Hello experts. I'm really suffering from a serious crisis in confidence after sitting for my GMAT this past Tuesday (Dec 5 2017). It's the second time I have taken it and really blew the timing on verbal the first time. My timing was solid this time and really expected a 700+ score. I was flabbergasted and truly shocked to see a 660 flash across the screen (V39 Q42 IR6). This is exactly the same score I received when I canceled my Nov 18 2017 test (V32 Q48 IR8) when I totally bombed the verbal timing and had to rush through the last 10 guessing on many of them. You can imagine my frustration in totally flip-flopping a lower verbal score for a then lower quant score. And I cannot even attribute poor quant performance to timing as I finished with a solid 3-4 minutes on my final q. I feel so demoralized. Ugghh. I have rarely scored this poorly in quant in all of my practice tests. I do not recall many if any missed calculations in PS, so I assume my bad performance was based on silly trap answers and poor DS performance. My personal assessment is also that I keep scheduling the exam for 8:00am telling myself I will be fresh. I only do 5
OG quant and verbal warm up q's the day of exam (in an attempt to keep my mind fresh). And I have always ordered the exam V Q IR AWA, thinking I should start fresh with my strong suit and warm up with verbal, which is most akin to my daily reading. I also read the news before the test, thinking that is a bit of a verbal warm-up as well. I rarely study and have never done practice exams this early. I have usually done practice exams between 10am and 4pm. I study from 10am to as late as 1am. I have done solid 10 hour study blocks (with breaks for eating and other things of course). I do not think fatigue or mental exhaustion is my issue. I do think it is getting enough good warm up and just waking my mind up to do this special task at hand. I have noticed silly mistakes in the first ten q's often- usually much worse (sillier) for Quant. Some things to note about me. I am older candidate. 43 about to turn 44. I have not done math like this in over 20 years. Having said that, I won the NYS State Physics Award in High School and consider myself strong quantitatively nonetheless. But that means that I am fine with a Q48, which I thought had become my baseline. I am now a stronger verbal student and believe I will pick up more additional points there than going from Q48 to 51 (if that's even possible). I practiced as an attorney for years and have taken the LSAT and perform well in verbal. Although I do feel like I have hit a plateau there as well, particularly with CR (specifically with CR Assumption Qs). I have been studying for about 4 months now and my test performance to date is as follows:
Sep 26, 2017
Economist GMAT CAT
550 Q41 V26 IR5
November 14, 2017
GMAT Prep- Exam 1
700 Q47 V39 IR7
November 16, 2017
GMAT Prep- Exam 1
730 Q48 V42 IR8
*(IR not accurate here as the software ran the same exact IR Q's as previous exam. I think this test made me a bit cocky and could not see getting less than this.)
November 18, 2017
ACTUAL GMAT (CANCELED)
660 Q48 V32 IR8
I totally blew the verbal timing (had to fly through and guess most of the last 10. I canceled and booked minimum days out. But continued to study strongly in between.
November 20, 2017
Kaplan CAT 2
700 Q47 V39 IR7
November 21, 2017
MGMAT CAT 1
630 Q40 V36 IR3.66 (it actually gives decimal score- weird)
I chalked this up to 3rd party tests being too hard (as I told myself with all of the following Kaplan and PR exams). This made me frustrated and I cut out 3rd party exams as discouraging and confusing. I did see value in practicing on more difficult problems and therefore time pressures. But as it was getting closer to exam time I was worried the foreign patterns would throw me off and started curtailing 3rd party exam usage. But not until I took 3 more.
November 22, 2017
Kaplan CAT 2
690 Q46 V39 IR7
Kaplan is now going down and I'm getting worried. I would say Kaplan feels most like actual GMAT at this point but a little tougher on grading and some bizarre and tough CR questions.
November 24, 2017
Princeton Review CAT 1
650 Q39 V41 IR4
I told myself their grading is too tough as I had less incorrect responses than GMAT Prep software.
November 28, 2017
Kaplan CAT 3
650 Q45 V34 IR5
At this point I start cursing Kaplan as rigged to get me to sign up and vow to stop using all 3rd party exam software.
For my remaining study time, run tons of question drills from
OG (I have 5 of them) and GMAT Club quizzes and forum Qs. Read a few things like excerpts from Sackman's Total GMAT Verbal, but focus of study is mostly question drills. I felt good going into my exam on Dec 5 and tapered studying and relaxed and meditated a lot. Ate a good breakfast the morning of but I normally cannot sleep that well the day before the scheduled tests (usually bouncing up at 4am or so). I only do 5 verbal and 5 quant Qs to warm up.
December 5, 2017
ACTUAL GMAT
660 Q42 V39 IR6
To be honest performance is not necessarily out of range (on the low end). If you can be up or down 30 points on any given exam, then I'm probably a 690/700 scorer who under stressful exam conditions is performing on the lower end of that range. I do however feel it is not reflective of my skillset and the amount of study time I have put in. I FEEL like with the stars aligned I can hit 750. I have always been a 90+% performer on standardized tests. But I also do not feel like I have "cracked" the GMAT. I've had some aha moments in Quant and SC, but still find myself missing or feeling squeamish around inequalities and absolute values- something my actual exams drilled. I don't feel like I have gotten behind the exam's psychology and do not believe I am good at spotting trap answers as evidence of this. I also feel like I've hit a bit of a plateau on CR. I can get them all right or miss 5 (sometimes "easy" ones). Performance there seems a bit random.
Some expert advice would be greatly appreciated. Please know that I have not taken any course and much of my study regimen owes a great debt of gratitude to blogs and forum posts of experts such as:
Mike McGarry
Bunuel
Scott Woodbury-Stewart at Target Prep
Mitch Hunt
and many many more.
Thank you! Any advice from any experts would be greatly appreciated.
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Updated on: 09 Dec 2017, 22:54
