GFE 595 | 695 in Mocks - Next Steps?

Question

I started preparing for the GMAT in July 2024. I scored a 595 on my second attempt yesterday, after getting scores in the range of 685-695 on Official mocks.
Below is some background about my prep so far. I would be extremely grateful for any guidance.

First attempt - 10 Dec 2024 - 575 (Q79, V81, DI76)

In July 2024, I enrolled in e-GMAT's course following a friend’s recommendation and stuck to the course for 5 months. While the course helped me in terms strengthening my fundamentals in quant and verbal, I heavily relied on the course, not touching any OG material. In fact, until a week before my exam, I had not given a single Official Mock.
I then made the terrible mistake of giving 4 Official Mocks the week before my exam and got scores ranging from 615(worst)-695(best). On test day, I was tired, nervous and overwhelmed. No surprises - I struggled through all three sections.
When I saw 575 on the screen, I was disappointed, but I was also aware of the several gaps in my preparation. I had terrible pacing strategies, and mediocre accuracy in Hard questions for all topics.

Second attempt - 10 April 2025 - 595 (Q80, V82, DI77)

I recognized that I needed to regroup, focus on Official questions, and work on pacing. In January 2025, I started working on OG materials and progressively worked on all three sections- quant, verbal and DI.
After finishing OG, I started using the Question Banks on GMATClub and slowly increased my accuracy for each section and topic. For 2 months I worked on using a systematic approach to answering questions and found myself getting better at tackling questions in quant, RC, and especially, CR.
End of February - I started giving Official mocks every 2 weeks. Seeing a consistent score of 685-695, I worked on closing any gaps and increased the frequency giving mocks. Seeing the consistent results, I booked my second attempt for April 10.
These were my Official mock attempts:

Mock 1 - 16-Feb – 685 (Q87, V84, DI81)
Mock 2 - 3-Mar - 695 (Q90, V83, DI80)
Mock 3 - 16-Mar - 675 (Q85, V84, DI81)
Mock 4 - 23-Mar - 695 (Q87, V85, DI81)
Mock 5 - 31-Mar - 685 (Q87, V84, DI81)
Mock 6 - 6-Apr - 655 (Q88, V83, DI76)

Test Day

During the exam, I found the difficulty level of Verbal and DI comparable to the difficulty levels in the Mocks, but Quant was significantly tougher. In my mocks, I had breezed through the quant section - and my worst was when I got 2 questions wrong. So, after finishing the exam, I did expect to see a score lesser than 675-685 but seeing 595 was devastating.
>4 months of dedicated prep and I am still where I had started from. I wish I could blame it on exam anxiety, but I cannot- knowing that I was quite calm going into the exam (given my mock scores).

After giving the last 6 mocks, I thought I was finally getting somewhere. I had given all the mocks diligently, mirroring the exam environment, taking the exact same duration of break, the same section order- everything. I am still struggling to understand where I faltered so terribly to not see even a 10% improvement.

I must be doing something right (hopefully?) to get those scores in the mocks but also doing something utterly wrong to not be able to translate that into actual results.

I am planning on practicing Hard questions for Quant to increase my accuracy and utilizing the GMATClub tests for that. I also plan on working on DI and RC and increase my accuracies for those areas. Right now, all I can think of is practice and more practice. This latest experience has also instilled in me a fear that my mock scores may never reflect what I might achieve in the actual exam.

