Need Help: From 640 & 700 in Mock test to 460 in main exam

Question

Hi,

Today, i wrote my GMAT exam and scored a shattering 460 (Q38, V17), which is similar to results of my first diagnostic test taken almost 10 months before.
In my recent GMAT Prep Mock tests i was consistently scoring above 600 so i was expecting around 650 on main exam. My target score is 700.

My Mock test results:

GMAT Prep Exam 1 - 01 Sep 2016 - 460 Q37 V17
Manhattan CAT 1 - 01 Oct 2016 - 520 Q33 V29
Manhattan CAT 2- 12 Dec 2016 - 570 Q39 V30
GMAT Prep Exam 2 - 06 Jan 2016 - 540 Q45 V20
GMAT Prep Exam 3 - 14th May 2017 - 620 Q47 V28
GMAT Prep Exam 4 - 10th June 2017 - 640 Q46 V32
GMAT Prep Exam 5 - 26th June 2017 - 600 Q48 V24 (Gave this mock when i was too tired after office work so could not focus on verbal)
GMAT Prep Exam 6 - 09 July 2017 - 650 Q49 V31
GMAT Prep Exam 1 (Repeat) - 13 July 2017 - 700 Q48 V37

I am unable to understand what went wrong in main exam and what should i do now? I am very disappointed with my performance on main exam. I have prepared for almost 10.5 months (Last 3 months very seriously) using Manhattan Study Material, official guide for GMAT, e-GMAT, and GMAT Club resources. I took good rest before the exam and was not feeling nervous during my exam. Some Questions on both quant and verbal were looking difficult for me but that was common even when i took Mocks. I used to lag behind in time in Mocks and it happened during my main exam as well. To handle this timing issue i was practicing strategic guessing technique ( once i realised that i am lagging behind in time, i used to guess 1 question after doing 1 or 2 questions with full attention un till i catch up the time) in my last Mocks and applied the same in main Exam. In nutshell i went through the main exam as per my planned strategy only but still result was unexpectedly low!!

I am looking for suggestions from you guys to know what should i do in this situation? How can i keep myself motivated even after this heartbreaking score?

Thanks in advance for helping me out.

----
Determined to get 700!!

MyGuruStefan · Answer

Hello Vivek!

First, try not to be too down on yourself regarding your score. Because of the skills-based nature of the GMAT this result could quite reasonably be chalked up to a bad testing day. However, there are a couple of things that I would caution against as you consider taking the exam again next time.

1) It seems as though you took two practice exams within one week of your official exam and one within 48 hours of the exam. This is akin to a marathoner training for a marathon and running two marathons the week before the event! This can easily cause mental exhaustion and may have been the case for you, so next time refrain from taking any full exams within the week of the exam and avoid any prep for at least the final 24-48 hours before the exam to encourage a rested mind.

2) Don't spend too little time on the Verbal side of the exam. I say this because in your message you didn't mention your verbal approach at all. Verbal seems to be where your main issues lie based on your rather large variance in practice scores. By standardizing your process for each of the Verbal question types, you will raise the floor of your Verbal performance. This is important because the raw Verbal scoring curve is so much lower on the GMAT and you can really up your overall score by improving in comparison to your peer test takers. Also, since you said that previously your attention waned in Verbal when you took a practice exam after work one day you may have experienced the same phenomenon on test day as a result of the mental exhaustion I cautioned against because of too many full practice tests the week of the exam.

3) Make sure that while you remain aware of pacing, that you never try to determine how you are doing on the GMAT while taking the GMAT. It ends up leading to wasted mental energy trying to determine a score that is impossible to predict for any test taker. I recently had a student tell me that after her official Quant section she was convinced she had tanked the test, but instead she had actually obtained her highest score ever. Because of the adaptive nature of the GMAT it is impossible to predict and trying to predict can lead to over-correction, as I think it may have in your case.

4) Don't rush on the early Quant questions in an effort to save time for the more difficult questions. If you were getting high 40s on the Quant practice exams and dropped back into the 30s, the issue is not missing difficult questions, it's making mistakes on reading the question or calculation on mid-level problems. You cannot sacrifice accuracy at the alter of speed.

I hope these recommendations help, and good luck as you continue your GMAT journey!

AndyDufresne · Answer

What was the section order you took during the exam? Have been observing this strange trend with the latest test takers where the scores in mock vs actual exam doesnt matches at all.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi vivek16,

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 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 plan to take 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?

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

vivek16 · Answer

Hi,

Thanks for your suggestions. Yes, you are right. I need to work on Verbal part more because the variation in score is high even on Mock tests. I want to update you about Verbal approach i am following and hope that you can suggest something based on that information.

SC- First i glance the question and answer choices for few seconds to notice where underline starts, how long it is, and what is split between first 1 or 2 words of answer choices to get a clue about what issue is being tested in question. Then i read sentence and try to understand meaning of it by paying attention to any grammer issue. Based on above 2 steps i get some starting point start eliminating wrong answer choices until i left with one correct answer choice.

