From V41 on GMAT Prep to V32 on real GMAT - advice?

Question

Hi All,

I would sincerely appreciate any advice, following a somewhat surprising result on my first official GMAT exam this morning.

Preparation:  
 Time:  ~2 months while working full time, approximately 2 hrs per weekday and 6-8 hrs on weekend days. 
 Material:  the MGMAT book series, OG13 and OG Quant Review. (majority of my time spend on quant, as I always excelled in verbal)
 Practice CATs:  
GMATPrep 1 - 730 (Q49, Q41) 
GMATPrep 2 - 690 (Q47, V38)
GMATPrep exam pack 1 test 1 - 730 (Q49, V41)
GMATPrep exam pack 1 test 2 - 710 (Q46, V41)

Actual GMAT - 660 (Q49, V32)

With a target score of >700, i'm disappointed with my results - specifically the shocking verbal score, which is significantly lower than i've ever scored before. I was confident throughout the exam, not fatigued or crunched for time, and am very confused about the V32... As i'm planning on submitting R1 applications, and don't want to wait too long between exams in order to maintain my quant memory, I re-scheduled my GMAT in 20 days.

I would appreciate any advice on how to best maximize my time over the next 20 days in order to improve my verbal, keep quant fresh, and also allocate time to my applications. Should I re-do the MGMAT verbal books or buy new material? Is it possible the V32 was a fluke?

Thank you,
Mo

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Mo,

I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as planned. Your practice CAT scores clearly show that you're capable of scoring at a much higher level. 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) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?
2) Did you take them at home?
3) Did you take them at the same time of day as your Official GMAT?
4) 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.)? 
5) Did you ever take a CAT more than once? Had you seen any of the questions BEFORE?

It's possible that you just had a "bad day"; but if we can figure all of this out quickly, then you shouldn't have to wait too long to retest.

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

mzuberi · Answer

Hi Rich,

Thanks alot for your response. I've answered your questions below.

When you took your CATs:
1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?
 In the first two CATs, I took only IR+Q+V, the last 2 CATs I took all 4 sections (essay+IR+Q+V) 
2) Did you take them at home?
 Yes, I took all 4 at home on a desk. Wanted to find a library, but none were open in the early AM  
3) Did you take them at the same time of day as your Official GMAT?
 I took 2 of them (first and last CAT) around 8am, the same time at my official exam. The other two I took in the evening after work on weekdays 
4) 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.)?
 No. I've read a number of your very helpful posts on this website over the past few weeks/months, and per your advice, always made sure to keep the CATs as realistic as possible.  
5) Did you ever take a CAT more than once? Had you seen any of the questions BEFORE?
 No, I never repeated a CAT exam. I took the first 2 free on GMATPrep and 2 additional purchased in ExamPack 1. Yes some on rare occasion (maybe once per Q/V section per exam) I had a duplicate, probably due to GMATPrep using one database

MBAPrepCoach · Answer

I'm sure that's very upsetting

Given the answers you provided above, it rules out a lot of things. I'm wondering, do you think you simply got a little overconfident? What was the level of your mental energy?

Either way, I urge you not to mess up your apps by trying to cram this all in Round 1. If I could wave a magic wand and make everyone less fearful about applying around 2 I sure would.

Absolutely more important that your application is well positioned and compelling. Do not give it the remnants of your time. That is truly going to leave you with an even more disappointing result.

So as ugly as the situation is I would recommend that you just get the GMAT sorted properly and then Focus squarely on your applications.

If you are open to some new strategies in verbal, I'd love to chat with you. I think I could help you be both confident and consistent in that area. There are a couple of podcasts on my website that might be helpful.

Good luck to you!

Farrell Dyan Hehn, MBA
Admissions Consultant & Verbal Strategist MBAPrepCoach.com

KarishmaB · Answer

It's hard to say what to do in Verbal till the time we see exactly how you have been performing. Here is my suggestion - Take our free practice test here: https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-resource-links-no-longer-available-399979.html#/free-g ... tice-test/ Then pm me the login details and I will guide you on your next steps.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Mo,

From your prior post, there weren't any obvious 'red flags', so 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 did you sleep the night before your Test?
3) How long was the ride to the Test Center from your home?
4) Were there any distractions at the facility or during the Test?
5) What did you do during the two 8-minute breaks?
6) Did you finish any sections early?
7) 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

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Mo,

I have a few more questions for you:

1) Did you get your enhanced score reports? If not, could you do so and share the verbal score breakdown from your GMAT?
 
