How the Gmat ripped me a new one. 710 the night before to 570

Question

Hello all.
Been a lurker and was hoping to post a gmat debrief to inspire, but today was not my day. I will try to write more once I digest wtf just happened.
So today I'm here to share my experience on the dark side of the moon.

I began studying in july. Took a mgmat Cat just to get a feel for what the gmat was and scored a 540 having about 35 min keft on each section.

I then signed up doe veritas. Took the course and here are my mock results

Sometime earl july MGMAT1 540
8/149Veritas 1. Q38 v36 610 
8/30 veritas 2. Q45 v38 680
9/6 veritas 3. Q47 V37 680
9/10 gmat prep1 q48 v34 680
9/14 veritas 4 Q42 v42 680
9/17 gmatprep retake q49 v37 700
9/19 veritas 5 Q43 v40 680
9/19 veritas 6 q48 v42 710

9/20 official gmat q38 v29 570. IR-7. AWA-6

To say the least, I'm really dissapointed. Had a dream last night that I missed the time to take the test. I dont know whats worse.
To add, I didnt take the 2nd gmat prep test because I like the stats veritas gives yoy after each test, but now I regret it.
Pity kudos appreciated. Will be used for good cause.
Anyway, just some food for thought for people studying. This is not necessarily the worst case scenario but pretty damn close if you ask me.

Going to take it again before november. Hoping to match my mock score.

Cheers

dbrown · Answer

I know how you feel mate. I did a pretty similar thing. I was hovering around 680, then dropped to 610 on the exam. On the bright side, I think I sorted mine out. Did anything change in your process or did you get inside your own head? I think you know the material, but there was something that threw off your mojo!

Good luck on the second exam!

Good luck on the second exam!

bankerboy30 · Answer

How did you think you did during the test?

Did you think the quant or verbal were harder than your mocks? Or do you think that you may have made a few mistakes on the initial questions?

Posted from my mobile device

GMATPill · Answer

Wow. Feeling pretty bad for you bro. You need a retake - the score doesn't reflect the range you were in. Perhaps too many nerves - not enough glucose or carbs that day to keep you focused.

And overall --- confidence in strategy. Give it a shot -- try some study plans out there. I recommend the GMAT Pill 1 month study plan where you focus on one particular section for 5-7 days, master it before moving on. Good luck.

icyevo · Answer

I can live with my Q score. since it didn't drop 40%. V score on the other hand... that's another story.
I'm back on the study grind now, going to go through some fundamentals then continue.

to answer the question above, I felt the Q was a little more difficult, esp the DS. Makes since since I may have focused too much on PS.
Verbal on the other hand seems like it was going okay, til I realized I was answering the easiest question at the end.
haha... looking back a few days later it still leaves a scar on me, but I know that it's not not doable. haha

gauravkaushik8591 · Answer

One piece of advice - stick to official material as much as possible! AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE! I know people constantly look for TOUGH/HARD/NERVE-WRECKING problems. But trust me, sticking to Official material is really the most efficient way to score good.

1. Do The OG: I've heard OG verbal 2nd edition and OG 13 have no overlap at all. So that already makes it a little over 1000 official questions.

2. Download the 'most comprehensive sets' by Souvik. There are three sets for SC, CR and RC, and are from GMATprep. That makes it anothr 500+ questions (and believe me they're all 650+ atleast and more in the 700-750 range, in my opinion ofcourse)

3. You can very intelligently set filters to search in the GMATClub forum. set a filter to 'official guide' and another filter to 'boldface' : this will show you all the boldface questions from GMATprep on GMATclub. It's a very powerful tool.

4. I'd say buy the GMATprep exam pack 1. So after that you'd have 4 official GMAT prep mock tests in your arsenal.

Still not satisfied?

5. You could buy GMATprep question pack 1 too. (although this one has more problem on the easier side of the spectrum)

That's enough official material already. And will fine tune your understanding in line with a GMAT test maker's. I love veritasprep and their questions are really amazing, but somehow sticking to official material served the purpose for me.

And just btw, I am no frankenstein : I started with a 490 on mock (i dont remember Q, but i was at V19) and i am yet to give gmat in october. But I feel really confident after having done so many official problems. Because now when i do an official question, I'm like 'hey i know what you're trying to test and how you're gonna try to trap me into wrong answer choices', and i've been right so far most of the times.

And for quant, just make some worthy contributions to GMATclub and you'll have people give you kudos very easily. I've reached 25 kudos twice, giving me 6 months of GMATclub test access. They have best quant material (and closest to official material) out there. I've given 8 quant mocks already, and plan to give 3-4 more before my exam.

So

TIME TO GO OFFICIAL FRIEND!

JTuquero · Answer

I definitely agree with the folks here- the score you received on exam day does not reflect what you can actually achieve. You got a lot of good tips here already, so I would just add that you should try refraining from taking practice tests the day before the GMAT. If you still feel an urge, then do it before 4PM. By then, you know what you know; if you try to do too much the day before, you may just end up stressing yourself out, which can impact your performance. Instead, create a test bubble--an environment where you can relax and stay focused.

KlavdiaTeratai · Answer

I share your pain! I was also doing well on veritas mock tests....just to totally fail the gmat on test day... I think working with official gmat material and utilizing forums helps a lot after taking a prep course, concepts start to sink in. All the best for you future preparation!

icyevo · Answer

Appreciate the support guys/gals. 
I think I will focus more on Gmatprep materials. Maybe switch up some MGMAT SC in there for some detailed knowledge.
BTW scored a 6.0 using Chinese burned AWA.
Wrote the first and last paragraph before the body paragraphs.
and wrote about 2 and a half sentences for the third body sentence, it actually stopped time in the middle of a sentence.

AndyNeedsGMAT · Answer

Hi,
I would like to know when is the perfect time to start off with the Official practice. Is it a good idea to start practising with it right away ? Also, don't we run the risk of running out of quality problems. Second, for the ''most comprehensive sets' by Souvik' - won't we get all the GMAT Prep questions divulged , hindering us to get a correct score estimation in the GMAT Prep tests ?

gauravkaushik8591 · Answer

No not in the very beginning. since he was scoring 710s in veritas tests, I figured his basics were sufficiently polished already. so in my opinion best way is to build strong foundation of basics with all the material out there : can be a mix of unofficial and official material, or just the unofficial. And then keeping quite a good amount of time for official material before the d-day. there are so many things peculiar to gmat that you definitely do not want to skip this thing. For instance, pronoun ambiguities are common on GMAT (as long as it's sensible). Another example is that GMAT doesn't focus on idioms. I love the way GMAT tricks you into believing that it's an idiom issue, whereas really it's almost always another issue, which is simple but obscured. Point here is that what official GMAT teaches you, no one else can. Imagine I scored a 750 on MGMAT but scored a 730 on GMAT prep 2. Now that doesn't mean MGMAT is bad, in fact they are the second best in my opinion but what I really needed at that moment was to get aware of ways GMAT can trick you into a wrong answer and to get aware of the grammar irregularities that GMAT allows. Thinking inline with how GMAT thinks is an absolute basic weapon needed before stepping into the exam day war.

Coming back to your question, yes it's true that you should avoid most comprehensive material before gmatprep1 and gmatprep2, but you can do it before delving into GP3 and GP4. Doing official questions right in the beginning is also okay provided your basic grammar skills are refined. If they're not, then it's not a good suggestion to try those. In fact take the case of any exam in the world, you always work on getting the basics right before doing questions, isn't it? Same goes for GMAT too.

Sorry if I've not been able to answer your question. I'm not an instructor but these are just my realizations over the course of time.

icyevo · Answer

Well thing is there is the '12 OG, '13 Og, and now '15 OG. Not sure if there is an overlap in questions or not, but gmatprep also offers a question pack (which I recently bought).
Vertias primed me well for the basics, I'm just reviewing them to fortify what I already know and learn some nuances along the way, especially in Sentence Correction, which is my weakest section for verbal.

More feedback appreciated! maybe some anecdotes of similar catastrophic (IMO) failures and later triumphs.
Veritas offers a retake for their courses, but I don't think I need to start from square one.

icyevo · Answer

started at it again, using supp material such as MGMAT SC and Powerscore CR to secure that verbal score.

dbrown · Answer

Hi icveyo,

Have you retaken the exam at this stage? Very keen to hear how you went after getting back after it!

icyevo · Answer

haha.. sorry to have a **** story again but I scored a 620 the next go.
Thinking I should retake it... but maybe its time to move on also.
My verbal was significantly lower than the mock tests at 33 again. got q 44

Definitely could do better... and am thinking I should give it another go. but may take a break for now.

BigFudge · Answer

Stay the course icyevo! 
I feel your pain, I have no advice as I am not someone in a position to offer it. Just the solace that the GMAT is only 1 piece of an application, and in places outside of the GMAT club a 620 is not all that bad.

Good luck on your next go!

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How the Gmat ripped me a new one. 710 the night before to 570

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