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Practice tests all ~700....disaster on test day

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DJ2012
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Practice tests all ~700....disaster on test day [#permalink] New post   29 May 2012, 06:55
Hi all,

Long time lurker but haven't posted. Was hoping for some feedback here if anyone has had a similar experience.

I studied hard for about three months, using mostly MGMAT and OG materials as as well as questions on this forum. Below are my practice scores from different CATS (all taken under strict timing conditions etc).

MGMAT 1: 720 Q45 V41
MGMAT 2: 700 Q40 V45
MGMAT 3: 690 Q43 V40
MGMAT 4: 720 Q47 V41
MGMAT 5: 710 Q45 V41

GMAT PREP 1: 670 Q40 V41
GMAT PREP 2: 660 Q40 V40

I retook the GMAT prep quant sections a few times by themselves since those scores were so much lower and got a Q46 and Q47 with only a couple repeated questions. I felt like I was ready and would be right about 700 on the test.

Took the real GMAT...and got a 580 (Q32 V37).

So I have no idea what happened. I wasn't overly nervous, I paced myself well and thought it was actually going pretty well (though I did obviously notice I wasn't getting very difficult quant questions).

Anyways, I'm at a loss. I have to take again in 6 weeks or so, and wanted to reach out to see if anyone had any advice. Is it possible that the real GMAT is just very different than all the practice tests (Gmat Prep included?) or is it way more likely that I just made a ton of stupid mistakes? Trying to figure out how to get it together and study again.

Thanks for any replies.
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tobud
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Re: Practice tests all ~700....disaster on test day [#permalink] New post   29 May 2012, 07:47
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I feel your pain. I was consistently scoring over 700 on all of my practice tests, and my quant score was generally in the low 40s. When I took the real GMAT I got a 600 (Q29! V44) and was completely devastated. At that point I decided to stop taking the MGMAT tests, which are completely useless in my opinion, and dedicated two weeks to Jeff Sackmann's Math Bible and problem sets. When I took the test again a month later, I got a 680 and raised my quant score to 44. I attribute almost all of my quant success to those problem sets. Sackmann's explanations are the best I've seen and will prepare you for every question you'll see. If I had had more time, I'm sure would have gotten my quant score up to 47-48. The sets are kind of expensive, but they're well worth it in my opinion. I hope that helps.
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Re: Practice tests all ~700....disaster on test day [#permalink] New post   29 May 2012, 09:32
tobud wrote:
I feel your pain. I was consistently scoring over 700 on all of my practice tests, and my quant score was generally in the low 40s. When I took the real GMAT I got a 600 (Q29! V44) and was completely devastated. At that point I decided to stop taking the MGMAT tests, which are completely useless in my opinion, and dedicated two weeks to Jeff Sackmann's Math Bible and problem sets. When I took the test again a month later, I got a 680 and raised my quant score to 44. I attribute almost all of my quant success to those problem sets. Sackmann's explanations are the best I've seen and will prepare you for every question you'll see. If I had had more time, I'm sure would have gotten my quant score up to 47-48. The sets are kind of expensive, but they're well worth it in my opinion. I hope that helps.



Thanks alot. That is helpful to know. I have read good things about those problem sets. Still not sure what caused the crazy Quant score, but hopefully this will help and is doable in 6 weeks.
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Re: Practice tests all ~700....disaster on test day [#permalink] New post   29 May 2012, 11:02
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There is a strong possibility that you just had a bad test day. Obviously you'll retake it. At this point, it would probably be suggested to just review all of your material. There are some CAT exams you can take in the meanwhile. Also, if you've been scoring in the 700 on your practice exams, try the GMAT Club Tests. They don't cost too much and have generally had great reviews.

You can find additional CAT exams here: all-gmat-cat-practice-tests-links-prices-reviews-77460.html?fl=menu
You can buy the GMAT Club Tests here: https://gmatclub.com/tests/?fl=menu
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Re: Practice tests all ~700....disaster on test day [#permalink] New post   29 May 2012, 13:00
jxatrillion wrote:
There is a strong possibility that you just had a bad test day. Obviously you'll retake it. At this point, it would probably be suggested to just review all of your material. There are some CAT exams you can take in the meanwhile. Also, if you've been scoring in the 700 on your practice exams, try the GMAT Club Tests. They don't cost too much and have generally had great reviews.


