Advice needed for GMAT 2nd Attempt - Please Help!

Question

Hi all,

I have given the GMAT last week and totally devastated with the score.
GMAT - 600
QA - 50
VA - 21
AWA - 5.0
IR - 6

Duration of Study:  2 months

Materials Used: 
QA : Bunuels Collection and GMATClub Test (It really helped me in avoiding silly mistakes)
VA : 
 SC : OG-15, Manhattan GMAT, E-Gmat SC topics, GMATClub Test 
 CR : OG-15, GMATClub Test 
 RC : OG-15, GMATClub Test

Scores in GMATPrep: 
GMATPrep1 : 720 (Q-50, V-37)
GMATPrep2 : 670 (Q-49, V-32)
GMATClub test (Range of 620 - 700, QA(47-50), VA(25-38))

I am planning to retake the exam in 1st week of September. Any piece of advice or suggestion from moderators, experts or friends will be highly appreciated.

Regards,
Praveen

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Praveen,

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. If you can answer a few questions, then we should be able to figure this out:

When you took your CATs:
1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?
2) Did you take them at home?
3) Did you take them at the same time of day as when you took your Official GMAT?
4) Did you ever do ANYTHING during your CATs that you couldn't do on Test Day (pause the CAT, skip sections, take longer breaks, etc.)? 
5) Did you ever take a CAT more than once? Had you seen any of the questions BEFORE?

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

praveen8047 · Answer

Thanks for your reply, EMPOWERgmatRichC! Here are the replies for each of your query: 1) Yes, for most of the exam, I religiously took the entire exam i.e. AWA-IR-QA-VA. 2) Yes, I took all my exams at home when no-one was around. 3) I took both GMATPrep exam and few tests from Gmatclub at the same time of the day as I took Official GMAT. 4) Not really. I tried to replicate the actual scenario as much as possible. 5) No, I never took the CAT more than once because after each exam, I used to review all the questions from both the sections hence there was no point of taking it again. Looking forward for the helpful suggestion! Thanks :-)

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Praveen,

From your prior post, there were a couple of 'red flags' in terms of how you took your CATs. Before we talk about those points though, I have a few additional questions about the lead-up to Test Day and Test Day itself:

1) What did you do in the 3 days before your GMAT?
2) How did you sleep the night before your Test?
3) How long was the ride to the Test Center from your home?
4) Were there any distractions at the facility or during the Test?
5) What did you do during the two 8-minute breaks?
6) Did you finish any sections early?
7) Did you have to rush to finish any sections (and guess on questions just to finish on time)?

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

praveen8047 · Answer

Hi RC,
Please find below my responses for the queries:
1) 1 day before the test, I revised maths formulas, SC rules and idiom list. And for most of the day, I was doing the self talk and reading the book - The Goal.
2) Day before the test, I slept around 11:30-12:00 midnight and woke up around 6:30 AM.
3) Test center is very close to my house, about 20 mins drive.
4) Sometimes there was noise either from coordinator or from neighboring candidate's keyboard, but nothing problematic.
5) I used wash-room, washed my face and ate a banana. And mostly doing self-talk.
6) I was able to finish QA about 3 mins earlier and VA about 20-30 secs earlier.
7) I believe I rushed through the last RC passage which appeared around Q.No - 35 (till Q. No 38), also I think I guessed the last couple of questions as I was not able to to concentrate because of timing constraint.

Thanks!

AndyDufresne · Answer

I think Verbal prep needs to supplemented with more study material:
CR-Powerscore CR-really helpful book
SC- what you have read seems enough. Revise it again and ensure to know the rules
RC- Reading general stuff like fiction books and magazines helps here. Also try out GINs reading strategy-its really good

praveen8047 · Answer

Thanks for your reply AndyDufresne,

I have already started CR-Powerscore but not clear on the practice material for RC. Can you suggest some material for RC practice.

AndyDufresne · Answer

For practicing RC passages, you can pick any book like RC99, Veritas prep material, Manhattan RC, OG-Verbal guide. 
Make sure you review the ans which you got wrong and why? Often the subtle difference between two close ans choices and how to recognize is all what you need to learn through the practice.

praveen8047 · Answer

Thanks! I have RC99 (By Aristotle) but I never thought of practicing from it. I think I need to cover up OG and RC99 for RC.
For CR, I believe PowerScore CR will suffice the need. I have already covered few chapters and really liked the way they have explained everything.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Praveen,

Test Day is a rather specific 'event' - the details are specific and they matter, so you have to train as best as you can for all of them. The more realistic you can make your CATs, the more likely the score results are to be accurate. The more you deviate, the more "inflated" your practice scores can become - and that's what happened here. It's not clear what you mean when you say for "most" of the Exams you took the full Exam, but if you ever skipped sections, then those score results are likely 'inflated.' In addition, by taking the CATs at home - along with any of the other details that did not match what you experienced on Test Day - you weren't properly training for the FULL GMAT 'experience.' Having to rush through the last 7 Verbal questions on Test Day could have certainly hurt your score (especially if you got them all wrong), but it would not have been enough to turn a V37 into a V21. This is meant to say that you were 'in trouble' in the Verbal section far before you neared the end of the Exam. From what you described, there's also a question as to how 'hydrated' you were on Test Day; if all you consumed during your two breaks was a banana, then you might have been suffering from some mild dehydration - and that could have also impacted your performance (especially later on in the Exam).

1) Have you purchased the Enhanced Score Report for your Test? While the ESR doesn't include much information, the data in it usually points to a few specific areas that you will need to work on to improve. If you purchase the ESR, then I'll be happy to analyze it for you.

Thankfully, the GMAT is a consistent, predicable Exam, so you CAN train to score at a high level. Given this recent score result though, you have to be mindful that "your way" of approaching this process might continue to earn you a similar score.

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

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