Font Type at the Test Center

Question

Hey everyone,

I've been practicing the official mocks online (new version) and I averaged on the 6 exams around 700 (lowest 650 highest 730). I went there on the last 18th and I got an humiliating 560, which I don't even remember to get in any mock at all. I wasn't too much anxious, I slept 6 hours, paused a day before the test day, etc. While I'm kind of trying to figure out what went (that) wrong, I do remember one thing that did upset me but I had no time to think about during the test's rush. The font type (I think) and the size of it (for sure) were pretty different from my mocks. That make it sound like everything was so different, I got confused specially on RC and I almost got the feeling that I was doing an exam for the first time... So I was wondering if I changed something on the mocks layout that I don't remember and whether I can put the same way on the test day or I should practice with random settings because I won't be able to change anything, font type and size wise on the test day.

Any thoughts?

Thanks a lot,
Miracle's

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Miracles86,

I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as planned. 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. If you can answer a few questions, then we should be able to figure this out:

When you took your CATs:
1) Where your CATs in the 'old' format or the new, shorter format?
2) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?
3) Did you take them at home?
4) Did you take them at the same time of day as when you plan to take your Official GMAT?
5) 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.)? 
6) Did you ever take a CAT more than once? Had you seen any of the questions BEFORE (re: on a prior CAT, in an online forum or in a practice set)?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Miracles86 · Answer

Hi EMPOWERgmatRichC,

Thanks in advance for your help.

Let me copy your questions and answer bellow:

When you took your CATs:
1) Where your CATs in the 'old' format or the new, shorter format?

I've done around last year's April the first 4. That was around my first attempt in which I've scored 620 and canceled it.

I've done, as the last part of my prep for the last attempt, the 6 in the new format from the beginning. To be honest there were some questions that were familiar to me but I think those were actually the ones that I missed (again).

2) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?

No but I choose both in the exam and in the mocks to leave Essay and IR section to the end, so I guess it won't make any difference since the score was already decided after the 1st part of the exam (V + Q)

3) Did you take them at home?

Always...

4) Did you take them at the same time of day as when you plan to take your Official GMAT?

I've tried to take them as close as I could get... let's say that I've done them in a 1,5+- hour interval from the official gmat time.

5) 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.)?

I did pause once or twice on the Quant section on those exercises that you know you can complete just not in time but never on the Verbal section. In any case I've done that really once or twice in one or two mocks... Not something that I do often or something that could be impacting positively my score in a material way.

Breaks were longer because I didn't want to burst too much myself but I'd say 15 mins top each brake... 
 
6) Did you ever take a CAT more than once? Had you seen any of the questions BEFORE (re: on a prior CAT, in an online forum or in a practice set)?

Question asked in point 1). I've done the first 4 in the previous format a long time ago (barely remember and made some of the mistakes I've previously done) and I've made the last 2 for the very first time and had 670 and 710. No stops in any part on these 2!

On my first attempt I was averaging 650 on my mocks (I was betting on those from Experts Global that don't allow u to pause and have the same intervals as the official exam). I wanted to score 700+ so I knew I wasn't prepared for that but I had summer operations at work, I had to travel and for 3 months I wouldn't be able to study at all so I took a chance. the worst case I would get a gist of the test environment. Got 620 and cancelled. I wasn't in too much stress but had slept only 4 hours on that day.

Then I stopped for 4 months and resume my studies on the beginning of November. Studied 1,5 months full time and then I felt I was prepared. I was having more than 700 on those experts global exams. I was, however, studying too hard with no days off. I remember that on the week prior to the exam I couldn't sleep more than 5-6 hours, even forcing me to do so. On the day before the exam I fell asleep at 23h and woke up at 2am. Then I was taking half pills of vallium to get me to sleep again but couldn't sleep at all.. the exam was at 13:30, so I got there half human, half zombie and scored a 570.

