Seeking guidance to retake GMAT (3rd attempt) post latest score: 660

Question

Hi Experts,

Hope you're all doing well.

Today morning, I received scores for my second (Online) GMAT attempt (660, Q50, V28) for which I appeared on 23rd July 2020. I don’t feel my latest score is representative of my potential score (especially, verbal) and I wish to give another shot in the next 15-20 days. I am at crossroads and am trying to seek help from GMAT experts. I would be grateful for any valuable tips if you may share.

I gave my first GMAT exam (600, Q47, V25) on 24th October 2019. While stepping out of the examination hall, I knew that I hadn't touched the difficulty level of the verbal questions in any of my mocks before. As my score speaks, verbal was my weak spot.

I began my preparation for a second attempt on 1st February 2020 by enrolling in e-gmat online verbal course and buying a set of 6 Manhattan mocks + GMAT Prep Official Mocks 3 & 4.

Below are scores of my mock tests -

1 GMATPrep 1 (Reset 1) - 17-Apr-20 - 710 - Q50,V37

2 Manhattan Mock 1 - 24-Apr-20 - 630 - Q41,V36

3 Manhattan Mock 2 - 15-May-20 - 630 - Q41,V35

4 Manhattan Mock 3 - 12-Jun-20 - 660 - Q44,V36

5 GMATPrep 2 (Reset 1) - 21-Jun-20 - 690 - Q48,V36

6 Manhattan Mock 4 - 6-Jul-20 - 660 - Q45,V35

7 Manhattan Mock 5 - 10-Jul-20 - 660 - Q42,V38

8 GMATPrep 3 - 14-Jul-20 - 720 - Q50,V38

9 Manhattan Mock 6 - 18-Jul-20 - 710 - Q48,V38

10 GMATPrep 4 - 21-Jul-20 - 760 - Q50,V40

Note: I didn’t cut any slack while attempting any of the mocks. Also, I never let Manhattan's overall score bother me because I knew their Quant is way tougher than the actual GMAT exam’s.

e-gmat verbal course helped me streamline my approach to questions and answer strategically. Apart from focusing on the Quant and verbal sections, I worked to improve focus, control anxiety, stimulate test taking scenarios, etc. Unfortunately, something still didn’t go right.

If anyone could help address my below concerns, I’d be indebted –

1. Considering not so low verbal scores in mock tests, should I even think of a retake?
2. How do I find out the cause of the dip in verbal score?
3. How do I improve on it?
4. Should I request an ESR? How should I evaluate it?

Kindly let me know if you need more information on the matter.

Thanks in advance! 
Prashasti Sharma

Russ19 · Answer

I think you should consult with a gmat club verbal expert such as  GMATNinja ,  MentorTutoring ,  DmitryFarber . They might try to find out where you have got shortcomings and suggest a solution if you seek professional assistance.

EducationAisle · Answer

Yes Prashasti, would suggest you do that.

KaramveerBakshi · Answer

Hi Prashastis05 . I'm not an expert but I would definitely recommend you request your ESR. It's actually quite insightful and will let you know what went wrong. Hope you find what you're looking for! All the best! And yes. Don't give up!

AndrewN · Answer

Hello, Prashasti. Pardon the delay in my response. I have been busy over the past two days. To address your concerns, yes, I would consider preparing for and retaking the exam. That low Verbal score may come back to bite you, since there are, unfortunately, many candidates who share your ethnic origin who also happen to earn high Quant scores. Earning a Verbal score more in line with those from your practice tests might increase your prospects of admission, depending on where you hope to apply. The only way you can be sure of where you faltered on the last exam is by ordering your ESR. It will provide you with data on your accuracy by question type, as well as your timing across different question types and within each quarter of the exam. Beyond this, I find the ESR to be less useful for analysis. The sub-categories for Verbal are pretty much meaningless, much less pertinent than their Quant counterparts (even though those are not perfect either, taking a blunt approach when a more focused one would allow the test-taker to know what to study). If you do decide to order your ESR, you can post it in a dedicated forum and request help in analyzing it. I do not feel as if the ESR is absolutely necessary, though. If you want to save a little money, you can just as easily look back over your performance across those mock tests, in addition to problems you may have completed on the side through Wiley or mba.com, to track patterns in accuracy across RC, CR, and SC questions. To get to the bottom of what is causing you to score lower, you will have to be honest with yourself and track which types of questions you have missed in each category and, just as important, why you think you missed them. Did you rush? Take a blind pick? Misread a question or get lost in the language of a passage? It may help, for instance, to consider the following:

RC: Detail questions ("According to the passage...") versus inference questions ("The passage suggests...")

