Took the GMAT today and under-performed - advice on retake?

ScandiLife
I think your case was an issue of time management.
In the mocks, the questions, where slightly easier, so you didn't have a big issue with timing.
But in the actual exam, which is usually a bit tough, you wasted extra time on difficult questions.
Don't worry. Second attempt is usually better. Just commit not to invest more than 3 min in a question. Let go, make smart guess and move on.
Also test yourself against other mocks such as Manhattan, veritas, e-GMAT, and Kaplan

Ah, what's a more reliable indicator in that case? Any of the other mock exam providers do a better job?

On my part, I found that the quant section was roughly the same difficulty. However, the GMAT didn't have the same range of topics as most of the mocks had. Would have liked to have seen some overlapping sets or standard deviation questions. The verbal section felt harder mostly because the RC prompts were a lot longer (4 paragraphs) and took more time to dissect. Both SC and CR felt the same as the official mocks.

Mahmoudfawzy83
Thank you, which of the mocks would you recommend? Especially if I need to bolster my SC.

Thanks! Glad to hear that you got in! I guess it's about being persistent and not letting a bad result get to you.

Hi SacndiLife,

I’m sorry to hear how things went with your GMAT.

The good news is that you scored really well on quant, right? That said, I understand that you are not satisfied with your verbal score, so the question we need to ask is why you scored so high on your practice exams but lower on the real 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 V34/Q42. 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, 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, 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.

The overall process will be to learn all about how to answer question types with which you currently aren't very comfortable and do dozens of practice questions category by category, basically driving up your score point by point. When you do dozens of questions of the same type one after the other, you learn just what it takes to get questions of that type correct consistently. If you aren't getting close to 90 percent of questions of a certain type correct, go back and seek to better understand how that type of question works, and then do more questions of that type until you get to around at least 90 percent accuracy in your training. If you get 100 percent of some sets correct, even better.

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.

In order to follow the path described above, you may need some new quant and verbal materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the best quant and verbal courses. You also may find my article with more information regarding
how to score a 700+ on the GMAT helpful.

If you’d like more specific advice on how to improve your quant and verbal skills, feel free to reach back out. Good luck!

On the actual test, it is normal to feel rushed. There are many reasons for this, both test- and non-test related ones. The official guides are still the best preparation. There will likely be two "long" RC passages (more than 40 lines). But GMAT has tested these passages and they will still fall within the recommended time limit per question. SC and CR will be of similar levels as in the official guides.

You are also correct about the quant section. The actual exam will test fundamental concepts, it will not be a race as to who answers many difficult questions.

Lastly, while mock tests are helfpul for certain aspects, they are no substitute for knowing the fundamentals. Therefore, I would advise spending more time on the latter.

You have good scope for improvement. GL!

ScandiLife
I am not saying that official guide is less reliable. When you are taking a real test, there is more pressure on you than with mocks. That may be the reason that several students suffer the same problem of getting less scores compared with the official mocks.

Anyway, here are some links that I guess to be of some use to you:
Timing strategies https://gmatclub.com/forum/timing-strategies-on-the-gmat-206035.html?fl=menu
5 free mock tests with good quality: https://gmatclub.com/marketplace/free-stuff?fl=menu
Scoring Analysis and strategies: https://gmatclub.com/forum/new-format-gmat-prep-software-analysis-and-what-if-scenarios-269682.html?fl=menu

Hi Scandi,

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) During your recent studies, how many hours do you typically study each week?
2) What study materials did you use last year and this year?
3) On what dates did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks and were there any others besides the 5 that you listed?

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

You might also choose to purchase the Enhanced Score Report. 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 purchase the ESR, then I'll be happy to analyze it for you.

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

Thanks everyone for the advice, I really appreciate the support!

To answer your questions EMPOWERgmatRichC

Studies:
1) During your recent studies, how many hours do you typically study each week?
Between 10-22 hours a week. I averaged around 18 hours a week during the month before the exam.

2) What study materials did you use last year and this year?
I used the OC books from 2018 (+ their online portal), the GMATClub Math book, as well as Manhattan GMAT Advanced Quant and Foundations of Verbal. I also went through Bunuel's PS sets and did a number of 700+ SC questions found on the forum.

3) On what dates did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks and were there any others besides the 5 that you listed?
Sep 1, Sep 7, Sep 11, Sep 13, and Sep 16. I also did the free GMATClub Quant and Verbal tests last year.

Goals:
4) What is your overall goal score?
I'm aiming for a score between 710-730.

5) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
I've been selected as a Fulbright candidate so instead the US Statement Department will reach out to universities (presumably around the time of round 2). I've been told that if I wish to submit a new GMAT score, I need to do so before the end of October. The rest of my application is already done.

6) What Schools are you planning to apply to?
Top 10 schools, with the Lauder program at Wharton as my preferred choice. But it will depend on how the US Statement Department views my profile and competitiveness.

Hi Scandi,

I've sent you a PM with some additional questions.

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