Gmat experience: Bombed the GMAT twice

Question

Hi,
there is my gmat experience, I lurked a lot this forum and I read a lot of fantastic tips, strategies and useful experiences, so I wanted to share mine, maybe someone else is in the same condition as I am:

I am not a native speaker and I am not really strong in math. I started to study 2.5 months ago with kaplan gmat premiere 2014 and the OG 13. After these books I felt I was missing something and I bought the Manhattan gmat set of 10 books. I started to study on them, to take some practice exams and to review my errors also with the help of this forum. Unfortunately, I had to hurry because in 1 and a half-month I had the first test, because one of the schools I wanted to apply to changed the deadline.
But this wasn’t a real problem. I thought I had enough time and after 6 weeks of full immersion in the gmat study I finished all the OG 13 guide.
These are my scores in chronological order in these 6 weeks. Every test was made under test conditions, with AWA and IR:

KAPLAN 610 (Q39, V39) I took this test after I finished to read Kaplan book
MGMAT 550 (Q39,V28) I took this test before reading Manhattan books.
MGMAT 600 (Q45,V28)
MGMAT 620 (Q43, V32)
GMAT PREP 620(Q43, V33) ten days before the exam
GMAT PREP 660 (Q47, V34) three days before the exam
And the test day finally arrived,
GMAT 590 (Q44, V27, AWA 5, IR 8)

I was disappointed and a bit shocked about the verbal part, my total score was 70 points under my last gmat prep exam. During the test I felt quite nervous and especially during the quant part I had the feeling that I was not mastering this part of the test. I couldn’t concentrate well enough and I was a lot under pressure.
As I said, the verbal score shocked me, especially because during this part I was sure I was doing well. I was pretty sure about every question, especially CR and RC, so if I had to say before the score report which part I did better, I would have choose the verbal one. Time management was OK.

So, I decided to continue to study hard for another month for other university applications, and then try again the test with more confidence and skills.
I continued to study with the Manhattan gmat books (because I thought these books were great and covered in depth all the points). I also bought more materials to exercise more: the OG quant review, the OG verbal review, Kaplan gmat 800, the exercise pack on the GMAT prep software and the exam pack 1 on the GMAT PREP software.
During the first test I didn’t feel very comfortable with the laminated Booklet, since I used sheet of paper for my exercises. To avoid that feeling during my next test I managed to do every prep exam with a similar material.

Here are my scores of the tests I did after the first gmat test, also in chronological order, every test was made under test conditions, with IR:

GMAT PREP EXAM PACK 700 (Q48, V37) 10 days before exam
MGMAT 700 (Q49, V36)
GMAT PREP EXAM PACK 720 (Q49, V40) 3 days before exam
GMAT PREP EXAM PACK RESET 750 (Q50, V42) the day before the exam. I don’t hold this score in consideration because I saw in the first two exams a lot of these questions.

To improve the singular parts I did also a lot of quant and verbal parts separately, so that after each section I could better focus on the errors, here the scores:
GMAT PREP: Q50, Q48, Q51, V38
GMAT CLUB free test: Q51

Finally the test day, I was confident of a decent score (over 650):
GMAT 590 (Q42, V29, AWA 4, IR 4)

The same score as one month ago, 130 points under that of my last gmat prep test, with the difference that I studied every single day for 30 days.

I am totally shocked, I don’t know what the problem is, during the exam I was thinking I was doing well, the questions were not too easy and not too difficult ( I guessed in the quant part two questions). Also in the verbal part I thought I was doing well. I can understand a difference of 30/40 points, but not this huge different in the total score. In this exam I intentionally did not a good AWA and IR so I could have enough energy for the quant and the verbal part. Time management was ok in the quant part, whereas I had 6 minutes left on the verbal, because ( I think) a lot of RC questions were easy and so there I was very quickly.
Now I don’t know if it is useful to try again next month, I do not know what to improve, I am planning to buy the Gmatclub tests so to have new questions, but I don’t know what is my problem and how can I tackle it.

I am totally shocked, I don’t know what the problem is, during the exam I was thinking I was doing well, the questions were not too easy and not too difficult ( I guessed in the quant part two questions). Also in the verbal part I thought I was doing well. I can understand a difference of 30/40 points, but not this huge different in the total score. In this exam I intentionally did not a good AWA and IR so I could have enough energy for the quant and the verbal part. Time management was ok in the quant part, whereas I had 6 minutes left on the verbal, because ( I think) a lot of RC questions were easy and so there I was very quickly. Now I don’t know if it is useful to try again next month, I do not know what to improve, I am planning to buy the Gmatclub tests so to have new questions, but I don’t know what is my problem and how can I tackle it.

TheEconomistGMATTutor · Answer

Sorry to hear that your score wasn't what you wished it would be. Since you seem to have nailed down your test taking skills, the issue must be an academic one. When you take your simulation exams, what exact topics do you find you have the most trouble with? Do you debrief after each simulation exam to review what questions you got incorrect and the reasons for it? Once you figure out which topics are giving you the most trouble, you will be able to move ahead in your studies and stop wasting time in areas in which you are already proficient.

shreister · Answer

That sucks, reset. especially after all the work you have done. 
I dont know your profile, but I'm assuming you are gonna postpone the application to 2015 intake. If that's the case, just keep working on the sections you are not consistent in. You know which ones they are. Do it regularly starting from now for the next few months. Just make it a part of your life.

Around 6 weeks from your next scheduled test date repeat your current prep sessions. That should at least compensate for the wild swings from your preptest scores and your actual scores.

Dougfitz · Answer

Happened to me too on my first exam. I was scoring 670-710 on practice exams. Ended up with 580 on game day. I think it will come down to your confidence and sticking to your strategy on test day. Have you done the MGMAT question banks online? I found those and the GMATclub's tests helpful after I started to run out of quality material.

reset · Answer

Thank you all for your posts,

Hi BethEconomistGMAT,
Thank you for your post. To be honest in the simulations I did not have particular problems. In the Quant part my errors were usually few, some of them were distraction errors and some were because the questions were too difficult for me, but the topics were different each time. Unfortunately I guess I do not have a particular weak areas. After each simulation I spend a lot of time to understand my errors and usually I look in this forum for more solutions to that I have a full spectrum of methods with which I can tackle the question.
For the verbal part, in my last simulations I was doing almost the same number of errors in each part ( for instance in my last simulation, 3SC, 2CR, 2RC). But during my last exam I had the feeling that the SC questions were different, I was not so sure about the answers, so I think I can start to work here. Even if I do not think that my debacle in the verbal part ( first test V27, second test V29) is only due to this insecurity in SC, I should start working from here.

Hi Shreister,
Thank you, there is another business school I want to apply, so maybe I will try again the test in 5/6 weeks. But I am afraid that the results will be the same, I have to find out why my results in the real test are so low in both the parts, even if during the exam I have the feeling I am doing well. If I cannot figure out what the problem is, is useless to waste money and time now for another test. So I am not sure to postpone the application or not.

Hi fitzy1153,
I hope so, but I thought that during the time between my exams I also built enough confidence, in fact during the exam I thought I was confident, but probably it was a false impression. Yes I did all the MGMAT question banks online. I did only the gmatclub quant free test, so probably I will buy the 3 months access to these exams, so to have enough material.

I read in this forum that one user tried to take his simulations in different places, maybe I should try to take one or two in a library or in a pub, so to get out of my comfort zone.

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Gmat experience: Bombed the GMAT twice

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