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Suprisingly LOW VERBAL score.

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lostbook
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Suprisingly LOW VERBAL score. [#permalink] New post   23 Feb 2018, 09:32
So I gave the gmat today for the first time and was very surprised to find that I got a v18. My total score was 510 ( Q43 V18).

I was consistently scoring v30 to v34 in the mgmat and other mocks, expect for one mock ( v24) but thought maybe it was a more difficult test. I did the gmatclub free verbal mock, which I had read was actually a bit harder but still scored a v32.

I prepared for about 3 months covering all the mgmat books. Did about 7 mocks but did not have time to complete all OG questions for verbal. I was in fact more concerned about my Quants score as it isn't my greatest strength, and the Q43 in the actual exam was the best I've scored. But the verbal score is a complete shocker. I mean, it's so ridiculously low that I am just confused rather than disappointed.

Any possible explanations to this ?? I know I have to work on SC, I was scoring v30 to v33 mostly with a decent intuition rather than anything.Was fairly comfortable with CR and RC, although I'm sure I should have terribly screwed up there as well to get a v18. How do I prevent this from happening again?

I have about a month left for another exam and I hope to increase my Q43 to Q45 and get a v36 atleast. I know expecting a v36 after scoring v18 seems senseless but again, I scored better on verbal than quants in almost every single mock test I have attempted( including the gmat prep mock 1, scoring v30 even before starting any preparation!!). I just don't understand this. Help!
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luizsetti
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Re: Suprisingly LOW VERBAL score. [#permalink] New post   23 Feb 2018, 10:41
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Hey there, I have a few questions:

1. Were you able to answer all questions in the verbal section within the given time? Not answering questions or guessing multiple questions in a row impact scores heavily, specially if the guessing occurs early on or at the very end of the GMAT.

2. Were you nervous during the exam? Anxiety often causes test-takers to lose focus and score poorly relative to scores obtained from mock exams.

3. Could you just have had a bad day? I took the exam two times, back-to-back, with 3-months of prep. I scored 680 on the first and 740 on the second. I didn't study enough in the 7 days between them to justify the score discrepancy. I simply had a bad day and then a I had good day.

My strength was definitely the verbal section. My advice to you is to purchase one of the GMAT guides. I bought the one from The Economist and I was very satisfied with it (they do have a trial period).

Hope it helps and best of luck to you!
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lostbook
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Suprisingly LOW VERBAL score. [#permalink] New post   23 Feb 2018, 10:58
Hey thanks for the reply luizsetti.
To answer your questions,

1. Yes, I was able to complete the verbal section in time. Although I felt maybe I guessed the last two. I did the verbal section first as that order helped me get the best possible Verbal score during the mocks. I was confident on getting a stable Quant score, although not very high.

2.I can't say I was nervous as such. Maybe looking back at those 75 minutes, I could say was just " not sure" of a particular answer, but again I always had the same feeling while doing verbal.
3. Well, I guess!! (the v18 definetly backs that up, lol).

But this was indeed very very unexpected. I mean, it just does not sum up. I was scoring 590s in my tests (with Q40 at max) so I knew I could get to 600, with a decent showing. If the Q43 suprised in a good way, then the verbal...I don't know. I guess it's just one of those days then.

Few things I am planning to do before I attempt to take the next test a month later, would be to check out Ron purewall's videos and also solve and analysis more OG18 stuff. I have already went through the ( very comprehensive) MGMAT guides. I'll have a look at the economist's guide as you mentioned. Thanks for the feedback.Cheers!!
Still very very perplexed, though....
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Re: Suprisingly LOW VERBAL score. [#permalink] New post   23 Feb 2018, 11:11
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lostbook wrote:
So I gave the gmat today for the first time and was very surprised to find that I got a v18. My total score was 510 ( Q43 V18).

I was consistently scoring v30 to v34 in the mgmat and other mocks, expect for one mock ( v24) but thought maybe it was a more difficult test. I did the gmatclub free verbal mock, which I had read was actually a bit harder but still scored a v32.

