GMAT 580 ! Not sure if I can actually improve

Question

Hi,

I appeared for the GMAT today and was seriously shocked to see a Q47 V23 as the result.I cancelled the score immediately. I was pretty energized when my quant section ended and I was hoping to do the same in the verbal as well.I noticed that the verbal section was quite different from what I had seen in mocks specially the SC.I struggled with SC,RC and CR as well.It felt that I consumed lots of time in the first 5 questions and the same pattern continued and finally with 11 minutes to spare I had 10 questions to attempt.I lost my cool and finished the test and was pretty sad to see the score.

I have been preparing for almost 6 months and my mocks ranged from 520-720 but this was highly unexpected.

I gave manhattan GMAT tests but saw that various questions were repeated in the tests and thus expect my score to be inflated in the mocks.I want to retake the test but I dont want this to happen again.

Any suggestions would be welcomed.

Thanks

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear vinnisatija , I'm happy to respond. :-)

First of all, here's a blog about your situation: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2014/lower-on-t ... ice-tests/ To bolster your verbal, here's what I would suggest: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2014/how-to-imp ... bal-score/ Here's a 3-month study plan for folks who want to improve with Verbal. https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/3-month-gm ... l-focused/ I hope this helps. Mike :-)

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi vinnisatija,

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.

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 (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 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?
6) On what date did you take each CAT and what were the scores on each (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores)?

It's possible that you just had a "bad day"; but if we can figure all of this out quickly, then you shouldn't wait too long to retest.

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

vinnisatija · Answer

Hi Rich,

Thanks for the response.Please see my answers below.

When you took your CATs:
1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT (including the Essay and IR sections)?Yes
2) Did you take them at home?Yes
3) Did you take them at the same time of day as your Official GMAT?Yes I made sure that I do so.
4) Did you ever do ANYTHING during your CATs that you couldn't do on Test Day .Yes I used to pause some of the CATs specially in the verbal sections because I found it really hard to concentrate in the CATs after a certain period of time.Although I didnt face the same problem on the test day.I took almost 15 minutes to solve the first 5 questions and thus timing became an issue for me.I had 10 mins remaining on the clock with 10 questions remaining and I totally lost my cool.
5) Did you ever take a CAT more than once?Yes I took CATs more than once and found certain questions that were repeated.Also, certain questions that I have already seen on GMATclub appeared in the tests that I appeared for.
6) On what date did you take each CAT and what were the scores on each (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores)?

I took the CATs on every sunday and before my actual test,I used to appear for one test every day at the same time and was confident enough of scoring atleast a 650.

I feel its the clock that made me lose my calm.My ESR shows that I scored well in CR and SC but RC ruined it as I got just 21% correct in RC.I found GMAT verbal to be difficult as compared to the mocks.It was pretty much similar to GMATprep.

I want to improvise on the RC but not sure how to do that .Being a science student. I find Science articles much easier to comprehend.I got 4 RC passages and all of them were from humanities.I am trying to improvise my reading skills.I have lately started reading the wall street journal and find it much similar to the pattern of passages given in the actual GMAT.

Any help would be highly appreciated.

Thanks.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi vinnisatija,

Would you be comfortable posting your full ESR. While the data tends to be limited, there are some deductions to be made IF I can see all of the information.

The answers that you've provided are quite useful, as they help to define what went wrong on Test Day. In real basic terms, you took your CATs in such a way that you were NOT properly training to face the Official GMAT.

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 scores can become - and that's what happened here. By taking the CATs at home, pausing the CATs, retaking CATs, etc., you weren't properly training for the FULL GMAT 'experience.'

Thankfully, this is a relatively easy set of problems to fix. The big question now is "how long will it take you to properly get 'used to' taking the full GMAT?" You'll certainly need a new set of practice CATs to work with and you have to put in the necessary time to train your brain (and body) for the FULL GMAT. You might also need to invest in some new GMAT training materials.

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

vinnisatija · Answer

Hi Rich,

I have sent the ESR as a PM.Please check the same.

Thanks,
Vinni

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Vinni,

I've reviewed your ESR and sent you back some notes.

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

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