Is it time to reinvent strategies?

[asif.ahd]

Hi All.

I gave my GMAT yesterday. I had been consistently scoring well in Manhattan test series with my scores varying between 740-760. My scores in GMAT prep were 740 and 730 respectively. However i just managed to get 700(49,35) in the real exam.

I have a few observations and learning to share. First of all I believe the real GMAT lately has become tougher.(I am from India and from Engineering background. I scored consistently in the range of 50-51 in all my prep exams.However i could manage only 49 in real GMAT). The verbal part , specifically SC were tougher than in any test I had appeared during the preparations.

My point might be overlooked by some on the assumption that I might have succumbed to pressure. I would not deny that. GMAT does test that aspect very well by carefully crafting questions and progressively improving the quality of question with every correct answers. However it was not just me who had to bear the pain of an almost 60-70 points drop in GMAT. I know a couple of friends who went through the same equation. My real scores were rather closer to what i scored in KAPLAN test series (averaging 680)

I don't know whether GMAT has increased its level of toughness, or has changed its scoring pattern, but it certainly seems not very eager to grant high scores. Secondly and most importantly I really feel that GMAT prep institutes need to reinvent their strategies to cope up with the demanding GMAT. For example I had covered all about Sc, from Manhattan sentence correction-4th edition to Aristotle SC grail. However GMAT ensured that SC are as tough as ever.

If possible i would also like to see some of the respected GMAT instructors to revisit the EXAM to have a feel of it.

I think i will have the support of many test takers who have taken the exam and who will be taking the exams shortly to corroborate with what i have shared.

ps: My view is not meant to criticize any particular prep institute or their test pattern and strategies. I Just want to share my experience so that future test takers have a fair view of what they are aiming at.

[abhitechie]

Its quite possible to get a lower score on actual GMAT. Actually this has been my observation people usually score 30 points lower than their practise scores. 3 additional mistakes in Verbal and 2 in Quant can bring 30-40 points drop.

[mylynn_33]

I agree. I took exam the day before and I have seen many questions with patterns never seen before. In particular, I find Math has become much more difficult. I hope this is not happening as I went to the exam with the full confidence that I will reach at about 740...cause that's the usual test score.

I am wondering whether possible to find new questions and topics in the market otherwise my score will be seriously affected.

[messi10]

This may help: http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... orrection/

But then, I was under the impression that ascertaining the "intended structure and meaning" of the sentence was always a part of the process to solve SCs.

Great news about idioms though, hope this is actually true.

asif and mylynn, I understand that you guys are unhappy with your scores, but if this is your first attempt, then these are very very good scores.

Regards

Sunil

[StaceyKoprince]

In order to consider your practice test scores an accurate indicator of what you might score on real test day, you have to have been taking the practice tests under 100% official conditions, including essays, length of breaks, not eating or drinking during the test itself, etc. Did you stick strictly to test conditions on your practice tests? Even seemingly small things can give you a boost.

Next, all standardized tests have a standard deviation (SD), which means that it is very common to score within a certain range, as opposed to exactly at a certain level. The SD of the real test is about 30 points and the SD of our tests is about 50 points - so you did score within the expected range (though at the lower end, unfortunately).

Second, stress can get to you. You know the practice tests don't count and the real tests do. A lot of people find timing a bit harder (because you hang onto some questions longer because you know it's the real test) and a lot of people find that the stress reduces their effectiveness / mental stamina (so that they find it more difficult to concentrate than usual as the test goes on).

varun, thanks for sharing that link - though everyone should note that GMAC has since revised its information to indicate that only *American-centric* idioms and expressions are being or have been stripped out of the test. (Which is still very good news.)

ETA: Asif, are you planning on taking the test again? Did you want to discuss how to get ready for a re-take? Or did you just want to let people know about your experience? Let us know.

[SC312]

Stacey,

I wrote the GMAT last week and I also felt that the level of the questions on the GMAT has increased quite a lot. Verbal is tougher than any material available. Quants is way too difficult.

Not only the questions, I also feel that algorithm used to deduce the score has changed and it is much more difficult to get a good score even if you feel that you have done well in the exam.

For instance my GMAT Prep scores were pretty good. I got
GMAT Prep 1 (740 - 49(Q), 41(V))
GMAT Prep 2 (730 - 49(Q), 40(V))

I was confident of getting a good score this time and thought was doing well in the exam as well till I hit the submit button. I just managed to get a meagre 570 - 42(Q),27(V).

Certainly, the scores that you to get in GMAT Prep donot indicate how you would do in the real test. The number of mistakes (I understand it depends where you commit the mistake)that you can make and still get away with a good score in the GMAT Prep will not let you get a decent score in the real test.

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry you had a disappointing experience on test day. Something else is going on here, though - you reported a nearly 200 point drop from your GMATPrep scores. There are many, many people who do score in the same range on GMATPrep and the real test (most do in fact), so the most likely cause is not "the test just changed* and got a lot harder for everyone" but "something was lacking in my preparation, something happened on test day" etc.

If you want a good chance to get your score up, then you have to try to figure out what went wrong on test day so that you can do what you need to do next time to get a better score. There are always, unfortunately, people who experience big drops on test day - and, so far, we've always been able to figure out why with a little digging.

Read the below and then come back here and tell us what you think:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ent-wrong/

* Also, this is a standardized test. They literally cannot suddenly make major changes and still have a valid test. Even the recent discussions that we have been having about some changes in focus on SC - those changes started being put in place (slowly) 5 years ago!

[SC312]

Stacey,

Actually my previous GMAT score was 630( Q(49) , V(26)). I was confident that I will be able to atleast score a 680 this time around. I never felt that my quants preparation was down this time around. Although let me admit that I did get some real tough questions in first 10 of quants, one of them was a DS on probability. I have never encountered such questions before.

In Verbal, I found lots of SC questions tricky. For instance few of the concepts which are thought to be ambiguous were tested more than once. But still, I felt confident thoughout the test and never felt stressed. This time particularly I thought I did well in the RCs.

Till the time I clicked the submit, I felt that I have done well this time around. So never expected such a low score and felt really bad after seeing my score.

Currently I have no clue where I went wrong and how to start my preparation again.

Thanks
Sudipto

[StaceyKoprince]

Okay, that's good info to know. In your last post, you only gave your GMATPrep stats, which were 700+.

So your quant score dropped from 49 to 42, but you felt that the section wasn't that strange / hard. Did you have any timing problems? If so, please describe (as much detail as you can remember, without giving information about specific test questions!). How was your stamina? What did you do in the few days leading up to the test? Is there a chance that you burned yourself out?

Verbal dropped from 27 to 26, which is not much of a drop compared to your last real test (though it is a drop compared to your GMATPrep performance). Why do you think your GMATPrep verbal was so much higher than either of your real test verbal scores? Did those scores represent the first time you took GMATPrep? Or did you see questions that you'd already seen before? Did you skip the essays on those GMATprep tests? Etc.

Did you read the article I linked to last time? Please provide your analysis of all four areas discussed in that article.

Have you taken any MGMAT CATs? If so, you can use the below article to analyze:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/

And then you can come back here to share your analysis. Two notes:
(1) do the analysis of why your score dropped (the article in my last post) FIRST
(2) share your analysis with us, not just the raw data; you have to develop the ability to self-assess, figure out what's going on and why - otherwise it will be very hard to fix any problems and improve your score