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What happened!!? HUGE drop in Verbal..

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What happened!!? HUGE drop in Verbal..

by brunoprado » Thu Sep 01, 2016 1:38 pm
Hi, guys.

I just came back from my test, with the unpleasant surprise of my verbal score dropping around 9 points (39-40 to 31):

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This meant a drop of 30 points of what i had been scoring (710 to 680 Kaplan's CAT1-7 | Official CAT 8). I guess that if i had sustained my verbal score around 38-40 i would probably score around 720-730.

I'm really disappointed because i don't recognize my real score as "680" and the worst part is i don't know what could've happened. Any clues?

Do you guys know if the official report states your score by subject : SC, CR, RC ?

Is there any chance the unofficial score is reviewed?


More info:

I'm from SP,Brazil, and I've been studying by myself only with Kaplan GMAT Prep self-paced. Right now, i'm thinking of preparing with official material and with Manhattan CATs. Any other suggestions?



Rgds,

Bruno P.

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by Knitgeek » Thu Sep 01, 2016 2:19 pm
I'm sorry you had rough go on your official test. I'll start by saying that overall you shouldn't feel too bad as 680 is still a good score (and awesome job on the quant!). Second, you aren't alone. Verbal is my strong point and even I saw my score dip between my practice CAT and the official test. I was scoring between 40 and 43 on my practice exams and dropped in to the high 30's on my actual test.

I attribute my drop to test fatigue, also I probably should have been doing more practice from OG as I did see a difference in how questions were structured depending on the source. I know the experts will probably chime in and explain that better than I can :P

I would also suggest ordering the Enhanced Score Report (ESR) as that will give you the breakdown of both the Quant and Verbal scores which will probably help you identify what tripped you up.
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by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Thu Sep 01, 2016 3:59 pm
brunoprado wrote:Hi, guys.

I just came back from my test, with the unpleasant surprise of my verbal score dropping around 9 points (39-40 to 31):

Image

This meant a drop of 30 points of what i had been scoring (710 to 680 Kaplan's CAT1-7 | Official CAT 8). I guess that if i had sustained my verbal score around 38-40 i would probably score around 720-730.

I'm really disappointed because i don't recognize my real score as "680" and the worst part is i don't know what could've happened. Any clues?

Do you guys know if the official report states your score by subject : SC, CR, RC ?

Is there any chance the unofficial score is reviewed?


More info:

I'm from SP,Brazil, and I've been studying by myself only with Kaplan GMAT Prep self-paced. Right now, i'm thinking of preparing with official material and with Manhattan CATs. Any other suggestions?



Rgds,

Bruno P.

Image
Here's the official line on the review process: https://www.mba.com/us/the-gmat-blog-hub ... score.aspx

(A short summary: they review the unofficial scores, but they virtually never change.)

The good news: most test-takers who have had this experience end up getting a score that is more in line with their practice exam scores when they sit for the test again.
Veritas Prep | GMAT Instructor

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by [email protected] » Thu Sep 01, 2016 9:31 pm
Hi Bruno,

First off, a 680/Q50 is a strong score (it's right around the 85th percentile overall), so it could be enough to get you into your first-choice School. As such, a retest might not be necessary. Depending on the Schools that you plan to apply to, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile. There's a Forum full of them here:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/ask-an-mba-a ... t-f40.html

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. If you can answer a few questions, then we should be able to figure this out:

When you took your CATs:
1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?
2) Did you take them at home?
3) Did you take them at the same time of day as your Official GMAT?
4) Did you ever do ANYTHING during your CATs that you couldn't do on Test Day (pause the CAT, skip sections, take longer breaks, etc.)?
5) Did you ever take a CAT more than once? Had you seen any of the questions BEFORE?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Contact Rich at [email protected]
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by diegocml » Thu Sep 01, 2016 11:58 pm
Hi Bruno,

check this thread out: https://www.beatthegmat.com/from-v41-on- ... 91887.html

Good luck & boa sorte!

Diego
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1st GMAT attemp: 410 (Q18 V27)
2nd GMAT attemp: 490 (Q35 V23)
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