Seeking feedback to improve score by 150+ points

Question

Dear all,

After studying for more than 6 months, giving various mock tests (exhausting all good test resources) and being fairly confident, I gave my GMAT (on 4th Feb 2022) and got a 610 (V30|V44). This was a unexpected and I starting looking at the score in disbelief, literally laughing as I was unable to decipher what just happened. The reason for this is as follows:

1. I was very diligent in last 7 months on preparation and went through all concepts and materials
2. I was scoring avg 710 (V38/39 - Q 48/49) in GMATprep mock tests prior to a week before exam 
3. During the exam I wasn’t uncomfortable and infact felt my exam was going good
4. I thought I needed work on SC and Quant to go past 50/51 but CR and RC was fairly good, based on the # of wrong questions I did during the mock tests.

So after this result I ordered the ESR (detailed report) and realised my CR was the weakest followed by RC. Also, during the exam I never reached beyond medium difficulty and made many mistakes.

Looking back, I think below are some areas I could have done differently:
- I think I didn’t really analyse my mistakes well - some strategies from experts will surely help. I read too many books and content but the focus on mistakes wasn’t great. Also, I think I could have applied some of the tricks for CR, Quants etc better.

I am taking couple days off to plan and strategise my next phase. Posting this note in the forum to seek some guidance from experts.

My target score remains unchanged and for that I need 150pt improvement - which I know it’s a lot but I will put in the hours. I just need some structure around how to fix my mistakes and remember them once I do, whether that requires reviewing the concept again or simply practicing more.

Thanks in advance !

Posted from my mobile device

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

Hi sagnik77 So,lets take a moment and breathe this out ! We know how it feels to be on this side of the score and more or less its our expectations from self that disappoint us. Since you are having a target score of 760 now, lets tell you something that could make you feel slightly comfortable(we repeat, be just tad bit comfortable

). If not all,most students targetting a 750+ end up with a retake. So, take a mini break but as you return to the game,take a step back and close ALL gaps that will Push you to the 750 + you are looking for. Now, lets now look at your problem statement to pep up the score in your upcoming attempt. GMAT algorithm isn't for us to break with absolute accuracy but here are a few pointers we would want to share. Use the RIGHT RESOURCES

We would suggest to stick to ONLY OFFICIAL tests and Official practice questions. You can take a repeat Official Mock with a higher score as target. So if you are targeting a 750+,you should be scoring in the same range(in fact higher in the Official Mocks)! Your time is precious and if you think of investing on non official materials,you need to take a step back and think on this like a 750+ scorer. No test prep company has a sample size of students taking test that can match the GMAT's sample size. To believe that you get exactly the right kind of 31 test question that is tested on GMAT by any test prep company is not a practical thought. So,use only OFFICIAL Questions for practice and Tests and invest time wisely! Here we also hope that you have completed the OG and have analyzed the errors made. Smash the EASY and the INTERMEDIATE

To have a great 750+ score, it is important that you not only get these questions correct in both Verbal and Quant but you also get them correct like a Marvel Superhero

- Meaning with absolute accuracy, jet speed and with complete confidence. You have to up your skills to smash them in under 60 seconds and there is NO scope of error that can add more time to your clock! So focus on accuracy and time on these questions. Your current score reflects that you have Conceptual gaps. You need to locate them through the error log of your Official Questions and close them asap! Only when you close Concept gaps,we can take the game one notch higher and look ahead to close the Application Gaps. Improve ACCURACY in the ADVANCED questions

Now since you have got the time on your side by implementing the previous pointer effectively, take the game one level up! Use the time that you saved in the easy and the intermediate to invest on the challengers! This will increase your chances of getting them right and will also not cost you any additional time that would otherwise put you under stress. Here, you can also take help of the Official Advanced Questions that contains 300 Hard Questions (150 Verbal + 150 Quants with solution). The more you get correct in this section, the better your chances of having a 750+ !

