Urgent Help Needed: Retaking GMAT in 15 days.

Question

Hello,

First off - a little context about why I'm retaking the GMAT:
1) Indian Male Engineer (Although my work experience is not at all typical of that pool).
2) Scored 680 (Q48, V34, IR7) when I took the GMAT on 20th July 2017.
3) I was scoring 740 consistently in GMATPrep tests. Verbal was anywhere from 42 to 46.

I have absolutely no idea what went wrong in Verbal on test day. I didn't rush, neither did I guess a lot in Verbal. The questions also didn't seem too easy, so the penalty for getting them wrong couldn't have been that high.

I  need to  take a retest in 15 days. Need help from you guys as to how I can improve my Quant from 48 to 49-50 and more importantly, my verbal to 41+. Could you please guide me with reference to:
1) Study plan/method for 15 days for both Quant and Verbal.
2) Resources for prep and tests.

I know it is too short a period for a major jump in scores, but I honestly feel that my Verbal score is an anomaly, it should have at least been 38+. It is not an accurate representation of my preparation or my ability. I'm looking forward to all the help I can get.

Thank you.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi bobthebuilder14,

First off, a 680/Q48 is a strong score (it's right around the 85th percentile overall), so it could be enough to get you into your first-choice School. Depending on the Schools that 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/

Since it sounds like you're set on retesting, then it would help to know a bit more about your prior studies and how you took your CATs. 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?

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

bobthebuilder14 · Answer

Hello Rich,

I studied full time for 2.5 months before taking the test. I took 5 GMATPrep tests, and 9 Jamboree (Indian test prep company) tests, scoring similarly (710-740) on both.  Jamboree tests were not adaptive . Here are the answers to your questions:

When you took your CATs:
 1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)? 
Took all 5 GMATPrep tests as entire CATs. Took 3 Jamboree tests as entire tests. So out of the 14 tests I took, 8 were full-length tests.

2) Did you take them at home? 
Out of the 14, I took 2 at home. The rest of them were taken in Jamboree's computer labs.

3) Did you take them at the same time of day as when you plan to take your Official GMAT? 
No, test start times varied from 11 AM to 3 PM. Tried to align it with the time I'd booked (10.30 AM) for 3 tests I took before the actual 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.)?  
No, I always stuck to the routine. Took breaks for less than 8 minutes, did not pause the exam or skip sections.

5) Did you ever take a CAT more than once? Had you seen any of the questions BEFORE? 
No, did not repeat any of the tests. But as is the case with GMATPrep CATs, questions were repeated, but only in Verbal. No repeats in Quant (surprisingly). There were at least 4-5 repeats in the GMATPrep CAT number 4 and 5.

I did find the questions on the actual GMAT slightly harder than ones I'd encountered on either GMATPrep or at Jamboree but I did not rush or guess much on the actual test. It could be fatigue on test day, because I felt quite mentally exhausted by the time I reached Verbal. I'd chosen the AWA/IR-Quant-Verbal sequence. I need to improve my Quant score to 49-50 and Verbal score to 41+. Please let me know if there is any way to do this in the next 14-15 days.

Thank you.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi bobthebuilder14,

Test Day is a rather specific 'event' - the details are specific and they matter, so you have to train as best as you can for all of them. The more realistic you can make your CATs, the more likely the score results are to be accurate. The more you deviate, the more "inflated" your practice scores can become - and that's likely what happened here. From what you described, you took your CATs in a way that did not consistently 'match up' with the details of your Official Test Date (especially by taking CATs at different times of day and seeing 'repeat' questions), so you were not properly training for the FULL GMAT 'experience.' By extension, your practice CAT scores were not necessarily accurate.

GMAC has publicly stated that the Official Score that you earn on Test Day is within +/- 30 points of actual ability. Assuming a similar 'swing' in how your CATs function - and that those scores were more accurate than not - your various score results show that you essentially performed the same each time (710 +/- a few points). Thus, you might have just been at the 'low end' of your range (and the 'upper end' would be around a 740). However, if most/all of your CAT scores were inflated, then it might be that your current ability level is in the high-600s; if that's the case, then you would likely need at least another month of proper study before you would actually be scoring in the mid-700s.

Have you purchased the Enhanced Score Report for this Exam? While the ESR doesn't provide much information, there are usually a few data points that we can use to pinpoint what you need to 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

bobthebuilder14 · Answer

Hello Rich,

I have attached my Quant and Verbal ESR screenshots. They have disabled the "Download PDF" button, so I had to get screenshots. Please let me know if you need more information. I hope you can share some insights based on the ESR.

Thank you.

ccooley · Answer

Without knowing anything else about you beyond what you've posted here, I would be inclined to blame fatigue. That would be more likely to cause a drop in Verbal than a drop in Quant,  if you did Verbal last . When you took your official test, were they letting you choose the order of your sections yet? Are you considering using a different ordering next time?

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi bobthebuilder14,

While it would have helped to see the FULL ESR, the information that you provided does point to a few areas that you could improve on. I've sent you a PM with some notes/suggestions.

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

bobthebuilder14 · Answer

Hello  ccooley ,

They were letting us choose the order. I went with the default (AWA/IR-Quant-Verbal) because that's the only one I'd practiced with. I did not want to change that on the actual test since I didn't have any experience with it. I am definitely considering taking Quant-Verbal-AWA/IR the next time.

I know my strengths and weaknesses in Quant fairly well but I don't have much of an idea about Verbal. I thought I was alright at it, but the GMAT seems to think otherwise.

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