Painful first attempt: drop of 200 points vs. GMAT Prep

Question

Hi guys,
 I have been going through you posts since a few months, and now it's time to share my (bad) experience, looking for you precious support.

After 3 months of hard preparation I get a terrible <550 score, compared with 690-710 which I got from 3 GMAT Prep.

I started my preparation in December, with MGMAT for theory and Grockit for questions.
I took a Grockit CAT at the very beginning scoring a 630, then a GMAT prep in mid January with 630 again.

After on month focusing on my pain points, I change methodology because I found Grockit (ESP the hardest quest) a bit confusing and misleading.

So I switched to OG13, doing all the SC, the hardest 60 CR, and more than half of Quant questions reported in the "OG guide" at the end of each Quant MGMAT strategy book (priority has been given to weakest areas such as numb. prop, combinatorics, division, overlapping set, equations).
I leveraged on Gmat Club math and grammar books, as well as CR and SC guide by whiplash.

Then I scored 690,710,700 in Gmat Prep (to be noted: more than 1 hour break between Quant and Verbal, and with at least 2 short pauses for each of quant and verbal session).

On the test day I scored 510.
I had the feeling the quant went bad (a few guessed), but with verbal I was quite confident - no timing issues at all.

What do you think went wrong?How can I enhance my methodology, if needed with some course, in order to achieve a 700+?

Of course, asap I will try to simulate (without additional pauses) a CAT session and figure out if I have a serious timing issue.
I am wondering to use MGMAT 6 cat + question bank.

Thank very much in advance to all of you:)

Ben

AmrithS · Answer

Hello Ben: 
What happened is unfortunate. There could be a million things that went wrong and beyond a certain point, analyzing the performance may become counter productive. 
Before I or anyone else "guess" what went wrong, I am sure you can come up with at least 5 reasons that you "know" went wrong. You might not be able to it now; so take your time.

Your own experience is your best teacher.

Regards,
Amrith

Fielding · Answer

I had a very similar experience the first time I took the exam. I thought I was the only one and I was just as confused.

It's not that you don't know the material. It's all in your head. Rest assured that it's all in your head.

Granted, if you're scoring 690-700 on GMAT Prep, there's room for improvement. Keep studying, but try some relaxation techniques ahead of your next attempt. Sure, we all want to do well, but try to take the pressure off.

The unfamiliar testing environment may not have helped you either. But now that you know what the test centre looks like, it'll be better next time.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi ben_ted,

Test Day is a rather specific 'event' that involves a lot of specific details. Thankfully, it's possible to train for that event....but you have to put in the necessary effort to make your practice match Test Day. In your case, the immediate issue is that your practice CATs were NOT taken in a realistic fashion, so the score results that you received were NOT accurate.

You described how you took 1 hour+ breaks between the Quant and Verbal section during your practice, but you had to know that doing that was not realistic. I have to ask WHY you took those breaks?

I'd also like to know about some other details about how you took your CATs?
1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT (including the Essay and IR sections)?
2) Did you take your CATs at the same time of day as your Official GMAT?
3) Did you take your CATs at home?

On Test Day, what were your Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores? And what were those scores on your practice CATs?

Thankfully, Business Schools don't care if you take the GMAT more than once. Also, all of these issues can be 'fixed' - but you're going to have to focus your studies on matching what you'll be doing on Test Day.

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

ben_ted · Answer

thank you all for you answers

I took two CATs at home and 1 outside with IR but not AWA (which I am planning to avoid also in the real test). These sessions went from the mid morning to early afternoon, with short lunch in the middle (vs. 9-13 of real test). In the prep I was Q47-49 V36-39, while in the real Q33 V27.. I am realy struggling a lot to understand why...can the time/setting makes this huge difference? Or can the real test be so harder than the official GMAT Prep? Thanks again guys! Really a precious help! ben

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi ben_ted,

In real simple terms, the answer to your question is YES - the details DO matter. During your practice, you trained to take the GMAT in a certain way. The reality of Test Day is that you have to essentially work for 4 hours straight (with only 2 small breaks) and perform at a high level throughout to earn a high score. You did not train to face THAT task. Beyond the obvious issues (not taking the whole CAT, taking big breaks in the middle of taking the CAT), there are likely to be plenty of other details that you did not account for.

Now that you've faced the Official GMAT, you KNOW what Test Day will entail, so you should be able to make your practice 'mirror' that experience.

I have a few of follow-up questions from your original post:
1) During your 3 months of study, did you take just those 3 CATs?
2) Did you take any of those CATs more than once?
3) Do you remember if you saw any of those CAT questions in the Forums here (when you were studying) BEFORE you took those CATs?

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

ben_ted · Answer

Hi Rich,
 I took 1 CAT with Grockit at the very begining and then these 3 CATs with GMAT Prep in 3 months + 1 CATs which actually was just a second attempt of the first CATs in which I scored 630 (which I consider as a training/review rather than a CAT)

In the 3 CATs I faced no more than 1/2 questions for each CAT which where similar/equal to the ones I faced in this forum.

Please let me know if you have any hypothesis on how to improve.
Thanks again!
ben

angelfire213 · Answer

so someone else had something similar a couple of months ago...and the shortest takeaway is , there are no breaks other than the 2 8 minute breaks on the real thing - so if you took 1-2 hours between verbal and math...and additional breaks, YOU CAN NOT RELY ON THAT SCORE as a benchmark. it's not even close. If i had unlimited time on both sections, i could probably score a 780....but i got a 680 bc when i have to figure out how to approach a math problem in 2 minutes...sometimes i start off with the wrong approach and then have to guess even though i finally realize what to do because it took me too long to get there!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi ben_ted,

The immediate thing to focus on is making your practice CATs 'match up' with what you'll face on Test Day. Using this recent Official Score as a 'baseline score', we'll have to work up from that score. I suggest that you continue on with your studies, then in the next 1-2 weeks take a FULL-LENGTH CAT under test-like conditions and we'll see how you've improved.

Since you're going to have to make some fundamental changes to how you approach this process, you might find it worthwhile to invest in some new resources too.

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

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