That is definitely a common experience. I still feel like I did terribly, even though I've scored 750+ a few times. My fiancee (760) felt the same - she was expecting something in the 500s! In fact, she almost cancelled her score!!!!

The reason makes sense. The GMAT is adaptive, so no matter how well you're doing, it keeps giving you harder and harder questions. So, even if you're in the 700s, you're going to be getting questions that are hard for you. Remember that it's okay to get a lot of questions wrong as long as you're in that upper level material; getting one wrong every 3 or 4 questions certainly won't hurt your score much.

I'll even add that people who think they did well, most likely did not! If you think the test was easy, you probably missed a lot of issues/wrinkles in problems, thereby falling for tricks and traps set by the test makers.

Hope this helps!

I completely agree with Jim's explanation; the GMAT SHOULD feel difficult to everyone...it is adaptive, and the better you do, the harder it should feel!! This is different from a linear test like the SAT's for example.....and psychologically that is something to get used to as you prep for the GMAT. My experience is also that the few, occasional people who "thought they did well" actually bombed....and I've worked with students who also almost cancelled, just to find out they actually scored 700+! (As a side note, we therefore don't recommend cancelling your scores unless you're SURE something went drastically wrong, like you got ill in the middle of the exam or something).
Keep focusing on the areas that you need help in that show up frequently on the test, and good luck!

bdwSMU wrote:The whole time I thought I was bombing it, and that I am not ready for the GMAT (14 days away). I was shocked to see my score. Q-43, V-36 - 650

Is this a common experience, or did I just get lucky?

Hi

Even , I gave a test today and scored 640 (Q42, V35). I was really demoralised during the exam and was really really surprised to see my scores as well. I felt that test was REALLY REALLY hard compared to GMAT standard. I would like to know the credibilty of scores ? Can we predict one's score on the basis of MGMAT score? The reason I asked because am planing to write an exam in the last week of March and aiming for 720ish but after giving an exam i lost my confidence. I think I need to change my strategy.

Further, do you guys share the same notion that MGMAT is harder than GMAT standards ?

Thanks heaps!

Cheers
Piyush