Dis-heartened after GMAT today!

Question

Hello all,

I gave my GMAT test today at exam center, and highly dis-appointed with a 640 score (Q49 V27), though I achieved 700+ in majority of my mock tests - attached my score results of all mock. Can anyone help me with next steps, which should be taken now? I am highly de-motivated currently, as I left no stone unturned, and was confident that I am somewhere between 700-730.

vikastiwari3010 · Answer

I have a similar experience in the GMAT I took in October, I scored 680-(Q50, V31)
In Gmat Mocks, I scored 740-780, WHERE verbal was 40-44 in GMAT mocks.

Im my opinion SC in my case was different than what i got in GMAT mocks as I was not confident in answers I marked for this attempt.
I cancelled my score of 680, so cant apply for ESR.
If you have not cnceleld the score, take an ESR to determine where exactly you faltered.

Previous GMAT attempt before 680 one was 700.

sush147 · Answer

vikastiwari3010  - did you gave any reattempt post that? I too cancelled my score, but we can order esr even for rejected scores as per MBA.com

Posted from my mobile device

EducationAisle · Answer

Oh...Verbal was the main culprit. How did you prepare for Verbal and which were you relatively weak areas?

Might be a good idea to order a ESR.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi sush147,

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. Before we discuss any of those potential issues though, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

1) How long have you studied? How many hours did you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

You might also choose to purchase the Enhanced Score Report. While the ESR doesn’t provide a lot of information, there are usually a few data points that we can use to define what went wrong on Test Day (and what you should work on to score higher). If you purchase the ESR, then I'll be happy to analyze it for you.

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

sush147 · Answer

EducationAisle  and  EMPOWERgmatRichC  -- I used e-GMAT online material for verbal preparation, and found it good for all basics. For quant, i used e-GMAT online course and gmatclub test series. I took Veritas and GMAC mock test series - scores for them are uploaded in my initial post. In verbal, SC was my weakest section, but I managed to ensure that I get most 600-700 questions correct in mocks, though for 700+ - I generally had 60% accuracy.

I started my preparation around 2.5 months back, and studied for 5-6 hours on daily basis. I have ordered the ESR, but have not got it yet, will upload once available.

In terms of business schools, I am planning to apply for Kellogg, Cornell, Stanford MSX, Insead and MIT Sloan for 2nd round, which is targeted around Jan start 2021 for most of the schools. My target score was 730-740, but got 640 instead. I am planning to re-appear after 2 weeks, as I still feel that my fundamentals were not that bad, but will really appreciate quick tips/strategy for next 2 weeks.

sush147 · Answer

uploading ESR report also - please have a look and let me know.

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

Great consistency on the Quant. Don't let those skills rust as you begin to focus more on Verbal.

egmat · Answer

sush147 - I am sorry to hear that you did not do well on your GMAT. We can help identify the root causes that led to V27. Once we identify the same, we will create an improvement plan. Note, write to the team before you spend $30 on your ESR as we may be able to get the same insights from the 300+ data points on the platform.

Can you write to the support team with the following data points:
1. Your scores in concept and application files in the e-GMAT portal. You may send them the average scores from SC, CR, and RC.
2. Did you go through the Cementing medium and Cementing Hard stages in all three verbal sub-sections? Were you able to graduate from the same?
3. What were your ability scores in Scholaranium in the verbal sub-sections?
4. Did you complete the test readiness stages? What were your Scholaranium stats on the same?

Send this data to [email protected]. This date will help isolate the root cause and act as the foundation of your improvement plan. While this is a setback, we will help your turn this around once we have this data.

-Rajat

egmat · Answer

sush147  - I went through your ESR. While I did observe some timing issues, they were not the primary reason you scored a V27. You would have scored a V31 even if you had 5 more minutes on the Verbal Section. Ability (or lack thereof) is the primary reason.

Now the ESR only provides a few data points on each sub-section. However, by combining the data from ESR with the corresponding data from your account, your e-GMAT mentor can identify the likely causes and then create an improvement plan. So do write to the support team if you have not already.

-Rajat

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi sush147,

I've sent you a PM with an analysis of your ESR and some additional questions.

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

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi sush147,

I’m sorry to hear how things went with your GMAT.

Assuming that you took your official practice exams under realistic testing conditions, the results show that, on a good day, you are capable of scoring higher than V27. Thus, it’s quite possible that nerves, stress, tiredness, or a combination of all three negatively affected your test-day performance. However, it’s also possible that you have some lingering weaknesses that were exposed on test day. Although I’m unsure of how you prepared, it’s possible that, in your preparation, particularly in verbal, you did not really learn to do what you have to do in order to score high on the actual GMAT. Rather, you picked up on some patterns that were effective in getting you relatively high scores on practice tests. So, for you to hit your score goal, your preparation, particularly for verbal, probably needs to be more complete, meaning that you have to go through the various types of GMAT questions carefully to find your exact weaknesses, fill gaps in your knowledge, and strengthen your skills.

The overall process will be to learn all about how to answer question types with which you currently aren't very comfortable and do dozens of practice questions category by category, basically driving up your score point by point. When you do dozens of questions of the same type one after the other, you learn just what it takes to get questions of that type correct consistently. If you aren't getting close to 90 percent of questions of a certain type correct, go back and seek to better understand how that type of question works, and then do more questions of that type until you get to around at least 90 percent accuracy in your training. If you get 100 percent of some sets correct, even better.

For verbal specifically, you have to become more skilled at clearly defining the differences between trap choices and correct answers. Otherwise, you will get stuck guessing between two choices or be surprised to find that you incorrectly answered questions that you thought you answered correctly. Becoming more skilled in this way takes carefully analyzing all of the answer choices to lots of verbal questions to develop an eye for the logical differences between the choices. In other words, you have to go beyond answering practice questions and reading explanations to doing deep analysis of questions to learn to see everything that is going on in them.

In order to follow the path described above, you may need some new quant and verbal materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the  best quant  and  verbal courses .

You also may find it helpful to read the following articles:

how to score a 700+ on the GMAT

Why Was My GMAT Score Lower Than My Practice Test Scores?

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