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ag1991
Joined: 12 Apr 2020
Last visit: 02 Mar 2021
Posts: 21
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 151
Location: United States (AL)
Schools: INSEAD Jan'21 Intake CBS J-Term'22
24 Jul 2020, 11:06
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Hi everyone,
I recently took my GMAT and had a dismal performance. I scored a 630 (Q46V31). I was expecting a score in the range of of 680-700. I was most taken aback by my performance in verbal as I have for the past 2 months consistently gotten a score in the range of 37-40 so for it to go down from that to 31 was shocking.
Just to give a full picture, I have been studying for the past 2.5 months and putting in 6-7 hours a day. The study materials I used are listed below:
- OG 12
- Magoosh Verbal and Math 3 month program (Which included lessons and a question bank of ~ 600 questions)
- Powerscore CR
- MGMAT RC
- Thursdays with Ron ( Watched around 20 videos)
- GMATClub Math Book
I am planning on taking the exam again in around 3 weeks and wanted to know if this amazing community has any advice/ tips for me. I am targeting a score in the range of 690-710 which I think is totally achievable since my last GMATprep mock ( a week before the exam) was 690 Q45V40). Also, I have severe anxiety issues and wasn't able to sleep before the exam so that obviously impacted my performance on test day. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
AG
I recently took my GMAT and had a dismal performance. I scored a 630 (Q46V31). I was expecting a score in the range of of 680-700. I was most taken aback by my performance in verbal as I have for the past 2 months consistently gotten a score in the range of 37-40 so for it to go down from that to 31 was shocking.
Just to give a full picture, I have been studying for the past 2.5 months and putting in 6-7 hours a day. The study materials I used are listed below:
- OG 12
- Magoosh Verbal and Math 3 month program (Which included lessons and a question bank of ~ 600 questions)
- Powerscore CR
- MGMAT RC
- Thursdays with Ron ( Watched around 20 videos)
- GMATClub Math Book
I am planning on taking the exam again in around 3 weeks and wanted to know if this amazing community has any advice/ tips for me. I am targeting a score in the range of 690-710 which I think is totally achievable since my last GMATprep mock ( a week before the exam) was 690 Q45V40). Also, I have severe anxiety issues and wasn't able to sleep before the exam so that obviously impacted my performance on test day. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
AG
24 Jul 2020, 12:17
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Hi ag1991,
I’m sorry to hear how things went with your GMAT.
The good news is that you scored really well on quant, right? That said, I understand that you are not satisfied with your verbal score, so the question we need to ask is why you scored so high on your practice exams but lower on the real GMAT.
Assuming that you took your official practice exams under realistic testing conditions, the results show that, on a good day, you are capable of scoring higher than V31. Thus, it’s quite possible that nerves, stress, tiredness, or a combination of all three negatively affected your test-day performance. However, it’s also possible that you have some lingering weaknesses that were exposed on test day. Although I’m unsure of how you prepared, it’s possible that, in your preparation, particularly in verbal, you did not really learn to do what you have to do in order to score high on the actual GMAT. Rather, you picked up on some patterns that were effective in getting you relatively high scores on practice tests. So, for you to hit your score goal, your preparation, particularly for verbal, probably needs to be more complete, meaning that you have to go through the various types of GMAT questions carefully to find your exact weaknesses, fill gaps in your knowledge, and strengthen your skills.
For verbal specifically, you have to become more skilled at clearly defining the differences between trap choices and correct answers. Otherwise, you will get stuck guessing between two choices or be surprised to find that you incorrectly answered questions that you thought you answered correctly. Becoming more skilled in this way takes carefully analyzing all of the answer choices to lots of verbal questions to develop an eye for the logical differences between the choices. In other words, you have to go beyond answering practice questions and reading explanations to doing deep analysis of questions to learn to see everything that is going on in them.
In order to follow the path described above, you may need some new quant and verbal materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the best quant and verbal courses.
You also may find it helpful to read the following articles:
how to score a 700+ on the GMAT
Why Was My GMAT Score Lower Than My Practice Test Scores?
If you’d like more specific advice on how to improve your quant and verbal skills, feel free to reach back out. Good luck!
I’m sorry to hear how things went with your GMAT.
The good news is that you scored really well on quant, right? That said, I understand that you are not satisfied with your verbal score, so the question we need to ask is why you scored so high on your practice exams but lower on the real GMAT.
Assuming that you took your official practice exams under realistic testing conditions, the results show that, on a good day, you are capable of scoring higher than V31. Thus, it’s quite possible that nerves, stress, tiredness, or a combination of all three negatively affected your test-day performance. However, it’s also possible that you have some lingering weaknesses that were exposed on test day. Although I’m unsure of how you prepared, it’s possible that, in your preparation, particularly in verbal, you did not really learn to do what you have to do in order to score high on the actual GMAT. Rather, you picked up on some patterns that were effective in getting you relatively high scores on practice tests. So, for you to hit your score goal, your preparation, particularly for verbal, probably needs to be more complete, meaning that you have to go through the various types of GMAT questions carefully to find your exact weaknesses, fill gaps in your knowledge, and strengthen your skills.
For verbal specifically, you have to become more skilled at clearly defining the differences between trap choices and correct answers. Otherwise, you will get stuck guessing between two choices or be surprised to find that you incorrectly answered questions that you thought you answered correctly. Becoming more skilled in this way takes carefully analyzing all of the answer choices to lots of verbal questions to develop an eye for the logical differences between the choices. In other words, you have to go beyond answering practice questions and reading explanations to doing deep analysis of questions to learn to see everything that is going on in them.
In order to follow the path described above, you may need some new quant and verbal materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the best quant and verbal courses.
You also may find it helpful to read the following articles:
how to score a 700+ on the GMAT
Why Was My GMAT Score Lower Than My Practice Test Scores?
If you’d like more specific advice on how to improve your quant and verbal skills, feel free to reach back out. Good luck!
24 Jul 2020, 15:58
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Hi Ananya,
I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as hoped. This 630 is still a nice improvement on your initial 550 CAT Score though - and it shows that you have the capacity to learn and improve. In our earlier conversations, I noted that it would likely take you at least 3 additional months of study time before you could hit your Score Goal (while you had just 7 weeks before your Exam), so you might naturally continue to improve as you continue to study.
Statistically-speaking, raising a 630 to the point that you can consistently score 700+ will likely require at least another 1-2 months of consistent, guided study - and you'll have to make significant improvements to how you handle BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections. Thankfully, the GMAT is a consistent, predictable Exam, so you CAN train to score at a higher level - but you might need more than the 3 weeks of study time that you have allotted (so you might want to consider pushing back that next Test Date).
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. Before we discuss any of those potential issues though, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your plans:
1) How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) On what dates did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks and how did you score on EACH (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?
3) I remember that you were planning to apply in August. What are the exact application deadlines that you are facing? And what are the NEXT application Rounds for each of those Schools?
You might also choose to purchase the Enhanced Score Report. 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 on Test Day (and what you should work on to score higher). If you purchase the ESR, then I'll be happy to analyze it for you.
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as hoped. This 630 is still a nice improvement on your initial 550 CAT Score though - and it shows that you have the capacity to learn and improve. In our earlier conversations, I noted that it would likely take you at least 3 additional months of study time before you could hit your Score Goal (while you had just 7 weeks before your Exam), so you might naturally continue to improve as you continue to study.
Statistically-speaking, raising a 630 to the point that you can consistently score 700+ will likely require at least another 1-2 months of consistent, guided study - and you'll have to make significant improvements to how you handle BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections. Thankfully, the GMAT is a consistent, predictable Exam, so you CAN train to score at a higher level - but you might need more than the 3 weeks of study time that you have allotted (so you might want to consider pushing back that next Test Date).
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. Before we discuss any of those potential issues though, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your plans:
1) How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) On what dates did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks and how did you score on EACH (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?
3) I remember that you were planning to apply in August. What are the exact application deadlines that you are facing? And what are the NEXT application Rounds for each of those Schools?
You might also choose to purchase the Enhanced Score Report. 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 on Test Day (and what you should work on to score higher). If you purchase the ESR, then I'll be happy to analyze it for you.
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
