Low GMAT score

Question

I took GMAT this week and my score was horrible.
I didn't expect this less as I have already taken 5 GMAT prep test and these were my score
740, 750, 730, 730 and 710 all in GMAT prep and GMAT exam prep 
I have studied from MGMAT and official guide 2016
Kindly assist me as I have cancelled my scores.
I scored Q 35, V22 in official GMAT 
This is really a surprise for me as I have always scored really high score in Mock test mentioned above and always scored Q 50 or 51 and verbal from V 40 to V 41
I am highly demoralised and discouraged as this is a bummer for me
I am planning to retake GMAT but still not sure what happened wrong

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Adan1990,

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) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT (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 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?

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

OptimusPrepJanielle · Answer

That is a huge drop in the scores and it should not happen if you have prepared realistically and have trained yourself for the full 4 hours of the GMAT.

1. Did you give the mock CATs including the AWA and IR?
2. Did you take the mocks at a different time from your GMAT?

What preparatory material did you use to understand the fundamentals?

Adan1990 · Answer

I have taken all the mock test with the AWA and IR
These are my scores break down with IR
GMAT PREP 1 Q50 V41(740), IR -5 2nd Dec 2015
Veritas Prep Q 49, V 44( 730) IR- 6,18 th Dec 2015
GMAT PREP 2 Q51, V 41(750) IR -8, 12 th Jan 2016
GMAT exam pack 1 Q 46, V 42 IR- 6 2nd Feb 2016
GMAT exam pack 2 Q 51, V 41(740), IR-5 3rd Feb 2016
 I have taken all the test at the same time as my GMAT test time morning 8.15 to 12 p.m 
Timing was not a problem for me I was always able to finish all the section before time and was following Manhattan guides from 0 to 9 for both verbal and quant. And practicing with Official guide 2016 ( all three). Then I was practicing Manhattan advance quant and I was able to solve them also.
I prepared full three months for GMAT and was studying 4 hours daily and checking error logs on Saturday and Sunday.
I am literally shocked and have no idea what went wrong with me.
Because this score is not acceptable after the effort I have given.
I want to retake GMAT but after following schedule and all that I am still stuck what went wrong and what if it happened again.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Adan1990,

I have a couple of additional follow-up questions about your CATs:

1) How many times did you take each of those CATs? Have you taken any of them more than once?
2) Have you answered any of those CAT questions before (did you come across the questions in the Forums here or practice them from a 'master document' of GMAC questions?)?

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

Adan1990 · Answer

Hi,
I have taken all the cat only once and have never seen those questions on any forum
Also not a single question was from OG also.
Few of the questions type were similar from OG but not the exact question.
So I was pretty confident that I am going to get a good score on GMAT.
I solved all the OG questions twice and also solved Manhattan guide questions twice.
I never had a problem with Quant and I was giving more focus on verbal.
I am yet to figure out what is wrong.
I am surely going to write GMAT but how and when to start preparing again.
And what went wrong with me.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Adan1990,

From your prior post, there weren't any obvious 'red flags', 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)?

It's possible that you just had a "bad day"; but if we can figure all of this out quickly, then you shouldn't wait too long to retest.

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

Adan1990 · Answer

Hi,
Three days before I was at my home and was revising the quant formula and simultaneously checking my error log.
I was not able to sleep properly as I was anxious about my exam.
The test center was 20 minutes ride from my house and I just took one break and yeah I was able to finish both the sections before time.
I didn't took the second break.
Yeah there was distraction during the test a person was continuously nagging and murmuring .

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Adan1990,

You did not completely answer all of my questions, but the extra information that you have provided could be enough to explain what happened to you on Test Day.

If you did not get enough sleep the night before your Test, then THAT could very easily have thrown off your performance. Combined with anxiety on Test Day, these two things could explain the 'swing' in your scores. Once you add in the distractions at the Test Center and the fact that you skipped the second break (WHY would you do that?), then we have a reasonable series of 'causes' for your bad Test Day. Thankfully, since you've now taken the GMAT, you can better prepare for the various aspects of Test Day.

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

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