2) Describe your experience on test day. Did you feel nervous while taking the exam? By the end of the verbal section did you feel burned out? Did you take all of your assigned breaks? Feel free to include any other relevant information.

HiLine · Answer

20 days - wow you're in a time crunch. You should know your areas of focus so you don't waste any time. The enhanced score report from your prior attempt would definitely help you and us identify your weaknesses.

mzuberi · Answer

Thank you all for your responses. To answer a few additional questions:

1) What did you do in the 3 days before your GMAT? 
I took a full length CAT 2 days before my exam. I lightly studied the morning before my exam, and relaxed the remainder of the day. 
 2) How did you sleep the night before your Test? 
I went to bed early enough to get a full 8 hours, but I ended up waking up briefly at 4am and again at 5am, probably due to anxiety or nerves. Adrenaline was pumping though so I didn't feel tired at any point of my exam.
 3) How long was the ride to the Test Center from your home? 
Ride was long - almost 1 hour. I arrived at the test center 45 minutes early though, and had time to unwind, snack on some almonds and meditate.
 4) Were there any distractions at the facility or during the Test? 
No
 5) What did you do during the two 8-minute breaks? 
I used the restroom, had some powerade, almonds and a peppermint
 6) Did you finish any sections early? 
Not really, I barely finished the AWA and IR, and finished with about 2 minutes left in both Q and V.
 7) Did you have to rush to finish any sections (and guess on questions just to finish on time)? 
No

*I also ordered my enhanced score report - it looks like CR was my main weakness, along with a pretty poor RC, and the breakdown seemed to happen on the last 10 questions. Verbal summary below:

- Your Verbal score of 32 is higher than 66% of GMAT Exam scores recorded in the past three years. The mean score for this section is 27.04.
- Your performance on Critical Reasoning questions was equivalent to a score of 23, which is better than 33% of GMAT Exam scores recorded in the past three years. The mean score for this sub-section is 27.61.
- Your performance on Reading Comprehension questions was equivalent to a score of 28, which is better than 51% of GMAT Exam scores recorded in the past three years. The mean score for this sub-section is 27.32.
- Your performance on Sentence Correction questions was equivalent to a score of 40, which is better than 87% of GMAT Exam scores recorded in the past three years. The mean score for this sub-section is 27.21.
- You completed 41 of the 41 questions in the Verbal section.
- You responded correctly to 75% of the first set of questions, 71% of the second set of questions, 86% of the third set of
questions and 50% of the final set of questions.
- The average difficulty of questions presented to you in the first set of questions was Medium, the average for the
second set of questions was Medium , the average for the third set of questions was Medium and was Medium for the
final set of questions.
- The average time it took you to respond to the first set of questions presented was 1:54, the average time for the
second set of questions was 2:31, the average time for the third set of questions was 1:08 and 1:59 for the final set of questions.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Mo,

The extra information that you've provided in this last post is helpful - combined with the information in your prior post, it defines a number of issues that impacted your performance on Test Day.

1) Taking CATs at home can sometimes be problematic in that doing so removes many of the Test Day details that you end up having to deal with. You say that it was a 1-hour ride to the Test Center AND you got there 45 minutes early. That's almost 2 hours of activity/thinking/nerves that occurred BEFORE you started your Official Exam (and that didn't occur when you took your CATs).
2) A poor night's sleep would hurt almost everyone's performance on Test Day. You probably didn't have this issue the nights before you took your CATs.
3) Having to rush to finish the AWA and then the IR section would have increased the stress that you were likely already dealing with.
4) By the time you had gotten to the Verbal section, you had already experienced approximately 6 hours of activity and stress (from the time you woke up in the morning to the time the Verbal section started), so your performance was almost certain to suffer in that section (and it did). Compare that to the roughly 3 hours of activity/stress that you would have experienced before starting the Verbal section when taking your CATs and you'll see that the way you took your CATs didn't wasn't a great 'match up' for what you faced on Test Day.

