GMAT Testing Issues

[arthi9487]

Hi all,

I have taken the GMAT 5 times since last August and my score had consistently improved up until my last test, 2 weeks ago. My scores are as follows:
Aug. 2013: 650 V:39 (88%) Q: 40 (50%) IR: 4 (37%)
Oct. 2013: 650 V: 37 (82%) Q: 42 (54%) IR: 8 (93%)
Dec. 2013: 680 V: 40 (90%) Q: 43 (58%) IR: 8 (93%)
July 2014: 690 V: 41 (94%) Q: 42 (51%) IR: 5 (52%)
September 2014: 650 V: 45 (99%) Q: 34 (31%)- CANCELLED SCORE REPORT

I knew that I had a timing issue on Quant during the first 3 tests and improved, but not significantly enough. In preparation for my 5th attempt, I realized that the timing issue had not fully been addressed and so I came up with a different way to focus on my timing. I was spending too much time on questions that I could not get right, and skipping easy questions. Let me add, that I had been doing well on my practices tests prior to the 4th attempt, with Quant going up to 45 and overall scores of 700 and 710. I understand that this is within the margin of error, so wasn't too concerned. However, prior to my 5th and final attempt, I scored a 48 on Quant (addressed the timing issue), with an overall score of 730! These scores are all from official GMAT practice tests. On test day, I felt great before and during the test. I was immensely shocked to see my final score of 650....and am now concerned that I have some sort of testing anxiety. I KNOW that these scores are not reflecting my true ability, but am not sure whether or not a retake will help! Have any of you seen something like this and what have students done to combat this?? Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks,
Arthi

[StaceyKoprince]

First of all, congrats on getting your score up to 690 - great work! I know you want more, but I also want to acknowledge what you've accomplished so far. :)

People often try to "intuitively" fix timing problems in certain ways that are actually not so great for your score. Could either of these have happened to you?

1) You fix your timing by shaving time off of the questions that you already do know how to do well and in normal time. Sometimes this works, but sometimes you make too many careless mistakes. This can lead to big score fluctuations and surprise score drops, even when you think things were going fine (because the point is that you think you're answering correctly when you make careless mistakes).

2) You fix your timing by rushing a bit on everything, to the point that you finish the section early. This of course hurts your performance.

Given that you did have one good practice test performance, I'm going to guess it was something like #1. Do you have any timing data from that one great practice CAT? (I know it's GMATPrep, so you'd only have this if you timed yourself per question.)

Even if you don't, we know something was going on because your score did drop, and #1 is probably the best hypothesis.

Take a test in our system. Try to take it in pretty much the same way that you took the real test. Then analyze the results using this:
http://tinyurl.com/analyzeyourcats

This might help us to figure out what's going on. Even if you don't get such a low score on quant, we would still be able to see whether you were rushing and where (leaving yourself open to mistakes).

Re: the anxiety issue, you said that you actually felt great before and during the test, so it sounds like you weren't feeling anxiety then.

You may be now, of course! And that may carry over to future. Check this out:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... mat-score/