From 700 to 700 after 4 months of studying. What went wrong?

Question

Guys, I need your help!

I first took the GMAT right after graduating college in 2015. I wanted to get it out of the way, so that I wouldn't have to study while having a job a few years down the line.

After a month of all day studying, using the Manhattan GMAT interact program, I scored a 700 (V:42 / Q:43), almost 20 points above my highest MGMAT CAT. I was absolutely thrilled of the result!

Fast forward 4 years to this past January. As I decided to apply for an MBA in R1 and I started realizing how fierce my competition would be to get accepted at an M7 program, I embarked on my second GMAT journey, signed up for the Orion online program, booked a few hours of tutoring and started studying again.

While a bit rusty at first, after two month of studying I was back to scoring 700s in my mock CATs and with the exam more than 2 months away, I was looking forward to getting a better score this second time around.

On my last practice CATs I scored as follows

GMAC: 700 (V:40 / Q:45)
MGMAT: 720 (V:45 / Q:44)
MGMAT 740 (V:45 / Q:46)
GMAC: 730 (V:45 / Q:46)
GMAC: 740 (V:44 / Q:48)

On exam day, I woke up early (as per usual), had a good breakfast and headed to the exam ready to put the GMAT behind me once and for all. Boy was I wrong...

I started with the Verbal section, which I found slightly harder than usual, but not enough to raise any red flags. As I was getting ready to start with Quant, I was feeling really good about my performance but from that moment onwards, it went completely downhill.

I thought I had an extra page of instructions before the questions, a page that I was counting on to give me the time to organize my scratch paper and mark down timing to keep track of my pace. It turns out that I did not and I found myself in the middle of question one without any warning. This threw me off completely and for the next 62 minutes, I saw myself falling several minutes behind pace, guessing way too many questions to catch up and somehow ending up 4 minutes ahead. As I approached the second to last question, I saw that it was a difficult one that I had no idea how to even approach. I decided to skip it and leave 3 minutes for the last one so that I could finish strong. Apparently, I was so off my game, that I didn't realize that there was no other questions after that, so I essentially skipped my last question with 3 minutes to spare

I cruised through IR and AWA as I was convinced that I had bombed the quant section and that I would need to retake the exam. However, when I clicked on "end exam" I saw a result that I couldn't have anticipated.

700 (V:40 / Q:47)
 
I now find myself back to ground zero and I plan on retaking the exam. I am determined to get the 740 that I think I can get.

The point of this post was in part to vent and get the frustration of this exam off my chest, but mostly to get any advice on how I can take it from here.

I would like to retake the exam at the end of May, but what should I focus on? Had I gotten a bad score in quant, I would know what to blame and how to improve, but I can't wrap my head around the breakdown of the score.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated on how to interpret my performance on the test and how to plan my next month of studying accordingly, so that I can get the same results I was getting on my mock exams.

Thank you!

bebs · Answer

Congratulations. 700 is a good score, but it is understandable that you want a better one. I suggest that you try Target Test Prep to boost your quant score to 49+. Since you are already at q47, I think TTP’s accelerated study plan will help you make the push.

Best wishes!

Best wishes!

MahmoudFawzy · Answer

Hi brama07 At first glance, I found the title of your experience a little bit scary

But when I read through the details, I guessed some predicitions that I wish to share with you: 1. you depended on your previous experience in GMAT, not fully prepared for the changes in the current version. (for example: Current GMAT has less questions while you had false impression that you are running out of time) 2. previously, the verbal section had more SC questions and less RC ones. Now, GMAT stresses more on RC than on SC. This may explain the decrease in verbal score. 3. You had a tremendous improvement in the quant section, showing how you worked hard. My advice (depending on my guess): 1. don't panic, you re doing GREAT. Just fine tune your strategy ( check this analysis, so helpful : https://gmatclub.com/forum/new-format-gmat-prep-software-analysis-and-what-if-scenarios-269682.html#p2088515 ) 2. Stress more on RC. 3. Analyze your ESR (you can share it with experts here on GMATclub) to know your weaknesses in quant and verbal to fix. 4. I am quite sure that your next attempt would be better because you are now more familiar with the current GMAT version.

brama07 · Answer

Hi Mahmoud,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, I downloaded my ESR (sadly I can't upload it since I am new to GmatClub) and I can see that I was definitely weaker in RC, I will try to give it a greater focus as I prepare to retake the exam.

The 5 practice exams that I took were all in the new format, so I'd say that I was fairly acquainted with the new test format. Not being able to set up my scratch paper properly definitely messed up my focus and timing on Quant.

My greatest surprise was actually scoring 4/5 points less on Verbal given that I was expecting a similar performance to my GMAC mock tests. Do we know if the GMAC CATs are an accurate reflection of the actual exam?

