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02 Nov 2021, 17:17
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Hello!
I've just taken my third (real) GMAT Online exam today and got a score lot less that I was hoping for and at this point, more than feeling sad or angry, I'm just confused and would really appreciate any tips from the GMAT Club community.
I think that my fundamentals are solid and I tend to recognize the question "pattern" relatively quickly (other than for some geometry questions) for quant. For Verbal, I also feel quite comfortable with the grammar concepts for SC, as well as the thought pattern for CR (though sometimes I do have difficulty controlling my time for each CR question).
My studying so far: I've done every single GMAT OG question from the 2022 Guide, as well as every question labeled with OG / Official Guide on the GMAT Club for Quant and SC. I've also got the GMAT Club Verbal and Quant guides (read through Verbal selectively and read all of the Quant guide), as well as the Manhattan Prep's All the GMAT books (did both the regular and advanced for Quant and Verbal), some of TTP's quant reviews, and I've kept an error log with notes on why I got questions wrong (when it wasn't clear, why/how I got questions right). I'm hoping to apply for Round 2 and need to retake, but am genuinely confused as to how I should study for my next exam. I do get testing anxiety and even took some OTC meds to help with that. On the actual test day I seem to always mismanage time and get really tired during the verbal section of the exam (which doesn't happen during my practice exams -- I make sure to simulate test day as much as possible by pretending to show my room doing a 360, taking timed breaks, even talking to myself and showing the whiteboard to the webcam, etc.). A suggestion I've received is taking the GMAT in-person. But honestly I'm kind of confused on what I should do before my next exam and how much time I should give myself.
I'd really, really appreciate any suggestions / tips / thoughts on my situation. Thank you.
My past scores (mock / real exams):
Mock 1, Official 1(May 15; pre-studying): 660 (Q44, V35)
Mock 2, Manhattan (June 13, only studied quant): 640 (Q42, V36)
Mock 3, Manhattan (June 19, only studied quant): 650 (Q41, V37)
Mock 4, Official 2 (June 27, only studied quant): 680 (Q47, V37)
Mock 5, Official 3 (July 4, verbal-focused studying): 710 (Q49 V38)
Mock 6, Official 4 (July 11, verbal-focused studying): 730 (Q49, V41)
Real Exam 1, (July 13): 640 (Q45, V31)
Mock 7, Official 5 (Aug 1): 710 (Q46, V41)
Real Exam 2, (Aug 9): 660 (Q43, V38)
Mock 8, Official 1 Retake (Aug 22): 730 (Q48, V42)
Took a slight hiatus during end of August - beginning of October
Mock 9, Official 2 Retake (Oct 16): 720 (Q49, V39)
Mock 10, Official 6 (Oct 24): 700 (Q45, V40)
Mock 11, Official 3 Retake (Oct 30): 750 (Q50, V41)
Real Exam 3, (Nov 2): 680 (Q47, V36)
I've just taken my third (real) GMAT Online exam today and got a score lot less that I was hoping for and at this point, more than feeling sad or angry, I'm just confused and would really appreciate any tips from the GMAT Club community.
I think that my fundamentals are solid and I tend to recognize the question "pattern" relatively quickly (other than for some geometry questions) for quant. For Verbal, I also feel quite comfortable with the grammar concepts for SC, as well as the thought pattern for CR (though sometimes I do have difficulty controlling my time for each CR question).
My studying so far: I've done every single GMAT OG question from the 2022 Guide, as well as every question labeled with OG / Official Guide on the GMAT Club for Quant and SC. I've also got the GMAT Club Verbal and Quant guides (read through Verbal selectively and read all of the Quant guide), as well as the Manhattan Prep's All the GMAT books (did both the regular and advanced for Quant and Verbal), some of TTP's quant reviews, and I've kept an error log with notes on why I got questions wrong (when it wasn't clear, why/how I got questions right). I'm hoping to apply for Round 2 and need to retake, but am genuinely confused as to how I should study for my next exam. I do get testing anxiety and even took some OTC meds to help with that. On the actual test day I seem to always mismanage time and get really tired during the verbal section of the exam (which doesn't happen during my practice exams -- I make sure to simulate test day as much as possible by pretending to show my room doing a 360, taking timed breaks, even talking to myself and showing the whiteboard to the webcam, etc.). A suggestion I've received is taking the GMAT in-person. But honestly I'm kind of confused on what I should do before my next exam and how much time I should give myself.
I'd really, really appreciate any suggestions / tips / thoughts on my situation. Thank you.
