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score drop from 770 to 670 - my weird problem

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score drop from 770 to 670 - my weird problem [#permalink] New post   18 Feb 2019, 03:05
Hello all,
I took my GMAT yesterday and got a shocking score of 670 (Q 49, V 31).. I am totally disappointed because i took all 6 mocks provided by GMAT Prep and got scores of 760 in 5 of them and 770 in the last mock (2 days before the actual exam + no repetitions). I consistently received a verbal score of V 42-44 in all the 6 mocks.I took all mocks in a public library, simulating the exact exam environment and i took all the 4 sections each time and on the exact time of my actual exam. I still cannot come out of the shockingly low GMAT score.

Upon repeated playback of the exam session in my mind, I think the problem is that i just couldn't read the big fonts in the screen, particularly for the verbal section. I have been so much used to smaller screen size , doing all the official works for the past 4 years as well as my GMAT preparation in ‘macbook air’ - which is only around 13 inches in screen size. My exam centre screen size was around 24-28”. I was also sitting relatively close to the screen to avoid any visual distractions. Could this have created such a huge drop in my performance? Is there anyone here who has faced similar problem? In the future attempts, is there a possibility of reducing the screen size while taking the exam using “ctrl + scroll down” option? Or should i get a monitor for myself and start practicing to read and comprehend stuffs in wider screen and bigger fonts?

Additional notes:
I was not at all tensed on the exam day. I just aced through the quants section first without any tension, knew that it went ok , took the 8 minutes break and then sat for verbal section absolutely tension free.
My exam centre was only 20 minutes away from my place of stay and there was no hassle in transportation. I reached 1 hour early for the exam.

I have exhausted all my preparatory materials (Official guides, gmat prep question pack, e-gmat verbal and all manhattan guides) . I self - prepared for the exam and I do not have any tutor. I seriously do not know whom to seek help. I have received some great benefits from this community and i relentlessly hope someone out there might be able to understand my problem and help me with this.
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Re: score drop from 770 to 670 - my weird problem [#permalink] New post   18 Feb 2019, 03:19
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Although your score is good, it really is shocking if one looks at your practice scores.
And if you think it is because of the screen size and font change give it a try by giving a practice exam on the same screen size as your actual exam center has.
Check KAPLAN's site, they do offer a real day test experience for some bucks.
Also, just today on this forum, I read about the sleep and impacts on performance on tests - please ensure you have your required sleep just like on any other days, especially during 3-4 weeks prior to exam.

I think, this is such a weird thing everyone who reads this post will likely be equally puzzled - just don't get bothered about the last attempt, just keep thinking that you never had that attempt and just give another try. All the best.
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Re: score drop from 770 to 670 - my weird problem [#permalink] New post   18 Feb 2019, 04:00
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Hi Sravani, is it possible that in your mocks, you were getting few questions that you might perhaps already have solved as part of your practice?

Also, during the exam, did you feel inconvenienced by the bigger font or is this just your retrospective analysis?
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score drop from 770 to 670 - my weird problem [#permalink] New post   18 Feb 2019, 04:18
Thanks for your reply

TheGraceful

Yes I did get a good sleep and there was nothing unusual in my sleeping routine or diet on days prior to my exam :(

EducationAisle

All the questions in the mock were new - 2 free GMATPREP mocks and the other four were paid GMAT prep mocks. I did not even pause during those mocks and simulated the exam conditions as much as possible.

I did feel some inconvenience during the exam but just neglected it thinking that it might be exam stress taking on my nerves. But i can now quite confidently say that I have taken so many other competitive exams in the past and exam tension is quite not an issue to me. Only upon retrospective analysis, i doubt whether the screen size could be a problem. And I am curious to know if it really could be such a factor in my poor performance.

Is it possible to reduce the screen size of the exam centre using “ctrl + ‘—‘ “ option on the exam day? Has anyone tried it? Does it work for the exam window?
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Re: score drop from 770 to 670 - my weird problem [#permalink] New post   18 Feb 2019, 08:48
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Hi sravani101,

Did you get ESR? It might help for retake.

It seems that you'll have to work on verbal. You can access official questions from gmatprep here:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/all-gmatprep ... 87679.html
https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-most-com ... 40372.html
Also, there are many high qulity RC passages in LSAT.

Hope this helps!
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Re: score drop from 770 to 670 - my weird problem [#permalink] New post   18 Feb 2019, 09:16
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sravani101 wrote:
Hello all,
I took my GMAT yesterday and got a shocking score of 670 (Q 49, V 31).. I am totally disappointed because i took all 6 mocks provided by GMAT Prep and got scores of 760 in 5 of them and 770 in the last mock (2 days before the actual exam + no repetitions). I consistently received a verbal score of V 42-44 in all the 6 mocks.I took all mocks in a public library, simulating the exact exam environment and i took all the 4 sections each time and on the exact time of my actual exam. I still cannot come out of the shockingly low GMAT score.

Upon repeated playback of the exam session in my mind, I think the problem is that i just couldn't read the big fonts in the screen, particularly for the verbal section. I have been so much used to smaller screen size , doing all the official works for the past 4 years as well as my GMAT preparation in ‘macbook air’ - which is only around 13 inches in screen size. My exam centre screen size was around 24-28”. I was also sitting relatively close to the screen to avoid any visual distractions. Could this have created such a huge drop in my performance? Is there anyone here who has faced similar problem? In the future attempts, is there a possibility of reducing the screen size while taking the exam using “ctrl + scroll down” option? Or should i get a monitor for myself and start practicing to read and comprehend stuffs in wider screen and bigger fonts?

Additional notes:
I was not at all tensed on the exam day. I just aced through the quants section first without any tension, knew that it went ok , took the 8 minutes break and then sat for verbal section absolutely tension free.
My exam centre was only 20 minutes away from my place of stay and there was no hassle in transportation. I reached 1 hour early for the exam.

I have exhausted all my preparatory materials (Official guides, gmat prep question pack, e-gmat verbal and all manhattan guides) . I self - prepared for the exam and I do not have any tutor. I seriously do not know whom to seek help. I have received some great benefits from this community and i relentlessly hope someone out there might be able to understand my problem and help me with this.


First, Congrats on a very good quant score.

Second, it may happen that your Verbal score dropped because of getting a few questions wrong which you would have answered correctly on most occasions. The penalty is very high if you get easy questions wrong at the beginning of the test. I suggest you order your ESR and study your performance in the first two quartiles. Also, ask yourself whether the screen size really caused a comprehension issue? What is the biggest impediment it created for you? Did you read at a slower rate? or were you distracted?

I mean you are developing a causal relationship between screen size has an impact on GMAT performance. Do find the answer to your question and get some rectification measures you need the diagnose the right problem to find the right solution. Could you think of some factors which could weaken this argument? Do you generally find it difficult to comprehend when you read on big screens? Why do you think this would happen? Was it a disappointment for you that you had to give the exam on a screen which was different from the screen you practiced on? Were these thoughts of disappointment coming in your mind when you were answering the verbal section of the GMAT? i.e. were you distracted by the size of the screen during the exam? If yes, was it really worth it to get distracted by such a thing? Could you have avoided such a distraction by adapting to the new environment in less time?

If you ask yourself then you will get the right answer. All the best!!
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Re: score drop from 770 to 670 - my weird problem [#permalink] New post   18 Feb 2019, 12:32
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Hi sravani101,

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) On what dates did you take each of your CATs and how did you score on EACH (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores - and IR Score - for each)?
2) What time of day did you take each Exam (and the Official GMAT)?
3) 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.)?
4) Did you ever take a CAT more than once? Had you seen any of the questions BEFORE (re: on a prior CAT, in an online forum or in a practice set)?

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Re: score drop from 770 to 670 - my weird problem [#permalink] New post   18 Feb 2019, 20:41
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sravani101 wrote:
Thanks for your reply

TheGraceful

Yes I did get a good sleep and there was nothing unusual in my sleeping routine or diet on days prior to my exam :(

EducationAisle

All the questions in the mock were new - 2 free GMATPREP mocks and the other four were paid GMAT prep mocks. I did not even pause during those mocks and simulated the exam conditions as much as possible.

I did feel some inconvenience during the exam but just neglected it thinking that it might be exam stress taking on my nerves. But i can now quite confidently say that I have taken so many other competitive exams in the past and exam tension is quite not an issue to me. Only upon retrospective analysis, i doubt whether the screen size could be a problem. And I am curious to know if it really could be such a factor in my poor performance.

Is it possible to reduce the screen size of the exam centre using “ctrl + ‘—‘ “ option on the exam day? Has anyone tried it? Does it work for the exam window?
Do you normally feel any discomfort when use you use larger screens?

My initial reaction is that the larger screen size at the center is unlikely to be the reason for a score drop like this. Maybe you should get the ESR for this attempt, just to check for any timing issues.
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Re: score drop from 770 to 670 - my weird problem [#permalink] New post   18 Feb 2019, 20:48
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Hi sravani101

I suggest you should order your ESR and try to analyze it.It may help you.
Frankly speaking I don't think screen size would be an issue but that's just my opinion, May be it wasn't just your lucky day.
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Re: score drop from 770 to 670 - my weird problem [#permalink] New post   18 Feb 2019, 23:10
Hi Akela,
Thanks a lot for your response.

Yeah I have ordered ESR. Thanks again for the question collection links.
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Re: score drop from 770 to 670 - my weird problem [#permalink] New post   18 Feb 2019, 23:35
Hi EMPOWERgmatRichC

Thanks a lot for your response.

1) Mock CATs details :
Jan 22, 2019 - Free GMAT prep 1 - 760 - Q 51 V 42 IR 5
Jan 24, 2019 - Free GMAT prep 2 - 760 - Q 51 V 40 IR 7
Feb 02, 2019 - Paid GMAT prep 3 - 760 - Q 50 V41 IR 7
Feb 05, 2019 - Paid GMAT PREP 4 - 760 - Q 51 V 42 IR 8
Feb 07, 2019 - Paid GMAT prep 5 - 760 - Q 50 V 42 IR 7
Feb 11,2019 - Paid GMAT prep 6 - 770 - Q 50 V 44 IR 8

Actual GMAT on Feb 15 2019 - 670 - Q 49 V 31 IR 7

All mocks in the same order as the actual exam - Quants, verbal, IR & AWA

From the mocks and practice sessions, I found my weak areas to be SC -ellipsis and comparison, Quant based CR and inequalities DS , and just focussed on these topics for the left out 3 days after the Final mock. And I practised some AWA questions from OG.

On the exam day, in the verbal section, I did get 4 consecutive SC questions first followed by one quant based CR . I don't exactly remember the order of questions beyond this.

2) I took all the mocks in the morning, starting around 9:30 or 10:00 am . Took the actual exam in the 9:00 am session

3) I tried to replicate the exam conditions as much as possible during most of the mocks - But during 2nd and 4th mocks, i did take break longer than usual - may be from 15- 20 minutes ( between Verbal and IR sections)

4) All the mocks were official and I did not reset the exam pack - and hardly was there any repetition as far as I could remember.
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Re: score drop from 770 to 670 - my weird problem [#permalink] New post   19 Feb 2019, 10:14
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sravani101 wrote:
Hi EMPOWERgmatRichC

Thanks a lot for your response.

1) Mock CATs details :
Jan 22, 2019 - Free GMAT prep 1 - 760 - Q 51 V 42 IR 5
Jan 24, 2019 - Free GMAT prep 2 - 760 - Q 51 V 40 IR 7
Feb 02, 2019 - Paid GMAT prep 3 - 760 - Q 50 V41 IR 7
Feb 05, 2019 - Paid GMAT PREP 4 - 760 - Q 51 V 42 IR 8
Feb 07, 2019 - Paid GMAT prep 5 - 760 - Q 50 V 42 IR 7
Feb 11,2019 - Paid GMAT prep 6 - 770 - Q 50 V 44 IR 8

Actual GMAT on Feb 15 2019 - 670 - Q 49 V 31 IR 7

All mocks in the same order as the actual exam - Quants, verbal, IR & AWA

From the mocks and practice sessions, I found my weak areas to be SC -ellipsis and comparison, Quant based CR and inequalities DS , and just focussed on these topics for the left out 3 days after the Final mock. And I practised some AWA questions from OG.

On the exam day, in the verbal section, I did get 4 consecutive SC questions first followed by one quant based CR . I don't exactly remember the order of questions beyond this.

2) I took all the mocks in the morning, starting around 9:30 or 10:00 am . Took the actual exam in the 9:00 am session

3) I tried to replicate the exam conditions as much as possible during most of the mocks - But during 2nd and 4th mocks, i did take break longer than usual - may be from 15- 20 minutes ( between Verbal and IR sections)

4) All the mocks were official and I did not reset the exam pack - and hardly was there any repetition as far as I could remember.


Your quant score is really very impressive, I feel you just had a bad day at work!! Wishing you all the very best in your prep and next attempt, sure you will crack this exam in your next attempt!
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Re: score drop from 770 to 670 - my weird problem [#permalink] New post   19 Feb 2019, 16:24
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Hi sravani101,

I've sent you a PM with some additional questions.

