Official GMAT Score Drop 690 to 660

[shraddhey]

Hi Stacey,
Thanks for the reply.
Posting this separately as suggested by you.

1st Attempt-
GMATPrep Score (6th Sep 2011) - 690 (Q50, V33)
Official GMAT (8th Sep 2011) - 690 (Q50, V34) AWA-5.0

2nd Attempt-
MGMATs: 690 - 710 (Score fluctuations because of Q-score, Verbal continuously increased from 34 to 37)
GMATPrep1 Score (23rd Oct 2012) - 720 (Q50, V37)
GMATPrep2 Score (7th Nov 2012) - 720 (Q50, V37)
Official GMAT (9th Nov 2012) - could not appear (ID Problem)

Repeat MGMATs- 730, 720
Re-installed GMATPrep1 Score (27th Nov 2012) - 770 (Q51, V44)
Re-installed GMATPrep2 Score (1st Dec 2012) - 750 (Q50, V40)
Official GMAT (3rd Dec 2012) - 660 (Q49, V31)

I never scored Q49 in any of the GMATprep tests. I am an engineering graduate from top Engg. college in India. I never struggled with quant and hence Q49 was a shock. When 20 questions were left in Verbal I thought for few seconds that I was doing well and would get 730 at least.

My strong areas in Verbal-
SC - Parallelism (>90% accuracy), pronouns (100%)
RC - None
CR - Draw a Conclusion (91% accuracy) and Weaken type (75% accuracy)

My weak areas in Verbal-
SC - silly mistakes, modifiers, SV, Verbs
RC - Main Idea questions (only 3/12 correct in MGMATs). I've always struggled with these type of questions. But 4-5 days before the test, I read your article about how to read RC efficiently and find main point. I think it helped a lot.
CR - Describe the Role (50% accuracy), Find the Assumption (70%).

With more than 3 months of rigorous studies, I remember most of the answers of MGMATs and GMATPrep tests. Same is the case with OG-12 questions. However, I have ordered OG-13 and I hope this will bring new look and feel. Any suggestions will be invaluable.

Now, I am planning to again take the test on 4th Jan 2013 and also apply in R2 deadlines. I am hoping that I will complete essays by next week and will study GMAT for 20 days. I know its herculean task but I really have to start my MBA in 2013.
appreciate all your help.

[StaceyKoprince]

Hi, sorry I'm just getting back to you now. Have been traveling for the past couple of weeks.

First, just FYI based on your title - 690 to 660 is not considered a score drop. That's within the normal standard deviation / range for the GMAT. I know that's not comforting, but I just want to make sure you're aware that this isn't really a drop (a true drop is more like 50+ points).

Now your practice tests show scores in the 690 to 720 range (I'm ignoring the tests with repeated questions), so this is a little bit of a drop... but basically still within what's considered normal. Both your quant and your verbal dropped a bit, with verbal dropping more.

Were your practice tests under 100% official conditions, including essay + IR, number and length of breaks, etc? If so, did you do essay and IR using the same brain energy / concentration that you did during the real test?

If not, then any of those things could have easily contributed to a minor score drop. If so, then we need to figure out what else went wrong.

For specific content areas:
RC: it's good that you find the RC Resources useful but that was still only 4-5 days before the test. Perhaps you needed more practice time with these.
SC: can you give additional detail re: what you mean by "silly mistakes?" What kinds of mistakes do you tend to make here? How often?

Re: the content areas you listed, modifiers and verbs often have to do with meaning. How much did you study that?

http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... orrection/

CR:
Find Assump: http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -problems/

Describe Role: http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/02/ ... ce-problem

I also want you to go back and examine your (non-repeat-question) practice CATs for timing problems. Don't just tell me your timing is fine - go look and make sure. (50% of people tell me their timing is fine. 98% of people actually have timing problems. :)

You can use this to help do this analysis:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/

If you do discover any timing problems (and you probably will), read / follow these:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... to-win-it/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... nt-part-1/

Also let me know where, specifically, you tend to have trouble with timing and we'll talk further.