ESR Verbal analysis

Question

Hi all,

Please help me review verbal part of my ESR and help me to understand why i scored such a low Vebal score despite getting most of the questions right in verbal.
This is my 2nd GMAT attempt and i got a score of 680 (QA 50, VA31). I used to score consistently above 40 in my mocks before GMAT attempt.

I have attached the screenshot of verbal part of ESR

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi ShambhuHegde,

First off, a 680/Q50 is a strong score (it's well above the 80th percentile overall), so it could be enough to get you into your first-choice School. As such, a retest might not be necessary. Depending on the Schools you plan to apply to, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile. There's a Forum full of them here:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/ask-admission ... tants-124/

That having been said, 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 plan to take 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

MrHegdeS · Answer

Hi,
Thank you for the response. Since i am from the over represented applicant pool(Indians), i need a higher GMAT score.
What puzzles me is that,in-spite of getting most of the answers right(as seen in the ESR attached), verbal score is low. Can you pls help me to analyse the Verbal part of my ESR?

Here are the answers for your questions 
 
 1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?  NO. Excluded Essay and IR 
 2) Did you take them at home?  -  Yes 
 3) Did you take them at the same time of day as when you plan to take your Official GMAT?  -  No 
 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.)?   -  Yes 
 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)? -  No

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi ShambhuHegde,

Based on the information that you've provided, there were a number of 'red flags' in terms of how you took your CATs. Before we discuss those details though, I have a few additional questions about the lead-up to Test Day and Test Day itself:

1) What did you do in the 3 days before your GMAT?
2) How did you sleep the night before your Test?
3) How long was the ride to the Test Center from your home?
4) Were there any distractions at the facility or during the Test?
5) What did you do during the two 8-minute breaks?
6) Did you finish any sections early?
7) Did you have to rush to finish any sections (and guess on questions just to finish on time)?

I'll be happy to analyze your ESR for you, but I'd like to see the ENTIRE ESR. You can feel free to PM it to me if you'd rather not post the full ESR publicly.

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

MrHegdeS · Answer

Hi Rich,
Thanks for the response. Here are are my replies to your questions

1) What did you do in the 3 days before your GMAT? - I practiced high difficulty level questions and revised all Verbal and quant concepts
2) How did you sleep the night before your Test? - I had a good sleep of 7 hours
3) How long was the ride to the Test Center from your home? - Ride to test center took half an hour. I reached the center 40 minutes prior to the test start time.
4) Were there any distractions at the facility or during the Test? - There were no external disturbances. But a couple of times my mind got distracted towards some personal issues. But i was able to regain my focus soon.
5) What did you do during the two 8-minute breaks? - I used the restroom and then i had energy bar and water
6) Did you finish any sections early? - I finished every section half minute prior to the section time limit
7) Did you have to rush to finish any sections (and guess on questions just to finish on time)? - I had to rush through in last 15 minutes of both sections and i had to guess 1 or 2 question in each section

I have sent you my complete ESR in PM. Please check it

yugantarthakkur11 · Answer

Its very disturbing to see a low score with a decent accuracy....

I am not sure of why you got below average questions in the first section.

Reason: you might have solved first two questions incorrectly

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