Thankfully, much of this can be accounted for as you continue to study - it might take some time for you to properly train to face all of the variables that impact your Test Day though.

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

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Thank you for sending over such detailed information. I believe nerves and fatigue played a role in your lower-than-expected GMAT score.

From your responses and the ESR, there are 2 things that stand out to me:

1) I went to bed early enough to get a full 8 hours, but I ended up waking up briefly at 4am and again at 5am, probably due to anxiety or nerves. Adrenaline was pumping though so I didn't feel tired at any point of my exam.

2) You responded correctly to 75% of the first set of questions, 71% of the second set of questions, 86% of the third set of questions and 50% of the final set of questions.

Since the GMAT is a 4-hour mental marathon, if, on test day, any part of your mind or body is slightly “off,” your GMAT performance can be negatively affected. Although adrenaline may have masked how you were truly feeling during the exam, your lack of sleep could have led to increased nerves and fatigue. Furthermore, I think you burned out on the last part of the verbal section, in which you correctly answered only 50% of the of the questions, as opposed to 75% on the first set and 71% on the second set.

Because you have been scoring consistently in the 700s on your practice exams, you do not need to drastically adjust your study routine for your upcoming GMAT. To stay fresh in both quant and verbal, you may consider practicing a mixture of NEW quant and verbal questions. Once you complete each problem set, analyze your mistakes and figure out remedies for them. I also suggest taking the final two exams from  exam pack 2 . As above, once you finish, analyze your mistakes and figure out remedies for them.

Finally, I wrote a detailed article that provides some valuable  test day tips and strategies  that should help calm your nerves on test day.

If you need any further advice, feel free to reach out. Otherwise, I’ll await the good news after you kick the pants off your GMAT!

mzuberi · Answer

I wanted to thank everyone again for the advice and support. I had round 2 yesterday, and got a 710. I'm pumped about the score, although the breakdown was opposite from last time, and I ended up getting the lowest Q and highest V i've ever gotten (Q45 and V42). I'm hoping the low quant won't hurt me too much, since i've proven my quantitative proficiency through my consulting work experience and engineering undergrad background. Also, I know schools only consider the highest GMAT score and i'm not banking on this by any means, but some of my buddies currently in top programs told me admissions technically gets access to my past 3 scores, and may notice my Q49 from the last attempt?

It hurts to even ask this question ha, but do you guys think I should consider a re-take to get a Q score closer to the 80th percentile, if i'm only applying to top 15 schools?

It hurts to even ask this question ha, but do you guys think I should consider a re-take to get a Q score closer to the 80th percentile, if i'm only applying to top 15 schools?

HanoiGMATtutor · Answer

Congratulations that's a big jump in Verbal score!

If you are confident about scoring another V42 while increasing your Quant score to 48+, I'd say go for it. A 740 cannot hurt your chances!

Posted from my mobile device

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi mzuberi,

First of all, a 710 is a great score! With that said, if you were able to score a Q49 on a previous GMAT, there is no reason that you cannot achieve that score again. Thus, you may consider taking the GMAT one final time to try to increase your quant score. If you do not get your desired score, you always have the option of canceling.

If you do decide to retake and want to brush up on your quant, I welcome you to take my free  37-question quant diagnostic . After completing the diagnostic, you are provided with a detailed analysis of your proficiency level of GMAT quant topics, as well as an opportunity to discuss your diagnostic results with me or another TTP instructor/coach.

If you decide to retake, let us know. Good luck!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Mo,

First off, a 710 is an outstanding score (it's right around the 90th percentile overall), so you can apply to any Business Schools that interest you. While a Q45 won't impress anyone, it likely won't keep you out of many Programs either (it could be an 'issue' at highly competitive Finance Programs though). As such, not knowing the specifics of your application plans, a retest is probably not necessary. Depending on the Schools that you plan to apply to, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile. There's a Forum full of them here:

ask-admission-consultants-124/

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

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