Be CONFIDENT on your responses

Do not overthink once you have made the plunge and attempted the question. Correct or incorrect, that will only affect your psyche and prevent you from being the best version of YOU! We know, its easier said than done but these differentiators are what sets a 750+ scorer apart from the many and makes them part of an exclusive and elite club! Think about it this way, if you have an experimental question that doesnt seem very difficult to you,you may doubt your performance and your low confidence will affect the others and this time the investment of focus is really a nasty one because there are NO returns on this. You would lose focus and for literally no reason. You are psychogically tricked!

Indeed, our super powerful brain has an extra ordinary quality. It works best when it works against us!

Self doubts, overthinking, low confidence,...and the list would go on! So learn CONTROLLING your thoughts and make the powerful organ work in your favour.

NO ALTERNATE to a sharp focus

You have to be in it to WIN it

You have to stay in the moment, focus intensively on the question stub,on the data,on the options,on the rooms of all logical perspectives and remember, on the GMAT,most of the time its not about actually solving it but recognizing the RIGHT answer choice. Managing QUANT and VERBAL

Wohhh! Too many pointers already. Guess you are tired?? We hope not because you have lengthy RCs and stubborn Quant Questions to solve back to back in one single paper Maintaining mental stamina and an effective thought process as you solve the questions without succumbing to the burnout is our last pointer. Practicing full length tests without breaks will help you build up on it. Remember, that this game is always played from the Top without any fear. Improve on your logical skills and reasoning in all sections of Verbal and Quant. This time, invest more time in "locating gaps", "analyzing" errors and focussing on "Quality of developing a GMAT oriented thought process" and not just number of Questions that you do for practice. We hope all this good "gyan" has given you some direction.

However, if you want to calm yourself,gain more test taking clarity and educate yourself more on some last minute tips and strategies, why don't you read some of our posts on our website(under resources segment)? Here are a few links- The first one discusses, " 23 tips to Maximize your GMAT Score" and the second one talks about what "Differentiates a 760 scorer from the rest". Just so you feel a little more confident, we are sending two more links here on "Scoring a Q50-51 in Quants" and "14 Powerful SC tips for GMAT". https://www.crackverbal.com/resources/g ... -day-tips/ https://www.crackverbal.com/resources/h ... mat-score/ https://www.crackverbal.com/resources/h ... ant-score/ https://www.crackverbal.com/resources/g ... tion-tips/ See you on the other side of the green this time

Devmitra Sen GMAT Quant SME

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi Sagnik, which resources did you use, for preparation?

nislam · Answer

Hi  sagnik77 ,
ESR evaluation with an expert might be a good idea for you. You can PM  EMPOWERgmatRichC  or  MartyTargetTestPrep  and ask weather they will help you in doing so.

Good Luck!

MathRevolution · Answer

Hello sagnik77,

GMAT Club is one of the great platforms to get information about the GMAT official test, Study plan, Section wise instructions, etc.

A score of 610 in the GMAT tells the entire story about how well prepared you are and how to change the gear now to meet the target score. You can definitely achieve the target score.

With my GMAT tutoring, guidance, and counseling experience, we have to accept the fact with a pinch of salt that diagnostic/ mock test scores are above then what one should expect in a real test. There is often dropping in the score. Some students have even experienced a drop of 100 pointers. It is one of the realities, and your preparation should not sideline this fact.

You can schedule a Free counseling session for 20 mins with one of our experts:https://calendly.com/mathrevolution/1-on-1-session for detailed advice on your study plans.

A couple of things that can be a noticeable barrier to your scores would be some or all of the below.

• Inefficiency by using time-consuming Conventional methods to tackle DS and PS questions still.
• No expert support (maybe) who can tutor, analyze, and guide you during your learning especially on hard-level questions while stably hitting middle-level questions.
• Lack of many updated questions and practice in the recent exam trend
• Not well aligned with time to solve questions.

Since we are a math expert, we will recommend you go through our post on the GMAT club: Breakdown of GMAT math questions and types: https://gmatclub.com/forum/overview-of- ... l#p1641411

We recommend that you must learn the Variable Approach for solving DS questions and the IVY approach for solving PS questions in order to improve your accuracy and save time while solving the question types.

