GMAT Result

Question

Hi everyone,

I just finished my GMAT exam, and the result was devastating. I got really bad in my verbal score. I plan to take another test in mid-December, but I do not know how I should improve in this. I have spent 2-3 months working on my GMAT and got most of the official practice exams (1-6) 700+ with a decent verbal score. But I only got V25 in my exam. And no, I did not feel nervous or anything. I do feel that when I did my verbal, I was unsure whether I answered correctly or not. Despite this, I did fine in my practice exam but not the actual one. If anyone is an expert in this, please do share me your strategy or resources.

Thanks

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

I got really bad in my verbal score. I plan to take another test in mid-December, but I do not know how I should improve in this.

Consider working on your solving approach if you feel your fundamentals and time management are solid. May boost your score a bit.  Had a student, for example, who went from a V31 to a V40 in about 30 days which is similar to the time frame of your retake in mid-Dec . Perhaps find a study buddy who has strong Verbal skills to see how they approach certain question types. There's a dedicated thread to find one on gmatclub.

All the best with your next attempt. Some Verbal tips on the gmatknight website you may find helpful too.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi vagivaldne,

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. 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) How long have you studied? How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far? What “brands” of CATs/mocks have you used?
3) On what dates (or approximate 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:
4) What is your overall goal score?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

If you took your Official GMAT at a Test Center, then 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

Contact Rich at: [email protected]

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

please do share me your strategy or resources

Also, here:

Idiom list for Sentence Correction 
 Negation Technique for Critical Reasoning Assumption questions

vagivaldne · Answer

Hi Rich, Thanks for the reply. So answering your questions: 1) I have prepared since August so 3 months more or less. I studied in a class with several other students in August and October which in total was 72 class hours. Not including probably another 30+ hours doing the mock gmats given from the class. 2) Most of my materials are from the class that I took. I can say that the class was legit and I learned a lot from it. My teacher had 800 in his GMAT. But since it is a class based and not private based, the teaching was not personalized for me only. 3) Around 2-3 weeks prior to my real test, I took all 6 official practice exams. My scores were the following (p1: 690 Q50 V31, p2: 640 Q50 V25, p3: 710 Q50 V35, p4: 750 Q51 V40, p5: 710 Q50 V36, p6: 750 Q50 V40) and my exam score: 610 Q49 V25. As you can see, I have no problem with my quant side. Although I do find the actual exam was way harder than the official practice for quant. However, my verbal side was very bad. I realized that the score in my official practice was not reliable, for example, sometimes I still got V35 even when I got 3 mistakes in my first scoring block. 4) My overall goal score would be 700+, 720+ would be ideal, with a balanced score of verbal and quant. 5) I planned on taking a Master in Finance (GMAT is unnecessary but would be preferable for a chance of scholarship). My target schools mainly consist those in Singapore such as NUS, SMU, ESSEC. I might apply several business school in Europe as well like Edhec or Emlyon. For NUS, I will apply by the end of this month since that's the deadline for scholarship application. So, I will not use my GMAT. For the others, there are some deadlines in early January. So I am planning to take the GMAT in early or mid December and apply by the end of December. For my second GMAT, I plan to take it online as the offline ones are full. Is there a drawback to this? Thanks and looking forward to your feedback

Regards

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi vagivaldne, I've sent you a PM with some notes and additional questions. GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made, Rich Contact Rich at: Rich.C@empowergmat.com

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Assuming that you took your official practice exams under realistic testing conditions, the results show that, on a good day, you can score higher than V25. Thus, it’s quite possible that nerves, stress, tiredness, or a combination of all three negatively affected your test-day performance. However, you may also 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 learn to do what you have to do to score high on the actual GMAT. Rather, you picked up on patterns that effectively got 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 must 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.

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

How to Improve Your GMAT Score

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

	Target Test Prep - Save up to $599 $400 Discount + $99 Bonus GMAT Club Tests
	e-GMAT: 60% Off on GMAT Focus Get to 735+ from any starting point
	Magoosh increases your score, guaranteed - 15% off ALL Magoosh GMAT plans with code GMATCLUB15 + Free GMAT Club Tests.
	Manhattan Prep: $99 Bonus Score Higher on Your GMAT Exam. Guaranteed.
	Experts' Global - ~~$1720~~ $960 End-to-End GMAT Prep + App Support: 150+ Videos, 2000+ Questions, 15 FLTs +
	GMATWhiz - $299 ~~$499~~ Experience the course through a free trial.
	GMAT Club Tests - Free Included with every course purchase of $149+ View all deals

GMAT Result

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards