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08 Oct 2016, 10:46
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Hi Everyone,
I gave my third attempt at GMAT on 6th October. I scored only 640 (Q49 , V28 and IR 5).
My previous scores are
1st attempt was in August 2013 and scored 620 (Q49, V26 and IR 2) -- Frankly I don't know anything about sentence correction. Practised only CR and RC . Guessed almost all SC questions. Didn't take a GMAT Prep test too. Studied only OG 13.
2nd attempt was in August 2015 and scored 590 (Q49 , V21 and IR 8) -- This time I took a Verbal Online course from e-gmat and studied seriously.
I understood the basics of SC,CR and RC and decided to practice 10 SC, 10 CR and 2 RC passages everyday.
But i panicked during the test and bombed my first 10 questions in Verbal. The algorithm then provided me with only easy level questions throughout the exam.
Any way I have a feeling that I have my concepts got mixed in SC and have same accuracy across easy, medium and hard questions.
So I tried to improve the basics by focusing more on Verbal. I used Manhattan Strategy guides for SC,CR and RC.
And I did OG 2016 and OG Verbal review 2016. Earlier I used to check the explanation for only wrong answers. But in this prep, I decided to check explanation for every question and tried to match it with my thought. Did I eliminate the answer for correct reasons? Did I miss any other rules?
This way of approach increased my confidence and it was shown clearly in my performance in CATs.
I have purchased both EP1 and EP2 from GMAC, 7 tests from Veritas Prep and got 6 CATs from Manhanttan.
Below are the scores
a) Veritas
Date Total Score Quant Score Verbal Score
28-Jul 630 49 / 77 28 / 52
31-Jul 680 50 / 87 33 / 69
28-Aug 650 50 / 87 29 / 57
13-Sep 640 49 / 77 29 / 57
b)Manhattan
Date Total Score Quant Score Verbal Score
9-Sep 660 45 35
17-Sep 680 45 37
c)GMAT Prep
Date Total Score Quant Score Verbal Score
5-Aug 620 50 24------------------->Exam 1
26-Aug 660 50 30------------------->Exam 2
11-Sep 690 49 35------------------->Exam 3
14-Sep 700 50 34------------------->Exam 4
2-Oct 660 50 30------------------->Exam 5
5-Oct 710 49 38------------------->Exam 6
based on my performance in the Exam 6 , I have booked an appointment on 6th October.
But to my surprise, I scored only 640 on the test day.
Test experience:
I finished off the AWA and proceed to IR. I am 100 % sure that I got the first 6 questions correct. Then I got a two part question type which was very difficult.
I tried to solve the question but there is no clue. I guessed some questions and completed the remaining questions.
Took a quick break of 6 mins.
In the quant section, I got very easy questions in the first 10, I managed to complete them under 1:30 secs and after 15th questions, hard questions starting to come up. I guessed couple of them and proceeded to the remaining. I faced some good GMAT type questions and managed to save 10 mins time in the end.
Took a quick break of 6 mins.
Before starting the Verbal, I said to myself that the first 20 q are important. I need to let the algorithm think that I can solve hard questions too.
With that in mind I started the verbal section. In my practice CATs (GMAT Prep), whenever I got a RC in the first set, I would score around V35.
So I was expecting the same on the test day. I started with a couple of SCs which I am not sure how to do POE 100%. I intelligently guessed them and moved to other questions and saw an RC in the first 10. Felt relieved and completed the passage. In the second set, I got some SC, 1 long passage (4 paragraphs) and some CRs. I answered them with confidence. Then I continued with a similar approach ( without thinking about the difficulty of the questions ).
After I saw the score, I was puzzled and went in to a shock. I know that with 640, I couldn't get in to good business schools. So I cancelled the score right away.
I have ordered the ESR (see attached) and found that I answered all of the questions in the second set correctly and 90 % of questions wrong in the third set.
I want experts' analysis on the ESR. The difficulty of the wrong questions was only Medium in the third set.
Why was I not given hard questions in the third set of my Verbal section?
Is it worth to try again for GMAT?
PS: All the questions that I have faced in the official CATs were new to me and I didn't see them before.
So my scores are not inflated.
I gave my third attempt at GMAT on 6th October. I scored only 640 (Q49 , V28 and IR 5).
