Trying to figure out where I went wrong

Your quant score is consistent with your mock scores. The problem is in verbal score. Did you notice that your verbal score is fluctuating? You should take 2 or 3 verbal mock tests again and try to understand the consistency with the mock score and your real gmat verbal score.

Do you have any recommendations for which verbal mock tests I should buy or are there any free good ones available?

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Hi deekshajuneja,

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) How long have you studied? How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far?

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

Hi Rich,
Thanks for your response.

I studied for about 2 months and about 4 hours everyday.
The only study material I used was the official guide, the verbal and the quant official guides, and one Kaplan book.
The tests I gave were the ones you can buy on MBA(dot)com.
I need a score over 700. Ideal score would be around 720. I am applying to some schools in Canada and Singapore. I was hoping to apply by round 2 but I don't think I can make it as this test did not go so well.

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Hi deekshajuneja,

Many GMATers spend 3 months (or more) of consistent study time before they hit their 'peak' scores, so if you studied for just 2 months, then that might help to explain why you have not hit your Score Goal yet. That having been said, raising a 620 to the point that you can consistently score 720+ will likely require at least another 2 months of consistent, guided study - and you'll have to make significant improvements to how you handle BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections. Thankfully, the GMAT is a consistent, predictable Exam, so you CAN train to score at a higher level.

1) Are you planning to continue your studies immediately or will you take some 'time off' from your studies?
2) For your applications, are you going to plan for Round 3 or next year's Round 1?

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

Hi Rich,

I think that was probably my mistake. I got 710 in my practice test and thought I was good to go.
For 720, how much quant and verbal score should I aim for?
I am talking a day or 2 off for sure to clear my head.
I haven't decided that yet but I think it might be next year. I do want to clear the GMAT as soon as possible and I am hoping to appear again by early January.

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Hi deekshajuneja,

To start, I think that taking a couple of days 'off' from the GMAT would be a good idea. Your current GMAT skills will not 'fade' over the course of a few days - and enjoying a little time off would likely be beneficial before you restart your studies.

From what you've described, your studies so far have been "book heavy"; unfortunately, many GMATers who study in that way end up getting 'stuck' at a particular score level. Even the best books are limited in what they can teach you; they also can't force you to approach questions in a certain way and their explanations are often one-sided. As such, you would likely find it beneficial to invest in some new, non-book study materials for this next phase of your studies.

I want to reiterate that while the Enhanced Score Report 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 - and if you would rather not post it publicly, then you can feel free to PM it directly to me. In that same way, once you're ready to restart your studies, you can also feel free to contact me directly.

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

Hi Rich,

I am so sorry I forgot to mention that I bought the ESR report yesterday but it will take 72 hours to get to me. I will definitely PM it to you.

I am interested to know which materials I should invest in but I guess we should discuss it once we have all the data.

Thank you so much for taking out the time to go over all this with me. I highly appreciate it.

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only official mocks. if they are running out, try for manhattan prep mocks.
thank you..

Hi deekshajuneja,

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 V29. 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 in verbal, 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, particularly for verbal, 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.

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.

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 verbal skills, feel free to reach back out. Good luck!

Hi Scott,
Thank you for your reply.

Yes, I think my score on quant was fine but I dont mind improving it as it will increase my overall score as well.

I am not sure that I took the practice exam in ideal conditions actually. On the test day, I found out that we could not take jackets inside the test center and I was rather cold the entire time. Moreover, I was given some really heavy noise-canceling headphones. Unfortunately, the physical size of my head is rather small, which made the earphones feel really heavy. I think I need to give my practice tests with heavy earphones to mimic the conditions of a real test.

My preparation included just the official books - the set of 3 books you can buy from mba(dot)com. I also had a kaplan book that had a lot of questions but I did not use it extensively.

Your advice is extremely helpful. I am going to try and do that. I do know that my sentence correction is weak but on the test day, I realized that my RC is rather weak too. I used to be very confident in my RC but apparently, I was wrong. I think you are extremely right to suggest that I managed to score high on practice tests due to some sort of pattern. I do need a proper analysis of what I need to do better. Thank you so much for sharing the article. I really appreciate you taking out the time to help me out.

Hi Deeksha! Since you mention SC as your specific area of concern, thought I would mention that our sentence correction book Sentence Correction Nirvana is perhaps the only book that offers a score improvement guarantee, and is especially designed for non-native speakers.

After reading the book twice (yes! it's an academic book, and so must be read twice in all seriousness, to reinforce the concepts), you will start looking forward to solving SC questions!

The book is available on Flipkart and Amazon.in. You might want to refer to these sites, to also read testimonials of how readers have benefited.

See here how Mohit, who scored 750 on GMAT, vouches for our book.

If you want to sample a chapter before deciding to go ahead with our book, please PM me your mail-id (along with the chapter that you would like to sample) and I will be happy to send that chapter to you by mail. In addition, the entire Grammar section of the book is also available for free preview at pothi.

Hi deekshajuneja,

I've sent you a PM with an analysis of your ESR and some additional notes.

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

My pleasure!!

I think you did everything right! Therefore, you have nothing to worry about.

If I did everything right then why did I not score well? Was it just by chance? And what do you recommend I do to perform better next time?

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