Q 50 & V 32...A Strange Experience...How not to LOSE TIME!

GMAT score: Q=50; V=32; 680; IR = 6 (Attached)

The proctor does not start your 8 min breaks - your computer does! I lost 2.5 minutes because he told me when to come back, which was off by 4 minutes.

Anyway...hard lesson to learn but I hope others learn from my lost time.

My GMAT test day experience can be summed up in three highly unlikely events. I will begin with my preparation though.

I followed the Magoosh 3 Month GMAT Study Schedule for Advanced Students.

I did all of the Magoosh test prep (all videos and questions) and I credit Mike McGarry and whoever the other guy is that does the math explanation with my Quant improvement. I did the SC questions twice (Mike is great at explaining SC) and most of the Math questions twice and made sure I understood how to do each question quickly.

I ran through Manhatten Prep Advanced Quant Supplement twice.

I did all three OG 2017 books. After completing the three books I redid all the questions I got wrong. Each time I got a question wrong I read the explanation or sought additional help through this forum on that particular question.

I did the NOVA GMAT Math book.

I did the 10 Actual, Official LSAT PrepTests. The book is from like 1993 but I found the RC and CR questions useful.

I also did all of the Veritas Prep online course. I found their videos helpful as well as their question banks. I especially liked the SWIM method for their CR strategy.

I barely studied IR, just on the practice tests (reviewing the answers). I spent a few hours looking at the Manhatten Prep online content that came free with my Adv Quant book. Really though, I just ignored it compared to the rest of the prep.

I am little curious as to why my Verbal was so low. I am wondering if my approach was wrong but as I did the OG I felt I had a thorough understanding of 90% or more of the Verbal questions.

I studied for just over 3 months. I put in about 150 hours (at least 1, sometimes 6 hours a day).

So what are the three surprising things?

1. I scored a 50 on Quant. I took 7 practice tests and my Quant score never surpassed 47, in fact, my final score was the lowest (kind of depressing)

Manhatten Prep - 43, 44, 46, 46, 40
GMAC - 46, 47

How in the world did I get a Quant 50? I have no idea. In fact, question 11 was so easy that I thought I was bombing the test. I suppose the algorithm is more complicated than anyone could imagine. Perhaps the "easy" looking questions were the "trial" questions, who knows. I think my CAT practice scores tell a bigger story. Manhatten Prep's Quant question bank is too hard. I took the GMAC early on, so I guess my Quant 50 is slightly believable.

2. Not only did I score well on Quant but I LOST 2.5 minutes from my Quant time because the proctor made a mistake by telling me that HE started the 8 min break. It turns out that as soon as you get up from the computer the clock starts. When I walked away from the testing area, the proctor told me that my 8 mins starts "now." Well, he lied, and I lost 2.5 minutes.

3. I scored 32 on Verbal. Of my 7 practice tests my Verbal scores was pretty consistent

Manhatten Prep - 38, 37, 37, 40, 37
GMAC scores - 36, 34

So how is it that I scored so low? I think it was the RC because I could not get into any of the passages. I never felt I had a full grasp of any of the topics after reading them. Again though, perhaps this tells another story about the Manhatten Prep Verbal question bank. Are they too easy? It's something to investigate.

Needless to say, I feel like my score is exactly what it should be yet the probability of repeating those scaled scores is like .001%. I do somewhat feel like I left a 720 or 730 on the table because of my low Verbal score but I guess that's like a sprinter dreaming about how well he did in practice compared to the real race - it doesn't matter. I think if I were to retake the exam 100 times I would not get a Q 49, much less a Q 50, but I think I would score above 36 on Verbal more than 50% of the time.

In hindsight, those three crazy things still left me with a satisfying (somewhat) score of 680. Let me know if you have any questions about the resources I mentioned. I would be happy to talk about each in more detail.

-Stephen