Need help shocked and broken

Hi StrugglingGmat2910,

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 in the same section order as how you took the Official GMAT?
4) Did you take them at the same time of day as when you took your Official GMAT?
5) 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.)?
6) 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

EMPOWERgmatRichC
When you took your CATs:i took all CATS: all over the month the last i took on 1/09/2017
1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?yes every time i took the entire section some times skipped AWA but my order is always to do AWA at the last
2) Did you take them at home?yes I took them at Home
3) Did you take them in the same section order as how you took the Official GMAT?yes Verbal then quant and ir ..
4) Did you take them at the same time of day as when you took your Official GMAT?yes more or less in duration of 1 hr within test timings
5) 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 replicate the mocks as much as possible just that i sipped water in between the home test (during the CAT)
6) Did you ever take a CAT more than once? Had you seen any of the questions BEFORE?yes the free mocks that i did were repeat but didn't find any repeats in the unofficial CATS

Hi StrugglingGmat2910,

From your prior post, there were a couple of 'red flags' in terms of how you took your CATs. Before we talk about that 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

sir

1) What did you do in the 3 days before your GMAT?I practiced from Gmatclub question bank and gave quizzes, though in a quiz i scored low that tensed me a lot
2) How did you sleep the night before your Test?yes
3) How long was the ride to the Test Center from your home?15 mins
4) Were there any distractions at the facility or during the Test? just that during verbal the next student started typing that caused distractions
5) What did you do during the two 8-minute breaks? sipped water and used LU
6) Did you finish any sections early?yes quant 5 mins ,and verbal on time
7) Did you have to rush to finish any sections (and guess on questions just to finish on time)?yes verbal i guessed 2 questions

Hi StrugglingGmat2910,

Test Day is a rather specific 'event' - the details are specific and they matter, so you have to train as best as you can for all of them. The more realistic you can make your CATs, the more likely the score results are to be accurate. The more you deviate, the more "inflated" your practice scores can become - and that's what happened here. By taking the CATs at home, retaking certain CATs, etc., you weren't properly training for the FULL GMAT 'experience.' There will often be certain minor distractions on Test Day, but it does not sound as though you were prepared for that either. By extension, your practice CAT scores were likely not accurate.

It was not clear from your answers whether you had a decent night's sleep the night before you took the GMAT, but if you slept poorly (or had trouble sleeping), then that could have impacted your performance as well. Before we can discuss how best to improve from here, I'd like to know a bit more about your studies and goals:

1) How long did you study before each attempt at the GMAT?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) What is your goal score?
4) When are you planning to apply to Business School?

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

1) How long did you study before each attempt at the GMAT?: 6 months before each attempt
2) What study materials have you used so far?:egmat - first attempt ,magoosh - second attempt ,optimus prep :third attempt ,kaplan 800 , GCT question banks etc
3) What is your goal score?: anything above 690
4) When are you planning to apply to Business School? this year round 2 or 3(which seems to be quite impossible based on score i got ) ,so probably next year is best/worst case

Hi StrugglingGmat2910,

There's an interesting 'variable' in your studies so far. If this 600 was your only GMAT Score, then you would likely need at least another 2 months of consistent, guided study to score 700+. However, you've already scored Q49 twice on the Official GMAT, so it's possible that you just had a bit of a 'bad day' on this recent attempt (which is why you only scored Q45 this time). The bulk of the missing points that you're looking for are clearly in the Verbal section, so if you could hit a Q49 on this next attempt (without having to do too much extra work), then you could conceivably hit your goal in 1-2 months. By extension, you could potentially apply for Round 2 (although you might need to work on your applications at the same time that you're studying).

Given the V26 and V30, you're losing significant points in at least 2 of the 3 major Verbal categories (SC, RC and CR), so you'll need to put some serious work into all 3 areas.

1) Going forward, how many hours do you think you can consistently study each week?

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

1) Going forward, how many hours do you think you can consistently study each week?
sir,i can 2 hrs daily on an average and weekly devote around 15 to 16 hrs

Hi StrugglingGmat2910,

Given everything that you've described, I think that you would find the EMPOWERgmat Verbal Score Booster to be quite helpful. Most of our clients finish that Study Plan in under a month, so it would fit your schedule perfectly. During that time, you'll also be able to access any of the Quant resources that interest you. We have a variety of free resources on our site (www.empowergmat.com), so you can 'test out' the Course before setting up an account.

If you have any additional questions, then you can feel free to contact me directly.


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