Did Much Worse on Actual Gmat Than Two GMAT Practice Tests!

[kendal.peterson]

I took the GMAT on Saturday morning and it was a disaster. I couldn't fall asleep the night before and with an 8am test it meant less than 4 hours of sleep. While tired, I was feeling pretty confident because I took the two mba.com practice tests the weekend before - one on Friday and one on Sunday and got a 650 on both (the first q: 41 v: 38, the second q: 44 v: 35). On the real thing I got a 580 (g: 33 v: 35).

I took 3 Manhattan GMAT practice tests and got 590-530-550 but I noticed that I kept getting really high level questions (700-800) all in a row despite getting them wrong. I assumed the algorithm was off, and was thrilled with the 650 on the MBA.com version since the algorithm mimics the real test.

I want to just chalk it up to the fact that I was really tired and extremely nervous, but am freaked out that it isn't. The only thing worse than doing bad on one test is doing bad on 2 tests. I studied for 4 months 10-15 hours per week. My last practice test was 5 days before and I just did some light studying beforehand to refresh my memory. My boyfriend actually studied less than I did, scored a 650 on the MBA.com practice test and under the same conditions as me (though a little less tired and nervous) got a 710.

I actually felt really good about quantitative during my 8 minute break, nothing stumped me. So I may have just thought I was getting things right, or just had really easy questions. Verbal I actually felt like I did worse, but it didn't take anywhere near the dip my quant score took.

Sorry for the long rambling. I'm pretty devastated and would appreciate any advice or thoughts. My plan is likely to take the test again in a month, do a noon sitting (instead of 8) and calm down.

Thanks!

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry you had a tough time on the real test. I would start by doing the analysis in this article:

http://www.beatthegmat.com/a/2009/10/26 ... went-wrong

What you describe on the practice test (getting 700+ questions even though you got previous ones wrong) was not an anomaly. The algorithm is more complicated than just "get it right, go up, get it wrong, go down." First, the next question is based on your cumulative performance to that point in the test, not just your performance on the last question. Your performance on the last Q might bring your cumulative score down a bit, but that score might still be higher or in the same range as the last Q. Next, the algorithm chooses from among a (narrow) range of difficulties based upon other things - question type, content area, etc. Finally, you're told only that the questions are in 100-point "buckets" but the questions are actually assigned levels in 10-point increments. (We've tested the questions themselves on our students - that's how we can get such precise measurements.) So you might have gotten a 740, then a 720, then a 710... but you'd see them all as 700-800.

Go and do the analysis above - thoroughly - to figure out ALL of the potential contributing factors. Then come back here and post. We'll help you figure out what to do about the various factors.

You may also want to analyze your most recent MGMAT test using the below article and then post your analysis here. That will also help us to advise you.

http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/e ... -part1.cfm