GMAT score dropped from 680 (Q50,V31 ) to 610 (Q 49,V 24 )

[deepu.85.rao]

Hi Stacey,
I gave my first attempt in Nov 21 got 680( Q-50,V 31).I messed up the timing in the verbal (1st attempt ).I thought that I could slightly do better.So gave my second attempt on 29th December (after 5 weeks) .

My score dropped by 70 points ! I got 610 (Q 49 ,V 24) .
I was slightly tensed midway but not sure how could I screw this badly.SC correction were more vague than I saw in OG12 & MGMAT mocks.

GMAT prep 1: Q49 V 35
GMAT prep 2: Q 49 V 37
--------------
MGMAT scores verbal ranged from 31 to 38.

I'm totally shattered.Schools tell that they take best of the scores,will 610 be a black mark on my score report ?Should I need to take third attempt or mention about this in my optional essay. ?
I'm totally clueless.I did a bit of googlin' ,but never saw anyone whose score dropped 70 points in the second attempt.

Regards
Deepu

[StaceyKoprince]

I have, unfortunately, talked to many students whose scores dropped - so many that I wrote an article specifically about it (see below).

Re: your admissions question, as far as I understand, the schools really do just take your highest score. But I'm not an admissions consultant - you should ask them. There's a folder here on the forums called "ask an admissions consultant" - post your question there.

I'm not sure whether you're considering taking the test again. If so, the important thing now is to try to figure out what went wrong so that you can prevent it from happening again. If you're not sure whether you'll take it again, do the analysis right now anyway, just in case (don't wait, as you'll forget a lot).

Read this article and do the analysis described:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/a/2009/10/26 ... went-wrong

Then come back here and tell us what you found out (this is assuming you want our advice about taking the test again - if you aren't planning to take it again, then you should just go talk to the admissions consultants about the admissions stuff).

[as2764]

my score drop is probably the worst of all:
from 700 V38 Q48 in practice tests to 550 V19 Q48 on the real deal on Dec 24, 2010 - a 150 pt drop in combined score due to a 50% drop in verbal score!

although my practice test scores were:
24 nov 2010 Mgmat6 670 V33 Q48
02 dec 2010 Mgmat1 640 V32 Q47
10 dec 2010 Gprep2 660 V32 Q49
13 dec 2010 Gprep1 690 V35 Q49
17 dec 2010 Mgmat2 680 V35 Q47
19 dec 2010 Gprep2 700 V38 Q48
22 dec 2010 Gprep1 690 V34 Q49
24 dec 2010 GMAT2 550 V19 Q48
26 dec 2010 Gprep2 700 V34 Q50

please note i gave a practice test right after the GMAT and i scored a 700!

on the GMAT:
-i had 3-4 SCs in the beginning and i think i can handle that very well compared to RC and CR
-i had evaluate in the beginning, resolve the paradox in CR, and method of reasoning (later in the test)
-i had an entire paragraph highlighted (scientists blah blah....), inference (suggest, most likely agree) and strengthen/support questions in RC.

Read this article and do the analysis described:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/a/2009/10/26 ... went-wrong

Then come back here and tell us what you found out (this is assuming you want our advice about taking the test again - if you aren't planning to take it again, then you should just go talk to the admissions consultants about the admissions stuff).

Stacey - i read your article and i understand anxiety is a factor on verbal since i'm a non-native english speaker but not enough to deplete my score to 19! 23 is the worst ever i did on verbal and that too on an MGMAT CAT

i've filed for re-evaluation with GMAC while i prepare for a retake.

[deepu.85.rao]

Stacey,
I went thru your article.I didn't take AWA section ,when I took mock cats (MGMATs & GMATpreps ).
During my practice, I was able to identify the nature of error & narrow down to 2 choices.But during the actual test ,I felt the SC questions were quite vague/ambigous.

Timing is also the culprit,I was quite slow during the first 25 quesitons. I tried to rush through for the rest of the section (especially last 12 ) & guessed for last few questions.

I felt MGMAT & OG questions are easier than official questions.Did you get similar feedback ( that verbal is becoming more difficult ) ?
I'm planning to take my exam again in march .I've done OG -12,Manhattan SC & little bit of 1000SCs.What are the other resources you recommend for Verbal ?

Regards
Deepak.

[deepu.85.rao]

Hi as2764,
Can you elaboarte on revaluation with GMAC ?.
I thought one can apply for revaluation only for AWAs.

