Need help!! terrible gmat score

[jstarguilford]

Hi All,

I just did my 1st GMAT test this afternoon and I got a disastrous score of 520. Can't quite remember the exact score in each section (quant or verbal), as I was too shocked by the score I received. I studied for GMAT for about 1 month and half using Kaplan online Study source and I was at the same time finishing up my last semester in engineering and busy doing finals.
Note: I did the first three CATs test in the first 2 months I signed up for the Kaplan course and did the rest in the last 2-3 weeks prior to the test.
These are my scores:
CAT 1 (Diagnostic 510)
CAT 2 - 570
CAT 3- 550
CAT 4- 630
CAT 5-610
CAT 6-630
CAT 7-570
CAT 8-610
CAT 9-560
* On average i get (37-45 on Quant) and (21-32) on Verbal

While I knew I was not prepared for the actual test, but I decided to take the exam and have the experience of the actual test. In addition, I was also expecting to get a score around 580-630 based on my previous CAT scores and managed to get a very low score close to my CAT 1 test.
Every time I did a cat I reviewed the questions that I did wrong, watched some workshop videos on that topic and performed some quiz on those topics. However, I stayed within 570-630 range most the times.

Surprisingly I tend not do do that well in Quant section than Verbal considering my undergrad is in engineering. I tend to get stuck on questions and dig deep in math.

I reviewed all the workshops and videos on Kaplan and did plenty of quizes . I think I might have a clue what went wrong, I spent more time on test taking skills rather than understanding the concepts!! At this point I'm not sure if Kaplan was any help . Any suggestions when I should be retaking the test? How would i be able to achieve higher score?? Any other sources I could refer to enhance my quant ? or verbal?

[MartyMurray]

Hi jstarguilford

From what you said, it looks as if you just did some surface preparation and took a bunch of non official practice tests.

For one thing, while you need to understand certain concepts in order to effectively handle GMAT questions, what you really need is skill in getting to right answers, and watching a few videos and doing a few quizzes has not been sufficient for you to develop that skill.

Often people take an official practice test to get a sense of where they stand. You accomplished the same thing by sitting for the real thing. Probably part of the reason for your scoring at the low end of your practice test range is that you practiced, from what I can tell, exclusively with non official materials, and so you were not really accustomed to the look and feel of the real thing.

So going forward, you should include some official materials in the resources you used to prepare for the test.

For practice tests, use the GMAT Prep tests, and as at least one of your question sources, use an ebook version of the Official Guide, paper books are destructive and bad karma, and use its included online question bank.

Overall, to drive your score up you need to prepare more intensely than you have been. You need to deep dive into learning about topics and then do many questions for each topic until you master it.

Regarding this, "Surprisingly I tend not do do that well in Quant section than Verbal considering my undergrad is in engineering. I tend to get stuck on questions and dig deep in math," engineers get smoked by GMAT quant all the time from what I have seen. GMAT quant is not really like engineering math, where the idea is to go through a long, structured process to generate an answer to a particular question. GMAT quant takes seeing what is going on in a question and figuring out a quick way to hack your way to the right choice out of five. Sometimes you are even best off using the choices to figure out the answer, using a method that is obviously not available when one is doing engineering work.

So you need to treat GMAT quant differently from how you treat engineering, less as math work and more as a hacking game. You can get some ideas for how to get to GMAT quant answers by looking at how the experts on this forum get to answers and by posting questions and seeing how people answer them.

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Hi jstarguilford,

Many Test Takers spend 3 months (or more) on their studies before they hit their 'peak' scores, so it's likely that you just have not put in enough time and effort yet.

I have a few questions about how you took these CATs:
1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT (including the Essay and IR sections)?
2) Did you take them at home?
3) Did you take them at the same time of day as your Official GMAT?
4) Did you ever do ANYTHING during your CATs that you couldn't do on Test Day (pause the CAT, skip sections, take longer breaks, etc.)?
5) Did you ever take a CAT more than once?

It's wroth noting that taking 6 CATs over the course of 2-3 weeks was NOT a good idea. Completing a FULL CAT requires a significant amount of energy and effort; it then takes time to properly review, practice and 'recoup' before taking another one. By taking so many in such a short period of time before your GMAT, you likely 'burned out' a bit - and that ended up hurting your performance on Test Day.

Thankfully, all of this can be fixed, but you're gong to have to make some adjustments to your study routine.

1) What is your score goal?
2) When are you planning to apply to Business School?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich