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justalmost
Current Student
Joined: 10 Nov 2017
Last visit: 21 Jan 2021
Posts: 12
Given Kudos: 9
Location: United States (PA)
Schools: HBS '21 Anderson '23 (A$) Haas '23 (WL) Stanford '23 (D) Wharton '23 (D) Tuck '23 (A$) Kellogg '23 (A) Sloan '23 (WL) Tepper '23 (A$) Ross '23 (WL)
GMAT 1: 790 Q51 V51
GPA: 3.2
Products:
Schools: HBS '21 Anderson '23 (A$) Haas '23 (WL) Stanford '23 (D) Wharton '23 (D) Tuck '23 (A$) Kellogg '23 (A) Sloan '23 (WL) Tepper '23 (A$) Ross '23 (WL)
GMAT 1: 790 Q51 V51
Posts: 12
10 Nov 2017, 08:12
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi all,
Prior to touching on the questions I have about scoring, I will go ahead and share my experience.
Background: I am a 24 year old American male born and raised in the US. For my undergrad I went to MIT where I received a bachelors in ChemE. I currently work in oil and gas as an engineer.
First off, let me say that I am over the moon at having achieved this score. Seeing that pop up on the screen at the conclusion of the test left me floating on a cloud the remainder of the weekend.
I achieved this score on my first (and conclusively last) official GMAT test. My prep in the two months prior was mostly via the Veritas Prep course but at the beginning I used a Kaplan book I purchased prior to signing up for the Veritas course. All in all I took 9 practice tests between Kaplan, Veritas, and GMAC and my baseline with zero prep was a Q49 V40 720 score on a Kaplan test. I estimate that my personal time sunk into all GMAT prep including the 6 week, 6hrs/wk class was ~120 hrs. My quant score was consistently near perfect from the start so I put about 2/3 of my study time into the verbal section, particularly on sentence correction. I continued to sink time into the quant section to get comfortable enough with the material to avoid mental fatigue prior to the verbal section. I did every single sentence correction question in the Veritas Prep question bank and reviewed the questions I got wrong on two separate occasions. I took the test last weekend so I have still not received the official score report with my AWA score.
To those scoring highly from the start and questioning the value of a prep course, I would recommend reconsidering your stance. I was initially planning to solely self study, but after flat lining on my test scores right off the bat (I only went from 720 to 730 on the first three practice tests) I decided to sign up for the Vertias course and I am very glad I did. I can't speak for all prep courses or even for all Veritas instructors, but my instructor was exceedingly helpful in getting me to the next level of understanding the GMAT. Looking at the GMAT from the perspective of the GMAT test maker that is trying to create questions and answers that most strongly reward logical thinking and mental trap avoidance, and then internalizing that perspective completely such that I could "feel out" the questions and answers was, I believe, fundamental to my success on the GMAT.
Every person is different, so maybe self study will work out for some as well as a class, but the $2000 I spent on the in person course against the total real and opportunity cost of an MBA of ~$250,000 I believe will prove to be a worthwhile expenditure.
On the day of, I awoke at 430am before my 800am test. I normally wake up between 4am and 5am since I typically start work before 6am, so this was a normal time for me. I can't recommend someone get up at 4-5am before an 8am test if they never do so normally, but certainly if you can adjust your sleep schedule to that time period the week prior if you have an 8am test, it should be well worth it. My understanding is that mental performance fully gears up ~2-3 hours after waking. I have been on a ketogenic diet for 2.5 months now (unrelated to the GMAT) which may have helped with my focus. I have noticed at work that my focus and energy is higher and less erratic on the ketogenic diet, plus the distraction of hunger is greatly subdued. My breakfast consisted of a bulletproof-ish coffee (coffee, MCT oil, half and half) that I normally consume every day in the AM, along with a protein/amino acid smoothie (frozen berries, protein, MCT oil, BCAAs, creatine, kale, water) that I normally consume later in the day. I did not eat anything else an hour before or during my test. I had a second bulletproof-ish coffee with me during the test that I consumed in equal portions during each of the two breaks.
