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2nd Official GMAT Today-530 Score (Q25, V37)

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2nd Official GMAT Today-530 Score (Q25, V37)

by Adamww1 » Mon Oct 20, 2014 6:59 pm
All,

I just sat for the second time for my official GMAT and earned the score of 530 (Q25, V37). This score is a tremendous improvement over my first official GMAT (400) but still a way from where I want it to be (620+). I was just wondering what my next step should be in studying? I took a Veritas Prep course last year(1 week immersion course, took the exam a week and half after) before I sat for my first exam. I worked through the material in that course and feel I crammed too much the days leading up o the exam (8+ hours a day) I feel i crashed and burned pretty heavily which led to my terrible score the first time.

I took a few months off and began studying with EMPOWERgmat in July of this year. I really feel the course was helpful and felt the material they covered was very beneficial. I completed most of the course and felt that I was in line for a big score. I was stunned that my quant score was so low though. I followed all their advice and felt the section was going well.

I think I should sit for the exam a third time and want to know what else I can do to improve my score? The 530 I got is inline with all my official practice CATS, although the quant is 5-7 points lower than my other quants. Verbal by contrast was up 2-3. I feel my Verbal is strong enough and would like advice on what I can do for Quant? I could sit for the exam in another 30 days but am willing to wait a little long if I could find a good quant study guide.
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by [email protected] » Mon Oct 20, 2014 8:52 pm
Hi Adamww1,

A 130 point improvement is a great increase, but since this is your first post here in almost a year, I'd like to know a bit more about how you've been studying over this last year.

1) What were your Scaled Scores on your Original GMAT?
2) Over the course of the last few months, how many practice CATs did you take? And which "brands" of CATs were they?
3) How did you score on each of your practice CATs (please include the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores)?

4) Was there anything about Test Day that was different from your practice? Think about the details. The time of your Test? What you did the night before? Did you skip the Essay/IR during practice? Etc.
5) If you weren't close to your goal score during your practice, then why didn't you push back your Test Date and continue studying? Are you on any deadlines?

Thankfully, the GMAT is a predictable, standardized Exam, so we should be able to define what went wrong, then correct it before you retest.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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by Adamww1 » Tue Oct 21, 2014 5:06 pm
Rich,

Thank you for taking the time to reply. As it is my first post in nearly a year, I would be more than happy to answer questions you may have.

1- I do not remember my exact scaled scores on my original gmat. I know each score was very low and it was balanced.
2- I took 3 full length practice CATS, scores were as followed:

CAT1- 530-Q35 V28
CAT 2- 520 Q33- V29
CAT 3- 550 Q39 V28

All three exams were from Manhattan GMAT and were taken a month apart(July, August, September). I did not take the GMAT prep exams as they did not work on either my laptop or PC. I have taken practice CATS from Kaplan and Veritas Prep last year, prior to my first exam.

4- Test Day was virtually identical to practice, save it being at a testing center. I simulate my practice tests under full test conditions and did not skip any sections in any of the practice exams. As this was my second time taking the exam, I was "used" to the test day experience (getting my hand read, picture taken, layout of the test center, test notepad and pens, etc.) . I took my last 2 practice CATS at the same time(2:00 PM EST) as I took my official GMAT. I ate the same breakfast each time and followed the same routine. (Save commuting to a test center, which I don't think had any impact)

5- I did not reschedule my official test as I felt was adequately prepared. My scaled scores were trending upward and I felt my last month of prep had been enough. My quant scores were well above my test day score which is why I was so surprised with that aspect. My verbal was obviously up from my practice exams but I tend to be very strong in verbal.

I am not on any deadlines but would like to apply for R2 for the fall of 2015 class. I am looking at multiple programs and I feel my professional profile, recommendations and essays would make a compelling case. Obviously, the GMAT is very low and the large gap in scaled scores make me worried. While I know your not an admissions consultant, do you think an optional essay would help me explain my low quant score? I took multiple math courses in college( stats, calc, finance, accounting) and received high C's(78%) to low As (90s) in all of those subjects.

Thanks for you time,
Adam
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by [email protected] » Tue Oct 21, 2014 10:05 pm
Hi Adam,

This extra information that you've provided is quite useful, but there are some inconsistencies with how you approached your studies and some choices that you made that ultimately led to this score result. You've clearly improved by a nice margin, but there were clearly aspects of your studies that could have been done better. Thankfully, all of this can be improved, but it's important to define what didn't happen correctly this time around before you restart your studies or retake the GMAT:

1) You have an account with GMAC, so you should be able to look up your 1st score report. The fact that you could not provide the basic score information leaves a big "question mark" in terms of your current ability level and how much you improved from your 1st Test to your 2nd.

