710- For what its worth it was worth all the while!

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Background: Indian IT product manager with 8 years of work experience. Appeared for GMAT 6 years ago and ended up with a 700 then (Q47 and V 37). I started prepping for the GMAT from Late December 2015. Ended up with a 710 (Q 49 , V 36)

The Journey
I am working full time
Consistently dedicated 15 hrs per week for GMAT starting January 2016
Took Mocks at regular intervals as follows

1)MGMAT 1-12/25 - 640-Q 42 V 35
2)MGMAT 2-02/06 - 710-Q 42 V 45
3)MGMAT 3-03/12 - 640-Q 44 V 34
4)Veritas prep test 04/15 - 680 - Q 48 V 38
5)MGMAT 4-06/04 - 710-Q 48 V 38
6)GMAT Prep1-06/25 - 750 Q50 V41
7)GMAT Prep 2 - 07/09 - 750 Q 49 V 42
8)EP1 - 07/17 - 750 Q 49 V 42
Actual GMAT : 07/30 - 710 Q 49 V 36

Note: All my mocks were under actual test conditions
1)Took these mocks at the same time of the day as the actual test
2)Did the AWA and IR on every mock
3)Took exactly two 8 minute breaks
4)Snacked on the same stuff all along
5)I got lucky on a few problems(<3 problems on the GMAT prep and EP1 exams) . My guesses were accurate.

Test Day:
Things that were in line with Mocks
1)Felt absolutely relaxed. I did not feel this good on any other mock that I had given earlier
2)The sequence of events were in line with what I felt on the mock
3)No panic at all - Infact never felt this confident on any other mock
4)Was ahead of the clock most of the time. I had to slow down a little both on the quant and the verbal sections 
Additionally Quant felt super easy - Frankly was hoping for a 50 at worst

Verbal During Mocks
1)I was becoming more confident on verbal towards the end of my prep.
2)Attacking SC ,CR and RC felt more of an instinct rather than step by step breakdown and analysis.
3)CR was my strength. I absolutely love solving CR and got 90% and 100% of the CR right on both of my GMAT preps

That said, here is what the verbal section of the test felt like
SC: Felt relatively easy . I was able to identify the traps pretty fast and I probably did well on SC (I'll leave it to the enhanced score report for a confirmation)
RC:
1)First two passages were convoluted. Each of these passages felt as one of those tough LSAT passages that everyone dreads
2)There was at least one passage on which I felt that I wouldn't have answered even one question correctly

CR:
1)If I have to tag one word to the test CR - INSANE
2)Very few strengthen/weaken/assumption/inference questions (hardly one each of these types)
3)Most of the other questions were of the type
4)Evaluate the argument
5)Complete the blank
6)Explain the reasoning
7)There was a weird question with a triple negation not-not -not . For a moment I felt like calling the instructor and checking whether this was a typo lol
8)I was switching answers multiple times and never felt so low on confidence attacking a CR[/list]

Whats Next?
I am going to retake GMAT for sure . I consider myself a 750+ guy than a low 700 guy. In retrospect here are few things that I could have done better on the test day
1.I was little overconfident on verbal and many times shrugged off and picked an answer choice answers (I was like hell yeah! I know what you are talking about)
vs spending that extra 30 sec to analyse critically
2.I should have been a little more careful when reading passages. I felt that I got a little impatient and wanted to get done with this (Thanks to my verbal scores on mocks). This attitude could have costed me heavily on the verbal section. I got this same feeling for both RC and CR

I feel one of the three things below could have happened
1)Yesterday was just a nasty day (not my day types)
2)Could there be something fundamentally wrong in my instincts on certain question type? Could it be possible that I am just picking answers since I've seen many questions of that type and my ear knows what the right answer sounds like
3)Something other than one and two


I would appreciate if any expert could help me understand what could have gone wrong. I would like to understand make peace with what went wrong first before I get level set for a third attack.

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by Jeff@TargetTestPrep » Sun Jul 31, 2016 6:02 am
HI ResilientSoul,

I would be happy to help. Could you first send us your enhanced score report from your latest GMAT?

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by [email protected] » Sun Jul 31, 2016 9:48 am
Hi ResilientSoul,

First off, a 710/Q49 is an outstanding score (it's right around the 90th percentile overall), so you can apply to any Business Schools that interest you. As such, a retest is probably not necessary. Depending on the Business Schools that you plan to apply to, 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://www.beatthegmat.com/ask-an-mba-a ... t-f40.html

Your two Official GMAT scores are remarkably similar (even though your prior score was from the pre-IR version of the GMAT). This implies that 'your way' of dealing with the GMAT is fairly consistent (even years later); by extension, to score 750+, you're going to have to make some fundamental changes to how you handle the Test. THAT type of improvement will almost certainly require that you invest in some new practice materials and learn/practice some new Tactics.

