Hi stacey
Having scored 690 in my 2nd attempt, I tried another attempt and practiced really hard and even changed my approach, something which led to 780 in GMAT prep Mock. I analysed each SC, not the way though MGMAT says. I started reading RCs slowly and my accuracy increased and I started pre-thinking on CRs, which really helped me. Following are my GMAT prep Mocks score :
GMAT prep 1: 760
GMAT prep 2: 740
GMAT prep 3: 770
GMAT prep 4: 730
GMAT prep 5: 780
GMAT prep 6: 710
And on the final scoresheet I scored a 670 (verbal 32 and quant 49), even worse than my previous attempt. Only once in my above 6 mocks, did my score in verbal went below 40 i.e. the last attempt. I also give 6 Manhattan Mocks, and verbal in all scores was above 40, but yes I did remember a few questions. I just don't know what should i do to score a 740. I practiced really hard. I did OG18, verbal review 2018, and many more questions of 700-800 level, and my accuracy was up there.
Now, I have exhausted all resources. I can't even use GMAT prep, as I remember all questions. I have read Manhattan Mocks are closest to GMAT prep, but I have exhausted them as well. I am frustrated. I know that I can but it simply not coming out to be. I have wasted all my parents money. What do you recommend? Should I go for another try? or simply be happy with a 690. I just don't know what further resources do I have.
PLEASE HELP
GMAT Forum
4 postsPage 1 of 1
- AseemJ807
- Students
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Tue Jan 17, 2017 3:32 am
- StaceyKoprince
- ManhattanGMAT Staff
- Posts: 9360
- Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:05 am
- Location: Montreal
Re: GMAT Attempt
I'm sorry that you had such a frustrating test experience. First, a 690 is a really good score. I know you want more—I just want to say that you have gotten quite far already. That's a good thing.
We need to try to dig into what could have caused your V score on the real thing to be so much lower than the scores on your practice tests.
On your official practice exams:
(1) Did you take the tests under 100% official testing conditions? You didn't give yourself longer breaks than allowed. You didn't eat or drink during the exam. You didn't do anything else that they wouldn't allow for the real thing.
(2) Did you see any questions that you'd already seen before (maybe in online forums or the like)?
With the above questions, I'm trying to figure out whether there's any reason why your practice test scores might have been artificially inflated.
Next, on the real thing:
(1) How did the V section go overall? How was your timing? Did you have to rush at times? Did you answer all of the questions? Did you run out of time—or, conversely, did you finish more than a few minutes early?
(2) How did you feel mentally? Were you more nervous than usual? More mentally fatigued than usual? (A lot of people will think they were fine—because adrenaline makes you feel like you have a lot of energy—but actually they were fatigued or anxious. Evidence for that can include: You had to keep re-reading things or you felt like a lot of the material didn't make sense or was much harder than usual (so you weren't taking in information normally); You had a really hard time making decisions—you kept agonizing back and forth more than usual, sometimes to the point of running out of time on the test; Conversely, you found yourself just wanting the test to be over / not caring as much as usual, so you decided more quickly than usual, sometimes to the point of finishing the test really early.
How did you feel physically? Anxiety can also result in certain physical symptoms: heart racing, sweaty palms, feeling dizzy or nauseous, difficulty breathing / catching your breath.
(3) Did you get the Enhanced Score Report? Especially if you were feeling really nervous and can't really remember how things went—the ESR would allow us to see whether you had significant timing issues, whether your performance dropped a lot on just one or two of the three question types, etc. (Note: They do charge $30 for the ESR, so you have to decide whether you think the cost would be worth it to you.)
You can read more about the kinds of factors that can contribute to a score drop here:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... t-wrong-2/
Look through everything, then let me know anything that you think might apply in your case. Then we'll figure out what to do about it.
We need to try to dig into what could have caused your V score on the real thing to be so much lower than the scores on your practice tests.
On your official practice exams:
(1) Did you take the tests under 100% official testing conditions? You didn't give yourself longer breaks than allowed. You didn't eat or drink during the exam. You didn't do anything else that they wouldn't allow for the real thing.
(2) Did you see any questions that you'd already seen before (maybe in online forums or the like)?
With the above questions, I'm trying to figure out whether there's any reason why your practice test scores might have been artificially inflated.
Next, on the real thing:
(1) How did the V section go overall? How was your timing? Did you have to rush at times? Did you answer all of the questions? Did you run out of time—or, conversely, did you finish more than a few minutes early?
