Quant score dropped from Q44 to Q35 after many hours of studying

Question

Hi everyone,

I am taking the GMAT on 3rd of January 2020 with the following goal Q47 V41 720. I did some practice tests back in October with the following the results:

MGMAT Q38 V35 610
ECONOMIST Q42 V35 640
GMAC (official) Q44 V34 640

After those tests I decided to work my way through the quant part of the OG2020 and created a detailed error log for all the questions I found difficult and made sure I understand them. After a month and around 75 hours of studying I finished all the quant questions and I felt like I have learned a lot so I took more practice tests with the following results:

GMAC (official) Q35 V27 530
GMAC (official) Q35 V33 570

As you can see, my quant score dropped significantly during this month and I am super confused how this is even possible and now I am super freaked out since the exam is in less than 3 weeks. My initial plan was to simple focus on verbal from now on but I guess that might not be the smartest idea anymore.

I would appreciate to hear your thoughts if you have been in a similar situation or if you have some advice. Any kind of input is welcomed

Thank you guys!!

madgmat2019 · Answer

Is the difference because you left quant totally between these two tests?

16095148D · Answer

Hi madgmat2019,

Thank you for your reply.

Actually I spent 75 hours on quant exclusively between those two tests. I went through all the quant questions from the OG2020 and created a detailed error log where I wrote down all the questions I struggled with. I redid all of those questions several times and understand why I got them wrong. I have to say that I felt very confident and felt like I had learned a lot before I scored the Q35. But apparently that was not the case as my scores dropped so much...

Any advice for now?

rohan2345 · Answer

Hi 16095148D,

Welcome to GMATCLUB!Sorry to hear about your experience. I believe you need to solidify your base. If you feel you are weak in Quant, you should definitely try on improving your Quant score. For Quant, you can consider TTP. It is a very well designed course and covers the entire syllabus really well. It will certainly help you solidify your base as well. I must add that if you are particularly looking to discover and improve on your weak areas in Quant; a subscription to GMATCLUB tests is the best way to do that. They are indeed phenomenal and will not only pinpoint your weak areas but also help you improve on them.

To improve your scores in verbal, you can consider e-gmat verbal online or the e-gmat verbal live course. They are both amazing courses especially designed for non-natives. They offer almost 25% of their courses for free so you can try out their free trial to decide which one you want to go for. Plus the e-gmat Scholaranium which is included in both the courses is one of the best verbal practice tools in the market. You can easily track your progress in that you can identify your strengths and analyze and improve on your weak areas.

Further taking multiple mocks might help. Apart from the GMATPREP, Manhattan GMAT tests and Veritas Prep Tests in my experience have good verbal and Quant section and will certainly help you point out and improve your weak areas.

I would also encourage you to purchase the official GMAT questions from mba.com for some great additional practice. Further you should also consider LSAT Questions for some great RC practice.

Hope this helps. All the best.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi 16095148D,

I’m glad you reached out, and I’m happy to help. Looking at your study routine, I see that you are following a plan that I call “practice first and figure the rest out later.” In other words, you are doing practice problems before understanding the concepts on which those problems are based, and thus you are trying to learn solely from reading solutions to problems. Following such a study plan will lead to disorganized studying and ultimately hold you back from improving your quant and verbal skills. Thus, in addition to using your current resources, you may consider using a resource that allows you FIRST to learn the concepts and strategies related to GMAT quant and verbal and SECOND to practice with a large number of realistic questions. As has been suggested, since you need quant help TTP would be perfect for you. We offer a 5-day trial, so feel free to check out the course in detail.

Lastly, you may find it helpful to read the following article:

how to score a 700+ on the GMAT

Feel free to reach out with any further questions.

Good luck!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi 16095148D,

One of the reasons why Business Schools put a lot of emphasis on each Applicant's GMAT Score is because the GMAT is remarkably good at giving you the Score that you EARN. Based on your prior CAT scores, you probably have the capacity to score higher than these recent Q35s, but you did you do enough work on those CATs to earn a higher Score?

"Review" is an exceptionally important part of the GMAT training process; your ability to define WHY you're getting questions wrong is essential to defining the areas that you need to work on (and the specific things that you need to 'fix'). As such, I'd like to know a bit more about your last CAT. While a full Mistake Tracker would provide a lot more information, there are some basic questions that you should be able to answer (and the more EXACT you can be with your answers, the better):

After reviewing each section of this recent CAT, how many questions did you get wrong....
1) Because of a silly/little mistake?
2) Because there was some math/verbal that you just could not remember how to do?
3) Because the question was too hard?
4) Because you were low on time and had to guess?
5) How many Verbal questions did you 'narrow down to 2 choices' but still get wrong?

Before I can offer you any additional advice for your studies, 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 besides the Official Guide?

Goals:
3) When is your exact Test Date? 
4) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
5) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi 16095148D.

I have a theory for you.

Here's the thing.

When you take a math test in school, the questions that you see on the test look at lot like the questions you saw in the homework. So, if you totally understand how to get all of the homework questions correct, likely you will get a high score on the test.

The GMAT is different. Even the quant part is a test of reasoning skills. So, when you take GMAT quant, you aren't really taking a math test. You are taking a test that involves math but also tests reasoning skills, and knowing how to answer the OG questions is not at all guaranteed to get you a high score on GMAT quant, because, unlike the questions on a normal math test, the tests on the GMAT often won't look that much like questions that you have seen in the homework, i.e., in the OG.

So, here's my theory. When you took a practice test before preparing, you didn't know what to expect. So, you used your math skills and your reasoning skills, and scored Q44. THEN, you prepared for GMAT quant as if it were a math test, by working on OG questions. Having done so, you got into your mind that what you would see on the test would be like what you had seen in practice, but what you saw on the test was not like what you saw in practice. It had different tricks and twists, and you both didn't know how to handle them and had preconceived notions of what you would see having focused on the OG questions for so long. So, maybe you developed the appropriate math skills a bit, but you didn't use your reasoning skills as well as you had used them on your first practice tests, and your scores on the last two tests reflect that change.

So, what's the answer? Part of the answer is for you to do what others here have suggested and build a broader and deeper skillset by learning GMAT quant from the ground up. Also, you have to go beyond using OG questions for practice and use a much greater variety of questions, so that you go beyond learning GMAT math to learning how to apply that math in a large variety of situations. Finally, I believe that another part of the answer is that you have to remember that GMAT quant is not just a math test but also a test of reasoning and execution skills and prepare accordingly.

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Quant score dropped from Q44 to Q35 after many hours of studying

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