Scored 690 & 710 in gmat prep but scored 610 in actual GMAT

Question

I had taken my GMAT on 28th of March 2013. I scored only 610 (V28, QA47). I was consistently scoring above 670 in preps. And score 690 and 710 in the GMAT prep tests 2 days prior to the actual GMAT.

I am re-taking the exam on April 29th. I have taken the GMAT prep (old version with AWA and Analysis of ISSUE). In one i scored 730 and in the 2nd one I did not see the score but in QA got 10 wrong, and in VA got 8 wrong. Though I feel prepared and score well in preps, I am not confident because my prep scores and actual gmat scores had fluctuated quite significantly.

Please give some tips.

nt2010 · Answer

One thing I would suggest is check your timing strategy. Have you run into any timing issues during the exam when you ended up randomly guessing? Also remember GMAT is an adaptive test, which tricks you with random lower level questions while you are at 700 level and if you miss any of these lower level questions, the score tanks.

abhi0312 · Answer

Yes, I did guess 3 or 4 questions at the end of each of the sections. Otherwise it was smoothly paced. I used a little more time to answer the first 10 questions. But then the same strategy worked while writing the tests in GMAT prep.

smoothnavigator · Answer

Understanding the exam is very important.
When u give prep test in general you see at least 07~10 familiar questions . These questions tend to boost your score in prep tests.
Further most of questions of prep test are out in the forum and are discussed in either direct or indirect form.

A good strategy is to deliberately answer at least 50 percent of familiar questions wrong in prep tests.

Further I believe verbal part is heavily skewed towards CR and RC. You need to hit 8/10 in both CR and Verbal to get a good score in verbal section.

I improved my verbal score from 27 to 40. During prep tests, I consistently marked many familiar questions wrong to get a more realistic assessment of my verbal abilities.

abhi0312 · Answer

Thanks I will do that and check the progress.

btg9788 · Answer

I am in the same boat as you are. I had the exact prep scores which you mentioned. Not sure what went wrong.

My guess is that the actual GMAT is more tricky than the prep. Or it could be the environment which makes you err in some important questions :-)

transfer9858 · Answer

Hey-

I know exactly how you feel. After scoring between 700-740 on manhattan gmat practice tests on about 8 of them I scored a 630, 48, 28. I have no idea what happened and had to walk away for the gmat for a while; that was last year. Sooner or later, probably within in the next few months, I am going to start all over again. I happen to enjoy math so it's not too bad but its extremely tiring and time consuming. This time around, however, I am pounding out verbal like no bodies business. If you can get your score up to a 680, I don't think even HBS is out of the question. It seems 680 is the bench mark for all top schools.

TheNona · Answer

same here ... minimum score on my mocks was a 600 and ended up with a 550

TheNona · Answer

I did the same during my preparation , nevertheless the GMAT blew me

nt2010 · Answer

Personally, for me the exam pressure got better part of me in my two attempts. I ran out of time very badly in my 1st attempt and in my 2nd attempt I made the stupidity of time boxing by question and ended up really badly.. As I'm getting ready to take my 3rd attempt.. I'm trying to re-create as many exam like scenarios as possible with question packs, GMAT Preps II repetition.. I'm ignoring the scores in the practice tests this time around since they are really inflated.. not sure how this approach works... but very anxious....

abhi0312 · Answer

Can it be the exam environment? because for many, the actual gmat score is +- 30 of their gmat prep score.. My 2nd attempt is on Monday..

nt2010 · Answer

It could be since typically GMAT prep are done in friendly confines of home.. That is one of the reason people score high in 2nd attempt..

Good luck with your exam on Monday.

Esuric · Answer

I got a 640 and a 690 on the official GMAT prep tests on MBA.com. I got the 640 two weeks before the exam and I got the 690 the day before the exam. I ultimately ended up with a 690 on the actual exam (42Q and 42V) but my verbal score was way above my average on prep tests and my math score was significantly lower than my prep test average. The princeton review prep tests were garbage. I averaged like a 590 on them, ranging from 640 to 540. It seemed like you simply could not recover from a poor performance on the first 10 question (and by poor performance, I mean getting 7-8 right out of the first 10).

That being said, good luck on your test today.

That being said, good luck on your test today.

abhi0312 · Answer

scored 640 (49Q,26V). Felt verbal could have been better. Somehow I feel that the last 10 questions are also important.. I was doing well in the first 20 in verbal questions. Then due to lack of time, the last 6 went for a toss which included 3 RC questions. Guess I got all wrong in a sequence which probably brought the score down. Nevertheless, it be better than the 610.. Guess am done with GMAT.

Klaudnine · Answer

Hi I think you can definitely get above 700 from your practice exams, I have found them to be quite accurate, I would suggest taking it again after practicing on more cat exams to get your timing down, if you improve your verbal to around 35 which is not that hard to do your score would improve dramatically since you already in the 48-50 range on quant. Having the timing down is one of the most important things on the Gmat, it puts tremendous pressure on you when you are short on time but on the flip side knowing you have the timing down will give you the confidence to be more relaxed and concentrate more on the questions in front of you.

masterg · Answer

abhi0312,
The same thing literally happened to me last Saturday. On the GMATPrep 1 and 2, I scored 710 and 720 only 3 weeks ago. I think I made a bunch of careless mistakes and totally panicked/froze on the first question I could not answer in quant. My score dropped substantially and I got a 640 on my first real GMAT test.

I'm retaking the test in a month. What are your plans?

masterg

btg9788 · Answer

Friends,
I decided to be brave one more time and started my mocks with Kaplan. I scored 750 on the Kaplan GMAT CAT. I am not sure how to compare this score against Manhattan GMAT.

Since I have been once bitten by the GMAT, please advise on how how bloated this number is..

ashish1991 · Answer

i really wanna kno how u improved ur verbal from 27 to 40 i am really goin down in verbal..plz help my exam is in November first week

i am scoring good in maths but i really falling short of time in both the sections

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Scored 690 & 710 in gmat prep but scored 610 in actual GMAT

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