Thanks for the advice. I definitely had a bad day - but the level of the Quant drop makes me feel like maybe I didn't have fundamentals down, and the number of errors allowed by the MGMAT software, while still providing difficult questions, gave me a false sense of security (although my GMAT Prep scores were still 100 points higher than exam). Do the GMAT club tests provide explanations? Either way, thanks for the reply.
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Re: Practice tests all ~700....disaster on test day [#permalink] New post   29 May 2012, 13:10
DJ2012 wrote:
Do the GMAT club tests provide explanations? Either way, thanks for the reply.


They absolutely do. From what I've read, they're very good although it does assume that you have a strong foundation in the GMAT quant already.
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Re: Practice tests all ~700....disaster on test day [#permalink] New post   29 May 2012, 15:32
Your Q32 should prove to you--like my 29 proved to me--that you haven't mastered the basics. The sets I mentioned before cover all content areas and have questions at all difficulty levels, allowing you to master the basics before you move on to the hard stuff. From what I understand, the GMAT club tests have only 600- and 700-level questions. Those questions won't be relevant to you if can't get the easier questions right.
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Re: Practice tests all ~700....disaster on test day [#permalink] New post   30 May 2012, 03:53
tobud wrote:
Your Q32 should prove to you--like my 29 proved to me--that you haven't mastered the basics. The sets I mentioned before cover all content areas and have questions at all difficulty levels, allowing you to master the basics before you move on to the hard stuff. From what I understand, the GMAT club tests have only 600- and 700-level questions. Those questions won't be relevant to you if can't get the easier questions right.


You're absolutely right. I'm going to follow your advice with Jeff Sackmann's material. Thanks again.
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Re: Practice tests all ~700....disaster on test day [#permalink] New post   30 May 2012, 21:13
Makes me worried that you're saying the MGMAT tests are useless...the last 2 weeks of my testing has basically been taking MGMAT CATs and studying all the problems right or wrong.
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Re: Practice tests all ~700....disaster on test day [#permalink] New post   30 May 2012, 22:08
I would also highly recommend the GMAT Club tests. They easily had the highest impact on my quant score. Very useful for random and repetitive test questions, which I found as the key tactic to a high score.
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Re: Practice tests all ~700....disaster on test day [#permalink] New post   31 May 2012, 04:39
Cares wrote:
Makes me worried that you're saying the MGMAT tests are useless...the last 2 weeks of my testing has basically been taking MGMAT CATs and studying all the problems right or wrong.


I wouldn't worry about it. I think most people actually do better on the real GMAT Quant than the MGMAT Quant which is supposed to be harder. For me, I think the major difference is that it's easier to get harder questions on the MGMAT (they keep feeding you high difficulty questions) whereas Gmat Prep and the actual GMAT it appears harder to get the more difficult questions, especially if you miss easier ones early like I obviously did.
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Re: Practice tests all ~700....disaster on test day [#permalink] New post   16 Jul 2012, 11:29
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Just wanted to check back in - followed the advice of the folks here and ended up with a 720 on my second attempt (Q45 V44). Would definitely recommend "Total GMAT Math" and the GMAT club tests. I guess my first score was a fluke after all - thanks for the support!
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Re: Practice tests all ~700....disaster on test day [#permalink] New post   17 Jul 2012, 08:58
DJ2012 wrote:
Just wanted to check back in - followed the advice of the folks here and ended up with a 720 on my second attempt (Q45 V44). Would definitely recommend "Total GMAT Math" and the GMAT club tests. I guess my first score was a fluke after all - thanks for the support!


Hey there...congrats on getting a good score. I am kind of where you were a few months back. After doing well in practice tests I scored a 620 ~ 80 average points below my practice scores. Hopefully, I'll be able to mimic your success..
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Re: Practice tests all ~700....disaster on test day [#permalink]
17 Jul 2012, 08:58

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