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700 mock test, real GMAT 640

by kermed » Tue Dec 29, 2015 7:40 am
Hey guys,

so I just came home from the test center and I totally failed myself. I have nearly no time left to retake the test and would have to "update" my score mid January and submit the 640 in the application.

As I'm looking at schools such as Tuck, MIT, Booth I know that this will kill my chances of getting in. Further I'm a younger candidate (24) and I guess not sending those scores and waiting another year wouldn't hurt, right?


Regarding the GMAT
  • GMAC Mock 640(Q,V) 31. Oct

    Ecnomist 650(Q47,V33) 3. Nov (their quant part is wierd)

    Manhatten 690(Q38,V45) 13. Dec

    Manhatten 700(Q44,V41) 19. Dec

    GMAC Mock 730(Q47,V44) 26. Dec (a couple/(6?) questions reappeared from the first GMAC Mock)


    GMAT 640(Q37,V39) 29. Dec
All CAT tests were taken at home under real conditions (full tests with AWA+IR, 8min break, no water etc). Materials I used to study were Manhatten books, Magoosh, OG15). Big differences in the test were that I drank a RedBull that seemingly had little effect and the time of the test.

I noticed questions getting easier throughout the mid part of the real test in Q and V, but tried not to think about it. IR went well 7/8, although I completly neglected it while studying.

Further info:
I took my Mock tests usually during the afternoon (4PM and later) and the real one at 11:30AM.
Since my applications all around aren't finalized yet I feel completly stressed out for the past 2 months, but I thought - looking at the Mock tests - it did not affect my score.
Lastly I feel completly hopeless now, since so many great people put so much effort (LoRs, advice, ...) into my application and I failed them.

I'm not sure if I should just reschedule another exam for mid January (earliest date 14th) or take more time and apply next year.
If I take more time I won't be able to apply this year or I have to speculate that the schools will allow me to update my score well into the revision process.

It feels an awful lot like quitting, but it appears to be the right thing to do now.

Any words of advice would help!

Thanks!

kermed
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Tue Dec 29, 2015 7:53 am
Hi Kermed,

Sorry to hear about your experience.

One of the paradoxical features of the GMAT is that feeling that the questions are easy can sometimes mean that things are going poorly.

Here's what I mean: if, for example, you got the first 2 questions wrong, the GMAT scoring algorithm would have presented you with an easier question for question #3. One of the problems with easier questions is that we may sometimes answer them a little too quickly (since they seem easy, we don't really focus on the question) and sometimes, in our haste, make careless mistakes or miss key pieces of information. If this happened to you on question 3 and you got it wrong, question 4 would have been even easier, and so on.

I'm not certain that this is what happened to you, but I have heard very similar stories from other students.

The good thing is that you have already demonstrated that you have strong GMAT skills, so achieving a 700 score on your next attempt should be a reasonable expectation. The key is to remain focused and CAREFULLY read and solve every question regardless of how easy it may seem. Remember, the GMAT test-makers are skilled in trickery. For example, they may present you a lot of information about the number of females at a school, and then ask you to determine the number of males. Or they may ask you to find Bill's age . . . . 5 years from now. If you're not 100% focused, you may incorrectly select the answer choice that corresponds to the number of females or Bill's PRESENT age.

I suggest that you take some practice tests until you have successfully achieved your target score least 2 more times. At that point, I think you'll have no trouble getting the score you want.

I hope that helps.

Cheers,
Brent
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by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Tue Dec 29, 2015 9:16 am
kermed wrote:Hey guys,

so I just came home from the test center and I totally failed myself. I have nearly no time left to retake the test and would have to "update" my score mid January and submit the 640 in the application.

As I'm looking at schools such as Tuck, MIT, Booth I know that this will kill my chances of getting in. Further I'm a younger candidate (24) and I guess not sending those scores and waiting another year wouldn't hurt, right?


Regarding the GMAT
  • GMAC Mock 640(Q,V) 31. Oct

    Ecnomist 650(Q47,V33) 3. Nov (their quant part is wierd)

    Manhatten 690(Q38,V45) 13. Dec

    Manhatten 700(Q44,V41) 19. Dec

    GMAC Mock 730(Q47,V44) 26. Dec (a couple/(6?) questions reappeared from the first GMAC Mock)


    GMAT 640(Q37,V39) 29. Dec
All CAT tests were taken at home under real conditions (full tests with AWA+IR, 8min break, no water etc). Materials I used to study were Manhatten books, Magoosh, OG15). Big differences in the test were that I drank a RedBull that seemingly had little effect and the time of the test.

I noticed questions getting easier throughout the mid part of the real test in Q and V, but tried not to think about it. IR went well 7/8, although I completly neglected it while studying.

Further info:
I took my Mock tests usually during the afternoon (4PM and later) and the real one at 11:30AM.
Since my applications all around aren't finalized yet I feel completly stressed out for the past 2 months, but I thought - looking at the Mock tests - it did not affect my score.
Lastly I feel completly hopeless now, since so many great people put so much effort (LoRs, advice, ...) into my application and I failed them.

I'm not sure if I should just reschedule another exam for mid January (earliest date 14th) or take more time and apply next year.
If I take more time I won't be able to apply this year or I have to speculate that the schools will allow me to update my score well into the revision process.

It feels an awful lot like quitting, but it appears to be the right thing to do now.

Any words of advice would help!

Thanks!

kermed
I promise you, every instructor on this site has seen plenty of instances in which a test-taker sits for the exam, gets an outlier score, feels disheartened, and then then takes the test again a few weeks later and does 100+ points better than the previous test. As Brent noted, there's no reason why you can't clean up some issues to maximize your score, but there is every reason to believe that you already possess the skills to score 700+ on this exam.
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by [email protected] » Tue Dec 29, 2015 9:50 pm
Hi kermed,

First off, a 640 is a solid score (it's just shy of the 80th percentile overall), so it could be enough to get you into your first-choice School. Since you've named some competitive Schools, before you make any big decisions about your plans, 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://gmatclub.com/forum/ask-admission ... tants-124/

While you were clearly looking to apply for Round 2, have you considered Round 3 applications? With those latter deadlines, you'd then have enough time to continue studying and likely increase your GMAT score. Since your Scaled Scores on your CATs fluctuated a great deal, some extra study time will almost certainly be required to consistently score at a higher level in both the Quant and Verbal sections.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
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by GMATinsight » Wed Dec 30, 2015 9:57 am
kermed wrote:Hey guys,

so I just came home from the test center and I totally failed myself. I have nearly no time left to retake the test and would have to "update" my score mid January and submit the 640 in the application.

As I'm looking at schools such as Tuck, MIT, Booth I know that this will kill my chances of getting in. Further I'm a younger candidate (24) and I guess not sending those scores and waiting another year wouldn't hurt, right?


Regarding the GMAT
  • GMAC Mock 640(Q,V) 31. Oct

    Ecnomist 650(Q47,V33) 3. Nov (their quant part is wierd)

    Manhatten 690(Q38,V45) 13. Dec

    Manhatten 700(Q44,V41) 19. Dec

    GMAC Mock 730(Q47,V44) 26. Dec (a couple/(6?) questions reappeared from the first GMAC Mock)


    GMAT 640(Q37,V39) 29. Dec
All CAT tests were taken at home under real conditions (full tests with AWA+IR, 8min break, no water etc). Materials I used to study were Manhatten books, Magoosh, OG15). Big differences in the test were that I drank a RedBull that seemingly had little effect and the time of the test.

I noticed questions getting easier throughout the mid part of the real test in Q and V, but tried not to think about it. IR went well 7/8, although I completly neglected it while studying.

Further info:
I took my Mock tests usually during the afternoon (4PM and later) and the real one at 11:30AM.
Since my applications all around aren't finalized yet I feel completly stressed out for the past 2 months, but I thought - looking at the Mock tests - it did not affect my score.
Lastly I feel completly hopeless now, since so many great people put so much effort (LoRs, advice, ...) into my application and I failed them.

I'm not sure if I should just reschedule another exam for mid January (earliest date 14th) or take more time and apply next year.
If I take more time I won't be able to apply this year or I have to speculate that the schools will allow me to update my score well into the revision process.

It feels an awful lot like quitting, but it appears to be the right thing to do now.

Any words of advice would help!

Thanks!

kermed
The biggest surprise that comes to me while looking at your Mock Tests scores and actual GMAT is your score in Quant section

You may have done a great number of mistakes that has brought your score down to 37.

You must know for your information, the score of 37 in Quant means almost 22 incoreect and 15 correct out of 37 questions in QUant Section.

If you have seen such trend of your performance in Mock tests as well (which I think is not the case) then you need a major rehauling in your concepts of Quant understanding.

For a FREE ASSESSMENT DEMO (ONLINE) CLASS through SKYPE, Please feel free to contact us.

All the best!!!
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by MartyMurray » Wed Dec 30, 2015 6:17 pm
Hi.

That drop in quant that GMATinsight mentioned is pretty amazing. Your verbal score was a little lower than usual as well.

One easy thing to point out is the Red Bull. Possibly that thing made you a little wired, in a way that you did not notice. I am just throwing an idea out there, but I can tell you this much. From what I have seen and experienced a little change in mental attitude can make a significant difference in performance. So it is entirely possible that drinking that Red Bull got you wired or high enough that you were in a state that was not optimal for taking the test.

On another note, it does seem that if you were to do some topic focused preparation, especially in quant, you could score well above 700 in a few weeks.

So you may want to figure out from your practice tests which types of quant questions you are weakest in and work on those types.

It could be that the questions you saw on the actual test were somehow concentrated in your weaker areas. Even what seem to be silly or careless errors can actually be errors caused by lack of depth of skill in handling or understanding of certain quant question types.

Something has to be going on for your scores to fluctuate that way, and likely part of it is weakness in certain areas.

Also, when you practice, focus on doing what it takes to get right answers and look to generate a high hit rate.

If you do decide to take the test again soon, feel free to come back and get more specific ideas for how best to prepare.
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