After 5 weeks of class my CAT score DROPPED 50 points!!!!!!

[Embarrased]

So I have been taking the online classes for 5 weeks now and I just took my second CAT practice test. My first score (before any studying) was a mediocre 530. I just took my second practice test and I got a 480!!!!! That's absolutely pathetic.

I need some help very quickly. Is it the way I study or what? Anybody have this problem before? I was hoping that after 5 weeks of class I would go UP 50 points, not the other way around. This is seriously making me rethink taking the GMAT. I don't know what to do, I'm in the gutter right now.

First CAT

Q - 33
V - 30

Second CAT
Q - 20
V - 30

Obviously a big problem is quantitative. I literally felt like a 4 year old looking at each question. Despite everything I've learned (or thought I've learned), each question looked like something I had NEVER seen before. My verbal was the same which still disappoints me because you figure that would go up after 5 weeks!

Has anybody encountered this? Advice on how to study? I'm following the syllabus exactly like it says!

[JK]

damn that sucks just give up!! haha

for reals - just do more understanding the problems - why its right and why others are wrong. understand when you see a question that you can categorize it into what type of quant problem is and apply the fundamentals to it. do less problems but more understanding.

you will get there. sounds like you're already at the bottom so you can't do any worse!!

word.

[StaceyKoprince]

Has anybody encountered this before? Sure. I'd say half my students encounter this on their second test. It's not only not unusual, it's pretty normal.

You're learning a TON of stuff. You don't feel totally comfortable with most of it yet. You're trying to remember what you learned and you're trying to apply it in a stressful, timed situation, even though you're not really that proficient yet because you just learned it in the last few days or weeks. It's not surprising at all that you'd then struggle on the test. The single biggest thing I see (especially on quant) is that people are slower at first because they're trying to remember everything, and they're trying to practice all the timing strategies they've been given, and then they run out of time towards the end and have to guess on a lot of questions, and then their score goes down. Doesn't matter - you're actually learning how to apply everything. That's what matters.

DO NOT worry at all about your score at this point. Go dig through the data, and pay particular attention to the things that you've studied so far. Where did you do better? Great - notice that it's working for some things. Where didn't you do better on things you've actually studied in class so far? Great - notice that you need to spend some more time there. Now, WHY didn't you do better? Did you not remember the content or the technique? Did you apply it incorrectly? Did you take way too long? Did you not have enough time because you'd taken way too long on some other problem? Did you know what you were doing but make a careless mistake? (Add that to your error log - and figure out WHY you made that careless mistake and how to avoid making it again in the future.) And so on.

Just get the data and work with it. Your score doesn't matter at this point.

[aarishpatell]

same here - i think a lot of factors change between practice tests (being tired, trying to get every question right instead of not caring if you miss a couple, etc.)

i have had the same issues - i dropped from 45/41 to 44/39 to 45/35 - i would say to not look at the score as its spit out and more look at how you are improving - i.e. you might have had a good day guessining on your first attempt, but your third attempt, though lower might actually show progression.

[StaceyKoprince]

Totally agree - it's all about the specific data at this point. Don't worry about overall score - you're trying to put so many different things together, including timing, that it's very common to see score drops at this point.