Need help in ESR Analysis

Question

Hi, I recently wrote my GMAT and scored an abysmal 660 (Q47, V34). My GMAT Prep 3 score 4 days before the exam was 700(Q49, 35) (Missed few easy SC questions in the beginning) and GMAT Prep 4, 2 days before the exam was 730 ( Q48, V42).

I am really bummed out with the score, as I scored 660 in my diagnostic test when I started the preparation. I felt I had come a long way but I guess I choked on the final stage. I have to give my next attempt within 3 weeks to even try for some schools in R1 however most of my target schools will stop accepting R1 applications which sucks.

Some context about me -

1. In these GMAT prep 3 and 4 exams, I got only 2 CR questions incorrect, got 0 incorrect in Gmat prep 3. I cannot fathom how I managed to get 33% in the actual attempt. 
2. Also got only 3 RC questions incorrect in both these exams as well.

Other notes about test day -

1. I booked a slot at 8 AM which was definitely a mistake and I knew it but there were no other alternate slots available for a week. I am currently living in IST but still work in PST so I have never woken up before 630 AM in the last 8-9 months. 
2. During the exam, I could not concentrate at all and just went with the flow. For example, if somebody asks me to recall 5 questions from the exam, I will not be able to. 
3. My Q score of 47 is just bad and I would want to improve it atleast to 49 (if not 50).

GMATinsight · Answer

Akshay076 1) Your ESR has made it pretty clear that you have made most mistakes in CR despite giving maximum average time per CR question which has lowered your score to 34 else you would have reached to a threshold of 35 or above required to get 700 with Q-49 2) Your strategy in verbal section has been good (1st quarter good accuracy) 3) Quant section accuracy is lower than expected primarily because of PS mistakes which happen due to lack of sufficient practice and hand work. Silly errors lower your accuracy there so you need to be careful about that. 4) Low score in Arithmetic is another evidence of same because thats the section which requires maximum practice and that's where you are lagging in speita of giving maximum average time per question. 5) number properties and geometry are next destinations that require your attention. i hope this help!

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel for FREE resource (1000+ Videos) Subscribe Topic-wise UN-bundled Video course. CHECK FREE Sample Videos

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Akshay076,

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:

1) How long have you studied? How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) On what dates did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks and how did you score on EACH (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?
4) What is your exact Score Goal?
5) What are the exact application deadlines that you are facing for each School that you plan to apply to?

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

Akshay076 · Answer

Hi Rich,

Thank you for your reply.

1. I studied for around 2-2.5 months and devoted around 28-30 hours per week. 
2. I started with the Manhattan books, finished the Official Guide, and finished difficult questions from Quant and Verbal Review.

3. 
GMAT Prep 1 - (Used as Diagnostic,  December 2019  but did not start studying till mid-June) 640 (Q41, V38) | Retake ( 30/7/2020 ) 700 (Q48, V 39).
GMAT Prep 2 - ( 23/7/2020 ) 650 (Q 46, V 34) | Retake ( 16/8/2020 ) 750 (Q 50, V 41) 
GMAT Prep 3 - ( 15/8/2020 ) 700 (Q 49, V 35)
GMAT Prep 4 - ( 17/8/2020 ) 730 (Q 48, V 42)

3. My exact score goal is anywhere over 740 ( Ideally above 750). I feel I have a good shot at T10 schools with my MFAANG experience and two years of international exposure working in the US.

4. My Target Schools are Tuck, Booth, Kellogg, Ross, LBS, and most of them have deadlines between the 2nd and 3rd week of September which I don't think are accessible to me now. I would also appreciate inputs in this regard, I have had some friends tell me that I could work simultaneously on my applications but I don't think I can manage to take out time for that. I am unsure over R1 v R2 and have heard that scholarships are virtually nonexistent in R2 which makes me even more frustrated by this performance.

Thank you!

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi Akshay,

First of all, so sorry to hear about how things went with your GMAT. But don’t get disappointed. In my journey, I have helped many students identify what’s stopping them from a getting a good score and improve their score. To give you a brief introduction, I’m a GMAT Strategy Consultant and I like to analyse stats. I’ve been in this industry for more than 8 years now, so, hopefully, helping you shouldn’t be a big problem.

Looking at your scores on mock and the actual test, I can only think of two possibilities for the difference. Ideally you should be able to reflect the mock score on the test day but this case seems pretty ironic. Anyway, the two possibilities are:

One reason might be the nervousness on the test day. It is quite common to feel nervous on the test day and if that is the reason, then I guess you are good to for a retake because your mock scores are pretty consistent. This time make sure you take the test with a relaxed mind. 
 The other reason might be you are not likely following a specific approach for all the tests. If your approach is not consistent, then I think there is some work to do.

I think the first reason would be the plausible reason in this case because of the timing constraints you mentioned. But, let's not jump into the conclusions prematurely. We have the ESR and it would provide us a few insights on what went wrong. I can definitely help you with the ESR analysis, but a better way to do that would be to do it over a  zoom conference call . That way, we can quickly analyse and narrow down what actually went wrong. I think the  call  would be really  worth it and it is absolutely free . So, if you wish to discuss your ESR analysis, you can schedule a free consultation call using the below link.

Click here to schedule a call

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Akshay076,

Looking over your ESR, what really jumps off the page is your CR score. However, even if your CR score was on par with your SC and RC scores, you’d still be below your score goal. In other words, I would continue to work on all aspects of GMAT verbal. For quant, there is nothing incredibly jarring, so I’d be cautious of reading too much into your quant stats and creating a study plan based entirely on your ESR. I guess my overall point is that, rather than focusing too much on your ESR, the bigger question that you need to answer is why your GMAT score was lower than your scores on official practice exams.

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 660. 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, you did not really learn to do what you have to do in order to score high on the actual GMAT, particularly in verbal. 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 probably needs to be more complete, particularly for verbal, 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.

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 it helpful to read the following articles:

How to Score a 700+ on the GMAT

Why Was My GMAT Score Lower Than My Practice Test Scores?

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Akshay076,

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

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

Need help in ESR Analysis

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards