Osirus makes a great point about staying fresh on the GMAT overall, and not letting your core competencies atrophy while you focus on some of the newer concepts in the last few weeks. I typically advise spending at least 1/3 of your study time on things you'd consider to be your strong suits, just so that you don't "lose them".
One other point that jumped out at me, though, was the fact that you use the phrase "every time" and the word "always" to describe your situation. I have to imagine that your sample size for this pattern of the final 3 weeks before an official GMAT is fairly small, right? Maybe 3-4 attempts at the test?
If that's the case, "every time" and "always" are much, much more prominent in your own mind than they are in reality. It happens because you expect it to happen, and when you get a twinge of "here we go again", you lose your mental edge.
A tangential example - I'm a marathon runner, and in most training cycles I usually find that one of my "long runs" (15+ miles) in the 4-5 weeks prior to race day is a debacle. I feel like I'm wearing lead boots, I get dehydrated and worn down more quickly than usual, and I'm left staggering the last 3-4 miles wondering how I'll ever be able to run a good 26.2 if I can't run a good 16. And then..
-I remind myself that I'd much rather endure my worst-case-scenario in practice than on race day
-I look at the conditions around myself and realize that I wasn't geared toward peak performance. I didn't rest the day before (I probably ran 6-7 miles after working 10 hours), I didn't take on proper nutrition or carry enough water, I didn't run at the most convenient time of day (squeezing in one more training run just to say I did it, instead of making it a focal point of my day). Simply put, I treated it like practice, and I got exactly what I put into it.
-I learn from the experience and remind myself to be focused on race day, to hydrate and eat properly, to get a good night's sleep, and to be confident that, even when I'm not at my peak, I'm mentally tough enough to stick with a brutal 16-miler.
If you analyze your own subpar practice tests, you'll probably find similar elements. When you do them, do you typically:
-Take them after work? After a study session?
-Squeeze them into your day, instead of making them a focal point?
-Skip the breaks to "get them done faster"? Find yourself distracted on a few questions because you're just ready to be done with the whole study process?
I'd argue that you can undoubtedly say yes to a few of those. Then, when you get a score that's significantly-but-not-catastrophically lower than your target, do you:
-Start to panic, thinking that "it's happening again"?
or
-Remind yourself that everyone has bad days, and you just got yours out of the way, and then go on with pride knowing that on your worst day your GMAT score is still better than that of 60+% of test takers?
I'm convinced based on the way you wrote that at least some of your pattern is based on the fact that you expect it now. Remind yourself that you're poised to do well, and the positive attitude should be good for at least a few points.
Brian Galvin
GMAT Instructor
Chief Academic Officer
Veritas Prep
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