Register with MathRevolution https://www.mathrevolution.com/member/signup to get access to our 7-day on-demand course for free trial lessons.

700+ level questions https://www.mathrevolution.com/gmat/questionbank are separately available, too. Start with the learning of the concepts. Make a habit of taking notes during the initial learning of the concepts.

The day regular mock tests show the consistent score of Q48+ with V37+, then it will reflect the positive change in the score, and hence, your confidence will boost. Gradually, with the help of mock tests, you will be able to compete with time and therefore, will be able to learn time management.

We appreciate your time and patience in reading this reply.

Should you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected]

Success is within your reach.
Good luck!

Math Revolution Team

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi sagnik77,

Sorry about how things went with your GMAT. There could be a couple of reasons for the drop in the score. Please go through the article below to find out the probable reasons.

Scored well on mocks but failed miserably on the test?

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, you don't have to worry about the difficulty level of the question.

A lot of students spend a lot of time studying from various resources but see little to no improvement. One of the major reasons is that they fail to identify the gaps in the preparation. This is where the role of mentorship comes into the picture. The mentors/ experts give you detailed feedback on your performance and show you exactly where you can improve.

Having said that, it would be too early to conclude anything without knowing the actual reason. To understand what could have led to the drop in the score and to suggest you the plan of action, I need a little more information about your GMAT preparation. I would like to know more about

the way you prepared till now (your study strategy) 
 your weak areas 
 your approach of solving questions 
 the resources you have used

Answers to these questions will help me guide you in a better way. And I personally suggest to go for the retake only after you prepared well and are 100% confident.

Having said that, I would like to have a one-on-one conversation with you. The discussion would be mostly around the answers to the above questions, the approximate time you have for the next attempt and the plan of action. If you have an ESR with you, that will be even more helpful to get the insights about your performance. You use use the link below to schedule a call with me.

Click here to schedule a call

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi sagnik77,

I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as planned. When these types of score drops occur, the two likely "causes" involve either something that was unrealistic during practice or something that was surprising (or not accounted for) on Test Day. Before we discuss any of those potential issues though, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

1) How many hours did you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far? What “brands” of CATs/mocks have you used?
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)?
4) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

While the ESR doesn’t provide a lot of information, there are usually a few data points that we can use to define what went wrong on Test Day (and what you should work on to score higher). If you purchased the ESR, then I'll be happy to analyze it for you. Before you can include attachments with your posts/PMs, you need to have at least 5 posts in the forums (right now, you have just 1 post). If you would rather not go through those extra steps at this point, then you can feel free to email me directly (at [email protected]).

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

Contact Rich at: [email protected]

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi sagnik77,

I'm sorry to hear about how things went with your GMAT. Assuming that you took your official practice exams under realistic testing conditions, the results show that, on a good day, you are capable of scoring higher than 610. Thus, it’s quite possible that nerves, stress, tiredness, or a combination of all three negatively affected your test-day performance. However, it’s also possible that you have some lingering weaknesses that were exposed on test day. Although I’m unsure of how you prepared, it’s possible that, in your preparation, particularly in verbal, you did not really learn to do what you have to do in order to score high on the actual GMAT. Rather, you picked up on some patterns that were effective in getting you relatively high scores on practice tests. So, for you to hit your score goal, your preparation, particularly for verbal, probably needs to be more complete, meaning that you have to go through the various types of GMAT questions carefully to find your exact weaknesses, fill gaps in your knowledge, and strengthen your skills.

For verbal specifically, you have to become more skilled at clearly defining the differences between trap choices and correct answers. Otherwise, you will get stuck guessing between two choices or be surprised to find that you incorrectly answered questions that you thought you answered correctly. Becoming more skilled in this way takes carefully analyzing all of the answer choices to lots of verbal questions to develop an eye for the logical differences between the choices. In other words, you have to go beyond answering practice questions and reading explanations to doing deep analysis of questions to learn to see everything that is going on in them.

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

how to score a 700+ on the GMAT

Why Was My GMAT Score Lower Than My Practice Test Scores?

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