I decided to ask for some help from a friend's father who is a psychiatrist. He prescribed me some pills to manage anxiety and have been following me up since then. I've been, in that field, pretty well ever since.

Then, I decided to double my amount of study for my 3rd attempt. started on the beginning of january and till the 18th of may I've stopped 15 days to visit Brazil for carnival. After the results I had on those mocks, the anxiety management, I felt confident. I slept 6 hours on the day before, went to the exam feeling like bloody HULK and got lost on time on both parts, made a bunch of mistakes, half of my brain stopped during the exam and I scored without knowing why a miserable 560, which was the worst score I've ever had.. had a Q30 which I think is an all time record...

So far, I've studied the following materials:

1. OG Q once and V twice
2. Kaplan book twice and all the mocks
3. All Gmat club exercises once and all the incorrect answers twice
4. Egmat verbal section 100% complete
5. Global Experts exams twice (almost)
6. all preparation materials from the online platform from GMAC (I'm half way on the quant and completed the verbal and the 6 mocks)

My accuracy in non-attempted hard official questions in the verbal section are pretty decent:

1. SC 9/10 or 8/10
2. CR 10/10 or 9/10
3. RC 7/10 or 8/10

In the math part I always score (except in the actual test) between 45 and 49. I'm ok with that. Just need to have a 39+ on the verbal part!

So I got to a point in which I kind of don't know what to do more... I think I've made 70% of all gmat exercises in the world. I have a master degree in Civil Engineering from a top national school. My English is quite good for a non-native, have worked 1,5 years in India (I'm from Portugal).

On the last 8 weeks prior to the exam I've only stopped entirely for 3 days and I'm studying full time. The last stop was on the day before.

My father's theory is that I have a lot of accumulated fatigue and the pills I'm taking might be hiding that.. but that's just a theory... I've booked another try for the next Monday, so barely 15 days after the last attempt and my strategy has been to study 4 to 5 hours a day, stop 1 day per week and try to sleep as much as i can every day...

It would be amazing to hear your thoughts about all this and thanks a lot in advance!

Best,
M

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Miracles86,

From your prior post, there were some 'red flags' in terms of how you took your CATs. Before we discuss those issues though, I have a few additional questions about the lead-up to Test Day and Test Day itself:

1) What did you do in the 3 days before your GMAT?
2) How long was the ride to the Test Center from your home?
3) Were there any distractions at the facility or during the Test?
4) What did you do during the two 8-minute breaks?
5) Did you finish any sections early?
6) Did you have to rush to finish any sections (and guess on questions just to finish on time)?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Miracles86 · Answer

EMPOWERgmatRichC,

Thanks a lot for your time, attention and consideration. They are indeed from the utmost importance.

1) What did you do in the 3 days before your GMAT?

The day before I had lunch with my parents who visited me in Lisbon before going on vacation and went for a jog. Haven't studied at all as I was advised to do so. The 2 days prior to that, I just solved some quizzes, refreshed some exercises in which I had made mistakes and went a little bit through IR (to be honest I never payed enough attention to this part, but in AWA I'm pretty good - unlike most humans, I'm a very fast writer but a quite slow reader)

2) How long was the ride to the Test Center from your home?

15 mins by car. I went all the way listening as loud as I could the Ride of the Valkyries (Wagner) to boost my confidence.

3) Were there any distractions at the facility or during the Test?

There were a couple of people entering and leaving the room but I don't freak out with those kinds of things. I haven't used the sound blockers or ear plugs. A quiet environment is enough for me, as it was in college. People coughing and silently whispering if not done frequently do not bother me. I do remember when I was finishing the Quant part that I needed a new scratch book and no one was there, so I had to stand up and look for someone. Lost something like 40 (precious) seconds but that does not make a Q30......

4) What did you do during the two 8-minute breaks?

Toilet, small chocolate for sugar and vaped a little bit to bring my blood nicotine levels up, since I'm an avid addicted person. (something I'm working on but need the road to the 700 to finish to be able to deal with it properly)

5) Did you finish any sections early?

Not at all! But the other way around...

In the mocks I was finishing the verbal section 2-3 minutes earlier so I thought if I use those extra minutes I could improve my accuracy, specially on RC, which I tend to rush because I'm a slow reader - I'm quite fast on SC, I'm slow on CR if I am to have a decent accuracy and that doesn't leave me much time for RC. I certainly don't have time to summarize the paragraphs at my scratch book and so on (CR as well). I just close my eyes for a second after every paragraph and summarize the main ideas in my head. Works decently but it's my weakest part on Verbal.

6) Did you have to rush to finish any sections (and guess on questions just to finish on time)?

YES!!! I can't tell you precisely when but I lost track of the time and when I looked at it I had like 13 or 14 questions with less than a minute to solve... The worst part was Quant, I think I guessed the last 4 and prior to that I tried to solve about 5 or 6 questions in a minute each so, kind of half guessing.

Usually, on my mocks, time is not a constraint in the verbal section but I often have to solve the last 3 or 4 questions in 2-3 minutes in the Quant part. So if they have a lot of calculations I just shoot (C) and move forward, and if is a DS problem I try to spend some time analyzing the question and solve it without compute any calculations in order to save enough time for the last question or any of those last 3-4 that I know I can confidently solve. But we're talking about the last 3 to 4 questions in a good day. That can bring a 49 down to a 45 or something like that, I think. I can live with that.

The main problem is that when I'm solving the mocks I'm one person and when I go to the test center it seems I turn into a different one! All the metrics, strategies, etc fail whereas in the mocks they work.

I have my ESR from the last exam. I'd be happy to send you so u can have a X-ray view of my last GMAT hecatomb.

Again, thanks a lot for your help and I'm looking forward to your reply!

Best,
M

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Miracles86,
 
Test Day is a rather specific 'event' - the details are specific and they matter, so you have to train as best as you can for all of them. The more realistic you can make your CATs, the more likely the score results are to be accurate. The more you deviate, the more "inflated" your practice scores can become - and that's what happened here. By skipping sections, taking the CATs at home, pausing the CATs, seeing 'repeat' questions, etc., you weren't properly training for the FULL GMAT 'experience.'

Test Day involves a variety of really specific steps and parameters (including steps before the Test even begins - such as leaving your home, traveling, etc.). Every factor matters, including the psychological ones. When you sit down on Test Day, you KNOW that you're going to be in the Computer Lab for about 3.5 hours - but if you're just taking individual sections (or taking a CAT without the Essay and IR sections), then you KNOW that you'll be done in 1-2 hours. The attitude and energy that you use during practice will NOT be a match for what you'll need on Test Day, so it's not a proper way to practice. You weren't properly prepared for THAT specific structure and full day, so your scores dropped.

In addition, I would agree that you have probably been studying too much - and you might be 'burned out' because of it. You do NOT need to be a 'fast' reader to score at a high level in the Verbal section, but you DO have to attack prompts in a certain way and you must take the proper notes. GMAC has publicly stated that the Official Score that you earn on Test Day is within +/- 30 points of actual ability. Your 3 CAT Official Scores show that you essentially performed the same each time (about 590+/- a few points). "Your way" of approaching this process will likely continue to earn you scores right around 600.

Thankfully, those should be relatively easy issues to fix - you've taken the Official GMAT, and you know the EXACT details of what happens on Test Day, so you can better train to mimic those details during your CATs. To raise this 560 to a 700+ though, you're going to have to 'hone' specific Quant and Verbal Skills - and that training will likely require another 3 months of consistent, guided study.

An older ESR won't be relevant to this recent Score, but a new ESR could be. 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 (and what you should work on to score higher). If you purchase the ESR for this Exam, then I'll be happy to analyze it for you. 
 
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

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