Hi Stacey,
I'm looking for your advice since I need help in figuring out my next steps.
What is your advice? I'm planning to write in May, which is a month away.
Thank you Stacey!
GMAT Forum
2 postsPage 1 of 1
- StaceyKoprince
- ManhattanGMAT Staff
- Posts: 9361
- Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:05 am
- Location: Montreal
Re: Advice
I'm sorry you're having a rough time with the test.
Have you already done a post-exam assessment? (It's a free service that comes with the class or 10+ hours of tutoring.) This is a phone call with an instructor to figure out what happened on test day and come up with a plan to re-take the test. If you haven't already done this, please send an email to gmat@manhattanprep.com and request the Post-Exam Assessment.
I'll answer your biggest question first: I don't know whether 1 month will be enough time, but my guess is that you'll probably need more time. I'm basing that guess on one main fact: you don't (yet) know why your real test scores are in the high 500s when your practice test scores are in the mid-600s. Until you (we!) figure that out, it's probably not reasonable to set a deadline to re-take the test. We just don't know yet what it's going to take!
You mentioned that you'd been re-taking the practice tests. Were you doing so to the point that you were seeing questions you'd seen before? If so, that could artificially inflate your score, especially if you were answering the repeat questions correctly and/or more quickly than you otherwise would have.
Did you do essay and IR in practice? If not, then your practice scores may have been even more artificially inflated - those first two sections use up a lot of brain energy.
Do you have timing issues? Actually, we all have timing issues. The better question is: what are your timing issues? Timing issues are a common cause of score drops or fluctuations.
You may also have had stamina issues or nerve / anxiety issues.
Read this to see whether it helps you figure out some of the causes (and come back to tell me):
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... t-wrong-2/
Now, in terms of where to focus your attention, we've got several things to discuss.
First, your V score is higher (68th percentile) than your Q score (44th percentile), so there is more room for improvement on the Q side. At the same time, it's easier to improve your strengths, so you're going to try to improve both.
Second, we need to figure out what I talked about above - whether your practice scores were inflated, or whether they do reflect your current level but something's happening during the real test to torpedo your performance.
Third, we need to know more about your strengths and weaknesses (but this is secondary to #2 - we need to figure out #2 first). I won't do this analysis for you, but I'll tell you how to do it yourself and then you can report your results and we'll discuss. :)
Use the below to analyze your most recent MGMAT CAT (this should take you a minimum of 1 hour):
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... ts-part-1/
Also, read these two articles:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... lly-tests/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -the-gmat/
Figure out your strengths and weaknesses as well as what you think you should do based on that analysis. Then come back here and tell us; we'll tell you whether we agree and advise you further. (Note: do share an analysis with us, not just the raw data. Part of getting better is developing your ability to analyze your results - figure out what they mean and what you think you should do about them!)
And I'll just repeat myself a little: until we figure out what was going on with the score drop, this third step isn't as useful. If we decide that your scores are inflated, then we have to factor in that the test analysis is making your skills look better than they are at this point.
Have you already done a post-exam assessment? (It's a free service that comes with the class or 10+ hours of tutoring.) This is a phone call with an instructor to figure out what happened on test day and come up with a plan to re-take the test. If you haven't already done this, please send an email to gmat@manhattanprep.com and request the Post-Exam Assessment.
I'll answer your biggest question first: I don't know whether 1 month will be enough time, but my guess is that you'll probably need more time. I'm basing that guess on one main fact: you don't (yet) know why your real test scores are in the high 500s when your practice test scores are in the mid-600s. Until you (we!) figure that out, it's probably not reasonable to set a deadline to re-take the test. We just don't know yet what it's going to take!
You mentioned that you'd been re-taking the practice tests. Were you doing so to the point that you were seeing questions you'd seen before? If so, that could artificially inflate your score, especially if you were answering the repeat questions correctly and/or more quickly than you otherwise would have.
Did you do essay and IR in practice? If not, then your practice scores may have been even more artificially inflated - those first two sections use up a lot of brain energy.
Do you have timing issues? Actually, we all have timing issues. The better question is: what are your timing issues? Timing issues are a common cause of score drops or fluctuations.
You may also have had stamina issues or nerve / anxiety issues.
Read this to see whether it helps you figure out some of the causes (and come back to tell me):
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... t-wrong-2/
Now, in terms of where to focus your attention, we've got several things to discuss.
First, your V score is higher (68th percentile) than your Q score (44th percentile), so there is more room for improvement on the Q side. At the same time, it's easier to improve your strengths, so you're going to try to improve both.
Second, we need to figure out what I talked about above - whether your practice scores were inflated, or whether they do reflect your current level but something's happening during the real test to torpedo your performance.
Third, we need to know more about your strengths and weaknesses (but this is secondary to #2 - we need to figure out #2 first). I won't do this analysis for you, but I'll tell you how to do it yourself and then you can report your results and we'll discuss. :)
Use the below to analyze your most recent MGMAT CAT (this should take you a minimum of 1 hour):
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... ts-part-1/
Also, read these two articles:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... lly-tests/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -the-gmat/
Figure out your strengths and weaknesses as well as what you think you should do based on that analysis. Then come back here and tell us; we'll tell you whether we agree and advise you further. (Note: do share an analysis with us, not just the raw data. Part of getting better is developing your ability to analyze your results - figure out what they mean and what you think you should do about them!)
And I'll just repeat myself a little: until we figure out what was going on with the score drop, this third step isn't as useful. If we decide that your scores are inflated, then we have to factor in that the test analysis is making your skills look better than they are at this point.
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
2 posts Page 1 of 1