Exam scores help

[manju_putcha]

Hi,

I have taken 5 gmanhattan CATs, 2 gmatprep tests and 1 Princeton. I have my gmat on 25th June and wanted to do the last gmanhattan test on 23rd June. I got a low score today that has thrown me off.

Below are the scores so far. I am aiming at a 700+ score but that seems hard now :-(

On manhattan gmat, before I took the online course I got 540, after 6 weeks of course I got a 640, the next test that I took after a gap of a month, I fell to 570. In tests 4,5 I got 650, 670. I interlaced these tests with gmatprep tests where I got 650 and 680. Today the on the princeton test I got a 570 (I got 40 in Q and 28 in V) I felt the quant was much easier than the ones on gmanhattan. I am wondering if I relaxed a little too much on verbal. I reviewed my mistakes but princeton does not give the level of questions so I can't see if the ones I got wrong were 500 level or 800 level, so I can understand my score better.

Is 700+ impossible? I feel SC is causing my scores to come down. Can I do something to pump up my scores in the next 3 days?

[StaceyKoprince]

Unfortunately, it is very tough to "pump up" scores in a few days. For the most part, you should expect to score on the real test whatever you have been scoring in the week to 2 weeks before the test, ASSUMING you have taken the practice tests under official testing conditions. Do not assume that your score on the real test will be higher than your practice test scores. The few times that does happen for someone, we call that "lucky!" :)

Official testing conditions include the essays, two 8-minute breaks, taking the test all in one sitting, not eating or drinking except on the breaks, etc. If you have not been taking the tests under official testing conditions, then your test scores may be artificially inflated. (For instance, skipping the essays leads to an inflated multiple choice score for a lot of people - not everyone, but many.)

You do not say when you took the other tests. GMATPrep is the closest to the real thing, so those are the scores you should pay most attention to. Your two GMATPrep scores are 650 and 680 (the latter score also represents your highest test score). Assuming you took those under official conditions and assuming you took them fairly recently, you should expect something in that neighborhood on the real test.

BUT you should also try to figure out why your score dropped so much on the Princeton Review test so that you can avoid having that happen again. This article can help you figure out what might have gone wrong:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/a/2009/10/26 ... went-wrong

So, now what?

If you absolutely want a 700+, you should consider postponing your test. If you will be okay with a lower score, then you may want to go ahead and take the test, but only if you can figure out WHY your score dropped on this last test and what you can do to prevent it from happening again. (You won't figure that out by taking another practice test, by the way. You may figure that out by doing the analysis described in the above article.)

I absolutely forbid my students from taking a practice test within 3 days of the real test, ESPECIALLY if the student's confidence is low. There is really no great upside to taking a test that close to the real thing. In the best case scenario, you do really well and your confidence spikes, BUT you tire yourself out right before the test - which possibly causes your performance to drop on the real test. Alternatively, you don't do really well, your confidence is shot, and you have no time to do anything about it before the real test.

It really comes down to this: what's your drop-dead minimum score goal? If it's higher than your practice tests, postpone your test.

[manju_putcha]

I did do all except the first 2 tests in real test conditions. I did not probably take all 8 mins for the break. For the princeton review test I noticed my verbal timing was very bad, I spent too much on the RCs.

Princeton threw me off in verbal because all through in manhattan practice tests I was faring better in Verbal than Quant. I spent a lot of time focusing on quant the past few days and then I notice that verbal is down ...

Too bad I won;t be able to score 700+. I hope I get lucky but thats so out of control.

[tim]

i hope your test went well. If you need to take it a second time, be sure to start the process of self-analysis earlier and post questions on the forum early enough that we can help you along. There's a lot you can do to get better on the GMAT, but it does take time..

[manju_putcha]

It did not go well. Verbal was low. I will take it again, not sure when because I am switching jobs and starting my new job in a week.

My issue was that I wasn't able to figure out during my preparation that verbal was my weakness.

On the real test, on verbal my thinking went for a toss. I was too clouded to do CR or RC well. I was able to work through SC somewhat. How do I improve verbal? How much time should I spend and how should I practice to boost the scores? I am bad at learning from errors. Bad.

[tim]

Your best bet will be to do the following things:

Look around on the forums for information on how to improve verbal generally. You can get a lot of good information here but you will have to work for it..

If you took one of our classes, sign up for a post-exam assessment. This will give you an opportunity to talk one-on-one with an instructor who can help give you specific directions on how to regroup and attack the GMAT a second time..