Score went from 730 to 600 in the real GMAT

Question

Hi Everyone,

After months of preparing for GMAT and getting a score between 690 and 730 on Kaplan tests(verbal - 41-43; quant - 47-49, IR-5-7), I gave the GMAT only to get a score of 600(V35 Q38). Now I am overwhelmed with how to go about it, whether I should give it again and what study plans I should take or which coaching centers i should join. Also, when it comes to Quant, I am still a little confident as compared to Verbal: I have blanked out completely and now find it difficult to even speak in normal English without fumbling. I am lost and open to any suggestion which could get me out of this dilemma.

I have gone through the following study materials and given the following mock tests.

MGMAT 
- foundations of Math and Verbal, and all strategy guides
- 1 mock test

Kaplan
- Prep Plus 2019
- GMAT 800

Princeton
- 5 mock tests

Veritas
- 7 mock tests (score around 650)

Economist GMAT 
- 1 mock test

GMAT mock
- 680

OG 16 and 17

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi Neeta, while you say that you are relatively more confident in Quant, your score split shows a completely different story. You've in fact scored quite decent in Verbal (85th percentile; however, your Quant (38) is way below average (33th percentile).

Do you recall what actually went so horribly bad with Quant, in your exam (despite the fact that you're more confident in Quant)?

Do you recall what actually went so horribly bad with Quant, in your exam (despite the fact that you're more confident in Quant)?

CAMANISHPARMAR · Answer

I can understand this is disappointing for you to have such an experience.

This can happen due to multiple reasons.

But let this NOT disappoint you. It could be helpful to order an ESR (i.e. enhanced score report, if not bought already) from mba.com. You would get enough data points to work on. Then you may pose specific questions in this forum. Was the drop due to content, timing or difficulty level etc?

Maybe we might be able to help you further with specific feedback.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi neetakarnik,

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 either of those 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 overall?
2) On what dates did you take each of your practice CATs and how have you scored on EACH (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

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

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

egmat · Answer

Hi neetakarnik , I am sorry to know that your scores were not in line with your expectations. I can understand why you are feeling overwhelmed. A lot of students have been through what you are facing now but with the right strategy and approach they were able to reach their target score. Here are a few such examples to motivate you: • Anurag improved from 600 to 740. Click here to watch his inspiring debrief. • Guillermo improved from a Q38 (36 percentile) to Q50 (85 percentile). Click here to watch his interview. Click here to read his amazing GMAT Club debrief. Regarding your Retake Strategy, I think you should first look at your ESR to see what went wrong on the test day. You may find the following articles useful: - ESR Analysis - Retake Strategy If you have any further queries regarding the GMAT, feel free to write to us at support@e-gmat.com Regards, Aditee

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi neetakarnik,

I’m sorry to hear how things went with your GMAT. The score decrease could have resulted from a number of things. The most likely reason for the difference between your scores on practice tests and your score on the real GMAT is that in your preparation, 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, to hit your GMAT score goal (which I believe is 700+), you probably have to adjust the way that you’ve been preparing.

Although you self-admittedly are less confident in quant than you are in verbal, since you scored low in both, I recommend focusing on both so that you are able to maximize your score increase on your next GMAT. To improve your skills, your preparation is going to have to be more complete, meaning that you have to go through quant and verbal carefully to find your exact weaknesses, fill gaps in your knowledge, and strengthen your skills. The overall process will be to learn all about how to answer question types with which you currently aren't very comfortable and do dozens of practice questions category by category, basically driving up your score point by point. When you do dozens of questions of the same type one after the other, you learn just what it takes to get questions of that type correct consistently. If you aren't getting close to 90 percent of questions of a certain type correct, go back and seek to better understand how that type of question works, and then do more questions of that type until you get to around at least 90 percent accuracy in your training. If you get 100 percent of some sets correct, even better.

In order to follow the path described above, you may need some new quant and verbal materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the  best quant  and  verbal courses .

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 quant and verbal skills, feel free to reach back out.

Good luck!

rohan2345 · Answer

Hi neetakarnik,

You can try out the Target Test Prep or E-gmat Quant course as they are both phenomenal and cover the entire syllabus really well. Plus it has great reviews on GMATCLUB. I must add that if you are particularly looking to discover and improve on your weak areas in Quant; a subscription to GMATCLUB tests is the best way to do that. They are indeed phenomenal and will not only pinpoint your weak areas but also help you improve on them.

Further taking multiple mocks might help. Apart from the GMATPREP, Manhattan GMAT tests and Experts Global Prep Tests in my experience have good verbal and Quant section and will certainly help you point out and improve your weak areas.

Further another advantage of taking many mocks is to build up your stamina. Apart from the GMATPREP tests, taking practice tests of any major GMATPREP company ought to do that.

Lastly I would also encourage you to purchase GMATPREP QP 1 for some great additional practice.

Hope this helps. All the best.

AjiteshArun · Answer

EducationAisle  is correct. Your verbal score (V35 is 76%) is not bad at all. I'd pick up the paid GMATPrep practice tests if I were you.

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Score went from 730 to 600 in the real GMAT

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