GMAT failure, scored 660

[DS219]

I had been practicing for about a month, and most of GMAT Prep mocks gave me a score from 690-710. The last 3 had me consistently score 40-42 in Verbal, while my quant was always in the range of 48-50.

I got 660 in my actual test. I actually was expecting 720, since I finished Verbal about 7 minutes early, timed well and confident. But I only got 32, while 49 in Quant. I'm actually confused as to what to do! Any suggestions or advice? Still trying to figure out what could have gone exactly wrong?

I used the Official guide and Manhattan GMAT for SC as my resources! What changes should I make to avoid this mistake?

[Brent@GMATPrepNow]

I'm sorry to that your official test results were lower than your practice tests.

One of the paradoxical features of the GMAT is that feeling the questions are easy can sometimes mean that things are going poorly. For example, if you got the first 2 verbal questions wrong, the GMAT scoring algorithm would have presented you with an easier question for question #3. One of the problems with easier questions is that we may sometimes answer them a little too quickly (since they seem easy, we don't really focus on the question) and sometimes, in our haste, make careless mistakes or miss key pieces of information. If this happened to you on question 3 and you got it wrong, question 4 would have been even easier, and so on.

I'm not certain that this is what happened to you, but I have heard very similar stories from other students.

The good thing is that you have already demonstrated that you have 700+ GMAT skills, so achieving that kind of score on your next attempt should be a reasonable expectation. The key is to remain focused and CAREFULLY read and solve every question regardless of how easy it may seem. Remember, the GMAT test-makers are skilled in trickery.

Finally, finishing the Verbal section with 7 minutes left is not a good thing. That time could have been used to improve your score. If you're interested, we have a time management video at https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gener ... es?id=1244

I hope that helps.

Cheers,
Brent

[DavidG@VeritasPrep]

I had been practicing for about a month, and most of GMAT Prep mocks gave me a score from 690-710. The last 3 had me consistently score 40-42 in Verbal, while my quant was always in the range of 48-50.

I got 660 in my actual test. I actually was expecting 720, since I finished Verbal about 7 minutes early, timed well and confident. But I only got 32, while 49 in Quant. I'm actually confused as to what to do! Any suggestions or advice? Still trying to figure out what could have gone exactly wrong?

I used the Official guide and Manhattan GMAT for SC as my resources! What changes should I make to avoid this mistake?

Outliers are inevitable. Some test-takers in the 690-710 range hit 750 on their official exam and walk away delighted. Others in the same range get a 650 and are disappointed. So the good news is that statistically speaking, you're very likely to do better the next time around, even if you don't any prep. But you may as well see this as an opportunity. Aim to boost your practice test scores to the 730-750, so that even an off day will have you at 700+.

For additional practice, pick up a fresh bank of questions. Here's ours: https://www.veritasprep.com/gmat-question-bank/

[[email protected]]

Hi DS219,

First off, a 660/Q49 is a strong score (it's right around the 80th percentile overall), so it could be enough to get you into your first-choice School. As such, a retest might not be necessary. Depending on the 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

GMAC has publicly stated that the Official Score that you earn on Test Day is within +/- 30 points of actual ability. Assuming a similar 'swing' in how your practice CATs function, your scores point to a general ability in the high-600s (with your CAT scores at the higher end of the range and your Official score at the lower end of the range). Many Test Takers spend 3 months (or more) of consistent study time before they consistently hit their 'peak' scores, so it's likely that you just have not put in enough time and effort yet.

When these types of score drops occur, the two likely "causes" involve either something that was unrealistic during practice or something that was surprising (or not accounted for) on Test Day. If you can answer a few questions, then we should be able to figure this out:

When you took your CATs:
1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (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? Had you seen any of the questions BEFORE?

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

[DS219]

Firstly, Thank you for your advice! It has been a hard couple of days, trying to explain what exactly has gone wrong in my exam. Two of my friends used to score in the same bracket of marks in mocks have gotten 710 and 730.

Actually, Verbal has been my strength, I used to generally make silly errors in quant and lose out on marks. So I had been focusing on quant for for the last week of prep.


As to the answers to your questions:

1) Yes, I used to take the complete CAT every time!

