GMAT Reality v/s mock

Hi naina2397,

I'm sorry to hear that your Official GMATs did not 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. 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) When did you take each of your Official GMATs and what were the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH?
2) How long did you study before each of your Official GMATs? For your most recent attempt, how many hours did you typically study each week?
3) What study materials have you used over the course of ALL of your studies?
4) On what 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:
5) What is your overall goal score?
6) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

EMPOWERgmatRichC

Please find below the answers to your questions
When did you take each of your Official GMATs and what were the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH?
GMAT 1: Dec'19 (Not prepared much) V25 Q45
GMAT 2: July'20 (Spend 6hrs daily for the last 4 months) V26 Q47
GMAT 3: August'20 V21 Q42

How long did you study before each of your Official GMATs? For your most recent attempt, how many hours did you typically study each week?
Spend 6-7 hours daily

What study materials have you used over the course of ALL of your studies?
OG 18, e-gmat verbal videos, manhattan for verbal, maths revolution booklet for quant, purchased official practice kit as well - both sets

On what 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)?
Mock 1- June end - 650 V34 Q47
Mock 2- July 04- 680 V35 Q48
Mock 3- July 24- 670 V33 Q48
Mock 4- July 27 - 720 V39 Q49
Mock 5- Aug 11- 690 - V37 Q47

What is your overall goal score?
Anything in the range of 690-720 would do

When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?
I have one deadline for Sept 1st , rest business schools i am looking at has deadlines for november
mainly looking at canadian business schools but the Sept 1st one is my top choice, so I am really scared

I have purchased ESR, will email it you right away and would really appreciate some guidance at this time.

Thanks a ton

AndrewN

I agree with you, I think I become so anxious and nervous that I tend to not understand what's written even after reading twice and that's affecting my entire performance. I tried to be relaxed in the last gmat but I think it just didn't work.

RetaketheGMAT

Hi Arvind,

Yes you're right I don't have any conceptual issues because I am able to solve even the hardest questions when I am at home and within the stipulated time.

Do you have any tips for me to improve my performance and get over the anxiety in like ~2 weeks

Hi naina2397,

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 are capable of scoring higher than 610. 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 in order to score high on the actual GMAT. Rather, you picked up on some patterns that were effective in getting 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 have to 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.

In order to follow the path described above, you may need some new quant and verbal materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the best quant and verbal courses.

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

how to score a 700+ on the GMAT

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

If you’d like more specific advice on how to improve your quant and verbal skills, feel free to reach back out. Good luck!

Hi Naina,

I've emailed you an analysis of your ESR and some additional questions.

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