GMAT score analysis

Question

Hello everyone,
For last 3-4 months I have been studying for GMAT. I have used GMAT club resources, OG and Princeton resources.
I took GMAT last Friday and scored only 11 in verbal. I never received that low score in my mock tests (I have mentioned mock test scores below), whereas I scored 44 in quant, in line with the mock test scores. It would be really helpful if you analyse the matter by checking my ESR.

MGMAT 630(Q43, V32)
EXPERT'S GLOBAL 650(Q46, V32)
KAPLAN 660(Q42, V40)
GMAT PREP-1 630(Q47, V28)
GMAT PREP-2 600(Q40, V32)
PRINCETON REVIEW 660(Q45, V35)

last test I took in Princeton review center.

Posted from my mobile device

AjiteshArun · Answer

That is indeed quite strange, given that you have a V28 and a V32 on GMATPrep tests. There are two major reasons that those scores could be inflated:

1. You took your GMATPreps under different conditions (you paused your test, referred to material etc.).
2. You were familiar with some of those questions because you had seen or solved the same (or similar) questions before. This one is very widespread because a lot of prep companies pass off (usually bad) copies of actual GMAT questions as new, original questions.

On the other hand, if neither of those two applies to you, it was probably just a case of underperformance, for which, again, there could be many reasons, such as nervousness and lack of sleep.

I don't see your ESR attached. Put it up, although I doubt we'll be able to get much out of it. The more important thing here is to get back to your prep.

tamal99 · Answer

Hello  AjiteshArun ,
Thanks for the reply.
Both points somehow correct. Moreover during 3rd set of questions I got stumped by a long difficult RC, loosing my time management and made 4-5 consecutive mistakes. 
I have attached the ESR. Please check and suggest how to proceed for a retake within 2 months.

Regards,
Tamal

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi Tamal,

1. Don't overanalyze the verbal portion of this ESR. For example, knowing that the score for stated idea is 60% or that for grammar is 66% is not going to help: the overall percentiles for RC and SC are 7 and 22 respectively, so using this ESR to identify weak areas is not going to work.

2. You got 5 (out of 8), 3 (out of 7), 1 (out of 7), and 4 (out of 8) questions correct in the four sections in the ESR. The third and fourth sections hurt your score badly and the average difficulty went below average as a result. Remember that making a number of mistakes in a row is likely to lead to accelerating score drops.

3. You lost a  lot  of time in the first two sections (2:39 and 2:46). Frankly, I'm amazed that you managed to get 5 questions right with an average of 0:17 in the last section. Your ESR shows only a few seconds on the incorrect questions in this section. Did you have to randomly mark answers to finish the test?

4. Don't be afraid to let some questions go. Getting stuck on an RC is really not going to help. You had also left yourself too little time to understand that RC you got in the third set, as you spent  close to 78% of your time on just the first 15 scored questions .

Clearly, you can do better than an 11 on verbal. You do however, have to make sure that you don't compromise your performance because of timing issues on your next attempt. I know there is a lot of advocacy for the initial questions on the forums, but I would strongly urge you to avoid going down that path. Taking extra time on the initial questions is a very risky strategy, and the only people who can afford to take a lot of time on the initial questions and still maintain their accuracy under time pressure later on are those who don't need to take that extra time in the first place. Please take a look at this  timing strategy  and consider some of the points it tries to address when making your strategy for the next attempt.

As for concepts, analyze some tests that didn't have any repeat questions to get a clearer idea about your weaknesses (don't generalize on the basis of just one test). It'll be safer to give equal attention to all the question formats in verbal (SC, CR, and RC) though. Make sure that you are getting the concepts from a reliable source and that you are understanding those concepts.

tamal99 · Answer

AjiteshArun  thanks a lot for your valuable inputs.

Regards,
Tamal

Posted from my mobile device

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Tamal,

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) On what dates did you take each of these CATs? Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (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 when you took 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? Had you seen any of the questions BEFORE (re: on a prior CAT, in an online forum or in a practice set)?