2) I used to take them at home yes.

3) Yes, I used to time them roughly at the same time I gave my GMAT, the morning slot. One difference was that I often used to wake up, get ready and give the mock straightaway, like in an hour after waking up, but on the day of the exam I woke up like 4 hours early due to nerves.

4) I used to normally take a 15 minute break between Quant and Verbal, rather than 8.

5) I took 6 Mock CAT actually

1) 690- Q-49, V-36
650 Q-46, V-34
700 Q-50, V-35
710 Q-48 V-41
710 Q-46, V-41
690 Q-49 V-36 (Though in this one I had to finish my Verbal section in a hurry, like in about 45 minutes to 1 hour)


After my first two scores, I was working on my SC's using MGMAT book and CR questions from the official software.

So, I was expecting a score in the range of 700-730.
So currently, I'm confused. Since my midterms are approaching in college, I dont know whether I should continue with this momentum, practice for a month more, along with studying for college midterms and give it in October, or take a complete break and start in October and give it November. I'm targeting Defered admission programs of Harvard and Stanford, so I know I will require a higher score and I think I can get it. So please advice what shall be the right course of action for me!

Thank you!

[DS219]

Thank you for your advice Brent!

I'll definitely be watching this video, but as I've asked, what do you think would be ideal for me? Should I take a complete break from GMAT prep, focus on college studies for a month, than resume it again, or should I continue it, working on Verbal alongside, and then take another 15-20 days of intense prep later and give the exam again?

Since I would be targetting early entry programs or deferred admission programs, I need a better score is what I feel.

Is there any specific thing or method I should follow at this stage?

[[email protected]]

Hi DS219,

The extra information that you've provided is quite useful, as it helps to define why your Official Score was lower than your practice CAT scores. In real basic terms, you took your CATs in such a way that you were NOT properly training to face the Official GMAT.

Test Day is a rather specific 'event' - the details are specific and they matter, so you have to train as best as you can for all of them. The more realistic you can make your CATs, the more likely the score results are to be accurate. The more you deviate, the more "inflated" your scores can become - and that's what happened here. By taking the CATs at home, taking longer breaks than allowed, etc., you weren't properly training for the FULL GMAT 'experience.' In addition, most Test Takers do their best thinking in the first 4-5 hours of the day (which is why it's generally best to schedule the Official GMAT in the morning). Based on what you described though, your first 4-5 hours of the day were spent at home before you even arrived at the Testing Facility. This would also likely have thrown off your performance on Test Day.

Thankfully, this is a relatively easy set of problems to fix. The big question now is "how long will it take you to properly get 'used to' taking the full GMAT under conditions that match the Official GMAT?" You'll certainly need a new set of practice CATs to work with and you might also need to invest in some new GMAT training materials. If you can make the proper adjustments to your studies, then you could conceivably retest in under a month and hit your score goals.

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

[Jeff@TargetTestPrep]

Hi DS219,

Based on the score breakdowns from your 6 cats (assuming they were official cats), you are certainly capable of a high verbal score. Thus, it's possible that you had an "off" verbal day on the day of your actual GMAT. With that said, it may be a good idea to take the GMAT in the next 4 weeks. When prepping for your retake, you might consider taking an approach of focused practice to find and discover any remaining quant and verbal weaknesses.

For example, if you are reviewing Critical Reasoning, be sure that you can practice a large number of questions just from Critical Reasoning: strengthen and weaken the conclusion, resolve the paradox, find the conclusion, must be true, etc.. The results of that practice will help you determine your weak areas within that topic. Once you find and fix your weak areas, then move on to the next verbal topic.

You may follow the same routine for quant. For example, if you are reviewing number properties, be sure that you can practice 50 or more questions just from Number Properties: LCM, GCF, units digit patterns, divisibility, remainders, etc. The results of that practice will help you determine your weak areas within that topic. Once you find and fix your weak areas, then move on to the next quant topic.

If you would like some help determining your quant strengths and weaknesses, I welcome you to take my free 37-question quant diagnostic. After completing the diagnostic, you are provided with a detailed analysis of your proficiency level of GMAT quant topics, as well as an opportunity to discuss your diagnostic results with me or another TTP instructor/coach.

