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590...Unbelievably disappointed

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590...Unbelievably disappointed

by rowbus » Mon Apr 20, 2009 2:46 pm
I took the GMAT today after three months of steady preparation. In the course of those three months (Jan. 20th to April 20th), I did the following:

1. Enrolled in a Princeton Review course ($900)
2. Completed every Quant problem in OG, Kaplan 800, Quantatative Review, plus 300 +/- problems provided with the PR course
3. Corrected every error that I made and tried to reinforce the concepts with which I was struggling by making flash cards, designing quizzes for myself, etc.
4. Took 8 separate practice tests with these results (in chronological order):

Test 1, 1/20: 590 (V40, Q31) Princeton Review (PR)
Test 2, 2/2: 640 (V40, Q36) Power Prep #1 (free)
Test 3, 2/16: 640 (V40, Q39) PR
Test 4, 3/1: 620 (V39, Q37) PR
Test 5, 3/8: 670 (V41, Q41) Power Prep #2 (free)
Test 6, 3/15: 610 (V41, Q34) Veritas Prep
Test 7, 4/4: 650 (V41, Q39) PR
Test 8, 4/17: 640 (V39, Q39) PR

I spent the grand majority (probably 95%) of my time studying math, since my verbal scores on the practice tests were consistently within the 89-93% percentile range. I also wanted to improve my quant score because of the emphasis that top schools place on quant ability.

Long story short, I scored a 590 today (V34, Q37), which takes me right down memory lane to January 20, when my studying began. I am enraged, perplexed, and downright disappointed right now. But instead of boring you guys with a long-winded rant about how pissed off I am, let me share some observations with those of you who have yet to take the real thing:

1. Practice tests, obviously, are not accurate indicators of how you will perform on the test. If you score highly on a practice test, save the champagne. It's worthless.

2. I found the real Quant questions to be considerably more difficult than those on the practice tests. Which brings me to my broader point: The first 50% of the questions in OG are worthless, unless you want to get a general familiarity with the types of questions presented on the GMAT. Focus on the tough questions--the questions that you have no idea how to answer on your first attempt--and try to find as many of those as possible to do.

3. After feeling like I bombed the quant section, I decided to really focus on the verbal, hoping to offset the damage that I'd done. The V section seemed no more difficult than anything I'd encountered previously. I was relaxed throughout the whole thing, took each question at a measured pace (2:03 remaining when I read the final question), and...34. I went from 90% to 69%. I have no idea how this happened, nor do I want to know at the moment. After spending $1300 and 200+ hours studying, and not improving my score at all, I'm incapable of doing anything but licking my wounds and feeling sorry for myself right now.

I just wish that I'd scored 34V on some of the practice tests. If that had happened, I would have surely devoted more time to it. As it is, I feel a bit shortchanged by the folks at Princeton Review and Powerprep.

Good luck to you all.
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by 4seasoncentre » Mon Apr 20, 2009 3:56 pm
I think 590 is a great score, but I can understand your disappointment.

I am inclined to believe that either the practise tests were not reliable predictors, that you behaved differently at the real GMAT, or a combination of both.

I am just noticing that the Veritas score was the most accurate predictor. I can't say anything about powerprep or Princeton Review because I havent used them, but the Official GMAT Prep I found to be a fairly accurate predictor.

I wonder if your environment for the practise tests were the same as the real GMAT. Were you going AWA --> break --> math --> break --> verbal? Were you nervous during the real test?
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by ave718 » Mon Apr 20, 2009 4:57 pm
Hi Rowbus, I understand how you feel and I had a similar experience last week with my test. Don't give up! Let yourself be upset for a day or two and just forget about it. Come up with a revised strategy and go for it again! Good luck!!
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by rowbus » Mon Apr 20, 2009 6:17 pm
ave718,

Thanks for the post. Out of curiosity, what happened to you last week? Was your real score low in comparison with your practice scores?
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by rowbus » Mon Apr 20, 2009 6:36 pm
4seasoncentre,

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, the real test was very similar to my practice test experience, in terms of both structure and environment. However, out of the 8 tests that I took for practice, I only wrote the essays for three of them. Still, my scores on those three practice tests were a good bit higher than 590...

What I find most perplexing is the extent to which my own "gut feeling" during the test was out of step with my actual performance. For example, at the end of the quant section, I felt like I had turned in a sub-35 performance. Not the case. Likewise, at the end of the verbal, I was sure that I'd bested my all-time high of 41. Again, not the case.

I think this is what makes the GMAT a super-challenging exam. If you study this thing enough, it will turn your confidence inside-out before it's through with you. For most test-takers like me (who can't wake up and crank out a 750 with a week's worth of prep), there's probably a point at which you hit psychological rock bottom. I've read other posts on this forum where MBA candidates have gotten worse results than I got, only to bounce back and make a better score next time. Hope that's the case here.

Thanks again for the reply.
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by Z_I » Mon Apr 20, 2009 7:44 pm
rowbus....sorry to hear about your score..it is definitely below your expectations.

Though I'm no advocate of MGMAT but IMO and in a lot of my friends opinions (most of whom have scored pretty well), Princeton review scores are at least 50-100 points lesser that your actual GMAT score. In that sense a 650 on PR would translate to a range of 550-590 on the actual GMAT. There is no scientific basis for this but that is what even my experience says. This time when i started preparing, my first CAT was a PR. I scored a 700. Was pretty happy about it until i took a MGMAT and scored a 660 (this after putting in a few weeks of good prep). Kaplan was even worse at a 600. So i abandoned PR right away. Kaplans are good in the initial prep days as the questions are tough but as per my experience, the best CAT's to prepare for GMAT are the MGMAT CAT's. I would recommend, purely from personal experience that you only take MGMAT's next time around.

Another thing, I made a mistake of letting my failure get the better of me and thus made the mistake of letting the momentum fizzle out...the first time i took the test.......

Take a few weeks off and then get back to it....another few months of preparation will get you a better score i'm sure.....

All the best!
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by siownschu » Mon Apr 20, 2009 8:49 pm
don't be disappointed!! i can see from your practices that you can consistently score well in your verbals and honestly your math really isn't that bad either.. i think you may need to concentrate on improving some of your weaknesses and you'll surpass the 700 mark easily.. FIGHT ON! take this as a stepping stone and BEAT the Gmat to pieces!

good luck! we're cheering you on!
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by ave718 » Tue Apr 21, 2009 6:03 am
Hi Rowbus, yes it was...my MGMAT scores were consistently in the 690 range and GMATPrep I got 690 as well; my verbal never went lower than a 33 (that's when I'm not concentrating). On the real thing...my verbal was 28! My score on the real thing is 610. You can take a look at my post, scroll down a little as I didn't write my debrief first: https://www.beatthegmat.com/610-q46-v28-t34875.html
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