Hey Prateek,
Thanks for the invite to chime in here - and I have to say I agree with everything that Dana and Becky said.
If I can add a little value to the score pattern, too...That difference between 500 on August 3 and 460 on September 9 might be completely negligible, and to me it looks like that started a little spiral of panic for you the rest of the weekend. But keep in mind that:
-Test prep companies probably have some incentive to keep their tests a little harder, at least on scoring, than what they might think is "perfect". That's not underhanded, either - it's more a function of that they kind of know that they're not playing with the full-fledged CAT algorithm, so if they know that the scores might not be fully accurate they'll probably err on the side of keeping scores just a little bit lower so that they encourage you to study harder (which can't really hurt most people) instead of to get complacent (which could hurt). So that 460 on the Kaplan test might not be all that different from that 500 on the Power Prep - each algorithm is a little different and there is that "when in doubt, round down" mentality that at least makes sense for practice test makers.
-3 practice tests in 4 days is probably going to lead to depressed scores...that's just a lot of wear and tear on you, mentally, and if you're not addressing mistakes and building more of a conceptual/strategic base from test to test you're probably only going to show that fatigue and not any improvement. Your pattern isn't altogether surprising given the nature of when you took the tests and how it looks like you reacted to them. And it doesn't suggest that you're any worse than you were on August 3, either, so you don't really have too much cause for panic here.
Now for the good news - now you have great blueprints for how you make mistakes under pressure. You took at least two tests this weekend while tired, stressed, and a little panicked. So go back and see if you find patterns in the mistakes that you made or the concepts that you struggled to apply in that state. You can fix those! The true value of practice tests lies not in their ability to predict your score, but in the way that they show you how you'll perform. The way that you'll change your score is by changing your performance, and the tests show you what you need to change. So although it's much easier said than done, I'd focus a lot more on what the tests show you qualitatively than what you've already noted quantitatively.
As for your point about "a fear of taking long tests", keep in mind that if you're guessing on the last 10 questions that's really only 20 minutes (if that) of test time. You can trick yourself into enjoying that. Our high school cross-country coach always stressed that mile 2 of a 3.1 mile race was the most important because "the last one takes care of itself". Meaning that, if you're on the home stretch and almost done, your body/mind will do whatever it takes to finish, but it's that difficult stretch before you're just about done that's the hardest. So remind yourself as you're taking the test that "the last 5 take care of themselves" and laugh at yourself - out loud is fine -for feeling so stressed about doing 10 questions when really it's only 20 minutes. You can change the way you think about the end of the test...when you think of how many times you've endured 20 awful minutes in your life (workouts, dentist visits, bad meetings, train stoppages,etc.), the GMAT at least gives you a really big incentive for enduring. At that point, focus on "the next five" and know that the last five should take care of themselves.
Brian Galvin
GMAT Instructor
Chief Academic Officer
Veritas Prep
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