I prepared for about 3 months covering all the mgmat books. Did about 7 mocks but did not have time to complete all OG questions for verbal. I was in fact more concerned about my Quants score as it isn't my greatest strength, and the Q43 in the actual exam was the best I've scored. But the verbal score is a complete shocker. I mean, it's so ridiculously low that I am just confused rather than disappointed.

Any possible explanations to this ?? I know I have to work on SC, I was scoring v30 to v33 mostly with a decent intuition rather than anything.Was fairly comfortable with CR and RC, although I'm sure I should have terribly screwed up there as well to get a v18. How do I prevent this from happening again?

I have about a month left for another exam and I hope to increase my Q43 to Q45 and get a v36 atleast. I know expecting a v36 after scoring v18 seems senseless but again, I scored better on verbal than quants in almost every single mock test I have attempted( including the gmat prep mock 1, scoring v30 even before starting any preparation!!). I just don't understand this. Help!


I suggest you get your ESR as soon as possible. Though with V18 I believe you have scope of improvement in every areas, I think with ESR you can identify your weakest area and work on it(rather than working on assumptions).

Also its very important you complete all the OG and GMATPREP questions. They are the retired original GMAT questions and best reflect the actual GMAT. You can ignore other questions (questions from MGMAT or other preps), but you must not skip OG and GMATPREP questions. In fact, these are actually what one needs to ace the exam.
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lostbook
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Suprisingly LOW VERBAL score. [#permalink] New post   25 Feb 2018, 01:11
So I did get my esr and I guess I have an idea of what actually happened. My accuracy in the verbal section in the second and third quarter of the test was 71%. But the accuracy in the last quarter of the section was only 25%. I've probably answered only 3 out of 11 correctly.

I think that explains things. The difficulty of the questions was medium throughout. Getting something like 7 or 8 questions wrong in a row, towards the end, would have exponentially reduced my verbal score. I guess I was in a bit of time pressure.

I used up a lot of time in the second quarter of the section (2 min 27 average) and had to push through to make up for the lost time ( 1m 27 - 3rd quarter; 1m 23 - 4th quarter). Was still able to score with 71% accuracy in the 3rd quarter but couldn't keep it up in the final quarter.

I suppose time management might have been a major factor here. My exam literally fell apart in a space of 12-13 minutes!
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Re: Suprisingly LOW VERBAL score. [#permalink] New post   25 Feb 2018, 09:24
Hi!

I'd recommend concentrating on official questions from OG. You can download additional official questions from GMATprep here and here.


.
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Re: Suprisingly LOW VERBAL score. [#permalink] New post   25 Feb 2018, 12:30
lostbook wrote:
So I did get my esr and I guess I have an idea of what actually happened. My accuracy in the verbal section in the second and third quarter of the test was 71%. But the accuracy in the last quarter of the section was only 25%. I've probably answered only 3 out of 11 correctly.

I think that explains things. The difficulty of the questions was medium throughout. Getting something like 7 or 8 questions wrong in a row, towards the end, would have exponentially reduced my verbal score. I guess I was in a bit of time pressure.

I used up a lot of time in the second quarter of the section (2 min 27 average) and had to push through to make up for the lost time ( 1m 27 - 3rd quarter; 1m 23 - 4th quarter). Was still able to score with 71% accuracy in the 3rd quarter but couldn't keep it up in the final quarter.

I suppose time management might have been a major factor here. My exam literally fell apart in a space of 12-13 minutes!


Time and stress management in really crucial for GMAT. you need to train your body and mind for this. empowerGMAT has some really great tips and guidance for time and stress management. Opt for a trial version and checkout if that is helpful for you. Best of luck :thumbup:
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Re: Suprisingly LOW VERBAL score. [#permalink] New post   25 Feb 2018, 15:48
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Hi lostbook,

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 at the same time of day as when you plan to take your Official GMAT?
4) 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.)?
5) Did you ever take a CAT more than once? Had you seen any of the questions BEFORE (re: in an online forum or in a practice set)?

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Re: Suprisingly LOW VERBAL score. [#permalink]
25 Feb 2018, 15:48

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