Hi guys,

this is my first post, after the very first one I deleted because it was a redundant question. Anyway, here's my question:

Is it possible that my score dropped 30 points after one month of intense study?

Last month I tried the test on the economist site getting a very low 550 therefore I decided to put myself 100% in the challenge, to study around 18h per week and manage to finish all the mgmat books in one month, doing extra exercises on the gmac prep books from last week. My impression was to really get the questions, to "feel" the click while doing the exercise, so my confidence grew till yesterday... A 520 on the kaplan test. What I've noticed is:

1. I could not finish all the questions in the time I got while the previous time I finished all the tasks 10 minutes earlier.
2. I tried the entire exam with the essay and the integrated reasoning, while the previous time it was a straight V+Q test.

Do you think I should start studying on different textbooks (Jeff Sackmann or kaplan) to increase the theory, or maybe just work on the timing... I need a strategy and right now I'm confused and not sure what to focus on.

Any comment would help, thank you!

Alessio

Practice tests of two different prep companies are not comparable. If you have completed the entire curriculum once, you are set to take an official practice test from mba.com. It will give you a better idea of the score you can expect at this point. You must take the test with AWA and IR and just 8 min breaks - for it to be realistic.

Plan a strategy once you have taken this test. Put together the analysis of all three tests you have taken this far. Get back with the details of this practice test and we can give you more relevant advice.
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Hi alefal,

Sorry to hear about your experience with GMAT Tutor. 18 hours per week sounds like an intense amount of studying, though. I'm curious to know if you're feeling at all burnt out by your GMAT prep. The residual wear and exhaustion you're likely experience could be having a huge impact on your timing during practice exams. We actually wrote about this recently on our blog, which you can check out here: http://bit.ly/1QXj1g8

Also, I'm curious to know more about the following:

1) What is your target score?
2) When are you planning on applying for business school?

Best,
Rich
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Hi Rich,

I definitely felt exhausted last week, consider that one evening I couldn't do anything at all apart from sleeping from 6p.m. to 9p.m. and from 10p.m. to 6a.m. again. Definitely a bit burnt, mainly for the RC and CR, less for SC which I have interest in as I used to be a grammar nazi in italian and I'm planning to get the title back for a different language. What I noticed after the training is that while doing the exercises I could feel the "click" to the right approach, that is what inflated my expectations.

For the target score there are two philosophies applicable here: the first philosophy tells me to aim for the 800, push all the boundaries and strain till the limit; the second philosophy tells me to be slightly more realistic and aim for a *already far above my capabilities* 690, approaching the problem in a more relaxed way. BTW the really high score of 690 is more than fine, the 700+ is not of my interest although getting a 690 is just as difficult to obtain.
Long story short, GOAL=690.

If the planets align and I got my nice round score in July, I'm planning to apply to the London Business School in October, that is why tomorrow I'm going to another networking event (instead of studying for the gmat, I know, I know, I'll make-up hours). If the worst comes, B plan is for next year to apply to LBS, Cambridge, IESE and IE, possibly with a better score and more time for the applications.

Alessio

Hi alessio,

GMAC has publicly stated that the score that you earn on your Official GMAT is within +-30 points of actual ability. Assuming a similar 'swing' in your practice CAT scores, your scores are 'in range' of one another (which means that they are essentially identical even though the more recent Test is 30 points lower than the initial Test).

Keep in mind that the accuracy of CAT results depends heavily on how YOU choose to take the CATs. The more realistic and 'test-like' you make those experiences, the more likely the score results are to be accurate. If you deviate from the standard Test Day 'event' (skipping sections, pausing the CAT, taking it at home, taking it at a different time of day from your Official Test time, etc.), your scores can deviate too (and often end up "inflated").

You've already defined your general timeline and goals, but I'd like to know a bit more about your studies so far:
1) How long have you been studying?
2) What is your typical study schedule each week?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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Hi gmat Assassin,

the preparation started slowly in feb and I got acquainted to the gmat exercises, but the real study started lately in April with the mgmat series.

1st month preparation:
Mon-Fri: 6p.m.-8p.m.. Study from books, preparation of notes and exercises. Sometimes I left the exercises or the day after so that I had time to assimilate the notions, review them quickly the day after and then apply them.
Sat-Sun: t>=2h in the morning, t>=2h in the afternoon. I like to start the morning with math exercises, they make me happy and usually I have a higher rate of success which puts me in the good mood for the rest of the day.
Every day I read at least an article from the economist while waiting for the bus (whoever tells you that the public transportation in london is perfect needs to taste the service in zone 2).

2nd month preparation:
Mon-Fri: 6p.m.-8p.m.. 1h of quant questions with review and error log entry when needed. Sometimes the error log is not necessary because when I do these exercises again before checking the correct answer I find out that I've done a silly mistake. 1h of verbal questions with error log entry when needed. Error log for the RC and CR is tough to prepare, sometimes I really don't know how to write a note for my future reference. Usually, I alternate subjects, so one day can ben PS+RC, the day after DS+CR, the day after again PS+SC and so on.
Sat-Sun: t>=2h in the morning of quant questions, t>=2h in the afternoon of verbal questions. Every two weeks I want to try a test. After my last cat test I'm trying to time myself, but I'm doing very poorly, and if on time then the number of mistakes increases dramatically (if I re-do the same exercise before checking th solution without timer I got them right most of the times).

Now, I know my knowledge of basic principles is not strong enough and I need to improve it, but what would be the best approach? Study more basis on different books or improve the basis going along with exercises? How can I improve the timing? I'm afraid that if I just time myself increasing the number of mistakes I run out of official question soon as in one week I'm almost through half of the Q and V additional books.

