Need Help....Insane exam Experience

Question

Hi Everyone,

Gave my 1st real GMAT today and was annihilated. I had scored 690, 700, 710 in official Mock but real exam was something completely Insane.

Insane and weird.

Quant was more difficult than anything i had ever seen. 1st Question itself felt like 750 level, combination of geometry and probability with weird shapes- large block with squares, rectangles and trapezium, colored red green blue and yellow, with probability combined. blew me over. I thought maybe a experimental question and move ahead but all questions were similar that followed, high difficulty no space for breather. only last 5-6 question seemed like medium level but by then i was hardly left with any time. I got 4 questions on probability alone, 3 on standard deviation with variables, 2 on permutation combination combined with divisibility. No questions from work, speed. Geometry has 2 question.

From consistent q 49in official mocks to i think i have fallen to q 30s, will have to wait for 7 days for official but i know how the test went.

Verbal was super weird too though not difficult. Weird because 1st 22 question alternated between SC and CR and last 14 questions were straight 4 RC passages. Never experienced anything like this ever before. Every mock official mock and other mock i gave it was always mixed.

I had put in effort , wont say extreme but i think sufficient effort, solved all 2000 gmat official previous years quant question on gmat club including all medium and hard questions, i know all the theory and formulas, revised OG 2020 twice.

Has anyone else experienced something like this before???

My dreams are gone and don't know what to expect anymore. Will book another test next month but after today's exam i have lost hope.

Has anyone else experienced something like this before??? My dreams are gone and don't know what to expect anymore. Will book another test next month but after today's exam i have lost hope.

bb · Answer

Do you know your score or you think it is Q30? 
I assume this was GMAT online and you don’t know your score yet. Is that right?

People are usually poor at predicting their own score for a number of reasons. I myself prognosticated F5 50 or 600 for myself and was surprised to get a 750. This is because of the adaptive nature of the test which makes you feel like you’re feeling when you actually perform well. Similarly it gives you a sense of full confidence when you are failing. Based on what I’m hearing from you, you are likely to get a high score. At the same time, it is very unusual to get that many probability and statistics questions in a single test. They are fairly rare. I’m hoping that you would get a crazy good score....

Posted from my mobile device

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

Disappointing experience, I'm sure. If you can, it may be worth waiting for the new Online version - which will provide flexibility in the section order and additional break-time.

Thelegend2631 · Answer

Could this be a case of him randomly getting a difficult question at start and that difficulty level stood consistent and fell only at the back end. It would be interesting to see the score anyways!

But either way, all this reputation and expense for GMAT is for it's standard and it's surprising to hear something like this.

Thelegend2631 · Answer

Hard luck Ashish. Have your tried reaching to GMAC about your experience?

Posted from my mobile device

bb · Answer

We will never know what happened and then till we get a score to get at least some point of reference, it’s not worthwhile to to really wonder about it since there have been so many cases of people getting their performance level wrong.

Posted from my mobile device

Posted from my mobile device

Ashish2929 · Answer

Hi BB, i haven't got the scores yet but i am pretty sure that i wont cross q 40. Every other mocks i gave including official ones i knew after quant section that i did decently well. This time i am sure because a lot of question i had no idea what to do with them and am not sure regarding any DS question if i got them right even after spending 3-4 mins on a question.

All i can hope now i that next exam wont be like this

Ashish2929 · Answer

Is something like this possible?? can i reach out to GMAC and say i got difficult questions??

MathRevolution · Answer

Hello Ashish,

Don’t give up. You can surely do better. You were probably not on the right track in your study plans.

I fully understand your frustration because, with my GMAT tutoring, guidance, and counseling experience, we have to accept a fact with a pinch of salt that diagnostic/ mock test scores are above then what one should expect in a real test. There is often dropping in the score. Some students have even experienced a drop of 100 pointers. It is one of the realities, and your preparation should not sideline this fact.