CR- First I read the argument and try to understand what the conclusion is and how author reached to that conclusion using premises. Then i try to find out is there any issue in the reasoning or what kind of assumptions author is making to reach the conclusion. Then i read the question stem and try to understand what the right answer choices should do (weaken, strengthen, find out flaw, find out assumption etc.). Then i move to answer choices and start eliminating wrong answer until i left with 1 right answer

RC- I used to slowly read the passage by trying to connect paragraphs with each other and try to understand main point of each paragraph and the passage. Then i go to questions and based on question type sometimes i refer back to passage to find out the details or i directly answer the main point/general purpose question without referring back to passage. I use elimination method on RC answer choices based on the information in passage.

I used to struggle with timing issue on Verbal section. Tough and long RC passages sometimes takes around 9-10 minutes to read the passage and answer all the questions. Tough and long CR question may take up to 3 minutes and some SC question takes more than 2 minutes. In general i can easy and medium level CR questions in less than 2 minutes and SC questions in less than 1.5 minutes. I take around 6 minutes to read Small RC passages and answer all related questions. If i don't time myself i can solve the questions with more than 80% accuracy.

When i try to rush on questions to match the timing, i make mistakes. Please let me know how can i improve my situation. Thanks.

Regards,
Vivek T

vivek16 · Answer

Hi,

My section order was -
1- Verbal
2- Quant
3- IR & AWA

Can you please let me know about your observations for these new section orders?

Thanks.

vivek16 · Answer

Hi Rich,

Please find my feedback on the questions you asked.

1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?: I took entire CAT each time
2) Did you take them at home?: Yes
3) Did you take them at the same time of day as when you plan to take your Official GMAT?: Yes, except one!
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, I tried to match the testing environment and only took defined breaks of standard time 
5) Did you ever take a CAT more than once? Had you seen any of the questions BEFORE?: Yes, i took CAT more than once and got some known questions. My Last CAT mentioned in my post was repeat test.

Kindly provide your valuable inputs. Thanks.

Regards,
Vivek T

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi vivek16,

From your prior post, there were a couple of 'red flags' in terms of how you took your CATs. Before we discuss those points though, 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

novemberlee · Answer

Is the section order messing up things? I opted for Q,V,IR,AWA order, and I ended up scoring miserably, compared to my mocks. In fact, it was my lowest score ever. (Including all mocks & previous attempt.)

vivek16 · Answer

Hi,

I also doubt on the new section order feature as i never scored so low in any MOCK after i started the preparation. Score i got is equivalent to my diagnostic test results before starting preparation!

vismadeb · Answer

Hi vivek - my target for now is similar to yours. I am trending like you are and I am now convinced the 'new section' order sucks - as you are forced to start without warmup. I have a mock planned for each Sat prior to my test day on aug 12 - i am going to stick to the old format. No point risking a major guffaw for a 10-20 point bump - I will have to bet with my currrent stamina and build it between now and test day!!

Posted from my mobile device

Posted from my mobile device

vismadeb · Answer

OK Vivek - youre obviously going to retake it. When is your next test date ? My GMATPrep1 last Sunday was 650 (Q46;V34) and I completely messed up my timing and SC strategy was all messed up. Been focusing on test taking strategy and thinking through my SC. I should see a further bump this Sunday as I start with the essay and IR. If you are open - lets start a study group ? PM me if that makes sense. ~ Vish

vivek16 · Answer

Hi,
I will surely rewrite GMAT. I am planning to write it by End of August or Mid September. Not yet booked the exam. Surely we can create a study group. 650 is good score and you still have sufficient time to reach to your target score. Just keep practicing test taking strategies and full MOCKs every week. Let me know what materials you are using to prepare Verbal section?

BR// Vivek

MyGuruStefan · Answer

My apologies for the delay in replying Vivek and I hope my reply finds you well,

Anyhow, I am happy to attempt to answer your verbal questions in a moment. However, to you and anyone else out there who has been prepping for some time I would highly recommend sticking to the standard order of the exam. There is little benefit in changing an approach after having spent so much time preparing for a particular set of circumstances. I have advised each of my legacy tutoring students who were used to the AWA/IR/Quant/Verbal order to stick with that sequence and they have by and large seen solid results. I would suggest the same approach for anyone else who has been taking that format of PrepTest for their GMAT preparation to do the same.

As to general tips for your specific verbal approach:

SC- Focus on identifying the common errors of meaning and ignore the answers unless you cannot identify an error. The common errors you should focus on are subject-verb agreement, pronoun agreement, verb tense, parallelism, modification, and redundancy. Try to avoid evaluating idiom until you have adjudicated these errors as idiom is harder to parse. Working through the answer choices based on process of elimination is definitely advisable though.

CR- Try reading the question first. This will focus your reading of the prompts and speed up your per question time average. Then proceed to process of elimination.

RC- For the first pair of passages you should probably do some up front reading to understand the passage before getting to the questions. However for the final two passages it might be better to try and see if you can answer any specific detail questions without reading the entire passage first. It is all about maximizing efficiency here before getting to process of elimination.

As for timing a general recommendation per question is SC < 1:30; CR ~= 2:00; 1:30 < RC < 2:00. I hope this helps you as you prepare for your next attempt later this summer!

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