Why scores are not improving?

Question

I have taken the GMAT exam in December scored 580 with Verbal 25 and Quant 46. I thought i will the exam once more in Jan. I prepared for about 15 days with a gap of study of about 20 days. Then for tests i took the following tests:
1. Veritas Prep 6 Verbal 31 Quant 41 
2. veritas Prep 7 . Verbal 26 . Quant 43
3. Manhattan Prep 1 . Verbal 30 Quant 43
4. Expert Global test 1 Verbal 39 . Quant 47
5. Gmat Official Prep 2 Verbal 29 . Quant 47

But when i took test in Jan, i scored 490 Verbal 19 and Quant 40. I don't know what happened. The verbal starting 2 question were quite odd and in Quant in last 20-30 list got some 5-6 easy questions even though replying easy question correct. I am surprised if i scored 580 in first test why the scored decreased in next test with this higher margin, even though scoring approx 25-30 in verbal. Please why is this? Was my score 580 was by chance.

(Before first test of scoring 580, got 490 520,550, in my official test 1,5 and 6 with approx quant 40-46 and verbal 17-20).

Please help me and suggest why was this case and should i give another exam in march or Feb

ostrick5465 · Answer

Did you reflect and analyze after took the mock tests? What are your weaknesses and strengths? I think you should keep calm, design a good learning plan, learn from basic.

mangamma · Answer

Check in which you are scoring less.sometimes we feel that we are good in one topic but we do so many mistakes in the same topic. correctly identiyf strong and weak areas and practice more

StaySafe · Answer

Rose0123 
Your quant score is somewhat stable, but your verbal score is continuously fluctuating. It seems that your verbal score is a bit of "luck" comparing real GMAT score with your official mock score. 
My suggestion: you should understand WHAT you actually comprehend in every section of verbal part. It seems that your concept on verbal section is not perfectly fine. Try to study (for verbal) from a good resource. The explanation from official guide is weird. You can read the explanation what experts write in the forum.

CareerGeek · Answer

Hi

I think ESR report will help you a lot in finding where exactly you have gone wrong.

It will also help you plan your study better for the next attempt basis your areas of improvement.

All the Best

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ccooley · Answer

Am I correctly understanding that you took (at least) five practice tests within 15 days? That's way, way too many - it makes me think you were trying to use practice tests as a study tool in place of spending the time studying. That's an ineffective way to use practice tests and also an ineffective way to study, unless you're in the very specific situation where what you really need to work on is test-taking itself (pacing, anxiety, etc.) Since your Verbal is weaker than your Quant, you almost certainly have content you could study specifically (by reading GMAT books, doing targeted sets of practice problems of specific types, participating on this forum, etc) in Verbal that would help you improve more quickly than by taking practice tests.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Rose0123,

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:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied in total? How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) On what dates did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks and how did you score on EACH (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
4) What is your overall goal score?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Rose1223,

We have not heard from you in a while. Are you still studying for the GMAT?

TasnimZR · Answer

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