A couple of things that can be a noticeable barrier to your scores would be some or all of the below.

• No expert support (maybe) who can tutor, analyze, and guide you during your learning, especially on hard level questions while stably hitting middle-level questions.
• Lack of many updated questions and practice in the recent exam trend
• Not well aligned with time to solve questions.

We would recommend you make a note of various possible combinations of your target score. The possible scores will help you track your performance after taking the mock or practice test. It will also help you maintain balance in both the sections, and you will always be in a great position to allot the study hours to a specific area accordingly.

The possible score combinations for 700 or 700+: Q should be Q 49, 50, 51, and V should be V38, 37, 36.

You can try our free diagnostic test https://www.mathrevolution.com/member/signup and receive a comprehensive study guide by topic. This test will clearly help you understand your weak areas.

You can schedule a Comprehensive counseling session for 30 mins with one of our experts:https://calendly.com/mathrevolution/1-on-1-session for detailed advice on your current study plans.

You must schedule your day smartly to revise the topics and also practice more questions. We would suggest you register with MathRevolution https://www.mathrevolution.com/member/signup to get access to our 7-day full on-demand course (27 topics, 490 subtopics, and 1,500 questions) for free trial lessons. 700+ level questions https://www.mathrevolution.com/gmat/questionbank are separately available, too.

Since we are a math expert, we will recommend you go through our post on the GMAT club: Breakdown of GMAT math questions and types: https://gmatclub.com/forum/overview-of- ... l#p1641411.

Follow the same procedure for Verbal. You may access a lot of free materials available on the GMAT club for Verbal.

In the end, make sure you have an error log for every day. Keep checking your performance by attempting as many mock tests as possible.

Regular tests will reflect the positive change in the score, and hence, your confidence will boost up. Gradually, with the help of mock tests, you will be able to compete with time and hence will be able to learn time management.

We appreciate your time and patience in reading this reply.

Should you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@mathrevolution.com.

Success is within your reach.
Good luck!

Math Revolution Team

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi Ashish2929,

As there's still time, I suggest you not to panic. It's very difficult to predict how your test went. So, let's not make any assumptions. I hope everything goes well. If not, you can write back to me here or you can directly get in touch with me over a call and we can have a detailed discussion on what could have gone wrong and how to proceed further. You can use the link below to schedule a call with me.

Click here to schedule a call

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Ashish2929,

I realize that you do not think things went well, but before jumping to any conclusions, let's see what you actually score. Once we have that data we can take things from there.

EducationAisle · Answer

All of us are waiting for your  result  Ashish.

Kindly update us as and when.

pr2299 · Answer

Hey Ashish,

I experienced a very similar exam yesterday. My first question was also very tough and I had absolutely no idea how to solve it. I just continued but I was not getting any better. I also saw many 'rare' question types.
Overall, my feeling is very bad and I was thinking that the test set me on a wrong level.. Do you know what I mean?
The verbal section seemed normal.
During verbal, I zoomed in a bit using CTRL+. But when I continued to IR, there were just some numbers in a row.. I spent much time trying to figure out what that was. I finally realised that it should have been a table and it was not displayed because I zoomed in.
I'm very disappointed by the whole GMAT system. I booked the enhanced exam and then it was cancelled. And now I experience something like that.

I am waiting for my results... Did you already receive yours?

TalonShade · Answer

Did you get your scores back? I wouldn't be surprised if they were higher than expected.

Ashish2929 · Answer

Hi Guyz,

I got a disappointing score of 630 (q 43 v 32). Needless to say i expected a low score after terrible exam experience.

Meanwhile i bought and gave 5th official mock and scored 690 (q 49 v 35)

I am planning to book another test in next 20 days, though not sure if i will be able to replicate official mock score into real test scores.

Not sure if its Luck or nerves during real exam that did me. Next test would tell me.

Also learning from past exam experience i am focusing much more on topics such as probability, p&c, statistics for quant and CR RC in verbal.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Ashish2929,

I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as hoped - and it certainly sounds as though you had an uncommon experience. That having been said, 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. Before we discuss any of those potential issues though - and before you potentially 'rush in' to retest to soon - it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied? How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) On what dates (or approximate dates) did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks and how did you score on EACH (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
4) What is your overall goal score?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi Ashish2929,

Sorry about how things went with your GMAT. I suggest you not to book your slot immediately. The best thing to do would be to take time, work on your weak areas and book the slot only when you get your desired score consistently in the mocks.

There is a huge variation in your Quant score (Q49 and Q43) and Verbal score seems to be inconsistent as well. It's good that you know your weak areas but it's not enough. The way you work on them is what decides your score. If you are thinking of just practicing more and more questions, then I'm afraid that's not the right way to go about it.

Understand why exactly you are faltering in those topics. Go through the detailed solution of the question, introspect what made you take that decision at that point of time and learn the right approach.

Each module in Verbal needs certain skill to be mastered. For example, to solve SC questions you need to master the comprehension skill. Having said that, before you learn the concepts of any module, it's important to understand what is tested using that and the right way to solve them. Let me give you an example of Sentence Correction.

How to solve SC questions?  
SC questions on GMAT test your ability to convey the right meaning without any ambiguity. So, it's important to approach them from a meaning stand-point. You might have often come across answer choices which are both grammatically correct and convey a logical meaning but are indeed incorrect because they do not convey the intended meaning. So, the process to approach SC questions is to:
  Comprehend the original meaning of the sentence 
 Identify errors if any (both grammatical and meaning wise) 
 Eliminate answer choices which either are grammatically incorrect or do not convey the intended meaning

You can go through the recording below to understand the process in a better way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SGA8bwFNJM

And similarly, before solving CR questions, you need to understand that most of the CR questions are based on one of the four frameworks:

Plan - goal 
 Causality 
 Comparison 
 Quantitative

And each framework has a set of guidelines to pre-think. So, once you learn the framework and the guidelines, the process of solving CR questions becomes a lot more structured.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCrobt7hZl8

How to proceed further?  
By now, you must have understood that focusing on the process is more important than focusing on practicing questions. You need to understand where exactly you are making the mistake and then work on that. For example, solving SC questions can include various steps such as:

Reading the sentence 
 Comprehending 
 Identifying the errors (both grammatical and meaning) 
 Eliminating incorrect answer choices

You can do this by going through the detailed solutions of the questions. Identify the exact step at which you are making the mistake, introspect what led you to take that decision at that point of time and then learn the right approach.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOFbOXjw2wY

So, learn the right approach before you start taking timed quizzes. Once you feel confident about the methodology and once you start getting decent accuracy in those quizzes, you can start taking mocks. And if you get your desired score consistently in the mocks, then you are good to book a slot. I say this because there's no point wasting $250 on the test without preparing the right way.

Why don't we get in touch over a call and come up with a plan of action? This way, we can narrow down what went wrong exactly and come up with the study strategy. You can use the link below to get in touch with me.

Click here to schedule a call

BharathRA · Answer

Hi Ashish,
First of all Ashish keep your heads up and don't feel low. I can totally empathize your situation. There could me multiple reasons why Ashish , you could have gone through such a Harsh GMAT experience. One just like you mentioned could be the difficulty or it can be also an end result of mismanaging your test. You have taken the online exam And yes you can never say until your score comes. Once only with your detailed ESR report can we do a proper analysis on what all difficulties you had encountered during the exam. And yes GMAT could test you in a lot of ways but not so hard in the difficulty level from the beginning. Once the ESR report comes, we could discuss in detail on what actually went wrong and what could be done in improving your score. Email us your ESR for in-detailed evaluation. You can reach me through mail at - bharath@scoreleap.in

Thelegend2631 · Answer

Why dont you try online GMAT ? What's your target school ?

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