High variance between GMAT attempts ESR attached--Help decipher

Question

Attached are pictures of my Enhanced Score Report for my two GMAT attempts.

The first attempt shows a low sentence correction and high critical reasoning, however the second shows the complete opposite. I understand that the test is adaptive, but what could cause such a high variance in the subsections? I have, throughout all of my studying, never performed so poorly on critical reasoning. It also appears that I answered all critical reasoning questions wrong. I have recently purchased Magoosh online self study for my next retake, but I am extremely concerned with this variance. Was I just unfocused or unlucky? What could have gone wrong here? I am completely at a loss

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi sadams,

ESR reports don't provide that much information, but I'll be happy to help you dissect it if you can post the FULL ESR (or PM it to me). The possible explanations for that type of 'swing' in CR score are limited though.

Beyond these two Verbal section scores, I have a few additional questions about your studies and timeline/goals:

1) How long have you studied?
2) What materials have you used?
3) How did you score on each of your Official GMATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for each)?

4) What is your goal score?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School?

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

sadams · Answer

Rich,

Thank you for your reply. Attached is the full GMAT ESR for both tests. I am shooting for a 720+. I am close, but my extreme variance on the verbal section concerns me.

I studied roughly an hour to two hours a day between tests, which were approximately three months apart, and I focused nearly 100% of my efforts on verbal, specifically spending 70% of my time on sentence correction and 30% split equally between the other verbal subsections. I assumed, probably incorrectly, that my Critical Reasoning would translate between tests. I scored a 48/40 (710) on the GMAT prep test about a week before the official GMAT and took that test under similar GMAT conditions (full IR/AWA no pauses, 8 min breaks max etc...). I had no issues with the CR subsection on the GMATPrep test, but on the official test I bombed it for some reason.

Thank you for all your help!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi sadams,

I've had a chance to review your 2 ESRs, but before we talk about that data, I'd like to know a bit more about how you handle the Verbal section overall:

1) What practice materials did you use before taking each of these Tests?
2) What are the exact 'steps' that you go through when dealing with a typical SC, RC and CR prompt?
3) How often do you find that you 'narrow the answers down to 2 choices' before you end up choosing your answer?

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

KarishmaB · Answer

That is certainly a matter of concern. Perhaps complacency set in? Though, you did take slightly more time for CR questions in the second test so I can't say you rushed the section (until and unless you spent 10 mins on one question and just ran through the rest). You messed up most CR questions though you know how to solve them! Did you try a different approach? Take a GMAT practice test right away without working on CR at all. Report back your performance and perhaps we will have something more to go on...
Noteworthy thing about the SC performance is that you reduced the time taken but substantially increased your accuracy so that's great.

HKD1710 · Answer

I am so confused with GMAT here. how is this combination possible:

Score-I  - V34
CR - 91 %le
RC - 73 %le
SC - 40 %le

Score-II  - V36
CR - 5 %le
RC - 76 %le
SC - 87 %le

When you do well in all sections then you get V34 and you do nothing in one section but nail two section then you get V36, higher score.

Please don't tell me not to judge the algorithm. It has become very important to know how do we get such scores.

if we just do nothing in CR and do well in RC and SC then it will be easier to get V35. 700 score would be achievable by pushing score in quant and focussing only on SC and RC.

High variance between GMAT attempts ESR attached--Help decipher

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