During the breaks I went to the bathroom each time and did some deep breathing exercises. I found the deep breathing exercises and semi-meditation in those breaks to be extraordinarily helpful in clearing and refreshing my mind.
Other than that, I can say that the practice also paid off in terms of my mental state during the exam. I scored a 770 on the GMAC practice exam the weekend prior to the exam and I know I perform better under pressure, so my mentality was that I assumed I would be happy with my score since I was shooting for a 760. At the same time I really badly wanted to score as high as humanly possible. The practice also seemed to help with my timing. I did not watch the timer much during testing or think much about timing but I completed the quant section with a healthy amount of time to spare, and the verbal section with only 3 minutes to spare. I was about as calm, focused, and energized as I could hope to be.
On to my questions about scoring:
I received a Q51, V50 and per my enhanced score report I got one question wrong on the quant section and zero questions wrong on the verbal section.
You can understand my confusion on the verbal section scoring...
On every sub section of the verbal, the enhanced score report stated that I scored a 51, yet my overall score came out to a 50. I don't understand how this is possible given that the overall score should exceed the average of the sub sections. I.e. 90th percentile on two separate tests is not 90th percentile overall for the population taking both tests, it is usually substantially higher since scores between tests do not perfectly correlate. If they did perfectly correlate it would be still be 90th percentile. Scoring 51 on all subsections and a 50 overall, to me atleast, seems non sensical.
Besides the sub section scores and full section scores not aligning, the fact that I got every single question correct but did not get a perfect seems to imply a V51 is not possible, or I got "unlucky" and did not get difficult enough questions to test at a V51 level, but if the questions were not difficult enough to deserve a V51 this still begs the question how I could get 51s on every verbal subsection...
Does anyone have any thoughts on how this verbal scoring is possible?
Besides that, all of the scoring charts I have seen, including from articles posted a few months ago, show the cutoff for an 800 with a Q51 to be a V49. Perhaps there is not much focus on accuracy of scoring at the far upper end of the score range for these charts? In any case, my most pressing question is reconciling how my verbal score can be sensible and determining whether or not to reach out to the makers of the GMAT about it. I am waiting on the official score report to see if the discrepancy remains unresolved.
Best of luck to all!
Prior to touching on the questions I have about scoring, I will go ahead and share my experience.
Background: I am a 24 year old American male born and raised in the US. For my undergrad I went to MIT where I received a bachelors in ChemE. I currently work in oil and gas as an engineer.
First off, let me say that I am over the moon at having achieved this score. Seeing that pop up on the screen at the conclusion of the test left me floating on a cloud the remainder of the weekend.
I achieved this score on my first (and conclusively last) official GMAT test. My prep in the two months prior was mostly via the Veritas Prep course but at the beginning I used a Kaplan book I purchased prior to signing up for the Veritas course. All in all I took 9 practice tests between Kaplan, Veritas, and GMAC and my baseline with zero prep was a Q49 V40 720 score on a Kaplan test. I estimate that my personal time sunk into all GMAT prep including the 6 week, 6hrs/wk class was ~120 hrs. My quant score was consistently near perfect from the start so I put about 2/3 of my study time into the verbal section, particularly on sentence correction. I continued to sink time into the quant section to get comfortable enough with the material to avoid mental fatigue prior to the verbal section. I did every single sentence correction question in the Veritas Prep question bank and reviewed the questions I got wrong on two separate occasions. I took the test last weekend so I have still not received the official score report with my AWA score.
To those scoring highly from the start and questioning the value of a prep course, I would recommend reconsidering your stance. I was initially planning to solely self study, but after flat lining on my test scores right off the bat (I only went from 720 to 730 on the first three practice tests) I decided to sign up for the Vertias course and I am very glad I did. I can't speak for all prep courses or even for all Veritas instructors, but my instructor was exceedingly helpful in getting me to the next level of understanding the GMAT. Looking at the GMAT from the perspective of the GMAT test maker that is trying to create questions and answers that most strongly reward logical thinking and mental trap avoidance, and then internalizing that perspective completely such that I could "feel out" the questions and answers was, I believe, fundamental to my success on the GMAT.