1) What Business Schools are you planning to apply to?
2) When are you planning to apply?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Last edited by [email protected] on Mon Aug 01, 2016 9:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by ResilientSoul » Sun Jul 31, 2016 6:13 pm
Your two Official GMAT scores are remarkably similar (even though your prior score was from the pre-IR version of the GMAT). This implies that 'your way' of dealing with the GMAT is fairly consistent (even years later); by extension, to score 750+, you're going to have to make some fundamental changes to how you handle the Test. THAT type of improvement will almost certainly require that you invest in some new practice materials and learn/practice some new Tactics.
Hi Rich,
I have a slightly different view here. I agree that my score is on the similar lines to what it was 6 years ago.But here are some differences
1)My score has been consistent(750) in the last three official mocks .(GMAT Prep1,GMAT Prep2,EP1)
2)My average verbal score across all my mocks is 40 and 41+ on the official mocks
a)As i had mentioned-- All these mocks were under official exam conditions with no exceptions whatsoever.

Do you still think that i may have to make some fundamental changes here?

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by [email protected] » Mon Aug 01, 2016 9:39 am
Hi ResilientSoul,

Unfortunately, your practice CAT 'experiences' couldn't possibly be an exact match for what you'll face on Test Day (and that's not an assessment of you; that's an issue that impacts all Test Takers). Think about all of the little differences that exist between how you take your CATs and all of the steps that you go through to take the Official GMAT. You performed at a really high level on the Official GMAT, but you weren't able to properly accommodate all of those little differences. In your original post, you also seem to acknowledge the possibility that something could have been a little 'off' about your Verbal practice.

I don't think that you need to retake the GMAT, but if you're not going to stop until you earn a 750+, then some changes will have to be made. The good news is that it wouldn't necessarily take too long to get to that level. Also, you might be able to figure everything out for yourself - but again, you scored at the same level as you did 6 years ago... so you might need to invest in some new materials that will teach you how to 'see' this Test in a new way.

You didn't answer these questions earlier, but the answers are relevant:
1) What Business Schools are you planning to apply to?
2) When are you planning to apply?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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by MartyMurray » Mon Sep 19, 2016 4:16 am
Hi Venkat.

Two things jumped out at me from your introductory post and the information that you sent me.

One is your having done much of your practice timed.

In order for you to develop your thinking in such a way as to score higher in CR, you may have to spend 1/2 hour or more on each of some of the questions, learning how to see what you have to see and reason your way to answers.

I have seen people's scores go up 100 points or more basically as a result of switching from practicing timed to practicing untimed. I find doing practice questions timed is usually a waste of time.

The second thing that jumps out at me is your cavalier attitude toward the CR questions you saw when you were taking the GMAT. I was doing similar things, and I noticed that taking that type of attitude was affecting my hit rate. One thing I realized is that if I am not pretty much certain that I am getting every question right, there is no good reason to be ahead of the clock. As I guess you read in my debrief, when I scored V51 I barely finished the verbal section within the allotted time.

Let's be logical. Being more careful choosing answers would not cause a decrease in your hit rate. Nor would spending more time to better understand questions.

Working in a more rule based way might though, and, definitely, choosing answers using whether they "sound like GMAT answers" is the path to getting smoked right and left. Using "instincts" sounds pretty loose too. To consistently get right answers, likely you have to reduce your reliance on things like "what sounds right" and "instincts" and increase your reliance on tight logic.

If you are not understanding the logic of CR prompts, questions and answers choices, then you might have to be psychic in order to score high. So what are you going to work on?

I am leaning toward reasoning skills being more valuable than being psychic, as being psychic gives you information, but if you are not good at reasoning things out, then you won't use the additional information optimally.

Your mind is a dynamic thing, and you can learn to better reason your way to the right answers to the types of CR questions that are giving you trouble now. To me that seems to be your path to a higher score. You have to slow down in practice and fight your way through question after question, eschewing cute "sounds wrong" methods and really learning to do the work required for more consistently getting right answers.

When you are better at reasoning, you will get questions of types to which you are unaccustomed right, because reasoning applies to all question types.

Funny, I am not sure that even now I could name all of the CR question types. I really don't care that much about CR question types. I just reason through whatever I see. While understanding the workings of various types of questions can be useful, reasoning is universally applicable.

When you are training, defining exactly why each wrong answer is wrong and each right answer is right might help you to see things more clearly.

There's my response so far. If you have further questions, please feel free to keep the conversation going.
Marty Murray
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MartyMurrayCoaching.com
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