My previous scores are
1st attempt was in August 2013 and scored 620 (Q49, V26 and IR 2) -- Frankly I don't know anything about sentence correction. Practised only CR and RC . Guessed almost all SC questions. Didn't take a GMAT Prep test too. Studied only OG 13.
2nd attempt was in August 2015 and scored 590 (Q49 , V21 and IR 8) -- This time I took a Verbal Online course from e-gmat and studied seriously.
I understood the basics of SC,CR and RC and decided to practice 10 SC, 10 CR and 2 RC passages everyday.
But i panicked during the test and bombed my first 10 questions in Verbal. The algorithm then provided me with only easy level questions throughout the exam.
Any way I have a feeling that I have my concepts got mixed in SC and have same accuracy across easy, medium and hard questions.
So I tried to improve the basics by focusing more on Verbal. I used Manhattan Strategy guides for SC,CR and RC.
And I did OG 2016 and OG Verbal review 2016. Earlier I used to check the explanation for only wrong answers. But in this prep, I decided to check explanation for every question and tried to match it with my thought. Did I eliminate the answer for correct reasons? Did I miss any other rules?
This way of approach increased my confidence and it was shown clearly in my performance in CATs.
I have purchased both EP1 and EP2 from GMAC, 7 tests from Veritas Prep and got 6 CATs from Manhanttan.
Below are the scores
a) Veritas
Date Total Score Quant Score Verbal Score
28-Jul 630 49 / 77 28 / 52
31-Jul 680 50 / 87 33 / 69
28-Aug 650 50 / 87 29 / 57
13-Sep 640 49 / 77 29 / 57
b)Manhattan
Date Total Score Quant Score Verbal Score
9-Sep 660 45 35
17-Sep 680 45 37
c)GMAT Prep
Date Total Score Quant Score Verbal Score
5-Aug 620 50 24------------------->Exam 1
26-Aug 660 50 30------------------->Exam 2
11-Sep 690 49 35------------------->Exam 3
14-Sep 700 50 34------------------->Exam 4
2-Oct 660 50 30------------------->Exam 5
5-Oct 710 49 38------------------->Exam 6
based on my performance in the Exam 6 , I have booked an appointment on 6th October.
But to my surprise, I scored only 640 on the test day.
Test experience:
I finished off the AWA and proceed to IR. I am 100 % sure that I got the first 6 questions correct. Then I got a two part question type which was very difficult.
I tried to solve the question but there is no clue. I guessed some questions and completed the remaining questions.
Took a quick break of 6 mins.
In the quant section, I got very easy questions in the first 10, I managed to complete them under 1:30 secs and after 15th questions, hard questions starting to come up. I guessed couple of them and proceeded to the remaining. I faced some good GMAT type questions and managed to save 10 mins time in the end.
Took a quick break of 6 mins.
Before starting the Verbal, I said to myself that the first 20 q are important. I need to let the algorithm think that I can solve hard questions too.
With that in mind I started the verbal section. In my practice CATs (GMAT Prep), whenever I got a RC in the first set, I would score around V35.
So I was expecting the same on the test day. I started with a couple of SCs which I am not sure how to do POE 100%. I intelligently guessed them and moved to other questions and saw an RC in the first 10. Felt relieved and completed the passage. In the second set, I got some SC, 1 long passage (4 paragraphs) and some CRs. I answered them with confidence. Then I continued with a similar approach ( without thinking about the difficulty of the questions ).
After I saw the score, I was puzzled and went in to a shock. I know that with 640, I couldn't get in to good business schools. So I cancelled the score right away.
I have ordered the ESR (see attached) and found that I answered all of the questions in the second set correctly and 90 % of questions wrong in the third set.
I want experts' analysis on the ESR. The difficulty of the wrong questions was only Medium in the third set.
Why was I not given hard questions in the third set of my Verbal section?
Is it worth to try again for GMAT?
PS: All the questions that I have faced in the official CATs were new to me and I didn't see them before.
So my scores are not inflated.
Attachments
Chaitanya_3rd_Attempt.pdf [438.95 KiB]
Downloaded 42 times
08 Oct 2016, 11:44
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi chaitanya87,
To start, you might receive more of a response if you also posted your story here:
share-gmat-experience-8/
A 640/Q49 is a strong score (it's right around the 80th percentile overall), so it could be enough to get you into your first-choice School. As such, a retest might not be necessary. Depending on the Schools that you plan to apply to, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile. There's a Forum full of them here:
ask-admission-consultants-124/
GMAC has publicly stated that the Official Score that you earn on Test Day is within +/- 30 points of actual ability. Your 3 Official GMAT score results show that you essentially performed the same each time (+/- a few points) and your general ability level is rooted in the low-600s. This implies a certain amount of consistency in your performance over time - you do certain things consistently well, but you also make the same consistent mistakes.
Since your recent CAT scores were almost all higher than your Official score, I have some questions about how you took those CATs:
1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (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? Had you seen any of the questions BEFORE?
If you do choose to retake the GMAT, then you will have to make some significant changes to how you 'see' (and respond to) the GMAT. This will require that you focus on Verbal Tactics, so you will likely need to invest in some new study materials.
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
To start, you might receive more of a response if you also posted your story here:
share-gmat-experience-8/
A 640/Q49 is a strong score (it's right around the 80th percentile overall), so it could be enough to get you into your first-choice School. As such, a retest might not be necessary. Depending on the Schools that you plan to apply to, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile. There's a Forum full of them here:
ask-admission-consultants-124/
GMAC has publicly stated that the Official Score that you earn on Test Day is within +/- 30 points of actual ability. Your 3 Official GMAT score results show that you essentially performed the same each time (+/- a few points) and your general ability level is rooted in the low-600s. This implies a certain amount of consistency in your performance over time - you do certain things consistently well, but you also make the same consistent mistakes.
Since your recent CAT scores were almost all higher than your Official score, I have some questions about how you took those CATs:
1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (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? Had you seen any of the questions BEFORE?
If you do choose to retake the GMAT, then you will have to make some significant changes to how you 'see' (and respond to) the GMAT. This will require that you focus on Verbal Tactics, so you will likely need to invest in some new study materials.
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
09 Oct 2016, 04:28
Kudos
Bookmarks
EMPOWERgmatRichC
Hi chaitanya87,
To start, you might receive more of a response if you also posted your story here:
share-gmat-experience-8/
A 640/Q49 is a strong score (it's right around the 80th percentile overall), so it could be enough to get you into your first-choice School. As such, a retest might not be necessary. Depending on the Schools that you plan to apply to, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile. There's a Forum full of them here:
ask-admission-consultants-124/
GMAC has publicly stated that the Official Score that you earn on Test Day is within +/- 30 points of actual ability. Your 3 Official GMAT score results show that you essentially performed the same each time (+/- a few points) and your general ability level is rooted in the low-600s. This implies a certain amount of consistency in your performance over time - you do certain things consistently well, but you also make the same consistent mistakes.
Since your recent CAT scores were almost all higher than your Official score, I have some questions about how you took those CATs:
1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (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? Had you seen any of the questions BEFORE?
If you do choose to retake the GMAT, then you will have to make some significant changes to how you 'see' (and respond to) the GMAT. This will require that you focus on Verbal Tactics, so you will likely need to invest in some new study materials.
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Thanks for your response Rich.To start, you might receive more of a response if you also posted your story here:
share-gmat-experience-8/
A 640/Q49 is a strong score (it's right around the 80th percentile overall), so it could be enough to get you into your first-choice School. As such, a retest might not be necessary. Depending on the Schools that you plan to apply to, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile. There's a Forum full of them here:
ask-admission-consultants-124/
GMAC has publicly stated that the Official Score that you earn on Test Day is within +/- 30 points of actual ability. Your 3 Official GMAT score results show that you essentially performed the same each time (+/- a few points) and your general ability level is rooted in the low-600s. This implies a certain amount of consistency in your performance over time - you do certain things consistently well, but you also make the same consistent mistakes.
Since your recent CAT scores were almost all higher than your Official score, I have some questions about how you took those CATs:
1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (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? Had you seen any of the questions BEFORE?
If you do choose to retake the GMAT, then you will have to make some significant changes to how you 'see' (and respond to) the GMAT. This will require that you focus on Verbal Tactics, so you will likely need to invest in some new study materials.
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
1)I took all the exams with IR. But for the last exam, I completed with AWA.
2) Yes I took them at home in a closed room.
3) Yes all the exams started in the afternoon
4) No long breaks were taken during the exam
5) No. All the questions are not repeated.
