Asking GMAT Experts here because I'm at a bit of a loss at what to do...
Background:
- Study Time: ~13 months on and off; 5 months consistent studying (~30 hours per week)
- Study Materials:
Magoosh GMAT Prep (completed), GMAT Club Forum, OG18 (completed)
- Test Date: Saturday, 01/26 8:00 a.m.
- Target Score: 740 - 760
- Previous Practice Exams (all GMAC official exams):
> CAT #1 - 770 (50Q/45V) [full, semi-realistic conditions - ~1.5 hours later than exam time] 12/08/2018
> CAT #2 - 740 (48Q/44V) [full, realistic conditions] 01/12/2019
> CAT #3 - 720 (47Q/42V) [full, realistic conditions] 01/19/2019
> CAT #4 - 710 (44Q/44V) [partial - no AWA or IR, non-realistic conditions - night time] 01/21/2019
My CAT Practice scores seem to be in a free-fall with only 5 days remaining before the test. I'm not sure what is going on... my first practice exam was after completing the
Magoosh prep + 1-month GMAT Club forum questions in December. I scored a 770 and was ecstatic. I spent the rest of December (sans holidays) and January going through the OG18 prep materials and completed all questions. Overall percent correct by question type/difficulty were consistent with what I made on
Magoosh.
After getting back in the swing of things in January, I started realistic test prep (waking up at 5:30 a.m., driving the hour down to the testing site, ear plugs only, erasable scratch pad, etc.) with remaining CATs. My first test on 01/12 came in at a 740, which I was a bit dissapointed in because I dropped 2 points in Quant and 1 in Verbal, but I wasn't overly worried. Figured as long as CAT #3 was in between the first two I'd be in the clear...
Sadly, CAT #3 (this past weekend) came in at a 730, with another 2 full points dropped in Verbal and 1 in Quant. I had very poor time management and ended up having to guess on last 5 or so Quant questions (didn't work out so well...). Verbal I had some issues on Critical Reasoning that I didn't before and also dropped a RC due to timing issues. On the advice of a friend who is an LSAT tutor, I worked on my skipping strategy (particularly for Quant) and took the rest of the weekend off.
Today, I took CAT #4 after work (didn't attempt AWA or IR due to time commitment) using my new skipping strategy, and ended up with a 710. I can't say I was super shocked to see that score.. I could tell during Quant that these questions were too easy to be doing well. I did fairly well on timing, though I ended up guessing on the last question. I did manage to stem the bleeding with Verbal (back up to a 44), which I attribute to going back to the basics a bit on Critical Reasoning.
At this point I know I'm not really going to learn anything new, but I also know that I am clearly capable of testing at a high level.
So now with my GMAT journey outlined above, I come to the experts - is there anything I can do to get my brain back on track?? Any ideas what is going on and/or suggestions for how to remedy?
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21 Jan 2019, 20:15