Thanks again for the support from anyone, I really feel helped!
Alessio

Hi Alessio,

Most Test Takers spend 3 months (or more) of consistent study time to hit their "peak" scores, so it's possible that you just have not studied enough yet. To hit your score goals, you'll have to make some serious improvements to how you handle BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections.

From your prior posts, it sounds like you want to take the GMAT in July, but you didn't get any more specific than that. If it's late July, then you could conceivably make the necessary adjustments and improve in 2 months, but there is also the possibility that you might need to spend MORE time than that on your studies.

Have you finished with all of the current GMAT resources that you have?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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The exam date is the 13th of July so technically I have a bit less than 2 months and I'm trying to increase the number of hours devoted to improve, mainly in weekends.
The material in my possession is almost finished, I expect it to end by the end of next week, then I'll probably use the gmat club resources till the exam date.

What would be the best way to proceed now? I haven't any plan for the third month of preparation apart from doing loads of exercises.

Hi Alessio,

Raising a 550/520 to a 690 in 2 months is doable, but it will require some serious work. Many Test Takers who use a 'book-heavy' study approach get 'stuck' at a particular scoring level, so you might need to invest in some new computer-based resources.

What were the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores on each of these CATs?

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

Here my scores:

Q= 12 oo 23
V= 19 oo 37

For now I decided to spend more time on each subject so to get a better grasp of the logic behind the questions. Any suggestion to get the "overall purpose" of a passage? I almost always miss this one.

Alessio

Hi Alessio,

When you take a CAT (and the Official GMAT), you'll receive a set of scores for each performance: a Scaled Score (from 1-51) and a Percentile for the Quant section and a Scaled Score and a Percentile for the Verbal section. I'm interested in the SCALED SCORES that you received for each section on each of these CATs, not the percentiles and not the number of correct answers.

You've listed some numbers in your last post, but I'm not sure what they are (they don't look like proper Scaled Scores to me). I need to know your Scaled Scores so that I can get a better sense of your strengths and weaknesses, then I can offer you the specific advice that you're looking for.

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

see attachment :S

Hi Alessio,

Thanks for including this information. The 'style' of this score report is interesting (it's missing some information that is standard on most CATs) - was this a free CAT (from a marketing event or online forum)?

I'm also curious if this was a FULL Test. The Quant section should have 37 questions and the Verbal should have 41 questions, but it looks like you only answered just 22 Quant questions and 36 Verbal questions. Were there more questions that you just did not get to?

If this was actually a FULL CAT and you did not answer 15 of the Quant questions and 5 of the Verbal questions, then the "penalty" for not finishing would have been SEVERE (it would have been better to randomly guess on those 20 questions than leave them unanswered).

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

That was actually a full test, the only free one the Kaplan offers. I meant to do the MBA.com one but I couldn't find it so I thought the Kaplan one would have served the purpose.

And yes, I run out of time without answering multiple questions, probably should have guessed them. Do you think the entire test is faulted as not answering so many questions would have doomed my score?

Hi Alessio,

I would not call this score result "faulted" - if you have a pacing problem that keeps you from answering some of the questions, then the REALITY is that you're going to be penalized for it. This CAT might be realistic enough for the purposes of evaluating your current GMAT abilities, but with so many unanswered questions, the designers of this CAT probably had to guess at what the penalty would have been. To score at a 690+ level, you CANNOT afford to have this type of problem.

Since you have not been in full study 'mode' for very long, you might be able to correct this problem as you continue to study. If your current practice materials can't help you to fix it though, then you will have to consider investing in other materials.

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

I think I may really have a problem with pacing, a lot of it is psychological, it put a lot of pressure on me (and I guess it is common). Apart from the material I got which may increase the knowledge I have to crack questions, how can I improve my timing? Are there strategies or just a lot of practice?

Thanks for helping!
Alessio

Hi Alessio,

Right now, it's too early to 'worry' about your pacing - you should be focused on building your knowledge and skills. Pacing takes time to improve, and since you're still early on in your studies, it's not surprising that you currently have this problem. There are plenty of adjustments that you can make to improve your pacing; you'll learn some of them on your own, the others you'll need to be taught.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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For "purpose of the passage", check out this post:
http://www.veritasprep.com/blog/2014/04 ... -the-gmat/

Check out this link for various other articles on reading comprehension strategies: http://www.veritasprep.com/blog/?s=read ... on&x=0&y=0
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Ok, so I took a complete test with the mat prep yesterday and finally saw some improvements scoring 620 (Q46 V30) and I got better in time management.. sort of at least... So I finished the Q section 3 mins in advance, and the average time for PS was higher than 2 mins, while the V section killed me (damn!) and I left some 8 questions unanswered using more than 2 mins for RC and CR questions.

I understand now that my problem is reading fast. Right now I'm using the advanced mgmat quant to enhance my Q, but only a few hours per week (around 6), all the efforts are then conveyed toward the V section. To enhance my V score I'm using LSAT practice tests with gmat timing, I'm trying to get faster but I have to counterbalance the correctness of my answers as with LSAT I only get 60% of CR and RC right. When re-reading wrong questions I get the right answer most of the time, but it takes me time.
Should I spend definitely more time on the V questions and forget about the Q, like devoting only a couple of hour per week to math? Is LSAT the best strategy to get better at V questions?

About the IR, is it right to just forget about it and same some energies for the two following sections? After all, it doesn't affect my score and if I have to justify the low score it would be categorized as a strategy.

Hi Alessio,

I have to ask why you're using (pencil-and-paper?) LSAT materials? There are plenty of quality GMAT materials that you can be using AND they have the extra benefit of having been designed to match what you'll see on the GMAT. Your pacing problem is not likely to improve if you're not using computer-based GMAT materials.

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