Need help desperately with depairing GMAT score record-SOS!

[GraceX252]

Dear Stacey and other GMAT experienced performers:

I have learned a lot from checking Manhattan forum especially the perspective and way of solving problems for certain puzzles.Now this is the first time I post my problems in the forum ,and I need your suggestions and perspectives desperately for my following situation:
I started preparing GMAT since July,2014 when I was also preganant and got the score 660(Q:49,V:32),then after one year,I determined to pursue a higher GMAT score.It also means my terrible GMAT path began:
1.Sep,2015:total score 680(Q:50,V:forgot now,as I canceled);
2.Oct,2015:total score 710(Q:49,V:35) I download the enhanced report,SC got the lowest percentile-
3.Dec,2015:total score 710 again(Q:50,V35) I then rest this for a while, tried a trained course(famous in China,but the thinking way is not that typical),then I think because of the mental distress and the way I learned could not get fully understand,a disasteral score came:
4.April,2016:total score 620(Q:49,V:27may be) I almost gave up.But after the encouragement from my friends,I tried again after one month's rest.I went through the Manhattan book again for SC part,took careful notes,went through the Bible for CR,listened almost all key lectures of Ron online,went through OG again(very familar with the content then),practiced all problems of PREP 08 and PREP 2012,and Mock exam both from manhattan and GMAC.Then I found I could analyze some problems just like Ron,and although the reading speed and CR speed could still not been raised greatly,the time to solve the SC problem improved a lot(within 60s-90s).But..then,a very very very terrible outcome appared:
5.July,2016:total score:560 or 580 I forgot(Q:49,V:21),because I was totally stunned by the outcome and could not believe this was true. I had to admit that I am nervous during the exam,and sometimes I didn't know what I was reading at that time.But even I felt that was nervous,I don't think it is as nervous as I took the first time.While during the exam,I felt some questions are easy to resolve.But how can the score be such low,I almost doubt about my intellegence.
I searched some articles in this forum and found somebody has the same problem as me.I am now listening to the meditation course from UCLA you sent the link in your article,before going to bed,and I really want to get a higher score:730 is the minimun level I should reach to in order to apply the top B-school(750 for Chinese students is very common now..)What's more,I indeed wanna to conquer this devil.Could you give some other suggestions in addition to meditation and mental relax? And as I had gone through lots of time of OG,PREP,Mock Exam,Manhattan book,etc.if I wanna to try again,are there some recommendations that which materials I should use for the next exam?

Soooo much appreciated for your help!
From a desperate student in China-Grace

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry that you're struggling with this.

I do want to make sure that the scores you typed were correct. You scored 710 twice on the real test?

I'm asking because you described your scores as bad but 710 is a *great* score. You do not need to despair with that score! I know that Chinese students are known for getting high scores, but 710 is already a very high score. It is NOT the case that every Chinese student has to get a 730+ in order to have a chance to get into a particular school. I know it can feel that way when everyone around you is saying that, but this is not the case, I promise. You may want to talk to some admissions consultants to see whether the rest of your profile is strong enough that your 710 is okay.

Next, if you did score 710 twice on the real test, then something else caused your score drop. You didn't suddenly forget everything that you knew before! My guess is that you were so stressed out and mentally fatigued that you were unable to perform normally on the test. You said "sometimes I didn't know what I was reading." That's classic mental fatigue and would certainly hurt your ability to perform well on the test.

I am glad that you are trying the meditation material. I think that will be helpful. If you do decide to continue with your GMAT studies, you may also need to give yourself a week or two away from the GMAT to try to regain your equilibrium.

First, we need to get your verbal score back to where it was. You might want to get the Enhanced Score Report for your lower-score tests to try to figure out why your verbal score dropped there. That will help you to figure out what to do to get your verbal score back up to 35. (I think a lot of it, though, has to do with being stressed out and mentally fatigued.)

From there, you will have to try to lift verbal further, because you are already almost at the top for quant (the highest score is 51). You'll need to aim for about a 38 or 39 on verbal to hit 730. Your enhanced score report from your earlier 710 tests will give us an idea of what you need to do to try to improve verbal there. Can you give us the data that you have already?

[GraceX252]

Dear Stacey,

Thanks so much for your reply. For the previous GMAT score, yes,I indeed got 710 twice and will post the enhanced score from below.And for those two terrible low scores(620 and 560),as I canceled both of them,it seems not possible to get the enhanced report(I paid the report but no result when after entering the Code),what's more,I also agree with you that mental problem plays most of that result.So I will post those two 710 reports.(I indeed wanna to overcome this GMAT devil,thus I determine to take the exam again and need your perspective on how to improve from those two reports reference).
Here are summaries( intent to insert the picture cut from reports but seems not supported under iPad):
Oct 27,2015(V:35,Q:49)
Sub-section rankings:RC:85th,CR:78th,SC:64th
Sub-section time per question: RC:2:02, CR:2:13, SC:1:41
%of incorrect answers: 1st 10 ans:12%, 2nd 10 ans:43%, 3rd: 57%, 4th:25%
Average difficulty per question:incorrect ans have higher difficulty level than correct ans, especially the gap is very large in the first and third questions batch.

Dec 4th,2015(V:35,Q:50)
Sub-section rankings:RC:11th,CR:88th,SC:79th
Sub-section time per question: RC:2:15, CR:1:48, SC:1:28
%of incorrect answers: 1st 10 ans:25%, 2nd 10 ans:29%, 3rd: 43%, 4th:50%
Average difficulty per question:incorrect ans have lower difficulty in the first and third questions batch, while little bit higher in the second batch, the same in the fourth.

