First Official GMAT Lower Than Expected - Next Steps Retake

Question

Hi everyone

I took my first Official GMAT Exam, and scored a 710 (Q47, V40), which was lower than my target of 730+. I scored a 730 on my last Official GMAT Practice (Q49, V40), and scored a Q49 and V40 on two other Official Practice Exams (I’ve taken 3 of them total). So honestly I was a bit disappointed & canceled scores. I’ve been at it studying for a little over two months now.

Perhaps it was driven in part by nerves, but I felt that quant was more troublesome than expected - I encountered questions that weren’t impossible to answer, but they were definitely a bit foreign to me in terms of style (and content to a slight degree). I felt MUCH better on all GMAT Prep Exams on quant. Even with tougher questions. My prep for quant has only been Target Test Prep, which has served me well, but I have not touched OG Quant Questions, which may have been a mistake. Should I see notable improvement if I complete All the Quant OG Questions? I also do not have an organized step-by-step Strategy for approaching Quant Questions. Kind of just do my own thing for each, not sure if that really makes a difference.

As for verbal, I scored in line with my best to date on practices, and felt pretty confident overall. I have mostly completed all Verbal OG Questions, though still haven’t used the extra Verbal Edition Questions. Of course a boost to V42+ would be awesome, but now I’m primarily worried about getting quant back up to 49.

So what should the game-plan be? Prioritize OG Questions for both quant and Verbal? Work to improve general strategy? And if so, what would be a really solid resource for mechanics/strategy by question type? GMAT Ninja YouTube videos have definitely helped from time to time. How about Manhattan Advanced Quant & Kaplan 800? I aim to retake in 3 weeks from now - match the 49Q/40V at the least, and squeeze out any improvement from either section, if possible.

Appreciate the help immensely - thank you.

Posted from my mobile device

Hovkial · Answer

It is perfectly reasonable to get a lower score on the real test. Practice doesn't come close to the many challenges you might face both going into the test and on the day of the test. It is a mistake to expect the same numerical scores.

Use your practice tests to look at your timing and the ways in which you answer questions. You may notice things that you can improve. You also made the big mistake of not solving the official questions. Non-official questions are mostly poor in quality, especially the verbal questions. Use these sorts of quant questions to improve your general knowledge.

dowg16 · Answer

Thank you for the response - it is much appreciated.

I have three more Official Practice Tests left, so hopefully some notable areas of improvement can be picked up from going through those. As for the OG Questions, I figured that Quant Questions from different sources are interchangeable for the most part, but yes that doesn’t seem to completely be the case. Hopefully OG practice gives a solid boost

Posted from my mobile device

RetaketheGMAT · Answer

Usually the reason for a gap between OG CAT practice tests and the real test is more to do with test strategy, in-test process and timing management.

I tend to use a lot of sports analogies and here's one for this. There's a big difference between hitting a tennis shot, shooting a basketball or hitting a cricket ball in a real game vs in practice. You'll make a shot 100 times in practice and keep missing it under the pressure of a live match. What prevents you from doing that in a live game is things like a more solid stance, great follow through or keeping your eye on the ball. Ok enough of the analogy.

There's a similar thing happening during the live test. Under the pressure of the test, especially the implications of the score you get, any incompleteness in your approach to tackling quant and verbal questions is exposed. As you get more nervous/intense, you start missing things like a piece of key info in the prompt, what variable you're calculating or a simple calculation that you can normally do in your head. The solution is exactly the same as the sports analogy. A more resilient process for tacking question. That mean being precise when you're capturing / preprocessing a quant question (especially DS), using visualization consistently to ensure you don't fall into traps and using tools like estimation and answer scanning to get to the final answer more quickly.

I've helped many people break through this exact thing -- focusing solely on process and timing management (not the usual practice problems cycle). It should work for you too.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi dowg16,

710 is a great start! Can you tell me how much of TTP you’ve completed? Also, I’m going to reach out to you directly, so we can discuss a game plan. I’ve got your back, my friend.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

The good news is that 710 is a very nice start! Regarding how to move forward, can you tell me what percent of TTP you've completed? Also, I'm going to reach out to you directly, so we can discuss a gameplan. I've got your back, my friend.

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