Hi nwillenborg93

From your post it does not look like that you studied any Official material. Is that so? If Yes, then sorry to say you did a great mistake. First of all You must get used to solving OG questions and give all Official tests available. You need to identify your weak areas and then strengthen those areas by using GMAT preparatory materials. There are many preparatory materials available in this club as well, you can try to use them.
Also as per you mock results, you should have deferred your exam because you were not scoring 600+ so it would be highly optimistic to think that one can get 600+ score if the previous record says otherwise.

First things first -
1. Identify your weak areas
2. Make a list of those areas
3. Get a good preparatory material that explains the concepts
4. Solve all OG questions
5. Give all OG tests

Hi Nick,

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. If you can answer a few questions, then we should be able to figure this out:

When you took your CATs:
1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?
2) Did you take them at home?
3) Did you take them at the same time of day as when you took your Official GMAT?
4) Did you ever do ANYTHING during your CATs that you couldn't do on Test Day (pause the CAT, skip sections, take longer breaks, etc.)?
5) Did you ever take a CAT more than once? Had you seen any of the questions BEFORE (re: in an online forum or in a practice set)?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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Hi
Sorry to hear that your Gmat didn't go well. A score of 420 suggests that you need to improve in both Quant and Verbal. For Quant, I would suggest to go through the Ultimate Quant megathread by Bunuel. It contains sufficient theory and will definitely help you to get acquanted with the question types of Gmat. For practice, use the OG, Quant review and Verbal review. For Verbal refer to the MGMAT guides.
It will definitely help you score a 650+.
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Are you generally nervous test taker ?
Those 5 test was from whih prep company ?
Did you had good night sleep before the test ?
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Rich,

To answer your following questions

1 I worked all day and then kept studying once I got off work and took a bunch of quizzes

2 Slept like a baby I don’t have problems falling asleep but it was weird earlier during the week I kept waking up to study but the last 2 nights leading up to it I slept all night and woke up feeling rejuvenated

3 the car ride was a 20 min drive

4 no distractions I was fully focused on the test

5 during the 8 minute breaks I drank water walked around and stretched to get my blood flowing

6 didn’t finish any sections early finish them with about a few seconds here and there

7 I had to rush through some questions because I realized I was behind schedule and wouldn’t finish in time mid way through the test so I sped through a few questions

I hope these answers help you out

Thank you,
Nick


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Hi Nick,

Test Day is a rather specific 'event' - the details are specific and they matter, so you have to train as best as you can for all of them. The more realistic you can make your CATs, the more likely the score results are to be accurate. The more you deviate, the more "inflated" your practice scores can become - and that's what happened here. By taking the CATs at home, taking them at different times of day, taking longer breaks, etc., you weren't properly training for the FULL GMAT 'experience.'

Test Day involves a variety of really specific steps and parameters (including steps before the Test even begins - such as leaving your home, traveling, etc.). Every factor matters, including the psychological ones, so you have to put the necessary effort into making sure that you take your CATs in a way that 'matches up' with as many aspects of Test Day as possible. If you don't do that, then we won't have a clear idea of how well you might perform on Test Day.

In addition, it's possible that you were trying to do too much during the last few days before your Official Exam. If you were working a lot and studying during those last 3 days, then you might have been too tired to perform at your best. It's also not clear whether you took the GMAT on Friday or Saturday - but in either case, that would be at the 'end' of the work week, when you would likely not have been at your best. Most Test Takers actually perform at their best on a Monday morning (after they've had the prior weekend to rest a bit and do a little light studying).

Thankfully, those are relatively easy issues to fix - and now that you've taken the Official GMAT, you know the EXACT details of what happens on Test Day, so you can better train to mimic those details during your CATs. That having been said, to raise this 420 to a 580+ though, you're going to have to make significant improvements to how you handle BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections - and all of that work will likely take at least another 2-3 months of consistent, guided study.

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