700+ in the last 3 prep tests but jus 660 on the actual GMAT

Question

Took the GMAT today.. Got 660. I got 710,710 and a 730 in my last 3 prep tests. Dont know what went wrong. I was stumped by the level of difficulty in quant. I made the mistake of taking too much time to solve a couple of questions which led to some lack of time for the last 2-3 questions. Ended up getting 47 in quant. Verbal seemed ok except for a couple of RCs. Their contents by themselves were tough and apart from that I got an assumption question and strengthen questions in RCs along with inference questions!! Got 35 in verbal. Was disappointed considering the fact that i had crossed 700 in my last 3 prep tests. I am taking GMAT again on Nov 29. Retakers of GMAT, please post your strategies that helped to increase your score in your subsequent attempts

Prep Test scores
--------------------

Quant Math Overall

50 35 710
47 40 710
49 40 730

Actual GMAT
-------------

Quant Math Overall

47 35 660

Prep Test scores
--------------------

Quant Math Overall

50 35 710
47 40 710
49 40 730

Actual GMAT
-------------

Quant Math Overall

47 35 660

rjkaufman21 · Answer

What practice tests were those that you mention? Certain ones are more accurate than others.

That being said, I know how you feel, especially about the Quant. I had been getting 47-50 on quant on my last 5 practice tests including 50 in GMATprep and then on the real test I got a 45Q. I am retaking in 1 month.

ajaynapa · Answer

Those tests are the ones on GMATPrep test s/w downloaded frm gmac site

ajaynapa · Answer

how re you going to spend this one month. can you share your plan/strategy?

rjkaufman21 · Answer

Well I wish I had a better plan, because I've exhausted most of my study materials and things. But what I'm going to do is review the MGMAT math guides, especially focusing on what I noticed to be my weak points when I took the test (geometry and inequalities). I'm also going to spend about a half an hour each day doing practice problems from the advanced Quant guide and Gmatclub tests.

The biggest thing that I will do differently is change how I approach the final days. Last time I took a full practice test each of the two days prior to my exam and I felt like I went into my test very stressed and anxious, and my mind felt fried. This time I will probably take a practice test 3-4 days before my actual test, and then try to relax my last couple days and do some light review and practice problems.

As I've thought back on my test I know that I made some really silly errors that I wouldn't have made if I hadn't been so stressed. I also felt like I got a disproportionate number of geometry questions which slowed me down and killed my confidence. So I think the combination of bad luck and nerves dragged my score down. I'm praying that I can be more relaxed and prepared this next time.

yaanurag · Answer

Well friends my story is absolutely similar.

I got a 640 49Q/26V back in May. Then I was getting scores mostly in the range of 680-710 on GMATPrep and Manhattan. Subsequently decided to retake. Unfortunately wasn't able to consistently put in study as my work involved lot of travel. Today I took the GMAT again and this time there was only an improvement of 10 points to 650 49Q/31Q. 2 things really struck me.

1) With an improvement of almost 5 points on the Verbal Raw score, there was only an improvement of 10 points in the actual score.

2) This time around I was consistently getting scores of 730-740 on the GMATPrep and Manhattan, but once again this failed to indicate my actual performance.

Need suggestions on how to improve. I am looking at 740+ score and am a non-native English speaker from India. Please also share your thoughts on how are you going to prepare and plan?

ajaynapa · Answer

Hi Anurag. Im from india as well. It is really surprising to see a huge difference between the scores we got on GMATPrep and the actual GMAT. GMATPrep is supposed to be the best indicator of our actual scores though there might be a deviation of 30 points. I think our friends in gmatclub can help us out in devising a strategy. I have 6 weeks to go before my next attempt. I have exhausted 1000 SC, 1000 CR, Kaplan 800, CR Bible by Powerpep. I cannot rely on GMATPrep now as I will be getting too many known questions. RC is something to which I really didnt give justice. However I would still want to practise SCs and CRs. Any material that has a fresh set of questions for SCs and CRs? And a good material for RC

ajaynapa · Answer

Rightly said. Combination of bad luck and nerves got me down as well. I wanted to have a good night's sleep. I hit the bed at 11 pm but couldnt fall asleep atleast till 2.30 am!! I just couldnt fall asleep! Also I felt that questions on the actual GMATwere far tougher than the ones on GMATPrep. Especially RC. The content by themselves were tough, forget about the questions. And getting a strengthen and also an assumption question only added to the complexity.

ajaynapa · Answer

I have planned not to do any kind of prep for the next 1 week. I need to recharge myself. I have ordered Kaplan GMAT 2012 Premier book which has 6 CATs. That should provide me with some fresh set of questions and the difficulty level of Kaplan tests is far more than that of the actual GMAT. Apart from that I am going to read the Critical reasoning Bible and Sentence Correction Bible once again. There is nothing more I can do to increase my
quant. I fell prey to a couple of questions today and nerves came into the picture. I couldnt solve a question which I would otherwise solve quite easily. As far as verbal is concerned I did a lot of practice(1000+ SCs, 500+ CRs) but guess I lack the strategy to attack the verbal questions as a whole

toiysam · Answer

same thing happened to me ( a drop of almost 100 points between gmatprep and real thing), 
i was gonna retake this week but didnt know that i had to wait a month between exams. retaking in 11/2

yaanurag · Answer

Well I believe that the 1000 documents, especially the SC is not at all useful, for the following:

1) There is no explanation of the answers, without, which these are of no use at all. I had done 1000 SCs last time and it didnt help.

2) There a lot of mistakes, I realized only after lot of questions from the OG, which were there in the 1000 SCs had a different answer.

So I believe there is no point going with unofficial material. I believe something like Manhattan online course etc., should help. I had used the Manhattan books, it helped me get better than before, but I still couldn't get through 700+. so need help from you all to figure out what to do, to get there.

ajaynapa · Answer

That's correct. But then there are explanations to almost every question on the 1000 SC on various forums as gmatclub and beatthegmat. You are also right about a few questions having the wrong answer option. But there very very few of these. 1000 SC has questions from OG10 too. It is a kind of a repository of various questions from various sources(though some are qustionable). So I wouldn't say it didn not help me.

And about the preperation... I have bought the Kaplan Premier which has 6 tests. I have also bought the Manhattan ones. I will start practising from OG and also brush up on the basics. I'll be taking a couple of tests every week. Taking off for 20 days.

700+ in the last 3 prep tests but jus 660 on the actual GMAT

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