Need Help! V(31), Q(48), Overall Score (650).

Question

Hello Experts,

I have appeared for GMAT offline Yesterday and got 650. I am very disappointed as I was getting an average of 710-720 in my mocks. I have spent almost a year preparing and exhausted every paid and free source available out there. I need help to analyze my ESR and strategy to move further. I was thinking of appearing for the next test in 4 weeks. Kindly help me out with the same.

Thank you

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

One thing that may be helpful is to recall what happened during the exam. Did you spend a bit too long reading through a passage, for example, that made you rush the rest of the section?

jn0r · Answer

Are you appliying this year? I think you need to take more time to prepare and revise everything

Yogananda · Answer

What B-schools are you planning to apply for in R2. 
If you score matches their average GMAT score, you can take a chance of starting with the application process, if not, take GMAT again and come back stronger.

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Sosha.

It's no fun to score lower on the real GMAT than you have on your practice tests. At the same time, you can certainly address whatever occurred on test day and hit your score goal.

Regarding what happened on test day, you may have just had a unusually weak verbal section. However, it is the case that people often score lower on the verbal section of the GMAT than they did on the verbal sections of their practice tests, and these differences generally occur because the verbal section of the GMAT has revealed some gaps in people's knowledge or skillsets that they were not aware of.

Often these gaps exist as a result of people's preparing to handle what the GMAT has done in verbal in the past, in other words, in official practice tests, rather than to handle what the GMAT may do in the verbal section on test day. So, one possibility that you could consider is whether you may have focused on learning patterns that have appeared on the GMAT in the past and may have to develop some additional verbal skills to hit your score goal next time you take the GMAT.

For some further insights into what may have caused your actual GMAT score to be lower than your practice test scores, see this post.

Why Was My GMAT Score Lower Than My Practice Test Scores?

For some ideas regarding what you could do to ensure that you hit your verbal score goal next time you take the GMAT, see these posts.

How to Score High on GMAT Verbal

Three Key Practice Tips for Mastering GMAT Verbal

Sosha · Answer

MartyTargetTestPrep  Thanks for replying and providing some key insights to move ahead.

Would it be possible for you to help me out to analyze my ESR? Thanks.

Regards

Sosha · Answer

jn0r

Thanks for replying.
Yes, I am thinking of applying this year only.

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

Sure, Sosha. I could take a quick look at your ESR and see whether it reveals anything useful.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Sosha,

I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as planned, although a 650/Q48 is still a solid Score, so it could be enough to get you into your first-choice School. Depending on the Schools that you plan to apply to, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile and plans. Those Experts should be able to answer your Admissions questions and help define the specific areas of your profile that could use some improvement. There's a Forum full of those Experts here:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/ask-admissio ... tants-124/

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, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) Over the last 3 months, how many hours did you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far? What “brands” of CATs/mocks have you used?
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?

While the ESR doesn’t provide a lot of information, there are usually a few data points that we can use to define what went wrong on Test Day (and what you should work on to score higher). Before you can include attachments with your posts/PMs, you need to have at least 5 posts in the forums (right now, you have 3 posts). If you would rather not go through those extra steps at this point (or you would rather not publicly post your ESR), then you can feel free to email me directly (at Rich.C@empowergmat.com).

760+: What GMAT Assassins Do To Score at the Highest Levels

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

Contact Rich at: Rich.C@empowergmat.com

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Assuming that you took your official practice exams under realistic testing conditions, the results show that, on a good day, you are capable of scoring higher than V31. Thus, it’s quite possible that nerves, stress, tiredness, or a combination of all three negatively affected your test-day performance. However, it’s also possible that you have some lingering weaknesses that were exposed on test day. Although I’m unsure of how you prepared, it’s possible that, in your preparation, particularly in verbal, you did not really learn to do what you have to do in order to score high on the actual GMAT. Rather, you picked up on some patterns that were effective in getting you relatively high scores on practice tests. So, for you to hit your score goal, your preparation, particularly for verbal, probably needs to be more complete, meaning that you have to go through the various types of GMAT questions carefully to find your exact weaknesses, fill gaps in your knowledge, and strengthen your skills.

For verbal specifically, you have to become more skilled at clearly defining the differences between trap choices and correct answers. Otherwise, you will get stuck guessing between two choices or be surprised to find that you incorrectly answered questions that you thought you answered correctly. Becoming more skilled in this way takes carefully analyzing all of the answer choices to lots of verbal questions to develop an eye for the logical differences between the choices. In other words, you have to go beyond answering practice questions and reading explanations to doing deep analysis of questions to learn to see everything that is going on in them.

In order to follow the path described above, you may need some new quant and verbal materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the  best quant  and  verbal courses .

You also may find it helpful to read the following articles:

how to score a 700+ on the GMAT

Why Was My GMAT Score Lower Than My Practice Test Scores?

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi Sosha,

Sorry about how things went with your GMAT. I know it can be disappointing to not reach your target score after almost a year’s preparation. There could be a couple of reasons for the drop in the score. Please go through the article below to find out the probable reasons.

Scored well on mocks but failed miserably on the test?

Having said that, it would be too early to conclude anything without knowing the actual reason. To understand what could have led to the drop in the score and to suggest you the plan of action, I need a little more information about your GMAT preparation. I would like to know more about

the way you prepared till now (your study strategy) 
 your weak areas 
 your approach of solving questions 
 the resources you have used

Answers to these questions will help me guide you in a better way. And I personally suggest to go for the retake only after you prepared well and are 100% confident.

Having said that, I would like to have a one-on-one conversation with you. The discussion would be mostly around the answers to the above questions, the approximate time you have for the next attempt and the plan of action. If you have an ESR with you, that will be even more helpful to get the insights about your performance. You use use the link below to schedule a call with me.

Click here to schedule a call

Sosha · Answer

ScottTargetTestPrep

Thanks Scott for replying.

I have the same reasoning that the test day exposed my weaknesses in some particular areas, especially in the verbal section.

I have exhausted my official mocks and Manhattan mocks. So which mocks do you suggest I should take before my next attempt and how should I proceed to improve my verbal score.

Regards

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Sosha,

A CAT is really a 'measuring device' - when used correctly, it will give you a realistic score and help define your strengths and weaknesses, but it will NOT help you to fix any of those weaknesses. To raise your scores, you have to learn the necessary Tactics and put in the proper practice and repetitions. The CAT will show you whether your studies are helping you to improve or not. In addition, the process of taking (and reviewing) a CAT requires a significant amount of energy and effort - and takes time to 'recover' from. This is one of the reasons why you typically should not take more than 1 CAT per week - and your last CAT should be taken about 1 week before Test Day.

While the most realistic CATs available are the 6 from GMAC, retaking a CAT that you've already taken is NOT a realistic way to assess your skills - since you will likely see some 'repeat' questions that you have already faced. Unfortunately, seeing even a couple of repeats can 'throw off' the Scoring Algorithm and impact your pacing, energy levels, fatigue, etc. (meaning that they would likely all appear to be better than they actually are). Thankfully, the CATs from Kaplan, MGMAT and Veritas are all 'close enough' to the real thing that they will provide you with a relatively realistic score assessment (assuming that you correctly take the CAT in a realistic fashion that matches the parameters that you will face when you take the Official GMAT) - so you can use any NEW CATs from any of those sources next.

To properly plan out the next phase of your studies, we'll need to discuss your prior work in more detail.

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

MathRevolution · Answer

Hello Sosha,

First of all your current GMAT score of 650 is Decent. You can surely achieve your target score. You need to keep your motivation high to learn.

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. 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.
• Not well aligned with time to solve questions.

You can schedule a free Counseling(https://calendly.com/mathrevolution/1-on-1-session) session for 20 mins with one of our experts to have detailed advice on your current study plans.

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

Register with MathRevolution https://www.mathrevolution.com/member/signup to get access to our 7-days on-demand course for free trial lessons.

Below is the useful link we will recommend you visit on GMAT club:

Ultimate Q51 guide: https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-ultimate ... l#p1613600

Breakdown of GMAT math questions and types: https://gmatclub.com/forum/overview-of- ... l#p1641411

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

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

What verbal resources did you previously use?

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

Your Official Score (V31) is the same as a Verbal student I tutored this quarter. Consider reading their gmatclub post. There may be some helpful insight you can take. They took 6 hours of verbal method tutoring but they went from a V31 to a V40 in roughly 30 days.

Official V31 to V40 ~30 days

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Need Help! V(31), Q(48), Overall Score (650).

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