Btw whats your take on difficulty of the actual questions ?
Regards
Deepak

[StaceyKoprince]

as2764, can you please post your situation in a separate thread? It's too difficult for me to respond to two different sets of concerns from two students in one thread - it's too hard to keep straight what goes with whom. Also, you mentioned anxiety, but you didn't mention any of the other factors in the article that I wrote. In your new post, please go through the entire analysis step by step. If you feel any of the possible causes don't apply to your situation, say so (and, if appropriate, explain why). Thanks!

deepu.85.rao, okay, so now we know some of what was going on. Your stamina wasn't where it needed to be - you were starting the verbal section around the time that you were normally used to finishing the entire test.

You also had timing troubles - if you had to rush a lot through the last 12, then there's a very good chance you had most of those wrong, and a string of 8+ wrong in the last 12 will absolutely kill your score. (The good news is that your score had to have been higher before you started that sequence, so you can get a higher score - but you have to fix the timing.)

Some students are reporting in particular that SC feels harder on the real test, and I think that's probably because GMAC is putting in a higher proportion of questions where lots of things move around - as opposed to having one word that changes back and forth in different answers.

In order to deal with the ones in which a lot changes (whole chunks of the sentence are picked up and moved around, or several words are re-worded rather than just a single word), you have to learn to start dealing with "chunks" of the sentence rather than individual words: the core of the sentence (sub and verb) versus the extra stuff and how the extra stuff fits onto the core. Modifier questions are a really good starting point for this, but look specifically for questions on which the "splits" aren't that easy to identify.

Also, of course, if there are any holes in your grammar knowledge, you'll need to work on those.

I don't think you necessarily need a lot of new verbal stuff quite yet - I'd rather see you go back and master the material better from your old sources and then, once you feel you've made good progress, you can use other materials to test yourself. Start by going through OG12 and our book to find questions that look more like what I described above. Make a set of those and start figuring out how you can pull those apart - or almost diagram them - in "chunks" rather than individual words.

Also, if I were to show you a particular difference in answer choices but NOT show you the full problem (or even the full answer choices), would you be able to tell me which rule is probably being tested? You can probably do this for some things right now (eg, "has" and "have" would be a pretty straightforward split), but you can also probably get better at this, especially when more than one word is changing or when the location of words change - all of those things are clues too, they're just harder clues.

Go back to some old questions and cover up the original sentence - don't read it at all! ONLY look at the answers and try to identify every possible thing you can just from looking at the differences in the answers. You won't be able to fully answer the question this way, because you're missing some information, but answering the question isn't your goal. Your goal is to figure out how to recognize what the differences tell you about what the problem is testing.

These articles might be useful for you; they talk about how to analyze problems after you've already tried them:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/GMATprep-SC.cfm
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/CR-assumption.cfm
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/a ... estion.cfm

[as2764]

as2764, can you please post your situation in a separate thread? It's too difficult for me to respond to two different sets of concerns from two students in one thread - it's too hard to keep straight what goes with whom. Also, you mentioned anxiety, but you didn't mention any of the other factors in the article that I wrote. In your new post, please go through the entire analysis step by step. If you feel any of the possible causes don't apply to your situation, say so (and, if appropriate, explain why). Thanks!

apologize for that, still learning.. moved here with suggested edits:
700-practice-to-550-gmat-150-pt-drop-and-50-on-verbal-t11729.html

appreciate your advice!

Hi as2764,
Can you elaboarte on revaluation with GMAC ?.
I thought one can apply for revaluation only for AWAs.

Btw whats your take on difficulty of the actual questions ?
Regards
Deepak

you can ask for revaluation of scores if you have a valid reason, else its the $45 drill for AWAs

definitely tougher, and that should be expected esp. because you get used to repeated Qs on GMATprep

[deepu.85.rao]

Stacey,
Thanks a lot for the advice !

Regards
Deepu.

[StaceyKoprince]

you're welcome!

[ishanbhat455]

Hi as2764,
Can you elaboarte on revaluation with GMAC ?.
I thought one can apply for revaluation only for AWAs.

Btw whats your take on difficulty of the actual questions ?
Regards
Deepak

you can ask for revaluation of scores if you have a valid reason, else its the $45 drill for AWAs

definitely tougher, and that should be expected esp. because you get used to repeated Qs on GMATprep

Hi as2764,

You mentioned that we can ask for revaluation of scores if there is a genuine reason. What is the procedure for revaluation? I looked up on mba.com and searched on the internet, but couldn't find any clue. I am urgently looking for the revaluation service for the Quant and Verbal sections (not looking for AWA).

I shall be highly grateful if you could help my query.

Regards,
Ishan

[StaceyKoprince]

If you can't find it online, I'd suggest calling Pearson or GMAC directly to ask (you can find their phone numbers on their websites).

good luck!