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I just took the GMAT for the 3rd time and scored a miserbale 550. However, I was scoring significantly better on my Kaplan CATs before taking the GMAT. My last 3 CATS were 610, 610 and 620 respectively.

My two prior GMAT scores are as follows:

Quant: 31 (30%)
Verbal: 29 (53%)
Overall: 510

Quant: 31 (30%)
Verbal: 31 (58%
Overall: 530

Today's GMAT was:

Quant: 38 (53%)
Verbal: 27 (43%)
Overall: 550

Quant has always been quite difficult for me and verbal has come quite easily, so I put most of my attention on improving my Quant scores. In the last few weeks I was scoring 36-38 in Quant and 37-43 in verbal.

At the time that I took the two prior GMATs, my Quant scores on my CATs were usually in the low 30s and my verbal was about the same as it has been recently (37-43).

There is clearly a pattern that on the CATs my verbal has been fairly good, but then terrible in on the GMAT. I do not understand what could be causing this.

When finishing the verbal section today, I felt confident that I did as well as I usually have done on the CATs, but that was not the case. Is there any explaination for why this could have happened to me 3 times now?

Is the algarithm on the verbal portion of the GMAT different than the algarithm on the quant section, and thus more difficult to score a good verbal score?

Please help. I am extrememly dissapointed because I finally achieved a good quant score, but my verbal scored ruined it for me. I was working with a tutor at GMAT, and he agreed that based on my CATs, I was all set in verbal.

Thank you.

Hi mpb,

sorry that the test didn't go as well as you had hoped.

The algorithm is the same for math and verbal. No matter how you do on the math, you start with a clean slate in the verbal section and your verbal score is dependent entirely on how you do in verbal.

When you were writing your practice CATs, did you do the AWA every time? An issue I've often seen arise is that people neglect to do the AWA in practice, thinking that they can write essays just fine, and don't realize that one of the most important reasons to do the AWA on practice CATs is to build the right amount of stamina for test day.

If you don't do the AWA, you're entering the verbal section after approximately 1h25 minutes (including the break) of concentration. By the time you get near to the end of the section, you've been working for about 2h30 minutes.

On the other hand, if you do the AWA, you're entering the verbal section after approximately 2h35 minutes of concentration. By the time you get near to the end of the section, you've been working for about 3h40 minutes.

That extra hour can cause a lot of mental fatigue and make a huge difference in performance.