Variations in Quant scores - GMATClub and GMATPrep

Well, I don't know for sure but I guess GMATPrep (official) should give you a better estimate of how your actual performance will be.

And I would agree to this : GMAT questions might seem easy to someone who has been practicing a lot. Not sure laughingly easy or just easy but yeah. The prep tests in general are designed to make you prepare for a tougher side. Though that does not mean they are of bad quality just tougher.

Even I will appreciate inputs as this is a challenging aspect in GMAT

Hi Sanjana0202,

I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as planned. A 670/Q48 is still a strong Score though, so it could be enough to get you into your first-choice School. As such, a retest might not be necessary. 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. There's a Forum full of those Experts here:

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

You seem overly-focused on your Quant performance, but your Verbal performance also dropped on Test Day. 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) How long have you studied? How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) On what 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) What Schools are you planning to apply to?
6) What are the exact application deadlines that you're facing?

You might also choose to purchase the Enhanced Score Report. 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). If you purchase the ESR, then I'll be happy to analyze it for you.

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

Hi EMPOWERgmatRichC,

Thanks for your response! My Verbal score had averaged around V35 in my earlier mocks so I wasn't surprised with my Test Day score. I feel much confident about Verbal now. I'm focused on Quant since I was surprised with the difficulty level of questions on Test Day. I was completely blindsided and performed horribly.

1) How long have you studied? How many hours do you typically study each week?
- For my first attempt, I studied for about 3 months. In the last one month, an average of 16 hours per week.
2) What study materials have you used so far?
- E-gmat for Verbal and GMATClub for Quant. First attempt was OG/Veritas questions.
3) On what 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)?
- 12 November, GMATPrep 3 - 760 (Q51 V41)
- 16 November, GMATPrep 4 - 760 (Q51 V40)
GMATClub Quant tests -
- 5 November, Q43
- 6 November, Q51
- 7 November, Q49
- 9 November, Q46
- 16 November, Q44

Goals:
4) What is your overall goal score?
- 760 Q50 V42
5) What Schools are you planning to apply to?
- Will decide based on my GMAT score
6) What are the exact application deadlines that you're facing?
- January first week.

I did purchase the ESR. In the Verbal section - I had scored 99 percentile in SC while CR and RC were my weak areas. In Quant, Arithmetic and Algebra were both weak. Let me know if you need any additional details.

Thank you so much!

GMATClub tests are good for general practice. There are a variety of questions in there. Whether you should use them to forecast your actual scores is less clear.

Official practice materials are your best guide to question forms that you might see on test day. But you will need additional practice to feel comfortable.

It is less about "believing" in GMATPrep scores and more about how comfortable you feel with your preparation. No single material is a magic guide.

Have you ever tried Manhattan Mocks? They have even tougher/lengthier quant than Gmatclub tests in my opinion. I have scored 50/51 each twice on gmatclub tests but struggled like anything and could not go beyond 47 in 4 Manhattan mocks I gave. So if you want to get prepared for, like the worst day on quant, you can use Manhattan Quant for practice.

All the best.

DV

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Hi Sanjana0202,

To start, the 760+ score is the 99th percentile - meaning that 99% of Test Takers never score that high (regardless of how long they study or the number of times that they take the GMAT). Thankfully, NO Business School requires a score that high - so it's important to realize that the score that you "want" and the score that you "need" are not the same thing.

That type of Score Goal requires an incredibly high level of 'precision', so before we discuss how you might best proceed with your studies, I would like to see your ESR. If you would rather not post it publicly, then you can feel free to PM it directly to me.

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

Hi Sanjana0202,

Since you have been scoring Q51 regularly on official practice exams, I think that you are in a pretty good spot to replicate that score on test day. However, if you’d like to cross all of your T’s and dot of all your I’s, ensuring that you do not have any hidden weak areas in quant, then perhaps you may find it helpful to engage in some focused quant practice. For example, let’s say that you want to practice Number Properties. Answer 50 or more questions just from Number Properties: LCM, GCF, units digit patterns, divisibility, remainders, etc. As you do such practice, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get right. If you got a remainder question wrong, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not properly apply the remainder formula? Was there a concept you did not understand in the question? By carefully analyzing your mistakes, you will be able to efficiently fix your weaknesses and in turn improve your GMAT quant skills. Number Properties is just one example; follow this process for all quant topics.

If you have any further questions, feel free to reach out. Good luck!
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