THREE days until the GMAT - confused about GMATPrep test scores

Hi IanStewart. I actually took my exam today and to my disappoint, scored a 680 with 7 IR, 44Q and 39V. This was my first attempt and there were a few never-seen type of quant questions, and even though on both my GMATPrep CATs I scored over 40 for verbal with time left over, I barely finished today's exam on time. What kind of advice do you give to students planning to retake the exam? I'm thinking about retaking in 4 or 5 weeks.

Hi daysandhours,

First off, a 680/Q44 is a strong score (it's just shy of the 90th percentile overall), so this score could very well get you into a Business School of your choice. It's understandable why you would be a bit disappointed though. I have a few questions about how you took these CATs (relative to how you took the Official GMAT):

1) Did you take the FULL-CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?
2) Did you take these CATs at the same time of day as your Official GMAT?

3) Did you take these CATs at home?
4) How long was the ride to the Test Center from your home?

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

Hello! To answer your questions,
1) I took two of the practice CATs in full length (I scored 740 on my latest full length, but 720 with just Q and V, which I thought was strange because I probably felt more burned out after the essay+IR). I took a couple on MGMAT Quant-only my score ranged from 43-45. I felt that MGMAT practice questions were a lot harder than the ones from the Official Guide or GMATPrep software.

2) While I do not recall the exact time of day my CATs were taken, I know for sure they were around the same time. My GMAT appointment today was at 1 (though I did start half an hour early) and my CATs were taken anytime from 1pm to 3pm.

3) No, I took one of my CATs at a quiet library and the rest at a cafe. I know it's probably not the best idea to take an exam at a cafe but it didn't seem to make too much of a difference on these practices.

4) 20-25 minutes!

Would it be wise to schedule my second test right away? I'm thinking about scheduling it in about 5 weeks time, hoping to raise it to at least 700 but I've also heard that high 600's to low 700's is an enormous jump.

It sounds like your 'true level' is around 720-730 right now. There may be a reason you underperformed on test day - if you were tired, sick, stressed, hungry, or under or over-caffeinated, this may have caused you to perform slightly worse than normal. If any of those issues might have affected you, be sure to learn from them, and do your best to ensure they do not affect your performance on your next attempt.

But it's also the case that luck plays a small role in determining your score. There are two ways one can be 'unlucky' on the GMAT - most test takers need to guess at several questions, and on some days those guesses work out well, and on other days they work out badly. And then on some tests, the question types will play to your strengths, and on other tests they won't. The 'standard error' on the GMAT is a bit less than 30 points, which means if a test taker were to take the GMAT billions of times, and graphed his or her scores, those scores would be on a bell curve, with mean equal to the test taker's true level, and standard deviation a bit less than 30. This variation is due to luck alone, and it may just be that you were unlucky on test day - there may be no other explanation.

You'll be more comfortable with the test day experience the second time, and if you were unlucky this time, it's not likely you'll be unlucky again. If you took the test tomorrow, I'd be quite confident you'd score around the 720 mark, as long as your diagnostics are a fair reflection of your ability. So I don't think you should be concerned, and if you can improve at all over the next few weeks, you might even exceed that score on your next test. I don't think you have anything to gain by waiting more than a few weeks to take the test again.

Hi daysandhours,

While you clearly want to retake the GMAT, the immediate issue is whether you really *need* to retake it or not.

What Schools are you planning to apply to? And when?
Are you going after any specific scholarships? Do you know what the 'requirements' are to apply for those scholarships?

Before you invest any additional time studying or additional money into the GMAT, you might want to discuss your overall profile and goals with an Admissions Expert. There's a Forum full of them here:

ask-admission-consultants-124/

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

Have you taken it yet? How did it go???

Yup, I did. And it didn't go that well 680 with 44 in Quant in 39 in Verbal, and I'm considering retaking it in June. (hopefully with a more strategic study plan)

Can you please elaborate on this. What do you exactly mean by "never-seen type of Quant questions".

Do you mean that these questions were "outside" the normally covered areas in Quant such as Ratio and Proportion, Percentage, Statistics, Probability, Permutations and Combinations, and Geometry. I am quite comfortable in Quant, but "never seen type of Quant questions" is a slight cause of concern.