When I see this comparison,it seems I totally failed the RC part in the second exam,while others are all improved,and it's so wired how could I drop such great for the reading part.

The above is the brief summary data from the enhanced reports. Now I am reviewing Manhattan books for both SC and CR again.I also bought OG2017 to try some questions that never met before, and read some articles from the Non GMAT sources you mentioned in your blog before. Besides,I also finished CAT1-6 from Manhattan. It seems no new resources for practice any more..Do you have some suggestions for me on how to practice when no new resources available? And how to improve to get a 730+ score with more stable performance based on those reports, and, how can I know that I am already prepared and can attend the next exam?

So appreciated for your help!!!

Regards,
Grace

[StaceyKoprince]

I canceled both of them,it seems not possible to get the enhanced report(I paid the report but no result when after entering the Code

The Enhanced Score Reports are available whether you canceled the scores or not. If the code is not working, contact GMAC's customer service for help. (Note: you have to pay for each test separately.)

Your performance on SC and CR was already pretty steady across the two tests, so yes, the main issue is RC. The percentile reported for RC indicates not that you really scored in the 11th percentile (that is, you weren't given super-easy questions and got those wrong) but that you answered almost all of the RC questions incorrectly. They would have been rated higher / harder than 11th percentile (because you were doing well on SC and CR); you just got most of them wrong for some reason.

The question is why? Did you see topics that you really disliked on the second test? Did you feel that RC was harder or that you were having more trouble than usual understanding the passage or narrowing down the answer choices? Was something else going on? Your average time for RC was about the same, so you weren't rushing more than usual on the second test.

I'm also noticing that, on the second test, your percentage incorrect increased in the second half of the test. That would mean your scoring trajectory was higher around the middle of the test and then dropped by the end (and where you end is what you get, on the GMAT). So that means that you might very well have been in the 730 scoring range by about the middle of the verbal section but you lost ground by the end of the section.

It's very likely that mental fatigue played a part in that so maybe the meditation / mindfulness work that you are doing now will help with that, too. (It should!)

Let me know how you felt about the RC on the second test compared to the first test.

[GraceX252]

Dear Stacey,

So appreciate for your logical thorough analysis.I tried hard to recall what I was feeling and thinking during that exam for the RC part,as it has been eight months since that exam,I forgot most of the impression while what I can feel the main impressive differences when doing RC part between those two is that for the first exam (710 with RC above 80th percentile) I could even recall what those passages talking about after finishing the exam and feel the logic is so fluent and clear for me,while for the second,it's a mess,especially when confronting the first passages,I felt some sentences are hard to understand,thus aggravating my nervous.But the SC and CR parts didn't become my burden that time,so I hastily choose one answer from RC part when time limit is running out for each question even the whole passage's logic is not clear,so that I can make sure the time for SC and CR is enough.

Sometimes,the right % for RC is really fluctuated during my daily practice.When the passage is suitable for me,or I can concentrate very well,the result is satisfied,but when encountering some articles in which the logic is not that clear with many transition words or many technical words,the result is bad.I am trying to use the way to read the RC passage you suggested in your article,sometimes it works but sometimes not,especially when facing the kind of articles that don't have explicit hint which part is detail,eg,etc which part is key sentence(because some articles seem only talk about theory in the whole!) So I am still not feeling confident for this part.

I bought OG 17 and OG Verbal 17,and finish both the SC part and CR part from each book,the correct % for SC and CR is 85%+ on average although I have practiced some of the questions many times...do you have some other sources to recommend for practice,or just analyze each question from OG book deeply?Do I need to take some mock exams from Manhattan again even I have finished two rounds of each..?

Looking forward to your earliest reply as I don't want to spend too long time in this round,I even target to take the exam on early Sep.

Besides,I really take care more about my brain now,when it felt tired,I just have some rest and don't stress too hard on it.And I insist on meditation before bed these days,it feels good.But when I think of the exam,I feel worry and nervous again sometimes...do you have some suggestions on this? Thanks a lot!

Cheers,
Grace

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry that I'm just getting back to you now; I was out last week.

Re: meditation or mindfulness, see here:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... mat-score/

Some of my students have also had good success with this:
http://www.10percenthappier.com/mindful ... he-basics/

My guess is that two things are going on with RC:
(1) When you get nervous, you find it harder to concentrate and so you find it harder to read / keep track of complex topics. (This is true for everyone!)
(2) English is your second language and, at times, you will see passages with vocabulary and idioms that are not as familiar to you—and those passages will be harder to follow.

You will also see topics that are less familiar to you (this part is true for everyone), so when you get a topic that is less familiar + language that is less familiar + nervousness...then RC gets pretty hard.

There isn't a magic remedy for this, but you can try reading a little bit in English every day, not GMAT materials but just general reading materials on the kinds of topics that might come up on the GMAT. These sources can be good:

http://magazine.uchicago.edu/
http://harvardmagazine.com/
http://sciam.com/

Re: problems, it's important to make sure that you're getting the most out of the problems you're doing, so yes, you have to make sure that you're deeply analyzing all of your OG problems. It's also good to test yourself on some new ones; for that, you can try the GMATPrep Question Pack #1, which has about 200 quant and 200 verbal problems that don't appear in OG. (There are also 90 free problems in the GMATPrep software, 15 of each of the 6 question types.)

But don't skimp on the review of problems you've already done in order to have time to do more new problems! If you do that, you're just wasting those good problems that you already tried.