2) You took just 3 practice CATs over the course of 3 months. Our Study Plan is based on taking 7 CATs, including the 2 free GMAT Prep CATs. These practice exams are scheduled at very specific points during your training, so if you did not take those CATs, then I have to wonder what else you did not do "according to plan." Also, your last CAT was at least 3 weeks before your Official GMAT - you're supposed to take a CAT about one week before your Official GMAT, so that you can gauge your "readiness" and push back your Test Date if needed.

3) The fact that you could not get the free GMAC software to run on either of your 2 computers is strange. You could have (and SHOULD have) reached out to GMAC's tech support team about this issue. At the very least, you could have posted here in the "Ask the Test-maker" Forum and likely gotten some assistance. The GMAT CATs are the most realistic CATs available (and 2 of them are FREE) and are an essential part of ALL Test Takers' study plans.

4) The Scaled Scores on your practice CATs "flip flop" with your Official Score, which is REALLY ODD. There isn't an obvious explanation for why that happened. Perhaps you were improving overall, but had a "bad day" during the Quant section.

5) Taking your Test at 2pm likely was too late in the day for you to perform when you were at your best. You said you had the same breakfast, which implies that you were up during the morning. Most Test Takers perform best when they physically start their exams in the first 2-3 hours of their day. 2pm might be too late for you to start the GMAT and score at a high level.

6) Your practice CAT scores were not close enough to your Goal Score to imply that you had practiced enough to score at that level. With practice scores in the low to mid-500s, I'm not clear why you thought you were going to score above 600 on Test Day. You say that you tend to be strong in Verbal, but your practice CAT scores did not indicate that.

7) To assess the overall strength of your application, you might consider posting in the Admissions Sub-Forum (on this site). Since you have not named the programs that you're planning to apply to, I can't offer much perspective on your chances.

The positives from your latest score (+130 points overall and a V37) are commendable. To push your latest score even higher, you're going to have to put a greater emphasis on using your GMAT resources correctly and completely.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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by Adamww1 » Wed Oct 22, 2014 12:13 am
Rich,

Thanks for your detailed reply. I agree with a majority of what you said, but would just like to clear up some of he points you mentioned.

1. I did bother looking up my first GMAT because I feel it was so far off from the norm, that it was not an accurate picture of my test taking experience this time around, nor was it a reflection at that time. I crammed very heavily prior to that exam and feel I was burned out during that exam. None of my previous CATS that I took prior to that exam were in the range I scored on my official exam. I would be more than happy to look that score up if you feel it would be beneficial, but I do not feel it is an accurate gauge of where I am today. It was a year ago, and quite frankly I wiped it out of my mind. I know business schools will "see" the score, but most only look at the highest.

2. While I did only take 3 CATS, I can assure you that is the only thing I did not do "according to plan". (I did not re-do the RC modules if you want to be technical as those seemed to have changed halfway through my studies, after I completed them during the stage they were assigned) I do not work a typical M-F 8-5 and therefore it is very difficult to set aside a block of 4 hours for a full length CAT. I worked six day a week for the month leading up to the exam (I took off a few days prior to test day to recharge) and felt that forcing myself to take a CAT would not be beneficial. I could easily work on a module for an hour or two, but scheduling a block for CAT, much less under the same full test conditions, was very hard. I did not take one a week out because I worked 6 days in a row prior to my two off before the exam. Again, I did not think forcing a time to take the exam, or taking a full length two days prior would be beneficial.

3. I run on very old software on both my computers so while it is strange, it wasn't a complete shock. II will attempt to reach out to the GMAC support team prior to studying for my next exam.

4. It is incredibly strange. I was performing ok on quant and poor on verbal on my practice CATS, but, like you said, it "flip flopped" on Test Day. I have no explanation for this and this was the main purpose of my post. How would I go about correcting this? Obviously the overall score was still within my range, but the scaled scores were so far off.

5. Due to my odd work schedule, I tend to work late evenings and do short turnaround times(less than 8 hours). I felt 2PM was an ideal time. We spoke earlier in the course about a peak time and you suggested that I do a Monday afternoon. I took off work Saturday and Sunday and woke up 3 hours before the exam. I don't think the time I took the exam was an issue at all.

6. The main reason I felt I was going to better in Verbal than my practice scores indicated was because when I reviewed the CATS, I made a lot of careless errors in SC. I reviewed the SC PDF and reviewed all the idioms. I felt that my mistakes were easily fixable and I would be able to execute that on test day, which I did.

I appreciate all the time you have given in responding to my post Rich. I am very satisfied with the empower course and feel that I should be able to earn a higher score the next time I take the test.
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