests)? If yes, I'd tentatively put it down to general nervousness. If not, it's possible that you need more quant practice. That is, you might already have the self-belief you need to do well on verbal, but you might not really be that confident when it comes to quant.

I'd retake if I were you, but that's because I  know  (from my experience with a very large number of test takers) that GMATPrep scores are  very  accurate. I'd also do a lot of quant drills, just to get the entire process down.

toomanynumbers · Answer

You're right, I probably wasn't as confident in quant as I should have been, and I should have managed my time better on test.

As for verbal, my score was pretty much exactly the same as I had been getting in gmatprep, even though I thought my scores would have been a bit inflated since I had seen some of the questions previously.

Thanks for the advice. I think I will order the enhanced score report, assess my weak points and take the test one last time, in a month or so. I just hope my verbal score doesn't go down in the meantime since I have already exhausted most of the official material. I may need to get my hands on some LSAT questions.

When you say quant drills, are you referring to the gmatclub question sets? Also, would you recommend taking drills focused on one specific topic, or covering multiple, random topics?

Lazure · Answer

Very true !

Congrats on your 700 it's already a great score ! I was in a similar situation : I had reached a 700 score but just like you I wasn't satisfied with my Quant score. I think that a retake depends on multiple factors: - do you think you can improve ? It seems to be the case for you. I've noticed that timing could be an issue : make sure to answer all questions in the time frame and most of all to answer the easy questions right. Not answering some questions will incur a severe penalty in terms of score. And the usual advice: target your weaknesses, know your basics inside out. - do you need to improve ? Do you have other ways to show your quant level ? Through your studies, your work experience ? Or through additional courses ? It also depends on the schools you are applying to. Of course it never hurts to have a better GMAT score

. - do you have the time to retake ? As mentioned above, I think that a retake is worth it if you truly invest time and effort to raise your score. I speak from experience on this, I wasted a retake by not being fully prepared. If you have the time and energy, I would advise to go for it. Edit: for maths drills: google "maths drills" and you'll find tons of them. It's great practice to improve on your quant abilities. Actually Maths Aids was the best maths drills website because the drill sheets are randomly generated so you can download it as many times as you like and you'll get different versions every time. And you have the answer sheet associated to check your work. It's perfect to warm up before a study session. Best of luck !

toomanynumbers · Answer

Hi Lazure,

Thanks for your response. I really enjoyed reading your debrief btw - I can really relate to it!

In response to your comments:
1. Yes, I think I  can  improve, but whether or not it will translate into a better score on test day is my largest concern. At this stage, I think my score is more heavily influenced by my lack of confidence in quant rather than my actual ability.

2. In terms of having other means of demonstrating my quantitative proficiency, I don't really have much else. I did well in most of my maths subjects at university, but that was quite a long time ago and I don't know how much weight those achievements will carry nowadays. Also, since I am looking to get into consulting after I finish my MBA, I think a low quant score would put me at a disadvantage here.

3. I still have ~6 weeks until the application deadline for my target school. I'm fairly certain I will be able to muster up the energy for one last shot at it. From your experience, do you think 6 weeks is enough time to improve your quant score by any significant degree?

Thanks for the advice regarding the maths drills. I'll definitely check out maths aids.

Lazure · Answer

I'm glad you liked the debrief.

Regarding your question on improving in 6 weeks: it may be sufficient depending on your work schedule, personal commitments and how much time you still need to spend on applications: the whole process from LoR to essay writing takes a lot of time. As you mentioned it will only work if you dig deep into the GMAT and commit to a regular study schedule. If you have the money, a tutor could also be a great idea, even for 2 hours, just to get you back on track and get some external advice on how to improve. And keep your motivation and spirit, it is so important. Arriving confident and well-rested at the exam plays a very strong part in your score, or at least for me it did. Trust your skills and the work you've done and give it, even if you're not a quant genius you can get a good score in quant. Personally for my last try, I had 23 days to improve and I managed to go from Q46 to Q48. It doesn't sound like a lot but these 2 points helped me reach the 70th percentile in maths. I took 2 weeks off work to focus on the GMAT, I was truly exhausted at the time and couldn't handle both. Fingers crossed, let us know how it goes.