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

tamal99 · Answer

Hey Rich,
I'm happy that you replied.
Here is the information you are looking for-

1) On what dates did you take each of these CATs? Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)each?  CATs i took on a regular interval of 1-1.5 week, where as the last one I took just 4 days before the actual Test. Only in two CATS I attempted Essay and IR. 
2) Did you take them at home?  yes, apart from last one I took all of them at home. 
3) Did you take them at the same time of day as when you took your Official GMAT?  yes, maximum 0.5-1 hr deviation. 
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.)?  No, very rarely I paused the CATs. 
5) Did you ever take a CAT more than once? Had you seen any of the questions BEFORE (re: on a prior CAT, in an online forum or in a practice set)?  No, but few questions of officials CATs I faced during normal practice.

Regards,
Tamal

Himanshu18 · Answer

Hi Tamal, I am not an expert. But i had a similar GMAT experience in which i scored a mere 25 in verbal and 49 in Quant. Whereas i had been scoring 30-38 in verbal during my mock tests. What i realized after i was done with my exam that i had been getting an inflated score in my mocks, mostly due to the fact that i had solved OG earlier and attempted a lot of ques from gmat club. In terms of the resources you've used - MGMAT - You may get skewed results in Verbal , because they use a lot of repeated ques from OG and 700+ CR. MGMAT quant is a must resource for concept building.(SC is on easier side) GMAT Prep 1 and 2 - These are good. But they are not sufficient. Other resources - I cannot comment. I highly recommend using GMAT Exam Prep -3,4,5,and 6. They mostly test you on never seen questions. I also recommend the Veritas Prep test . Saying that, real GMAT experience is very different. All the verbal sections are usually tougher than any mocks. Specially the RC. You may not realize that you've been doing really poor in RC until you see your ESR. CR is also a little time consuming and tricky. SC takes more than your planned time because in real exam you're given lots of lengthy SC questions. Usually style and rhetoric sentences. They are very confusing and you keep reading them again and again and lose time.Moreover in my tests, i got some very annoying comparison questions - (eg. than those of , etc.) . And that's why you may really struggle to complete your exam on time. I have my GMAT exam scheduled for the day after tomorrow i.e. 7th Sept 2018. I am hoping to get a better score this time. Don't get bogged down by GMAT, rise and shine

tamal99 · Answer

Hey Himanshu,
Thanks for sharing your experience and best of luck for the test.you will surely perform better this time.

Regards,
Tamal

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Tamal,

From your prior post, there were some 'red flags' in terms of how you took your CATs. Before we discuss those issues - and the data in your ESR - I have a few additional questions about the lead-up to Test Day and Test Day itself:

1) What did you do in the 3 days before your GMAT?
2) How did you sleep the night before your Test?
3) How long was the ride to the Test Center from your home?
4) Were there any distractions at the facility or during the Test?
5) What did you do during the two 8-minute breaks?
6) Did you finish any sections early?
7) Did you have to rush to finish any sections (and guess on questions just to finish on time)?

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

tamal99 · Answer

Hi Rich  EMPOWERgmatRichC  ,
Here is the information -

1) What did you do in the 3 days before your GMAT?  Mostly I was doing quant PS, as it is my weak point and my quant score was going down. 
2) How did you sleep the night before your Test?  around 4-5 hrs 
3) How long was the ride to the Test Center from your home?  20 mins 
4) Were there any distractions at the facility or during the Test?  NO 
5) What did you do during the two 8-minute breaks?  I went to washroom and ate some chocolate  
6) Did you finish any sections early?  No 
7) Did you have to rush to finish any sections (and guess on questions just to finish on time)?  Yes, in quant I had to guess last 3 questions and in Verbal I got stuck by a long RC in 3rd set, which destroyed my timing strategy and as a result I had to guess around 6-7 questions in third and fourth set in total.

Regards,
Tamal

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Tamal,

I've sent you a PM with some additional notes/suggestions and an analysis of your ESR.

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

janadipesh · Answer

Is it possible that questions in Gmac Practice tests are alike the real gmat test questions but scoring algorithm is quite different. 
Another thing....If i skip IR & AWA in my practice tests, Will it really effect my Q/V score in real test because I will attend IR/AWA section only after completing Q,V sections

AjiteshArun · Answer

1. No. The scoring algorithm is the same. It would be very difficult for the GMAC to come up with a different model altogether and apply it to only the GMATPrep product. The algorithm for the GMAT (and by extension, the GMATPrep) is not secret or proprietary.

2. You should be fine doing only quant and verbal in your practice tests. As you said, if you take IR and AWA at the end, they won't have a significant impact on your performance on Q/V.

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