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi brama07,

The good news is that a 700 is not a bad start, right? Yes, I realize that score is a bit of a drop from your practice exam scores, but 700 is still a really solid score. That said, to improve your score to a higher level, you have to go through GMAT quant and verbal carefully to find your exact weaknesses, fill gaps in your knowledge, and strengthen your skills. The overall process will be to learn all about how to answer question types with which you currently aren't very comfortable and do dozens of practice questions category by category, basically driving up your score point by point. When you do dozens of questions of the same type one after the other, you learn just what it takes to get questions of that type correct consistently. If you aren't getting close to 90 percent of questions of a certain type correct, go back and seek to better understand how that type of question works, and then do more questions of that type until you get to around at least 90 percent accuracy in your training. If you get 100 percent of some sets correct, even better.

For example, say you are learning about Number Properties. First, you should develop as much conceptual knowledge about Number Properties as possible. In other words, your goal is to completely understand properties of factorials, perfect squares, quadratic patterns, LCM, GCF, units digit patterns, divisibility, and remainders, to name a few concepts. After carefully reviewing the conceptual underpinnings of how to answer Number Properties questions, practice by answering 50 or more questions just from Number Properties. When you are working on learning to answer questions of a particular type, start off taking your time, and then seek to speed up as you get more comfortable answering questions of that type. As you do such practice, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get right. If you got a remainder question wrong, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not properly apply the remainder formula? Was there a concept you did not understand in the question? By carefully analyzing your mistakes, you will be able to efficiently fix your weaknesses and in turn improve your GMAT quant skills. Number Properties is just one example; follow this process for all quant topics.

Each time you strengthen your understanding of a topic and your skill in answering questions of a particular type, you increase your odds of hitting your score goal. You know that there are types of questions that you are happy to see, types that you would rather not see, and types that you take a long time to answer correctly. Learn to more effectively answer the types of questions that you would rather not see, and make them into your favorite types. Learn to correctly answer in two minutes or less questions that you currently take five minutes to answer. By finding, say, a dozen weaker quant areas and turning them into strong areas, you will make great progress toward hitting your quant score goal. If a dozen areas turn out not to be enough, strengthen some more areas.

Follow a similar routine for verbal. For example, let’s say you start by learning about Critical Reasoning. Your first goal is to fully master the individual topics: Strengthen the Argument, Weaken the Argument, Resolve the Paradox, etc. As you learn about each question type, do focused practice so that you can track your skill in answering each type. If, for example, you get a weakening question wrong, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not recognize the specific question type? Were you doing too much analysis in your head? Did you skip over a keyword in an answer choice? You must thoroughly analyze your mistakes and seek to turn weaknesses into strengths by focusing on the question types you dread seeing and the questions you take a long time to answer correctly.

So, work on accuracy and generally finding correct answers, work on specific weaker areas one by one to make them strong areas, and when you take a practice GMAT or the real thing, take all the time per question available to do your absolute best to get right answers consistently. The GMAT is essentially a game of seeing how many right answers you can get in the time allotted. Approach the test with that conception in mind, and focus intently on the question in front of you with one goal in mind: getting a CORRECT answer.

If you need some additional materials moving forward, as others have said, TTP would be an amazing resource for you. If you can complete the course, there is no reason why you can’t hit a Q49+ quant score on test day. If you need any further advice or would like more information on TTP, feel free to reach out to me directly. You also may find my article with more information regarding
 how to score a 700+ on the GMAT  helpful.

Good luck!

MahmoudFawzy · Answer

From reviews written by many other students, The majority claims that the actual exam is tougher. so train yourself on a little bit tougher questions a possible.

The verbal, and RC in particular, depends on your strategy in handling. It is not about solving many questions, but about fine tuning your strategies. I found "Thursday with Ron" and "GMAT Ninja" useful for explaining different strategies for long and short passages, and different topic types. I only depend on free resources, so no solid clue about paid ones.

Note that, so far, you still need to push yourself further in quant. because your best scores in quant and verbal (47/42) would end at 730 which is still below your aspiration 740.

AjiteshArun · Answer

There is measurement error in both the GMAT and the official practice tests. What that means for you is that you are certainly  capable  of getting a score higher than 700, but there is no  guarantee  that you'll get such a score (on a specific attempt). One of the ways to get around this is to just take the GMAT again.

Your quant score has improved a  lot  to Q48 (67%). It'd be great if you could get that up to a 49 (74%) though, as that'll take some pressure off your verbal. Your V44 (98%) and V45 (99%) scores are  amazing , but it's safer not to expect your verbal to "carry" you to a 740.

TheUltimateWinner · Answer

brama07 
Your verbal and quant scores are consistent both in MGMAT and in GMAC,but the verbal score is dropped (from apx. V45 to V40) in the real exam. Is your mock score biased? I mean: when you took your GMAT preparation, did you study the mock question, which helps to get V44 or V45 in your mock test?

m1033512 · Answer

Did you get ESR for this attempt ?

I have seen on gmatclud that many guys have taken big clues from their ESR and worked on the area where they scored less amd they improved a lot ..

That can help you also ...

Posted from my mobile device

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

From what I can tell, the following is what's causing people to score lower on verbal on the actual GMAT than they score on verbal on GMAT Prep practice tests.

One aspect is that practice questions, tips, patterns people talk about on forums, and other resources that people use in preparing for the GMAT are often, at least to some degree, based on questions that appear in the GMAT Prep practice tests. So, people's preparation tends to be a bit biased toward, rather than answering GMAT verbal questions in general, answering GMAT verbal questions like the ones that appear on the GMAT Prep practice tests. So, sure enough, people are more ready to answer the questions that appear in GMAT Prep tests than they are to answer the questions that appear on the actual test.

A second factor, which is related to the first, is that GMAT verbal is more logic based and less pattern based than people realize, and GMAT question writers seek to make sure that logic works and patterns don't work well. So, for instance, everyone learns about parallel structure, but then GMAT question writers create Sentence Correction questions such that the structures of the incorrect choices are more clearly parallel than the structures of the correct answers. So, if a test-taker simply looks for a pattern, such as parallel structure, that test-taker may choose an incorrect choice.

A third factor is that, from what I can tell without having taken the GMAT in a few years, the verbal questions are evolving, becoming even more logic based, less pattern based, and more out of the box than they used to be. Are they more difficult than earlier questions or than the questions that appear in the GMAT Prep practice tests? Well, if your prep has to a large degree involved learning about patterns or strategies that have worked in the past, the current questions may seem harder than earlier questions, but if you have been training to use more fundamental logic, they may seem slightly to not at all more difficult than earlier questions.

So, what's the takeaway? The takeaway is that, in order to score high in GMAT verbal, you have to train to be ready to use logic to analyze out of the box questions. You can't just learn to use tried and true patterns. Yes, understanding certain patterns, such as how the strength of cause-and-effect arguments can be affected, will always be useful. At the same time, to score high in verbal, you have to practice using fundamental logic to clearly define why any kind of out of the box choice they may throw at you is correct or incorrect. So, when you are training, don't just answer questions and consider your job done if you arrive a correct answer to a question. Carefully analyze the logic of every answer choice in every question that you see, and seek to clearly articulate exactly what makes that choice incorrect or correct, and, thus, develop the logical skills that you will need to deal with the tricky new twists of the questions you'll see when you take the actual GMAT.

gmat1393 · Answer

Hi brama07

Order your ESR and try to analyze your weak area.

Though your mock score suggests otherwise.
IMHO it was just a bad day.If I were you I would reattempt the exam.

Thanks

brama07 · Answer

Quick update!

First of all, I would like to thank you all for the advice.

After taking a two week vacation, which started two days after my first GMAT attempt (big mistake), I resumed studying and felt like I had forgotten everything. Following your advice, I bought a month of Target Test Prep and followed the accelerated study plan, which I found really really concise and clear. After 2 weeks of studying, I took another practice test and scored a 760 (V:44 / Q:49)! Obviously excited about it, I scheduled the exam for two weeks later.

I am happy to report that I just took the exam this morning and finally scored a 730 (V:41 / Q:49).

I am quite happy with the result as I can finally start focusing on my applications for round 1. I think that if I'll have some free time in the coming months, I might take the exam again just to try to shoot for a V44+, which would push me to a coveted 760!

Thank you all for the help and good luck on your upcoming exams and applications!

bebs · Answer

Congratulations! I am glad TTP was helpful in increasing your quant score. This will keep the rest of us using TTP motivated.

Best wishes for your applications.

Cheers!

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Wow, nice job!! I’m super pumped that TTP was able to help you hit Q49 on your GMAT.

MahmoudFawzy · Answer

Congratulations  brama07

Thanks for sharing your experience update. Thanks for TTP and for the two weeks vacation.
730 is awesome. we wish you even better score next time; I am keen to here from you about your progress in you next attempt and your application progress.

TheUltimateWinner · Answer

Thanks for the update. Congrats for 730. All the best for your application process.

bb · Answer

Wow. That’s great!!! Congratulations! You make it sound easy and painless, though I’m sure it took work in Defort and you can definitely be proud of the score.

It is crazy how quickly one starts forgetting all the GMAT nuance and subtleties after taking the test. Fantastic verbal score by the way!

Onward with the applications?

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