Scoring poorly in Official Mocks

Question

I have been studying for the GMAT for the past 2.5 months and have practised fairly well from OG and GMAT Club. I have my exam in less than a week and I have been scoring 540 in the 2 official mocks I took
Once I review the mistakes, they turn out to be fairly easy questions which I could have solved otherwise. I have signed up for 4 more official mocks which I will be doing in the coming days but I am really scared and bummed up by my performance in the mock exams as the real GMAT is even tougher than the mocks

I have almost 4 years of experience and I am planning to submit my application in the second round in Jan. All other parts of my application are done. Should I mail the adcoms if I can give a retake post submitting my application? Any last-minute tips? I don't want to apply in the third round as I am an international student and the chances of admission go down in the last round

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

Try to look forward to your attempt rather than dread it. Some quick Quant and Verbal tips on the gmatknight website. There's an idiom list there you can potentially use to brush up your idioms during this last week.

Kushchokhani · Answer

Hi  pranjalp

It is not true that real GMAT exam is tougher than mock exams- in fact, being adaptive, real GMAT exam will feel tougher only if you are doing well on D-day (keeping anxiety aside).

I think you should take a structured approach to GMAT by enrolling for a good course. GMAT is one of the critical elements for admission to good b-schools and apply later rather than in a hurried manner and wasting on your application fee. Savings on application fee may be used to buy a good GMAT course. GMAT Club is a good resource to improve Quants score, but not Verbal score. Just practicing OG won't help to improve Verbal score without a solid strategy for which a GMAT tutor can help.

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

What percentages of easy, medium, and hard questions have you been getting correct?

Taking four practice tests in the week before your GMAT is likely overkill and would likely be a waste of official tests.

You need to first achieve high accuracy on individual practice questions. See the following post for a discussion of how to practice for the GMAT for best results.

The Best GMAT Practice Methods

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi  pranjalp

I see that you are focusing more on practicing questions, than on the process, which is not the right way to prepare for GMAT.  GMAT is a test of application of concepts.  So, before you start practicing questions, you should be conceptually clear and learn the right methodology. So, instead of directly practicing questions, make sure that you learn the right process to solve questions. Once you do that, the rest will follow.

Official guide is a good collection of Questions, so definitely it is a very good book for practising questions, but it shouldn't be your starting point for preparation. Let me explain why.

When it comes to scoring well on GMAT, a student has to go through  3 skill levels  :

Skill Level 1 (the easiest one)  - Having a strong grasp over concepts

This is the most fundamental aspect and hence needs to be done first. The OG won't do a good job at this because it just touches upon the concepts tested on GMAT and hence isn't enough. Remember that this skill level will only take you to a 550-600 kind of a level on GMAT. For a higher score, you need to move to Skill Level 2. Let's see what it is.

Skill Level 2 (the most ignored one)  - Learning a methodical approach

Most students jump from concepts to directly solving questions without realizing that GMAT requires them to be methodical and logical. Hence, it is important that you learn the right method to solve various questions. For example, in order to solve 2 linear simultaneous equations, you need to start by equating a set of co-efficient and then eliminating that variable and so on. Now, video lessons alone won't help you to develop a methodical approach. You need to have a structured resource that follows a consistent approach and focuses a lot on teaching it. Sadly, such resources are scarce. If you develop a methodical approach, your score will be in the vicinity of the 650-720 mark.

Skill Level 3 (commonly focused one)  - Working on Gaps/weaknesses

Another thing that most students follow but they do so before even working on Skill Level 2. Ideally you need to maintain an error log to ensure you keep track of your weak areas and work on them as and when needed.

Skill 3 is mostly where the OG fits perfectly. I hope this post helps and gives you some perspective about effective preparation.   
 The importance of using a standard resource:  
The only method to make sure that you invest your time, money and effort in an effective way is to use a standard resource which teaches you the concepts, strategies and also helps you work on your weaker areas. Studying using OG or a few random resources might help you to solve GMAT like questions but I’m afraid that they won’t be able to help you much from a strategy perspective.

I would suggest you to go for some standard course for your preparation which can help you prepare in a structured and efficient manner thereby increasing your productivity. It’s always better to spare some more time on your preparation until you are ready instead of missing out on your dream colleges/ b-schools in hurry.

Feel free to connect if you have any questions your preparation. I will be happy to help

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi pranjalp,

I'm sorry to hear that you have not been scoring better on your CATs/mocks. A CAT is really a 'measuring device' - when used correctly, it will give you a realistic score and help define your strengths and weaknesses, but it will NOT help you to fix any of those weaknesses. To raise your scores, you have to learn the necessary Tactics and put in the proper practice and repetitions. The CAT will show you whether your studies are helping you to improve or not. In addition, the process of taking (and reviewing) a CAT requires a significant amount of energy and effort - and takes time to 'recover' from. This is one of the reasons why you typically should not take more than 1 CAT per week - and your last CAT should be taken about 1 week before Test Day. If your Official GMAT is now less than 1 week away, you should NOT plan to take lots of additional CATs (you might be okay with taking 1 more, but you should not take more than that.

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 many hours do you typically study each week?
2) Have you used any other study materials besides the ones that you listed?
3) On what dates (or approximate 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 and what specific application deadlines are you facing?

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

Contact Rich at: [email protected]

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Scoring poorly in Official Mocks

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