700 to 580...what happened

[DW]

My last scores on mcats were 650 and 700...just completed gmat prep - 580! I got more wrong in both quant and verbal on the 700 test than I did on the 580. I don't understand the score. I'm taking the gmat on monday...this has shaken my confidence. any explanations whould be helpful.

[StaceyKoprince]

How was your timing? Did you have to rush more than usual as you got further into each section? Did you run out of time at the end of either section?

There are severe penalties for:
- getting easier questions wrong
- getting strings of questions wrong (which often happens when you run low on time toward the end of a section and have to start guessing randomly)
- leaving problems blank at the end

Any or all of these things can cause your score to drop significantly. The most common cause is spending too much time on earlier questions such that you run low on time later in the section. The next most common cause is thinking that the easier questions are so easy that you should rush on them so you have time for the harder ones - causing you to make so many careless mistakes that you never lift yourself to the harder questions. Might either (or both) of these have happened to you?

Look at the bright side - at least you're learning this on a practice test rather than the real thing!