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Re: score drop from 770 to 670 - my weird problem [#permalink] New post   20 Feb 2019, 20:10
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Hi sravani101,

I’m glad you reached out, and I’m happy to help. When looking at your score, you certainly did very well in quant, so nice job. Regarding your verbal score drop, it’s quite possible that the screen size negatively affected your verbal performance, but it’s also possible that some of your verbal weaknesses were exposed when you took the GMAT.

Scoring high on GMAT verbal tends to involve using logic and noticing key details. However, it is possible to get some verbal questions right by looking for patterns that you have already encountered in your preparation. Looking for patterns will not always work, though, and if the patterns with which you are familiar don’t show up in the questions that you see on the actual GMAT, your verbal score will not be very high. So, one possible reason for the difference between your verbal scores on practice tests and your verbal score on the real GMAT is that in your preparation, you did not really learn to do what you have to do in order to score high on verbal. Rather, you picked up on some patterns that were effective in getting you relatively high scores on practice tests.

To hit your verbal score goal, you probably have to adjust the way that you have been preparing. You have to focus your preparation on developing skills, such as the use of logic, that you can use to correctly answer GMAT verbal questions regardless of what verbal tricks the test presents to you. To develop those skills, you may need to slow way down in your verbal preparation, and analyze questions and answer choices until you clearly see the logic of questions. In other words, your preparation has to be deeper and has to result in your much more clearly seeing what is going on in verbal questions.

If you’d like more specific advice on how to improve your verbal skills or you have any further questions, feel free to reach out.

Good luck!
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score drop from 770 to 670 - my weird problem [#permalink] New post   21 Feb 2019, 00:06
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sravani101 wrote:
Hello all,
I took my GMAT yesterday and got a shocking score of 670 (Q 49, V 31).. I am totally disappointed because i took all 6 mocks provided by GMAT Prep and got scores of 760 in 5 of them and 770 in the last mock (2 days before the actual exam + no repetitions). I consistently received a verbal score of V 42-44 in all the 6 mocks.I took all mocks in a public library, simulating the exact exam environment and i took all the 4 sections each time and on the exact time of my actual exam. I still cannot come out of the shockingly low GMAT score.

Upon repeated playback of the exam session in my mind, I think the problem is that i just couldn't read the big fonts in the screen, particularly for the verbal section. I have been so much used to smaller screen size , doing all the official works for the past 4 years as well as my GMAT preparation in ‘macbook air’ - which is only around 13 inches in screen size. My exam centre screen size was around 24-28”. I was also sitting relatively close to the screen to avoid any visual distractions. Could this have created such a huge drop in my performance? Is there anyone here who has faced similar problem? In the future attempts, is there a possibility of reducing the screen size while taking the exam using “ctrl + scroll down” option? Or should i get a monitor for myself and start practicing to read and comprehend stuffs in wider screen and bigger fonts?

Additional notes:
I was not at all tensed on the exam day. I just aced through the quants section first without any tension, knew that it went ok , took the 8 minutes break and then sat for verbal section absolutely tension free.
My exam centre was only 20 minutes away from my place of stay and there was no hassle in transportation. I reached 1 hour early for the exam.

I have exhausted all my preparatory materials (Official guides, gmat prep question pack, e-gmat verbal and all manhattan guides) . I self - prepared for the exam and I do not have any tutor. I seriously do not know whom to seek help. I have received some great benefits from this community and i relentlessly hope someone out there might be able to understand my problem and help me with this.


Hi Sravani,

I just wanted to voice my opiniion so that i may help you. Sometimes, when are ready for the test, we tend to conecntrate on absolutely killing it. That sometimnes makes us too excited and we tend to not concentrate on the question at hand. It happened during my first attempt. I was trying to concentrate too much and seriously, I wasn't able to make logical connections/relationships between sentences. I got 700 though. But I was shocked to see a quant score of 49, V35 and IR 5. I had never gotten less than 50 in any of my mocks before in Quant. Also I was expecting around 40 in Verbal. I rescheduled not because it was a bad score, but because I knew I could do better. I scored 750 in my second attempt with improvements in all the three sections. I got a perfect 8 in IR.

I would say it was just not your day. You were probably, just not immersed enough into the question at hand. That's the only reason I can fthink of. I think I got a lower score due to the same issue. Also as some suggested, order the ESL report so you can gauge your performance.

Thanks
Bharadwaj Sangaraju
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score drop from 770 to 670 - my weird problem [#permalink]
21 Feb 2019, 00:06

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