Way off the target score. Got bombed - 560 on GMAT

[ameya85]

After 5 months of study and getting good mock scores, I have finally scored meager 560 on actual GMAT. Math - 39 and Verbal - 28

I was blown over after seeing this score on the screen. I have no clue about what went wrong. I could not sleep the night before my test but I am not sure if this has made the impact? AWA was a breeze and I thought I have started well and I must carry this forward. My first question on math was relatively easy and I could solve it correctly in no time but then came the problem. I had not seen the answer options while solving the question. When I had a look at answer options I felt I as if answer options are switched with some other question. No option was making sense to me and they all were converted. To pick the answer I had to solve all of them one by one. I made a calculated guess and moved on. Difficulty level was going up. I tried hard not to judge my progress but couldn't help either. Suddenly question started to get too easy and I again judged my progress. One of the question was too easy and I told myself that I have blown up this section. Whatever be it, I still cannot accept that I have problem with concepts.

I started verbal section with confidence and was sure of scoring at least 38-39. SC was getting tougher (Or perhaps I felt that). I had a checklist for finding errors but on most of the question I was left with no option. All options were looking good. SC question were long. Some of them even 4-5 sentence long. I was not able to concentrate eventually and my mind stopped processing the information. And I was down to pathetic score of 28


Following are my mock scores:

GMATPrep Test 1 - 610 (Math - 44 Verbal - 29)
MGMAT 1 - 690 (Math - 45 Verbal - 39)
MGMAT 2 - 640 (Math - 47 Verbal - 31)
MGMAT 3 - 720 (Math - 48 Verbal - 40)
MGMAT 4 - 700 (Math - 50 Verbal - 35)
GMATPrep Test 2 - 700 (Math - 48 Verbal - 38)
GMATPrep new version Test 1 - 760 (Math - 50 Verbal - 42)
GMATPrep new version Test 2 - 740 (Math 48, Verbal 44)

My verbal score was swaying and inconsistent. But I had improved for sure. I have listed down following points from my experience -

1. Couldn't sleep the night before, how much impact has this made on the score?
2. Questions were too different. SC question were too long.
3. RC was ok and so was CR
4. Conceptual problem? I strongly feel I have no major conceptual issue
5. No similarity between tests taken and the actual gmat

Method of Preparation- I spent around 2 hours on weekdays and 5 hrs on weekends. I also took a day off from preparation every week. I majorly used Manhattan Strategy Guides. I used to study the entire chapter from the given book, solve the OG & review guide problems and track the timings with Manhattan OG Archer. I followed this method for all 8 guides. I also took notes for quick reference. I also did test analysis very thoroughly and identified weak areas. I used Video session from Thrusdays with Ron for the topics that I found difficult.

Books used- Manhattan Guides, OG 12, Verbal & Quant review 2nd edition and Aristotle SC-RC books.

Now, the crux of the story - How should I be looking at my actual GMAT Score?

I might need to take more tests to check that I have no issues with concepts. I have ordered OG 13 as well. I will also buy GMATPrep question pack but I am not sure if this would help? SC was all the way different that what I had seen on all mocks. Please do let me know what do you think about this.

Ameya

[GMAT Kolaveri]

Take a break for a few days..a weeks' time at least then you can start preparing for the test..
there are lots of retake success stories here..u can go thro them after a weeks' time.

I have a few question
1. did you study till the end
2. were you mentally fresh to take the test or was your brain tired of practice after practice
3. did you take break from work at least for a few days
4. did you eat well before the test
5. did you take a full length test just before the GMAT

From wat i can see from ur mock score you seem to have had an off day.

[dreamsofmohit]

When was your Actual GMAT ?

[ameya85]

I have a few question
1. did you study till the end
2. were you mentally fresh to take the test or was your brain tired of practice after practice
3. did you take break from work at least for a few days
4. did you eat well before the test
5. did you take a full length test just before the GMAT

Thanks for replying..Here are answers to your questions
1. No, I did not. I took a mock around 4 days before my gmat and then analyzed it for a day. Went through flashcards and took a day off before the test
2. As I have mentioned, I could not sleep because of anxiety. I somehow managed to sleep around 4 am in the morning and woke up at 7.30. My gmat was scheduled at 10 am
3. Yes, I have followed Ron's (Lunarpower) advice diligently. I took a day off from study every week
4. Yes, I did
5. No, I took it 4 days before the gmat

Looking forward to your reply, thanks again

@dreamsofmohit: I appeared for GMAT on 27th April 2012

Ameya

[lunarpower]

i received a message regarding this thread.

a couple of comments:

* there's not a lot of detail here regarding how you actually prepared for the test. there are a ton of statistics and numbers, but not much about the actual procedure.
unfortunately, this may be a reflection of the way you've been thinking about the actual exam -- too many metrics, not enough understanding. maybe yes and maybe no, but definitely a possibility.

My first question on math was relatively easy and I could solve it correctly in no time but then came the problem. I had not seen the answer options while solving the question. When I had a look at answer options I felt I as if answer options are switched with some other question. No option was making sense to me and they all were converted.

one of the most distinctive features of this exam is the ubiquity of "trap" answers. if a problem seems as though it's really easy, especially on the math section, it's very possible that you are falling into one of these traps.

in particular, if you have to choose between the following 2 interpretations --
1/ you solved the problem correctly, but the given answers were all wrong,
2/ you actually didn't solve the problem correctly, despite what you think,
-- then #2 is a pretty safe bet.