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

I want to echo the others in congratulating you on your great score. With a score like that, you probably don't  need  to retake, but I can understand that you want to. I'd like to amplify two points that have already come up:

1) You absolutely must not time out on a section. Roughly speaking, leaving a question unanswered is equivalent to missing two questions! You need to rein in your long question times. Remember that often a long solve time is a sign that something is going wrong! In fact, try something out. Go into the Quant list for your latest MGMAT CAT and click "Time" at the top of that column. You'll now see your section sorted by time spent. If you're like most people, you'll see some questions at the top that you missed due to inadequate time, and then you'll see a stretch of longer times at the end. Again, if you're like most people, your accuracy on these will not be great. (It may vary a bit--look at a few CATs.) If you find that you  are  getting good accuracy on long questions, your task is clear: figure out how to do these questions faster or let them go. If your accuracy is not good, then there's less pressure, because you were already missing these and getting high scores.

So in short, an explicit focus on timing is important. Do you have a concrete strategy for staying on time? Most of our students these days use a system of benchmarks and then let something go if they're not where they should be. Of course, you can also work on content. I'd recommend hitting any weak areas in the main curriculum, and then if you want you can get our Advanced GMAT Quant guide. This is designed for the high-flyers, and many of the questions are unreasonably difficult. However, it presents some good strategies, and you can use the drill q's as a way of practicing letting go when things get tough. Do a set of 5 of those tough questions, with a goal of finishing in 10 minutes with 3 correct. You'll have to be very disciplined with your time, and you'll probably also have to improve your skill at strategic guessing. That's often how people improve on scores in the low 700s.

2) You're absolutely right that you need to stay on top of Verbal. I've seen too many students retake the GMAT, only to flip-flop on their subscores. Unless you're applying to Tuck, which is nice enough to combine your best Quant & Verbal scores, a flipped 700 will not be of much use to you. It doesn't matter so much  how  you study Verbal at this point as that you study it regularly. I always recommend official sources for Verbal. You can read all the strategy you want, but for drills, definitely prioritize the OG, GMATPrep, etc. If you want more, I'd suggest adding Question Pack 1 to your GMATPrep software or buying an old 10th edition OG. LSAT material is also very high-quality, but the LSAT is quite different in style and content. You can certainly gain some benefits from cross-training, but even on question types that match precisely (say, Strengthen/Weaken), the LSAT may deal in abstractions or use conditional logic in a way that the GMAT will not. If you're retaking fairly soon, you probably don't want to dive into all that.

toomanynumbers · Answer

Lazure - Thanks once again for your insights. I have booked the test for the 24th of March, so I have roughly 3 weeks left to study. Although I would have liked to have had a little longer to prepare, I think that 3 weeks will be enough time to increase my quant score by 1 or 2 points. Depending on how things go, I may end up looking for a tutor, however I think I should be ok at this stage.

Dmitry - Thanks for your very detailed response! I had been under the impression that it was ok to guess the last few (3-4) questions provided that you had already reached the 700-level questions beforehand, as was the case in most of my practice tests. I now realize that this was reckless and that I shouldn't have placed so much faith in my own interpretation of how the scoring algorithm works. I have been looking into the timing strategy articles on the MGMAT website and will definitely try out the suggested techniques. Once I have finished working my way though the fundamentals and re-familiarized myself with the unique style of the OG quant questions, I will definitely have a look at the advanced quant guide as well.
As for verbal, I have loaded up my phone with verbal questions (LSAT CR, Aristotle CR and SC) which I have been working through during my lunch break at work. For some reason, after doing this my speed and accuracy seems to have improved. Sentence correction, which had always been my weakness is finally starting to make sense. I plan on saving my last remaining OG/gmatprep questions for the tail end of my 3 week study period, so hopefully I should have enough content to hold me over until test day.

On a side note, I feel much less stressed now that I have already scored 700. If I score any lower on test day I will just cancel my score...so there is really nothing to lose

Thanks for the support guys.

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