GMAT 1st attempt 580 (Q46, V24) Too bad to be real

Question

Hello everyone,

I'm on this forum for a while, so some of you already know me. I gave GMAT a first try today to score miserable 580. To be honest, considering my mental condition at the moment, I would most like to write nothing at all, but I won't give up and would appreciate some advice from you. First, I'll provide some hard facts about my preparation. Second, I'll share my observations about my weaknesses. Finally, I would kindly ask you to share your experience.

I've been pretty strong in quant since the beginning, so I concentrated on the verbal part. Below you can find some CAT results. In quant the range was 47-51, in verbal 34-36.
I've done all questions from OG and Quant review and Verbal review. Moreover, I've downloaded an extract from GMATprep software from Carcass and went through 70% of all the questions both verbal/quant and had a very good accuracy (84-92%)

-800Score ONLY QUANT CAT1 51, CAT2 50, CAT3 50
-GMAT PREP 670
-MGMAT CAT 630
-KAPLAN CAT 660

My observations about the weaknesses

1. While going through a particular topic in quant, I can solve literally any 700, 700+ question, but after some time I just forget the concepts and when faced with a 600-700 question I stumble.
Question: How to maintain a given level till the exam ? Most of us learn during the week just 1-3 Hours and 5-6 Hours on weekend, so it's very difficult to do some drills pro question type. There is simply not enough time to do so.

2. I've done only few full length CATs --> Stamina

3. Reading comprehension is the most weak part in verbal in my case. I've been pretty good on SC and CR

Test Day

Timing
-I've finished both parts in time with just 20-30 left. I had absolutely no problems with timing during the exam, although I did only few CATs before.

Quant
- Hmm.... As I've already mentioned above, I've done lots, and I mean really lots of OFFICIAL quant questions, but I can say for sure, that the questions in the guides and GMATprep are not representative any more. I would say only 30%-40% was similiar to what I've alredy done or seen before. I had a verly low quant score this time (Q46) and this reuslts from the unusual question types I've been faced today.

Verbal
- Verbal was similiar to GMATprep, BUT the text itself in both SC and CR was very, very complex and difficult to digest. It was a shock for me to see V24..... I've been never below 35. But to be honest, because of some unrelated factors + few full length CAT - I think here was stamina at issue, I was very tired on that day, so that after question number 20 on the verbal part, I could't see anything. I was just like under alcohol influence.

AWA
- Didn't look at it till the last day before the exam, and guess what, I saw exactly the text from the collection of 109 essays, which I've downloaded from this website

Right now, I just don't even want to think about retaking... I'm just dead tired after almost 3 month of preparation and moreover, I don't think that my family and my friends would be delighted to forget about me the next month or two. But I won't give up and would appreciate any ideas, suggestions etc.

Thanks in advance.
Spasibo.

Right now, I just don't even want to think about retaking... I'm just dead tired after almost 3 month of preparation and moreover, I don't think that my family and my friends would be delighted to forget about me the next month or two. But I won't give up and would appreciate any ideas, suggestions etc. Thanks in advance. Spasibo.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi BrainLab

I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as planned.. 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 (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?
6) Did you take just the one GMAC CAT?

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

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

MK1480 · Answer

HI
I'm not an expert. I am also on the same boat as you. But, here is the approach I have adaopted after my first GMAT
1. Take a week break. It's ok to have one after all! (In my case, i was literally burned out. My brain could not take any more concepts even i study).
2. Now that you know your weak areas, make a concrete plan on how to improve yourself in those areas
3. Take more mock tests, and improve stamina (in my case, by the time i reach verbal section... i lack concentrataion. I read every question more than twice to understand it. In such cases I get an RC passage, its a night mare for me. Time runs out, consequently increasing pressure). This would be the most important aspect to improve.
4. Keep yourself motivated. NEVER give up!
5. Practise.. Practise.. Practise! Figure out what's best (approach) for you!

"You can fail 100 times as long as you succeed ONCE!" - Honda

AjiteshArun · Answer

You've been on this forum for quite some time, so you already know that this is not something that is uncommon. The GMAT is far from perfect, but very large score differences (GMAT/GMATPrep) are just not "real". You should ask yourself whether your GMATPrep scores were valid (take into account test conditions and exposure to questions). If they were, it is almost certain that you can do well on the actual GMAT as well. I would also advise you to do what  MK1480  said: work on your stamina. The GMAT is a standardized test. It clearly cannot provide a "new" experience to every one of the approximately 250,000 people who take the exam every year. So when you feel that the verbal was "very, very complex and difficult to digest" or that "the questions in the guides and GMATprep are not representative any more", you need to ask yourself whether you were under more pressure or were more tired than normal while taking the exam. If yes, you should feel a lot more confident about a retake.

BrainLab · Answer

I would like to thank all of you for your suggestions and advices. I also think that lack of stamina was my biggest problem on that day and it was what made my verbal score dive down from possible 35 to 24. Futhermore, I was indeed tired on that day as I had slept very badly (my 2 year son was ill, and I had to wake up 2-3 times per night) the whole week prior to my exam and have learned for 13-15 hours a day: burn out. I'm not a kind of person to blame all the other factors for my poor performance, that's why I'll try it one more time. I'll take a couple of days to calm down and will proceed with my preparation for the second attempt. But what I said about the quant part has nothing to do with my condition on that day, I just didn't have a feeling that the structure and the distribution of questions match what I've done and heared from others before. I had may be 2 Inequalities, 3 geometry, 2-3 coordinate geometry (including some questions about the lines like the distance between a and b is less that....) and the rest --> Word problems. I don't have problems with this type of questions, but I just didn't expect to see so many of that kind on the test day --> I've just exhausted my verbal skills already in the quant part

. Additionally, these word problems were based more on logic and reasoning than on math skills (rate problems, percent problems etc. what one usually can see on that kind of questions). Hi Rich, below you can find my response regarding your points 1-6: When you took your CATs: 1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT (including the Essay and IR sections)? No, I've always skipped both of them (on the exam I had absolutely no problems with essay, and just answered IR section randomly, I was not interested to have a good score on this part and used it as a rest before the quant part. 2) Did you take them at home? --> Yes 3) Did you take them at the same time of day as your Official GMAT? --> No, I took them randomly during the day 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.)? --> I've skipped Essay and IR 5) Did you ever take a CAT more than once? 6) Did you take just the one GMAC CAT? --> I took only one GMAC CAT under real test conditions, and several time I made only quant or verbal part. Thank you guys, I hope next time I'll do much better and my dream to do an MBA comes true !

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi BrainLab,

The extra information that you've provided is quite useful, as it helps to define what went wrong on Test Day. In real basic terms, you took your CATs in such a way that you were NOT properly training to face the Official GMAT - so you were not ready to face it on Test Day (not either time). The lack of sleep and the possible burn-out were also likely factors in your performance.

Test Day is a rather specific 'event' - the details are specific and they matter, so you have to train as best as you can for all of them. The more realistic you can make your CATs, the more likely the score results are to be accurate. The more you deviate, the more "inflated" your scores can become - and that's what happened here. By skipping sections, taking the CATs at home, taking them at different times of day, etc., you weren't properly training for the FULL GMAT 'experience.'

Thankfully, this is a relatively easy set of problems to fix. The big question now is "how long will it take you to properly get 'used to' taking the full GMAT in a realistic fashion?" You'll certainly need a new set of practice CATs to work with and you have to put in the necessary time to train your brain (and body) for the FULL GMAT. You might also need to invest in some new GMAT training materials.

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

BrainLab · Answer

Hi Rich, first of all, thank you for your time, it's not the first time you make valuable and detailed replies.
1. The big question now is "how long will it take you to properly get 'used to' taking the full GMAT in a realistic fashion?"
2. You'll certainly need a new set of practice CATs to work with and you have to put in the necessary time to train your brain (and body) for the FULL GMAT. 
I think I need at least 5-6 CATs under real conditions wihtout skipping any part this time. I've not yet done GMATprep exams 3 and 4. 
Question: are there some other comparable CATs one can buy ? I have 3 more MGMAT CATs and several KAPLAN CATs. Problem with MGMAT - Quant is to hard, and currently I don't see any need to invest to much time in basic. KAPLAN Quant is too easy, but verbal part is also harder than that of GMAT.

3. You might also need to invest in some new GMAT training materials
Which material would you suggest at this stage ?

Kind regards,
Mike

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi BrainLab,

The CATs that you currently have access to should be fine - you just have to make sure to use them correctly and make sure to 'match up' the details with what you'll face on Test Day (take the CAT away from your home, at the same time of day as your Official GMAT, etc.). It's possible that you could 'fix' all of these issues on your own. The big drop in score also hints that there might have been some other aspects to your studies that were not ideal.

1) How long did you study? You stated 'almost 3 months', but was that really close to 3 (or closer to 2)? Was it consistent? Were you studying the same general amount each week?
2) What materials did you use?

Thankfully, the GMAT is a predictable, standardized Test, so you can train to score at a higher level.

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

WayneHam · Answer

Mentioning that the OG quant questions were not representative of the real test hints to me that you're focusing more on the question type and hoping you see the same type of question on the exam rather than simply being able to answer the question on the exam and since they did not sufficiently resemble what you had previously seen, you had difficulties answering them.

In any case, I went through the same thing, I scored high on the verbal and low on the quant, really low, was really frustrated after hoping I'd be done with the GMAT, waited a week and studied for another 8 weeks and brought up my quant to a 47, which I was happy with, giving me a 710.

I think much of the frustration on here comes from people scoring below their CAT tests which seem to basically inflate people's expectations. I personally only did the 2 GMATprep tests in order to get an idea of the format.

BrainLab · Answer

Hi Rich,

I've studied 25+ hours/each week for 3 Month.
Materials used: 
1. Official Guides (og 13, og 16, quant&verbal reviews)
2. Extract from GMATprep 60% of all questions (Accuracy: Verbal sections 80+, quant 85+)
3. MGMAT 8 guides
4. VERITAS DS Guide
5. And many other resources as e-gmat for SC, CR Bible, Kaplan etc. Futhermore I had an errorlog and result matrix.
I think I just need to speed up on verbal and build stamina using CATs.
6. I have analyzed each question - both wrong and correct answers.

egmat · Answer

Dear BrainLab , Sometimes “life happens” and we are not able to get the desired results. You should not think about the last attempt and approach the next one with a positive mindset. First of all, I would suggest you to attend our free GMAT Strategy Session this Saturday (30th Jan) at 7 AM Pacific Tim e. Click here to register: https://goo.gl/g43t0n. This session will help you define you GMAT strategy and create your own study plan. In this session you will learn the following: 1) How does GMAT Scoring work, especially the facts and myths about GMAT scoring. 2) How to devise your GMAT strategy based on your personal profile. 3) Why mastering core skills is important to ace the GMAT. 4) What are the core skills that you need to master to ace the GMAT. Few Questions In order to guide you properly, I would need the answers to the following questions from you 1) How much did you score in Quant and Verbal in the GMAT Prep and other mocks? Also, what were your target scores in Quant and Verbal while you were preparing? 2) When you were studying Quant and Verbal, were you studying them in parallel? How were you evaluating yourself to see whether you had mastered a particular topic or not? 3) How do you approach SC, CR and RC questions? List the process (in detail) you follow to answer the questions? 4) In the mocks you attempted, did you come across few questions before somewhere (forums, etc.)? Remember one or two such questions can make a huge difference in your scores. 5) What was your time management strategy for the test? Did you stick to it on the actual GMAT? I look forward to hearing back from you on the above. Free Trial By the way, have you checked out our Free Trial yet? We offer almost 20% of our course contents for free. For your convenience, here are some direct links to the files. Do check them out to understand about the quality we offer. 1. Verb-ed and Verb-ing Modifiers: https://goo.gl/RGhk2G 2. Bold Face: https://goo.gl/Ig4Owz 3. LCM vs. GCD: https://goo.gl/CQDLHy 4. Absolute Inequalities: https://goo.gl/NoSihp We have 100+ of such beautifully designed Audio Visual Files in our courses. Click here to register (https://e-gmat.com/registration/) and login to our Free Trial and access 20+ hours of free lessons. Do let me know in case of any questions. I look forward to seeing you in the Strategy Session on Saturday. Regards, Rajat Sadana

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi BrainLab,

The materials that you used are primarily book-based; many Test Takers who take that type of study approach end up getting 'stuck' at a particular score level. That might have also been a factor in your case. Based on everything that you’ve described over these posts, I think that you would find the EMPOWERgmat Total Score Booster to be quite helpful. Most of our clients complete that Study Plan in well under 2 months, so the time commitment wouldn't be that bad. We have a variety of free resources on our site (www.empowergmat.com), so you can 'test out' the Course before setting up an Account.

If you have any additional questions, then you can feel free to contact me directly.

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

BrainLab · Answer

Hi Rich, Hi Rajat,

apologize for the delay in replying, I had to take a time-out from GMAT and forums. Thanks for your tips and advices, I'll take a look on the courses provided and contact you directly after reviewing each of them. My verbal score needs definitively a booster and I think I won't be able to make it on my own.

Regards,
Mike

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