If you have any further questions, feel free to reach out. Good luck!

[DS219]

Thanks Jeff for your advice!

I'm actually targeting a 750+ score, because I need to for applications to Stanford and Harvard deferred admission programs.

So, I'm currently planning to work on my sentence correction and critical reasoning in details, while keeping my quant upto practice. I shall work for about 2 months, and retake the test in October.

Is there anything else I should do?

@Rich! Ok, I'll definitely make those changes the next time I take my test! Is there any specific area you think I should work upon?
My RC's over most those CAT's have been above 45. Its usually either my CR or Sentence correction that pulls down the score. When do you think I should ideally be taking the GMAT again? I plan to study for 1 month regularly for 1-2 hours, then 15 days of intense preparation and give it in Ocotber! Does this look like sound strategy?

[[email protected]]

Hi DS219,

With a V32, you would have lost some serious points in at least one of the 3 major Verbal categories (SC, RC and CR). To score 750+, you would likely need to score in the V40s (and continue to score at a really high level in the Quant), so some intense Verbal study (in all areas) is advisable. As I mentioned earlier, you likely don't need that much additional study, but if 'your way' of approaching the section allows for the possibility of these types of 'swings' in your score, then the Tactics that you're using are probably not the best way to approach that section.

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

[MartyMurray]

Hi DS219.

What you experienced happens all of the time. A person thinks that he or she scored pretty high on verbal, and it turns out that actually the score was way lower than what the person though he or she had achieved.

This generally happens for a couple of reasons.

The less common reason is that the person used mostly non official practice tests and was a little thrown off by the difference between the style of the questions on the practice tests that the person was using and the style of the questions on the actual GMAT. So if you mostly used non official practice tests, you might have had something along these lines happen.

The more common reason is that the person's processes for choosing answers were just not tight enough or had significant flaws in them. I mean, consider what happens if you have flawed methods. You use those methods and feel great! "I am doing everything just right." Meanwhile, since the methods are flawed you are using them "just right" for getting wrong answers. Often the result of using flawed methods is pretty much just what you experienced, a score in the low to mid 30's.

Here's an example to hammer my point home.

I was working with someone who claimed to be "good at sentence correction." So we did some medium level, maybe 32 to 37 level, questions, and he was getting them all right, rather quickly. "See that? I am good at sentence correction." but I was watching "terrified". Why, because his methods were way flawed. He was getting them right without noticing that what he was doing was something like driving with his eyes half shut, and just barely missing trees. So I suggested that we do some higher level questions. He got smoked right and left.

The methods that he was using were good enough for more basic questions, but once the questions got trickier, the flaws in the methods starting directing him to wrong answers.

So to consistently score higher on verbal, you have to do two things. You have to get better at seeing what you have to see in order to make good decisions, and you have to tighten up and otherwise improve the processes that you use to get to answers.

You asked what resources to use. I am not aware of any resources that can accomplish these things for you. Yes there are some that can outline some of the things you have to see, such as key aspects of CR questions and sentence construction basics, and suggest some processes to use, but mostly you have to train yourself to do these things.

How can you do that? By doing verbal questions very slowly and carefully, and shooting for a close to 100% hit rate in practice. How do you hit 100%, or close to it? By not leaving a practice question until you clearly see EXACTLY why all of the wrong answers are wrong and why the right answer is right.

If you don't get one right, consider what you needed to see in order to get it right and what about your process could have been better.

Then do more questions and seek to see more and use better processes.

If you can clearly see what you have to see and if your processes are tight, you will get pretty much every verbal question right and score V46+.

For more verbal questions, you could use the GMAC Question Pack, you could get the e book, not the destructive paper version, of the OG for Verbal Review, and use the online question bank.

Also, do not finish the section early. Use up all of the time you have to see as much as possible.

There's your prescription. Take that approach and you can get to a point such that you clearly see the right answers to pretty much all verbal questions all of the time. Getting the right answer may not be easy every time - sometimes you have to be dogged, looking and looking at the question and answers until you see what's going on - but you can become very good at achieving the clarity that you need in order to get them right.

[AshleyAnatomy]

I am sorry for this results, I hope you will do great next time! And thanks everyone for great tips!