ESR Evaluation and next steps

Question

EMPOWERgmatRichC ,  ScottTargetTestPrep ,  GMATNinja ,  Businessconquerer ,  bb ,  Bunuel ,  egmat

Hi all,

First off, I would like to thank the experts on this forum - it's definitely THE best platform for anyone taking the GMAT.

I have been studying from a long time now and my prep was consistent from last 4-5 months. After 4-5 months of focused work, I scored a dismal 500 (Q42,V18). This was quite shocking because I had been performing much better on the mocks. I have attached my ESR here. I plan to re-take the GMAT in couple of weeks. I would really appreciate if I could get some help in understanding the ESR.

All the mocks were taken with 8 min breaks, at a stretch, where I tried to replicate the real environment as much as possible.

Some additional key points:

1) How long have you studied in total? 8 months
2) What study materials have you used so far? E-gmat for verbal with OG and Gmat Prep. Quant gmatclub and a TTP trial with GC tests, OG and Gmat prep questions
3) How have you scored on EACH of your CATs/mocks (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?
Chronologically, all taken within 3 - 4 days of gap between each:

- GMAT Prep 1: 760 (V42, Q51)
- Kaplan CAT 1 : 650 ( V34 , Q46)
- Kaplan CAT 2: 680 ( V 36, Q 48)
- Kaplan CAT 3: 680 ( V 38, Q 46)
- kaplan CAT 4: 700 (V 38, Q 48)
- E-Gmat CAT 1: 720 ( V 38, Q 49)
- GMAT Whiz CAT 1: 680 ( Q48, V 34)
- Veritas CAT 1: 680 (Q 49, V 34) 
- Manhattan CAT 1: 650 (Q46. V34)
- GMAT Prep 2: 730 (Q50, V38)

Goals:
4) What is your goal score? 700
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School? (Round2)
6) What Schools are you planning to apply to? NUS, Tepper, Emory, Oxford, Cambridge, IMD

Appreciate all the help I can get, because I am really finding it hard to understand where I have gone so terribly wrong!

Thanks in advance!

EducationAisle · Answer

V42 on GMATPrep and V18 on the actual exam! Unbelievable. RC and Time management obviously emerged as huge issues, but there is clearly much more to it, than that.

Since you are considering a reattempt,  this article  will help.

Also, my opinion is that the 2 weeks that you are giving yourself for the re-attempt, is a gross under-estimate.

vishuvashishth · Answer

EducationAisle 
Thanks for replying. Only reason for me to consider two weeks is because i was consistently scoring high enough in mocks. This time i am hoping to take online GMAT so that I dont fall for the same gmat anxiety/ bad day that I faced at the gmat test center.

Do you have any suggestions for quant ?

EducationAisle · Answer

ok, I understand.

Makes sense.

You don't seem to be conceptually weak at all! In fact, you were scoring 50-51 in Quant in the official mock tests. So, I guess gmat anxiety/ bad day can be attributed to your low score in Quant as well (though not as much of a disaster as Verbal was).

Since you have given yourself two weeks before the re-attempt, would not suggest that you try anything radical at this stage. Continue practicing more questions and give few more official mock tests, before your next attempt.

Good luck and do let us know how things go!

vishuvashishth · Answer

Thanks.
I understand two weeks is not an ideal time for the re-take. How much time would you suggest and what should be the strategy in that case ? Can you please shed some light ?

EducationAisle · Answer

We have generally observed that it takes a good 2-month preparation to  move the needle .

However, since your low score on the exam was probably due to  one bad day , this 2-week gap could definitely work for you!

ReedArnoldMPREP · Answer

Your timing looks quite rough. In both sections the average time per question at the end plummets.

Topic-wise, Reading Comp (especially 'inferences') and 'Value/order/factors' (basically 'number properties') seem to be the biggest hitches. But what happened to your timing that day? How were your nerves?

Your practice tests show capabilities much higher than what your test showed. This means what took over were timing or nerves.

You should really spend the next two weeks working on mindset, here. You don't need to be doing GMAT problems and learning GMAT material--you've demonstrated the ability to handle these. Make sure you understand how the GMAT algorithm works. Nerves tend to cause people to tunnel-vision into the problem they're working on, terrified that they might miss it... As if you shouldn't miss problems on the actual test (you should and you will. I missed 11 questions on an official practice test once and got a Q50...)

Practice mindfulness, plan on what you'll do when your nerves start to take over, remind yourself to skip questions and keep pace.

vishuvashishth · Answer

Hi,
Thanks for your reply.
I think nerves and timing both took over. In Quant, i started poorly and spent a lot of time on questions early on and then, I spent very less time on questions in later part of quant section( Big Big problem).
In Verbal, I think the biggest mistake was that I did not follow the process that I Usually follow for each type (SC,CR and RC) to solve.

What do you suggest to fix above two issues ? specifically in verbal, how can i make sure i follow my normal process on the D-Day ?

ReedArnoldMPREP · Answer

I mean,  you  have to identify: what made you not?

This is what I mean by mentally prepare. Meditate, practice mindfulness, plan for the thing. Don't plan on not being nervous--plan on how you'll deal with the nerves. Don't plan on not being tempted to over-invest time in a problem, plan on how you'll respond when you notice that you're overinvesting.

Don't plan on not having to guess on questions. Plan on guessing strategically.

At the end of the day... you just gotta *do* it. "How do I stick to my normal process?" You stick to your normal process. You don't let the fact that it's 'The Real Test' change what has been successful on your practice tests.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Vishu,

I've sent you a PM with some additional questions. 
 
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi vishuvashishth,

I see that you started with the TTP trial. Why don't you use the course beyond the trial?

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