Seeking opinion on a weird GMAT score

Question

I took the GMAT for the 2nd time today, and I ended up canceling my score. The score I got was:
Verbal: 38 percentile 85
Quant: 48 percentile 47
Overall: 660

I cancel the score because it was lower than what I aimed for, BUT something caught my attention and had me staring at the screen for a very long time. I've taken the GMAT before, and I've taken numerous practice test yet I don't think I've ever seen a score of 48 being in the 47th percentile for quant. I want to know whats everyone's opinion on this? I talked to a few friends who've also studied for and taken the GMAT and they also found this hard to believe. Is there someway to investigate or talk to GMAC about this? Is it worth it? Just to added, the quant score may have been 43, but it was either 43 or 48. I remembered because it really stood out.

Here are the answers to some questions other people have asked me:
Q: Did you misread the score? Maybe it was 85 percentile for quant and 47 for verbal.
A: No, I did not misread. I paid extra attention and wrote it down after my exam since it stood out to me.

Q: How do you normally do on the GMAT:
A: I score between 640 - 690 normally. Today's test felt harder for both verbal and quant. Question for both section felt like it steadily got harder with each question. I was told that if it felt too easy, I probably
 didn't do very well.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi jiwen,

With a Q48/V38, you would not have ended up with a 660 (you'd have likely hit 690 or 700), so one (or more) of the numbers you've listed is incorrect. If you would like to know for sure, then you can order the Enhanced Score Report for this Exam. Depending on your Score Goal, you might want to order the ESR regardless. 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 (and what you should work on to score higher). If you purchase the ESR, then I'll be happy to analyze it for you.

Beyond those issues, before I can offer you any advice on how you might better prepare for your next attempt, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) How did you score on your 1st Official GMAT?
2) How long did you study for each attempt?
3) What study materials have you used for each attempt?
4) How have you scored on EACH of your recent practice CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
5) What is your goal score?
6) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
7) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

jiwen · Answer

So for my first official GMAT exam, i scored 640, on my practice exams I've been scoring between 670-690 recently. I've had a 3 week period to study between my first GMAT and my 2nd GMAT. On average I study about 3-4 hours a day, 6 days a week. Up to now, I've read through and done the problems in the manhattan guide for 2015, official guide for 2018 and 2019 and done problems from the official quant guide for 2019. Overall I generally land in the 68-75 percentile for verbal and 75-85 percentile for quant. My plan is to apply to school this year in roughly a month with a score of 700. If I cannot hit that goal, I want high 600, like 680 but a high quant score. What does the ESR tell you, and can I order one if I cancelled my score today? Depending on how much it will help, I might order one. Also, as I memtioned my quant score may have been 43. While I doubt that is the case, because I really made an effort to memorize the number due to my suspicions, if that were the case would that severly drop my score? Like does 43 scaled score really make sense for 47 percentile?

AjiteshArun · Answer

You can get an ESR for a cancelled score as well.

You mentioned in your first post that your quant percentile was 47. The scaled score corresponding to 47% is  42 . Q48 is 67%, and combined with a V38 (85%) would have certainly seen you hit or cross 700.

jiwen · Answer

In that case, are there any ways to have GMAC check my score. I can't check or see the score I got in any way since I cancelled it. I'm not entirely sure what I should do now.

bb · Answer

You have to get an ESR - that's the only way that comes to my mind....

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi jiwen,

GMAC has publicly stated that the Official Score that you earn on Test Day is within +/- 30 points of actual ability. Assuming that you scored 660 on this 2nd attempt, then your 2 Official Scores show that you essentially performed the same each time (about 650 +/- a few points). At this point, since there's some question as to what your exact Scaled Scores were on this recent attempt, I'm going to assume that they are fairly similar to the Scaled Scores on your 1st attempt. This would all imply that you continue to 'see' (and respond to) the GMAT in the same general ways. Regardless of what you may have worked on over the last 3 weeks, you handled the Official GMAT in the same general ways - which is why you ended up with a similar Score.

You could potentially retest in a month and hit 700+, but you would have to make some significant adjustments to how you handle BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections. Continuing to work through lots of practice questions in the same ways as before will likely NOT get you to that level - you need to focus on specific Tactics and work on the 'precision' in your work.

1) What is the latest that you can retake the GMAT?
2) Going forward, how many hours do you think you can consistently study each week?

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

jiwen · Answer

Based on the deadlines for the programs I want to apply to, I have at least another 2 months. To allow for sufficient processing time, I'd say 1 month is a good estimate of the time I have left. I could dedicated anywhere between 0-5 hours of studying a day for an entire month. I do prefer only studying 6/7 days a week to avoid fatigue. That being said, it seems that you are suggesting going over more practice problems will not likely increase my score by a lot. What should I do then?

I went back and checked all my practice test and official test that I have records of. My scoring range is as follows:
Quant scaled score: 47-49
Verbal scaled score: 30-32

It has been consistently around this range. I am trying to aim for a score of 50/40. While it appear that I should focus more on verbal, it seems to me that getting that additional point in quant is much harder. Also, my most recent GMAT score, the score that led to this post, suggest that my verbal score is alot higher now, but quant score dipped significantly... so I am lost.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi jiwen,

Given the consistency that you've noted in your various scores, is it possible that you actually scored Q48/V33 on your 2nd Official GMAT?

This result would likely get you the 660 that you ended with and would support the idea that you need to work on your Verbal skills. If that's actually the score breakdown, then we have patterns in your performance that we can work with. However, if your Quant Score dropped to a Q43, then you might be prone to careless mistakes - and there's no way to know if your Verbal skills are actually a lot higher now, you got a bit 'lucky' on Test Day or if your Verbal level is just about what it was before.

This is all meant to say that we really need to know everything we can about this 2nd attempt, as it will define what you would need to work on during this next month. Having the ESR would be really helpful. If you don't want to purchase, then the only way to be 'safe' will be to have you work on a number of different Quant AND Verbal areas - and that training will likely take longer than 1 month to do properly.

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

jiwen · Answer

I see what you are saying. So first and foremost, the one thing I am sure about my 2nd GMAT attempt is that my verbal score was indeed 38. Now, i think you make a convincing point about the ESR so I will be purchasing that. I contact GMAC about this suspicion and the estimated reply time is 2 business days. I think what I will do is wait for their reply, see what kind of response I get, then go from there.

You're point that I may have made careless mistake (on quant) is very true. From my practice exams, I've notice that a lot of the times, the mistakes I made were very minor. Its the type of mistake where if I were given just enough time, I'd never would've made it. The official solutions are ones that I would end up getting upon reviewing the question, or it would make total sense to me hitting me with the "well duh" moment. Knowing this, I don't seem to be able to avoid it. Its tough because I believe I'm close enough to a good score that I don't want to dump a lot of money into a prep program, but I'm not sure how to further prep besides just keep doing problems.

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Seeking opinion on a weird GMAT score

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