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Joined: 19 Dec 2014
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Affiliations: EMPOWERgmat
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Location: United States (CA)
Re: GMAT score
[#permalink]
06 Sep 2021, 16:41
Hi shrutii07,
I'm sorry to hear that Test Day did not turn out better. If you score significantly lower than you were scoring on your CATs/mocks, then it's worth noting that 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. As such, you might not want to 'rush in' to retest too soon (as there might be some significant issues that we will need time to fix). 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 is your actual Test Date?
6) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?
Each CAT/mock is really a 'measuring device' - when used correctly, it will give you a realistic score and help define your strengths and weaknesses, but it will NOT help you to fix any of those weaknesses. To raise your scores, you have to learn the necessary Tactics and put in the proper practice and repetitions. The CAT will show you whether your studies are helping you to improve or not. In addition, the process of taking (and reviewing) a CAT requires a significant amount of energy and effort - and takes time to 'recover' from. This is one of the reasons why you typically should not take more than 1 CAT per week - and your last CAT should be taken about 1 week before Test Day. Going forward, you really shouldn't take more than 1 FULL CAT per week.
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich