My Awful GMAT Test Experience Today

Question

So....I took my official GMAT today and was expecting to get at least a 700. That result couldn't have been more wrong. I scored a 560- around 110 points lower than any of my full-length practice exams... I got a 36 in quant and a 31 in verbal. It is my belief that pacing was the root of my problem. Something about the unfamiliar testing environment really made me uneasy... I guessed on the last 7 quant problems and on the last 11 verbal questions( and even failed to select an answer for the last verbal question). My question is how do I improve on my pacing? I did fine on the cats but seemingly choked on test day.

Purvil311 · Answer

Did you take your practice CATs at the same time of day as your actual exam? I made sure to take all my GMATPrep CATs on Saturday after lunchtime (My actual GMAT was scheduled for Sat at 12PM). Also, try to mimic the same break lengths as the actual exam.

If you had to guess on so many questions, make sure it wasn't because of lack on preparation/confidence on certain topics. GMAT has a small amount of luck associated in terms of what type of questions you face. You might face a certain type that you are weak at because of bad luck. Many suggest keeping error logs to determine your weak areas and improve those; this might be helpful for you if you have not already been doing so. Also, order the enhanced score report to see what type of questions you choked on.

One technique I used was splitting questions into 10s. I had estimated how much time should be remaining on the clock once I passed first 10 questions, 2nd 10 questions and so on. For example, in quant: after question 10 - clock should have ~55mins left, after 20 - ~35mins left and after 30 - ~15mins. I didn't panic if I was slightly past my estimates, but that helped me pace myself for the upcoming questions.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi UVAkid29,

In this post (from earlier this week) you stated that you had recently scored Q44/V41 on the Official GMAT:

inaccurate-gmat-score-estimator-in-the-workbook-224097.html#p1725565

However, you didn't provide much information about how you had studied and how you were currently studying to improve. Before I can help you to figure out this situation, I'd like to a know a bit more about your studies so far:

1) On what dates did you take your 2 Official GMATs? What were your scores on each (Overall and the Quant & Verbal Scaled Scores)?
2) How long did you study for each attempt?
3) What practice materials did you use for each attempt?

4) Did you have a similar pacing problem on your first attempt?
5) You referred to the 'unfamiliar setting' of the Test Center; was this a different Test Center from your first attempt? And why did you choose a different facility for your second attempt?

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

UVAkid29 · Answer

Rich-
How is it going? Yea so in my first post I was referring to my scores on gmat prep pack 1 test #3. Sorry if that led you to believe that those were my official GMAT scores. Not sure why I chose to word that post in the way I did...sorry about that. Anyhow, I actually did the EMPOWER course for about a month and completed roughly 90% of it. The EMPOWER methods drastically improved my scores on the CATS. Prior to EMPOWER, I was scoring 670 on gmat prep default pack exams and after completing parts of the course the course I got a 720 and 740?- may be mistaken on that. Anyhow, before that I self-studied through the KAPLAN Premiere Program- which was good- it really served to provide me with a good grasp and review of fundamentals. My timing, however, on the actual exam was horrible. I got a 31 in Verbal and 36 in Quant- far below any of my practice exams. I guessed on the last 7 questions on quant and 11 on verbal and didn't even answer the last question. I cracked under the pressure of the exam. I was way too fixated on the first few questions and completely forgot to implement the EMPOWER methods. Also- I was a bit disoriented from excessive caffeine intake- but that is no excuse for my terrible performance. I have signed up to take the GMAT again on the 16th hoping to resolve my pacing problems by then. Do you have any recommendations/suggestions for me?

UVAkid29 · Answer

sorry my scores are from yesterday, August 26th 2016

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi UVAkid29,

Thanks for clearing up the confusion. When these types of significant 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. Let's start with your CATs...

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 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?

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

JeffTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi UVAkid29,

To help determine why you may be having pacing issues, I also have some questions.

1) Did you get your enhanced score report for your two most recent GMAT attempts? If not, could you do so and share the score breakdown from both of those exams?

2) Can you provide us with the dates and score breakdowns from your Official GMAT prep practice exams? When you took the practice tests, did you take them under realistic conditions (e.g. in a quiet environment, no extended breaks)? Did you complete the entire CAT, including the IR and Essay sections?
 
3) Describe your study routine. What resources have you been using to study? How many hours a day have you studied? Also, when you were studying, do you feel as if you were able to achieve linear and targeted learning followed by focused practice? In other words, were you able to master one topic before you moved to the next?

4) If you do retake the GMAT, for how long can you prep for it?

Once you provide us with some further information, we can provide some more specific advice.

UVAkid29 · Answer

Hi there-
Yes, I did take CATS under official conditions- I never took any breaks or anything like that. I am very confused as to how I screwed up so badly on exam day. I am retaking at the end of september. I was just looking at my enhanced score report and I pretty much believe that my analysis of that confirms why I performed so badly. For instance, I scored 88% of the first part of verbal questions correctly, 57% correctly on the 2nd and 3rd parts, and 14% of the fourth part correctly. I spent roughly 1 minute and 49 seconds in the first part, 3 minutes and 18 seconds in the 2nd part, 1 minute and 31 seconds in the third part, and 11 SECONDS in the 4th part and failed to answer the last question. I really don't know what happened time management wise. Likewise, in the quant I scored roughly 90% of the first part right, roughly 60% of the 2nd part right, roughly 20% of the 3rd part right, and roughly 15-20% of the last part correctly( can't remember the exact percentages because I was more focused on analyzing my verbal performance). I just believe that I cracked under the pressure of the exam and that I didn't prepare correctly the night before- went to bed kinda late and ate a bunch of junk food. Then on test day i didn't eat during the break and took way too much caffeine. I really hope I do better this time. If I were able to improve my time management how much do you think I can improve on my next exam. Thank you all for helping me out in this difficult time (:

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi UVAkid29,

I'd like to see your full ESR. If you'd rather not post it publicly, then you can send it to me via PM.

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

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