Every person is different, so maybe self study will work out for some as well as a class, but the $2000 I spent on the in person course against the total real and opportunity cost of an MBA of ~$250,000 I believe will prove to be a worthwhile expenditure.
On the day of, I awoke at 430am before my 800am test. I normally wake up between 4am and 5am since I typically start work before 6am, so this was a normal time for me. I can't recommend someone get up at 4-5am before an 8am test if they never do so normally, but certainly if you can adjust your sleep schedule to that time period the week prior if you have an 8am test, it should be well worth it. My understanding is that mental performance fully gears up ~2-3 hours after waking. I have been on a ketogenic diet for 2.5 months now (unrelated to the GMAT) which may have helped with my focus. I have noticed at work that my focus and energy is higher and less erratic on the ketogenic diet, plus the distraction of hunger is greatly subdued. My breakfast consisted of a bulletproof-ish coffee (coffee, MCT oil, half and half) that I normally consume every day in the AM, along with a protein/amino acid smoothie (frozen berries, protein, MCT oil, BCAAs, creatine, kale, water) that I normally consume later in the day. I did not eat anything else an hour before or during my test. I had a second bulletproof-ish coffee with me during the test that I consumed in equal portions during each of the two breaks.
During the breaks I went to the bathroom each time and did some deep breathing exercises. I found the deep breathing exercises and semi-meditation in those breaks to be extraordinarily helpful in clearing and refreshing my mind.
Other than that, I can say that the practice also paid off in terms of my mental state during the exam. I scored a 770 on the GMAC practice exam the weekend prior to the exam and I know I perform better under pressure, so my mentality was that I assumed I would be happy with my score since I was shooting for a 760. At the same time I really badly wanted to score as high as humanly possible. The practice also seemed to help with my timing. I did not watch the timer much during testing or think much about timing but I completed the quant section with a healthy amount of time to spare, and the verbal section with only 3 minutes to spare. I was about as calm, focused, and energized as I could hope to be.
On to my questions about scoring:
I received a Q51, V50 and per my enhanced score report I got one question wrong on the quant section and zero questions wrong on the verbal section.
You can understand my confusion on the verbal section scoring...
On every sub section of the verbal, the enhanced score report stated that I scored a 51, yet my overall score came out to a 50. I don't understand how this is possible given that the overall score should exceed the average of the sub sections. I.e. 90th percentile on two separate tests is not 90th percentile overall for the population taking both tests, it is usually substantially higher since scores between tests do not perfectly correlate. If they did perfectly correlate it would be still be 90th percentile. Scoring 51 on all subsections and a 50 overall, to me atleast, seems non sensical.
Besides the sub section scores and full section scores not aligning, the fact that I got every single question correct but did not get a perfect seems to imply a V51 is not possible, or I got "unlucky" and did not get difficult enough questions to test at a V51 level, but if the questions were not difficult enough to deserve a V51 this still begs the question how I could get 51s on every verbal subsection...
Does anyone have any thoughts on how this verbal scoring is possible?
Besides that, all of the scoring charts I have seen, including from articles posted a few months ago, show the cutoff for an 800 with a Q51 to be a V49. Perhaps there is not much focus on accuracy of scoring at the far upper end of the score range for these charts? In any case, my most pressing question is reconciling how my verbal score can be sensible and determining whether or not to reach out to the makers of the GMAT about it. I am waiting on the official score report to see if the discrepancy remains unresolved.
Best of luck to all!
10 Nov 2017, 08:54
Kudos
Bookmarks
wow that is pretty impressive!
Congrats on getting an almost perfect score!!!
I would advise contacting GMAC to clarify the Verbal part though...no mistakes, yet the score is not perfect...something is not right.
Congrats on getting an almost perfect score!!!
I would advise contacting GMAC to clarify the Verbal part though...no mistakes, yet the score is not perfect...something is not right.
10 Nov 2017, 09:00
Kudos
Bookmarks
justalmost
Hey, Congrats on your tremondous score.
If you don't mind, can you share your ESR.
I think you should mail GMAC and see if they resolve this, maybe you will get bumped to 800. because i don't think you will get less than 51 without making any mistake.