CR: Assumptions, boldface questions, completing a passage, evaluating a plan, strengthening/weakening

SC: Meaning versus grammar

Again, what is causing you trouble? You will want to go back and make note of the types of questions you tend to miss in order to improve your approach to those sorts of questions. This really ties into a central idea that to progress, you have to take the time to understand what makes the incorrect answers incorrect. Too many people focus on the correct answer only, thinking that they will get a similar question right the next time because they know what to look for. That is a good way to set yourself up to make the same mistake over and over. Learn about the common types of incorrect answers, on the other hand, and you will be much less likely to fall into similar traps when presented with another question within that family of questions.

In terms of resources, I am a huge proponent of self-study. If you can get to where you want to be on your own, you will find it quite gratifying, and you can save a lot of money. You will need to spend a lot of time reviewing past mistakes, but then, get your hands on official questions. Whether you need a Verbal Review, a question pack through mba.com, or a search on this site for questions tagged "official" or "OG," you will need to practice new  official  questions. If you like books, you can purchase or borrow (perhaps from a library) dedicated Manhattan Prep guides or those by other companies. For example, the PowerScore CR Bible is highly regarded as a study aid for that portion of the test. One plus is that practicing CR will help you improve in RC. You can also watch free YouTube videos by  GMATNinja ,  RonPurewal ,  fiftyoneverbal , or others if you like to learn that way. And of course, you ought to consider going through some of your e-GMAT course again. Sometimes you see things a little differently the second time around. Finally, if you cannot seem to make enough headway on your own, you might consider bouncing ideas off a friend who scored higher or even hiring a qualified professional.

One word of caution. I would like to disabuse you of the notion that putting in more and more time or working through more and more questions will automatically make you a better test-taker. If there were such a linear relationship, then I can assure you, more people would simply put in the time and earn higher scores. You have to make the time you do spend count. Bone up on theory, then practice, but not too much. Give anyone enough questions, and that person will start to slip up. But work on a few at a time, and you can really hone your technique and build confidence all the while.

I hope that helps. If you have further questions, feel free to post them.

- Andrew

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Prashasti,

First off, a 660/Q50 is a solid Score, so it could be enough to get you into your first-choice School. As such, a retest might not be necessary. Depending on the Schools that you plan to apply to, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile and plans. There's a Forum full of those Experts here:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/ask-admissio ... tants-124/

That having been said, 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:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied in total? For your 2nd attempt, how many hours did you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used besides the course that you mentioned?
3) Which "brands" of practice CATs/mocks did you use during your 1st attempt?

Goals:
4) What is your overall goal score?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi Prashasti,

It is really sad to hear that you could not reflect the score you got in the mocks on your actual test. Let me share my observations here.

The GMAT official mock tests are completely reliable and the scores indicate a consistent improvement. But it is really ironic that it didn’t reflect in your actual GMAT test. There might be a couple of reasons for it.
  The first reason could be nervousness on the exam day. If this is the reason, you shouldn’t be much concerned about preparation part and just give another attempt with a relaxed mind. 
 The other reason might be you are not using the right methods to solve the questions or your approach is not the same in all the tests. You might be using one approach in a certain test and a different approach in the other one. If this is the reason, there is a need for serious introspection.

GMAT verbal questions can be tricky and GMAT test makers set a lot of traps to confuse students. So, it is really important to use the right methodology to solve the questions. Considering that your verbal score is pretty decent in the official mocks, I think you should definitely consider a re-take. But this time make sure that you understand the reason behind getting a low verbal score on the actual test, work on improving it and then book a slot.

As you said, an ESR would be definitely helpful, but alternatively, you can have a  few one-on-one sessions with a Verbal expert to fine tune the process  you are following. This will not only help you to master the skills but also help you to  understand what might be the one thing that is stopping you to score well  on Verbal. As your performance is already decent, I don’t think you will be needing more than a couple of sessions for Verbal.

I can arrange a free demo session for you with the Verbal expert. You can solve a few questions with the Verbal expert and this process helps the tutor to identify the gaps in your learning and create a relevant content for the discussion. You can schedule the suitable slot for the demo session using the below link.

Click here to schedule a free demo session

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

Hi,  Prashastis05 .

Did you end up getting your ESR? I think we ought to see that (and maybe the prior ESR, as well) to get a sense of what may have happened. Sure, you can always take the steps others have outlined to improve your verbal. But if the problem is more about test day than about the content, then we need to figure out the nature of the problem so that we can make a change. Plenty of students end up taking 5 or more official tests with very similar results, because they don't manage to address what's really going wrong.

Outside of what we might glean from the ESR, what differences did you notice? Were you struggling with time more than usual? Did you finish very early? Did the questions seem not to have valid answers? Were you exhausted or anxious? Let us know a bit more about your experience and maybe we can figure this out.

Seeking guidance to retake GMAT (3rd attempt) post latest score: 660

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