Whatever be it, I still cannot accept that I have problem with concepts.

depends on what you mean by "concepts".

indeed, you probably don't have trouble with the objective math concepts tested on the exam -- mostly, those are just the basics of high-school algebra and geometry.
however, it's possible that you do have trouble with the following, to which you could also refer as "concepts":
* the format of data sufficiency (many students are so intent on solving "difficult" problems that they never master the basics of the format itself)
* the signature of "trap" answers
* the principal alternate / backup methods of solution (such as backsolving, plugging in your own values, etc.)
how do you feel about those?

SC question were long. Some of them even 4-5 sentence long.

impossible. all SC sentences are exactly one sentence.
some of the sentences may have a bunch of clauses, modifiers, etc., but there will never be more than one sentence. (hence "sentence correction", not e.g. "paragraph correction")

1. Couldn't sleep the night before, how much impact has this made on the score?

if you normally sleep a lot, this could make a big difference.
if you are normally sleep-deprived, then you will probably do better on the exam if you are a bit sleep-deprived.

2. Questions were too different. SC question were too long.

i've highlighted in red the comment that's potentially most revealing/important here.
what does "too different" mean?

this is a really important qusetion for you to answer, because ALL gmat problems are different from ALL other gmat problems -- you're essentially never going to see superficial similarities, even though the underlying concepts are essentially the same throughout.

the "too different" comment suggests that you may have just memorized a bunch of problems in practice -- intentionally or not -- and just looked for problems that were essentially carbon copies of the ones you memorized.
if that's your approach, then you need a new approach. check out the tips in the link above.

4. Conceptual problem? I strongly feel I have no major conceptual issue

if you have low scores on the verbal section, then this is probably not true.
the verbal section is almost purely a test of concepts. (CR and RC are pure tests of concepts; those two sections actually don't require any outside/memorized knowledge at all, apart from a certain level of mastery when it comes to reading high-level written english.) therefore, if you scored a lot lower on verbal than you wanted to, the problem is probably based in some set of conceptual shortcomings.

5. No similarity between tests taken and the actual gmat

see above -- this is actually the entire reason why the gmat exists.
if you are expecting the problems on your actual gmat to look like the problems on which you practiced ... well, that's not going to happen.

Method of Preparation- I spent around 2 hours on weekdays and 5 hrs on weekends. I also took a day off from preparation every week. I majorly used Manhattan Strategy Guides. I used to study the entire chapter from the given book, solve the OG & review guide problems and track the timings with Manhattan OG Archer. I followed this method for all 8 guides. I also took notes for quick reference. I also did test analysis very thoroughly and identified weak areas. I used Video session from Thrusdays with Ron for the topics that I found difficult.

this sounds like a good starting point, but, especially in SC, you need to break away from the "chapter-by-chapter" approach.

keep in mind -- the main challenge in SC is identifying what is actually being tested in the first place. i.e., if the problem tests parallelism, the main difficulty isn't in evaluating the parallelism; it's in identifying that the problem actually tests parallelism in the first place. etc. etc.
if you are going chapter by chapter, then you aren't getting practice in that sort of recognition. for instance, if you are just doing a list of problems labeled in the SC guide as "parallelism", then that's basically cheating, in the sense that you've removed the element of recognition from the problem.

Now, the crux of the story - How should I be looking at my actual GMAT Score?

what do you mean by this? i guess i don't really understand what you are asking here.

I might need to take more tests to check that I have no issues with concepts. I have ordered OG 13 as well. I will also buy GMATPrep question pack but I am not sure if this would help? SC was all the way different that what I had seen on all mocks. Please do let me know what do you think about this.

Ameya

well, again, you need to define more precisely what you mean by "different"... whether that means (1) the problems didn't look like copies of each other, or (2) the problems seemed to test topics/ideas that weren't tested in the practice problems.

if you mean (1), then of course that's true -- that's actually the single defining characteristic of the exam, as stated above. they want to make sure that you can't beat this test just by memorizing a bunch of stuff; if you could, then the test would be useless as a measure of your reasoning abilities.

if you mean (2), then you need to work on recognition, because the underlying concepts will not, in fact, be different.
about 15-20% of the problems in OG13 are new, but, when you go through them, you'll quickly notice that they don't test any underlying ideas that are not also tested in the previous editions.

[ameya85]

Dear Ron,

I was waiting for your reply and it was worth waiting for. As you have pointed correctly that -

if you are just doing a list of problems labeled in the SC guide as "parallelism", then that's basically cheating, in the sense that you've removed the element of recognition from the problem."

I precisely did this. I accept practicing this way has indeed affected my verbal score. However, the question is, how should I move further? Should I solve all questions again without going chapter by chapter? There is a possibility that I still migth remember a bunch of questions.

however, it's possible that you do have trouble with the following, to which you could also refer as "concepts":
* the format of data sufficiency (many students are so intent on solving "difficult" problems that they never master the basics of the format itself)
* the signature of "trap" answers
* the principal alternate / backup methods of solution (such as backsolving, plugging in your own values, etc.)
how do you feel about those?

I have followed most of your video sessions. For DS, I have especially referred to your session on DS Basics on 14th April. I am pretty much comfortable with DS and trap answers. However, here #1 is valid in my case. As you said, there are a lot of problems on math that I feel I have solved corectly. But when I had a look at the options, most of them were either given in some other form or converted form. This is where I hit the panic button on the exam.

Reg. SC, yes, you might be right. I was kinda habituated to some std. formats and error spotting. What I meant by "Too different" is I was moulded into looking at the question from perticular way ONLY. I perhaps never tested the question for all or at least most of the errors. I had a checklist of 7 things to spot in SC and I never used anything else. That was the reason I felt questions were too different. Actually, they might not be different but I was accustomed to find the error in wrong way.

- I cannot find the link that you mentioned?

Thanks a lot for such a detailed analysis of my performance. It seems I was indeed wrong in a lot of ways. Perhaps I will need a new approach and more practice before I retake the exam.

Ameya