GMAT Prep 770 to GMAT 690 (Q45, V40)

sad to hear that you did not get the score you desired ......

one thing you need to realise that on gmat if your knowledge level is that of a 700 level test taker .... and and your time management skill is that of a 500 level test taker then you end up with a score of 500 and not with 700 .

when you have begun your test you should have written the goal post of how much time should be left on the clock and on which question you should be ideally . A check post i found helpful read some thing like this - for quant - 0 - question - 75 mins remaining ... ; 5 question - 65 mins remaining ....; 10 question - 55 mins remaining .... so for quant the pattern is for every 5 question you consume 10 minutes .... and for verbal each 5 question you consume 9 minutes ....

you can consume no more then 3 mins for a quant question ... if you do that then your time taking skills are that of a 500 level test taker ... you should intuitively know what consutitutes 3 mins .... how will you know that ? when you have solved GMAT prep pack questions ... what was the time consumption on an avg on a set of 15 hard questions ... and when you solved those questions what was the accuracy level ... (after mid way through the test ... if you have even a accuracy of 50 % you end up with a excellent score in quant ..... chris berman - the manhattan instructutor in his blogs writes that .. google that out ... if you don't believe me ... then what makes the test taker shy of leaving a question when it is likely to take more than 3 minutes ??? ) ...

if on the check post you fall behind by two minutes you should sacrifice a question or a two and catch with time ... else at the back of your brain you always have that are short on time and you commit silly mistakes that anyways brings your score down ...

Delibrately mark incorrect few questions for the shake of simulation on a gmat prep and see what is the difference in score .... you wont suffer much may be 20 points up or down ..... but if the test is left unfinished or even last 5 questions are attempted and they are all wrong in a section then you suffer a dip of 50 points . when this happens with both the sections - quant and english - the overall score suffers by 100 points .... that is how they made their algorithm ..... (things can get even worse if the last three questions on quant are easier and you end up guessing them due to shortage of time .... that is how they penalise a test taker who has not paid attention to time management ) ..

people generally believe that until they solve tough ones correctly they wont get high score ... contrary to this the algorithm works on cause effect relationship you should solve easier ones correctly so that you get difficult ones .... software has to mark you at 790 level then 780 then 760 so on .... you did few wrong to catch up with time you still may get a 700 plus might not be 780 ... but falling short of time is not a option ....

try to fix these in the practice test next time and see the improvement in results .......

i feel knowledge wise you might not be lacking but timing issue made you suffer .....

Thank you Abhasjha. I was using the break down intervals you have described, really helpful in improving your timing, however I was relying on them being written on a piece of paper through out my practice tests. So I would just look up to it and not have to bother figuring out mentally where I should be at. I over looked this on the day of the exam as I couldn't keep this piece with me and was confused during my exam what my intervals should be.

I wonder if its only the timing that can cause such a large difference in performance. Because I was never below Q47 in any of the tests I gave. I definitely need to ensure I get this under control next time.

Hi Kartik ,

by your own confession - you rushed through the last 13 question in 10 minutes on the quant question.... now can this lead to a low quant score of 45 ??? in the normal
circumstances you could solve 5 questions and if assuming the worst case scenario - if all the 8 were wrong what could happen then ? try asking yourself the question that if on a test in which you got say 47( your lowest score on quant ) if you answered 8 more questions incorrectly -then can your score drop down to 45 or even below that ???

you already have a 690 and prior to that i guess a 700 under your belt .... so if u were to write the test once again you will have no pressure as the adcom guy is forced to read the best possible score which in your case will be 700 ....

now it is up to you whether you want to take a the test with almost no pressure . God forbid even if the next shot is not up to your level .. at least you would have the satisfaction that you tried every thing that you had in your control .... irrespective of the score .....

should you decide to quit then it will keep hitting you that you could have improved but you chose other wise ....
The GMAC itself says that they have a deviation of 30 points thereby meaning a 700 score could have ended up with 730 or he could end up with 670 on the test ...

so the ball is in your court .

OP,

Considering your prep scores believe that 730 is definitely achievable. You messed up quant badly and got Q45 instead of Q49.
IMO if you miss last 5 questions in a section you will be penalized to a greater extent in Quant than you would be in Verbal. The reason that people generally have higher accuracy in Quant at higher levels. You have 2 options

a.) Write GMAT in next 1-2 months time frame and focus heavily on Quant. Practice 10-15 Quant sectional tests and give 2, 3 full length tests to keep touch in Verbal. Here you can score anything between 710-750.

b.) Take a break of 2,3 weeks. Gear up and study for a period of 3-4 months and target a score of 750+. In this case you may be able to score anything between 740-770.