Currently feeling very uncertain - any advice/suggestions would be very helpful.
Thank you

himomaki · Answer

Totally understand your frustration—been there. First off, you’ve clearly built a solid foundation, and your mock consistency shows potential. But the gap could be test-day execution under pressure. For Quant, try GMAT Club’s hard sets under strict timing—build that adaptability. And please don’t lose faith in your mocks—they’re still valuable indicators!

mrfredrick · Answer

That’s a tough spot, but your progress shows grit. It’s possible your performance dipped due to subtle mental fatigue or unexpected question styles. Don’t obsess over just more practice—start analyzing "why" your real score drops. Use error logs, track fatigue zones, and simulate the real test again with extra distractions.

suburbandaredevil · Answer

I’ve seen similar stories, and the common fix was blending OG + GMATClub + timing drills, then working on recovery after hard questions. Maybe mix in mindfulness routines pre-test. Also, try using the streak method in your practice—it helps train for that Quant sharpness under pressure. You’re not far off!

grandzeno · Answer

Mock scores show you’re capable. Test-day variance might stem from mental rhythm disruption or over-calibration to mock patterns. 
Push accuracy on hard-level sets and then simulate fatigue management across three-section mock marathons. You can do it !

EducationAisle · Answer

Don't lose heart. Your mock scores clearly show that 595 is really not a reflection of your capability.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi SaKVSF16,

Based on your most recent practice exams, I think you are actually in a pretty good spot. Thus, it's entirely possible that you just had a bad day on your GMAT or that anxiety could have played a role. Either way, if you put in a little more prep time and work on your confidence, you should be able to hit your score goal on your next GMAT. Feel free to reach out with any questions.

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi SaKVSF16,

Is there something about how you took your practice tests (timing, breaks etc.) or how you took your actual exam (anxiety, timing etc.) that could explain the score drop?

Practice is important, but practice alone may not be enough. As a retaker, you could reach out on  delv.ac  for verbal support.

SaKVSF16 · Answer

Hi  AjiteshArun  
I did not do anything different while taking the practice tests- I followed the same section order and same break duration during all the mocks, which is why I was surprised about the huge difference between the mock score and the actual score. But yes, I did find the quant in all the mocks significantly easier than the quant section in the actual exam - in hindsight, perhaps that impacted my confidence going into the DI section.

I will look up delv.ac - thank you for the suggestion

yc168 · Answer

Hi   SaKVSF16  ,

Thanks for sharing your experience. Although it's posted on Ask Experts forum, I feel it also make a valuable post on Share GMAT Experience forum as well.

Sorry don't have specific suggestion for you, except to say that you should be ready for a retake without much more prep, It almost feels like you just had a bad day.

A quick question - since you took 4 official mocks before your first take, and then 6 official mocks this year from February to April this year, I assume some of 6 tests this year are repeated mocks?

SaKVSF16 · Answer

Hi  yc168

Yes, 4 out of the 6 official mocks I took in Feb-March were re-attempts of Official Mock 1,2,3,4. I didn't see any repeated questions on the second attempts though.

02crystaljungggg · Answer

Hi, have you retaken the test. I experienced the same issue, when I constantly got around 695, even 725 on mock tests with 85-86 in DI.
But I recently took the real test. Although Quant & Verbal were quite fine, my DI score plummeted to ONLY 30 percentile, which is a crazy huge drop.
I don’t think the real test DI was that hard, but do not know why I got it wrong

SaKVSF16 · Answer

Hi 02crystaljungggg

No, I haven't retaken the test yet. I have been working on my weak areas and solidifying my foundations for the past few weeks.

I get where you are coming from. Even though I was getting Q87-Q90 in my mocks, there were a few topics I was not completely comfortable with. As luck would have it, the real test had 2/3 questions from those concepts, which threw me off. So the best option would be not to leave anything up to luck and prepare for the worst.

Just keep faith in yourself and your hard work. Recognise your weaknesses and work on them. That's all I can recommend, as that is the plan I am following currently.

Just keep faith in yourself and your hard work. Recognise your weaknesses and work on them. That's all I can recommend, as that is the plan I am following currently.

yc168 · Answer

Well said.

Bunuel's almost encyclopedic  Ultimate Quant Guide  may be too much for average test takers, but could be a useful resource for you. I don't think you'll need to go through them from beginning to end, given your mock Quant score, but it could potentially come in handy for you to identify any gap in topical areas and go into depth in certain content areas. GMAT Club Test could also be helpful to practice harder-than-normal questions under time pressure.

Best of luck for your retake.

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