(2) How did you feel mentally? Were you more nervous than usual? More mentally fatigued than usual? (A lot of people will think they were fine—because adrenaline makes you feel like you have a lot of energy—but actually they were fatigued or anxious. Evidence for that can include: You had to keep re-reading things or you felt like a lot of the material didn't make sense or was much harder than usual (so you weren't taking in information normally); You had a really hard time making decisions—you kept agonizing back and forth more than usual, sometimes to the point of running out of time on the test; Conversely, you found yourself just wanting the test to be over / not caring as much as usual, so you decided more quickly than usual, sometimes to the point of finishing the test really early.
How did you feel physically? Anxiety can also result in certain physical symptoms: heart racing, sweaty palms, feeling dizzy or nauseous, difficulty breathing / catching your breath.
(3) Did you get the Enhanced Score Report? Especially if you were feeling really nervous and can't really remember how things went—the ESR would allow us to see whether you had significant timing issues, whether your performance dropped a lot on just one or two of the three question types, etc. (Note: They do charge $30 for the ESR, so you have to decide whether you think the cost would be worth it to you.)
You can read more about the kinds of factors that can contribute to a score drop here:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... t-wrong-2/
Look through everything, then let me know anything that you think might apply in your case. Then we'll figure out what to do about it.
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
- AseemJ807
- Students
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Tue Jan 17, 2017 3:32 am
Re: GMAT Attempt
Did you take the tests under 100% official testing conditions? You didn't give yourself longer breaks than allowed. You didn't eat or drink during the exam. You didn't do anything else that they wouldn't allow for the real thing.
I wouldn't say absolutely official conditions. Because I gave them at home, I had to pause multiple times. But nothing more.
Did you see any questions that you'd already seen before (maybe in online forums or the like)?
On certain mocks yes that too because I have practiced so much. But the second last one, in which I scored 780, I didn't see a single question. Apparently, the actual test had a really really long passage and extremely dense and questions weren't straight forward at all.
How did the V section go overall? How was your timing? Did you have to rush at times? Did you answer all of the questions? Did you run out of time—or, conversely, did you finish more than a few minutes early?
My timing wasn't perfect. I had to rush at times. I answered all. Halfway through, I just somehow wasn't feeling good as to how it was going.
How did you feel mentally? Were you more nervous than usual? More mentally fatigued than usual? (A lot of people will think they were fine—because adrenaline makes you feel like you have a lot of energy—but actually they were fatigued or anxious. Evidence for that can include: You had to keep re-reading things or you felt like a lot of the material didn't make sense or was much harder than usual (so you weren't taking in information normally); You had a really hard time making decisions—you kept agonizing back and forth more than usual, sometimes to the point of running out of time on the test; Conversely, you found yourself just wanting the test to be over / not caring as much as usual, so you decided more quickly than usual, sometimes to the point of finishing the test really early.
Yes I was nervous. Heartbeats were of course high. I had to keep re-reading things or actually felt like a lot of the material was much harder than usual and going back and forth. But i would say that I tried to gave my best to each question, it wasn't a case of casualness but Yes i Had a hard time grasping information.
Ma'am I am in a big fix. My heart knows I can. I know material by heart. But its just not coming through. Having said that, will doing GRE benefit? Is that an option?
I Would be highly indebted with your response.
I wouldn't say absolutely official conditions. Because I gave them at home, I had to pause multiple times. But nothing more.
Did you see any questions that you'd already seen before (maybe in online forums or the like)?
On certain mocks yes that too because I have practiced so much. But the second last one, in which I scored 780, I didn't see a single question. Apparently, the actual test had a really really long passage and extremely dense and questions weren't straight forward at all.
How did the V section go overall? How was your timing? Did you have to rush at times? Did you answer all of the questions? Did you run out of time—or, conversely, did you finish more than a few minutes early?
My timing wasn't perfect. I had to rush at times. I answered all. Halfway through, I just somehow wasn't feeling good as to how it was going.
How did you feel mentally? Were you more nervous than usual? More mentally fatigued than usual? (A lot of people will think they were fine—because adrenaline makes you feel like you have a lot of energy—but actually they were fatigued or anxious. Evidence for that can include: You had to keep re-reading things or you felt like a lot of the material didn't make sense or was much harder than usual (so you weren't taking in information normally); You had a really hard time making decisions—you kept agonizing back and forth more than usual, sometimes to the point of running out of time on the test; Conversely, you found yourself just wanting the test to be over / not caring as much as usual, so you decided more quickly than usual, sometimes to the point of finishing the test really early.
Yes I was nervous. Heartbeats were of course high. I had to keep re-reading things or actually felt like a lot of the material was much harder than usual and going back and forth. But i would say that I tried to gave my best to each question, it wasn't a case of casualness but Yes i Had a hard time grasping information.