My past scores (mock / real exams):
Mock 1, Official 1(May 15; pre-studying): 660 (Q44, V35)
Mock 2, Manhattan (June 13, only studied quant): 640 (Q42, V36)
Mock 3, Manhattan (June 19, only studied quant): 650 (Q41, V37)
Mock 4, Official 2 (June 27, only studied quant): 680 (Q47, V37)
Mock 5, Official 3 (July 4, verbal-focused studying): 710 (Q49 V38)
Mock 6, Official 4 (July 11, verbal-focused studying): 730 (Q49, V41)
Real Exam 1, (July 13): 640 (Q45, V31)
Mock 7, Official 5 (Aug 1): 710 (Q46, V41)
Real Exam 2, (Aug 9): 660 (Q43, V38)
Mock 8, Official 1 Retake (Aug 22): 730 (Q48, V42)
Took a slight hiatus during end of August - beginning of October
Mock 9, Official 2 Retake (Oct 16): 720 (Q49, V39)
Mock 10, Official 6 (Oct 24): 700 (Q45, V40)
Mock 11, Official 3 Retake (Oct 30): 750 (Q50, V41)
Real Exam 3, (Nov 2): 680 (Q47, V36)
02 Nov 2021, 17:57
Kudos
Bookmarks
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 680. 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, 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 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.
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?
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?
02 Nov 2021, 17:59
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi hjmba5233.
I see that Scott has already responded, but I'll add some thoughts of my own.
The first thing I'm wondering is whether you're taking the "OTC meds" only on test day. If so, you have a difference that might explain the difference between the way you feel when taking practice tests and the way you feel when taking the actual GMAT.
If the difference is not explained by the meds, then it could be that you feel tired because you're nervous or even because you're afraid of failure and sort of shutting down.
So, the question becomes that of how you could proceed.
As Scott suggested, one thing you could do is further strengthen your skills by mastering some weaker areas of quant and practicing answering verbal questions. With stronger skills, you'll feel more confident on test day, and you'll have a margin for error such that, if you don't perform at your best level, you'll still hit your score goal.
Another thing you could do is take many more practice tests. While you've taken all of the official tests, there are more decent third-party tests that you could take, and if you take enough of them (I'm speaking from experience since I took around 20 practice tests), you'll become so accustomed to the testing experience that, even when you take the real GMAT, the test will be no big deal.
Finally, you could use visualization and other techiques to reduce your anxiety, and you could also learn to perform even when you're anxious or tired. It's amazing how, by focusing on answering the question in front of you, you can get too busy to be anxious and find gas in the tank that you didn't realize was there. I used to do practice questions or take practice tests late at night to learn how to answer questions correctly even when I wasn't at my best, and you could get similar results by doing the same thing.
For some more ideas on how to reduce and handle test-day anxiety, you could read this post. How to Eliminate GMAT Test-Day Anxiety
For some more ideas on how to strengthen your verbal skills, you could read this post. How to Score High on GMAT Verbal
Your practice test scores indicate that you're close to hitting your score goal. So, you just have to make a few good moves to hit your goal and wrap up the GMAT.
I see that Scott has already responded, but I'll add some thoughts of my own.
The first thing I'm wondering is whether you're taking the "OTC meds" only on test day. If so, you have a difference that might explain the difference between the way you feel when taking practice tests and the way you feel when taking the actual GMAT.
If the difference is not explained by the meds, then it could be that you feel tired because you're nervous or even because you're afraid of failure and sort of shutting down.
So, the question becomes that of how you could proceed.
As Scott suggested, one thing you could do is further strengthen your skills by mastering some weaker areas of quant and practicing answering verbal questions. With stronger skills, you'll feel more confident on test day, and you'll have a margin for error such that, if you don't perform at your best level, you'll still hit your score goal.
Another thing you could do is take many more practice tests. While you've taken all of the official tests, there are more decent third-party tests that you could take, and if you take enough of them (I'm speaking from experience since I took around 20 practice tests), you'll become so accustomed to the testing experience that, even when you take the real GMAT, the test will be no big deal.
Finally, you could use visualization and other techiques to reduce your anxiety, and you could also learn to perform even when you're anxious or tired. It's amazing how, by focusing on answering the question in front of you, you can get too busy to be anxious and find gas in the tank that you didn't realize was there. I used to do practice questions or take practice tests late at night to learn how to answer questions correctly even when I wasn't at my best, and you could get similar results by doing the same thing.
For some more ideas on how to reduce and handle test-day anxiety, you could read this post. How to Eliminate GMAT Test-Day Anxiety
For some more ideas on how to strengthen your verbal skills, you could read this post. How to Score High on GMAT Verbal
Your practice test scores indicate that you're close to hitting your score goal. So, you just have to make a few good moves to hit your goal and wrap up the GMAT.
