From 760 to 680. Looking for some guidance for my next attempt.

Question

I have been preparing for GMAT for about 3 months now. For the first two mocks that I gave in the first month my scores were 730(Q49 V40) and 700(Q50 V34). I realized my SC was very week. So for the next two months i worked really hard on my SC and kept practicing the other topics. In the last week before my test i gave two more mocks wherein my scores were 740(Q50 V40) and 760(Q50 V41).

Yesterday when i gave my official test i got a 680(Q48 V35), i know how i messed up in Quant. Due to poor time management and spending way too much time on one question i had to guess last three questions which I knew how to do. So I am relatively confident about improving my Quant score in the next attempt but I am not that confident on my verbal. I know that to some degree messing up my quant affected my momentum in the verbal but i don't think it is only that.

Compared to my practice sets i feel significant decline in my ability to focus on the mocks and tests. For RCs and CRs i sometimes i have to read the first line thrice to start with the passage and get the flow and i know it is not my reading ability because for practice sets i do LSATs and i read all my passages in one go whereas i find focusing during the tests very hard. I think the reason for this problem is a combination of multiple issues: exam fatigue, difficult set of first questions and poor health. Although i was working out and meditating in the last week before my exam, i have been having eye and headache related issues lately. I have been to the doctor and planning to workout, have a cleaner diet for the next month.

For exam fatigue i am thinking of changing the text order for my last two mocks and giving verbal first. For difficult questions, even in my last mock i found the first few questions quite tough. In the SC questions, both on the test and mocks i dont think i messed up due to focus. It came down to finding the questions tough. In my last mock i got 2 out of the first three questions wrong and then felt that the test is going horribly but ended up getting a V41. In my practice sets my average accuracy on SC is someone between 75 and 80%.

I know this post is a little haywire but i am looking for some suggestion on how to maximize my potential. It is a little heartbreaking when you cant perform to your potential on a test.

any suggestions?  GMATNinja   bb   ScottTargetTestPrep   RonTargetTestPrep

jeffreyadcom · Answer

Dig into SC, RC and CR sections (300 questions in each) and practise the various question patterns. 
You should be able to identify the question pattern immediately after reading the question stimulus. 
Always Deploy POE to pick the correct answer
Practise atleast 15 full length Mock tests, to get the time dynamics right. 
Begin with Verbal in the actual exam, as this seems to be your achiles heel.

Jayantalawadhi · Answer

Thank you for responding. For RC and CR i did 25 LSATs. For SC i only used OG and verbal guide. Do you have any other sources in mind?

Posted from my mobile device

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Jayantalawadhi,

I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as planned - although a 680/Q48 is still a strong Score though, so it could be enough to get you into your first-choice School. As such, a retest might not be necessary. 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 goals:

Studies:
1) How many hours did you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far? What “brands” of CATs/mocks have you used?
3) You listed 4 CAT/mock results, but did you take any other CATs? On what dates (or approximate 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)?

Goals:
4) What is your overall goal score?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

If you took your Official GMAT at a Test Center, then 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

Contact Rich at: [email protected]

jeffreyadcom · Answer

Look at Manhattan, Princeton, Kaplan and POWER PREP LSAT (for CR) Verbal Guides. PRACTISE as much as you can!

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

In case you have finished the OG questions, consider checking out the Online only question banks. No need to rush through questions per se. Going through one question thoroughly may bring you more value than two questions quickly done.

Downloadable Idiom list on the GMAT Knight blog for Sentence Correction if you don't have one already.

Downloadable Idiom list on the GMAT Knight blog for Sentence Correction if you don't have one already.

Jayantalawadhi · Answer

Thank you for responding.

1. I studied for around 30-34 hours every week.
2. For my concepts I went through MGMAT guides and have watched all the sentence correction lectures by Ron (Thursdays with Ron). For practice i did the OG, Verbal review, quant review and 25 LSATs for RC and CR. I also gave the MGMAT mocks.
3. The scores in all MGMAT CATs were in the 650-680 range. Q45 and V37 were the average scores in MGMAT mocks. I found quant section on MGMAT cats very calculation heavy and found these cats much harder.

4. My overall goal score is 740+. 
5. I will be applying for B schools next year, so i have really done my research on Bschools. I have been only focused on the GMAT.

Having my ESR analyzed would have been wonderful but unfortunately i took my test online.

Jayantalawadhi · Answer

That is wonderful i will definitely look into it.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Jayantalawadhi, I've sent you a PM with some notes and additional questions. GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made, Rich Contact Rich at: Rich.C@empowergmat.com

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

I’m sorry to hear how things went with your GMAT.

Assuming that you took your official practice exams under realistic testing conditions, the results show that, on a good day, you can score higher than V35. 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 to score high on the actual GMAT. Rather, you picked up on some patterns that effectively got 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 must 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.

You also may find it helpful to read the following article:

Why Was My GMAT Score Lower Than My Practice Test Scores?

Jayantalawadhi · Answer

Thank you for responding sir. I will definitely work on developing a deeper understanding of concepts before the next attempt.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

My pleasure. I'm here if you need me.

GMATNinja · Answer

I'm sorry that your test didn't go to plan! The silver lining is that a less-than-optimal performance can provide really good data for future attempts.

I realize that I'm late to the party here, but one thing that stands out is how much harder the verbal section felt to you. LSAT CR/RC are harder than GMAT CR/RC, so if the GMAT felt significantly harder to you then we know something funky was happening there. One thought is that perhaps some test anxiety/nerves got in the way on test day... which is very normal, especially if you've been studying 30+ hours per week for quite some time. That's a lot of pressure to bring into the test room!

Sometimes just getting back in there, with the mentality that you may even have to retake again, can reduce pressure. If you want to address any nerves head-on, check out  this article  and see whether any of those ideas speak to you.

I hope that helps a bit!

salotelsingha · Answer

Thank you for responding. For RC and CR i did 25 LSATs. For SC i only used OG and verbal guide. Do you have any other sources in mind?

Jayantalawadhi · Answer

Thank you for responding Sir. Even i feel that anxiety did play a role in the test. So took a break before restarting the prep.

i will definitely go through this article.

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From 760 to 680. Looking for some guidance for my next attempt.

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