Ma'am I am in a big fix. My heart knows I can. I know material by heart. But its just not coming through. Having said that, will doing GRE benefit? Is that an option?
I Would be highly indebted with your response.
- StaceyKoprince
- ManhattanGMAT Staff
- Posts: 9360
- Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:05 am
- Location: Montreal
Re: GMAT Attempt
Pausing the test can result in an artificially inflated score. For example, if you:
- Worked on problems when the test was paused? If so, your score was likely artificially inflated.
- Took much longer breaks than allowed on the real test? If so, this can help you to have better mental stamina, and that in turn can artificially inflate your score.
Even pausing to go to the bathroom is an artificial advantage—on the real test, you would have to wait until the break.
Depending on how much you paused and what you did when the test was paused, your score could have been anywhere from a little inflated to a lot. So it's possible that the 690 score you have now on the official test is more reflective of your scoring level than the 750+ practice scores.
During the real test, you also describe having a difficult time processing the information—having to keep re-reading and feeling that it was much harder than usual. So you were having at least some level of performance anxiety and there's a pretty good chance that this affected your score negatively.
If we split the difference, maybe that means that you're capable of scoring in the lower 700s if we can address that performance anxiety.
Take a look at this post on mindfulness training; I recommend doing this at least once a day and ideally twice for now.
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... mat-score/
The above article contains a link to some free resources from UCLA. There's also this program:
http://www.10percenthappier.com/mindful ... he-basics/
It has a free 1-week trial and is then paid, but I've had several students who have really liked it, so that's another option.
It's possible that the GRE will be a better test for you—that's true for some people—but for most, the test itself doesn't matter much. If you experience performance anxiety on the GMAT, you are also likely to experience it on the GRE, but there are some differences in terms of how the test works, and it may be the case that you naturally feel less anxious on a test that works more like the GRE works. So it wouldn't hurt to try a practice test to see what you think. If you create a free account on our GRE site, you'll get access to one free practice test.
Before taking that test, take a look at our GRE blog to learn more about the following question types:
Quantitative Comparisons
Sentence Equivalence
Text Completions
(The other question types are the same as on the GMAT.)
Also look at our GRE site for info on how the overall test works (timing per section, time management per section, that kind of thing). Then try the practice test. Look at how you do / the score, of course, but also just see how it feels to you, subjectively. Does it feel easier or harder than our GMAT practice tests? About the same? Do you feel more or less comfortable with how the test works?
- Worked on problems when the test was paused? If so, your score was likely artificially inflated.
- Took much longer breaks than allowed on the real test? If so, this can help you to have better mental stamina, and that in turn can artificially inflate your score.
Even pausing to go to the bathroom is an artificial advantage—on the real test, you would have to wait until the break.
Depending on how much you paused and what you did when the test was paused, your score could have been anywhere from a little inflated to a lot. So it's possible that the 690 score you have now on the official test is more reflective of your scoring level than the 750+ practice scores.
During the real test, you also describe having a difficult time processing the information—having to keep re-reading and feeling that it was much harder than usual. So you were having at least some level of performance anxiety and there's a pretty good chance that this affected your score negatively.
If we split the difference, maybe that means that you're capable of scoring in the lower 700s if we can address that performance anxiety.
Take a look at this post on mindfulness training; I recommend doing this at least once a day and ideally twice for now.
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... mat-score/
The above article contains a link to some free resources from UCLA. There's also this program:
http://www.10percenthappier.com/mindful ... he-basics/
It has a free 1-week trial and is then paid, but I've had several students who have really liked it, so that's another option.
It's possible that the GRE will be a better test for you—that's true for some people—but for most, the test itself doesn't matter much. If you experience performance anxiety on the GMAT, you are also likely to experience it on the GRE, but there are some differences in terms of how the test works, and it may be the case that you naturally feel less anxious on a test that works more like the GRE works. So it wouldn't hurt to try a practice test to see what you think. If you create a free account on our GRE site, you'll get access to one free practice test.
Before taking that test, take a look at our GRE blog to learn more about the following question types:
Quantitative Comparisons
Sentence Equivalence
Text Completions
(The other question types are the same as on the GMAT.)
Also look at our GRE site for info on how the overall test works (timing per section, time management per section, that kind of thing). Then try the practice test. Look at how you do / the score, of course, but also just see how it feels to you, subjectively. Does it feel easier or harder than our GMAT practice tests? About the same? Do you feel more or less comfortable with how the test works?
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
4 posts Page 1 of 1