Help to improve from 620 to 700+

Hi laurajwelch,

From your prior post, there weren't any big 'red flags' in terms of how you took your practice CATs, so 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

Hi Rich,

1) What did you do in the 3 days before your GMAT? I continued to review problems in my error long and did timed mixed problem sets each day. 10 problems quant 10 problems verbal. The night before the test I didn't study. I hung out with friends and was in bed by 9. The morning of the test I went to the gym to get my mind awake.
2) How did you sleep the night before your Test? I didn't sleep very well. I had a filling replaced earlier in the week and was experiencing a bit of pain
3) How long was the ride to the Test Center from your home?Smooth. The test center was easy to find and parking was a breeze.
4) Were there any distractions at the facility or during the Test?There were a few fire truck sirens outside during the verbal section so that was a bit annoying. But other than that the distractions were minimal
5) What did you do during the two 8-minute breaks? I used the restroom. Walked around the building while eating some blueberries
6) Did you finish any sections early? Yes. I finished the verbal section with 20 minutes to spare. I typically finish that section with 15-20 minutes to spare
7) Did you have to rush to finish any sections (and guess on questions just to finish on time)? No I had at least 2 minutes to spare in the IR and Quant sections

Thanks for your help!

Laura

Hi laurajwelch,

Points can be won and lost on the GMAT rather easily, and any of the individual answers you provided in your last post could help to explain a dip in your performance. A poor night's sleep would likely impact anyone's performance - especially later in the Exam when you would be at your most tired. The other distractions (dental pain, sirens, etc.) could also have impacted your focus on a handful of questions (and cost you those points). I'm most concerned about how early you finished the section though. Finishing 20 minutes early is almost never a good sign - whether you were 'rushing' through the section or not, you couldn't possibly have taken all of the necessary notes, double-checked your work, etc. on all 41 questions. By extension, if you're not doing that type of consistent, precision work, then there would be no way to catch if you made a little mistake (you'd simply convince yourself that one of the wrong answers was correct).

Based on everything you've described, it's possible that you just had a 'bad day', so you could conceivably retest relatively soon and score much higher.

1) What is your goal score?
2) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
3) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

Many test takers see a lower official Verbal score as compared with their practice test scores. This post discusses the reasons for the same:
https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-resource-links-no-longer-available-399979.html#/2013/0 ... bal-score/