One week left, and my CAT scores are all over the place!

[thomaspham259]

I have less than a week left before my official GMAT and my latest gmat prep score has left me utterly confused.

5/29 590 Q42 V31 (MGMAT CAT 1)
6/10 590 Q42 V31 (MGMAT CAT 2)
7/1 640 Q45 V33 (MGMAT CAT3)
7/7 570 Q44 V27 (GMAT PREP 1)
7/19 670 Q44 V37 (MGMAT CAT 4)
7/26 560 Q40 V27 (GMAT PREP 2)

I took the actual GMAT in February and received a 570 (Q38 V31). Granted my expectation is to just break 600, didn't think that would be too hard to do, I thought I was in relatively good shape since I got a 670 on CAT 4. I thought the score from July 7th might have been a fluke, however, after the retake I'm not so sure of that now. Not sure what to do with the last week. It would be majorly dissapointing if after an extra 5 months of diligent studying and signing up and attending MGMAT course I came up with the same or even LOWER score than February's.

One week left, Not sure what to do at this point.

[rfrazier472]

the only possibility I can think of for the difference between mgmat and gmatprep scores is the timing on gmatprep. Are you pausing the clock a lot on mgmat or testing without a timelimit then you might not be used to the gmatprep timing? If you are then maybe you simply missed a group of questions early on which lowered your score

good luck!

[StaceyKoprince]

It looks like your quant score is holding more steady but your verbal score is really dropping.

Are you taking all of the tests under full, official testing conditions, including the essays and the timing (including breaks)? If you are not doing the essays, or only sometimes doing the essays, your verbal score may be fluctuating due to stamina issues.

On the lower test, how was your timing in the verbal section? Did you generally move steadily through the test, giving appropriate time and attention to each question? (1 to 1.25m for SC, 2m for CR, 2-4m to read a passage, 1m for general RC questions, 1.5 to 2m for specific RC questions) Or did you have to rush at times and possibly make random guesses? If you did have to rush and/or make random guesses, on how many questions would you say you did that? Did you do it on a lot of questions in a row or were the guesses scattered? Alternatively, did you move too quickly and finish with a lot of time (>3min) left over?

Did you take the practice tests at the same time of day? Were you well-rested before each, etc?

Have you looked back through the last GMATPrep, yet? What kinds of mistakes were you making - things you didn't know, things you overlooked, careless mistakes, trap answers? Lots of careless mistakes often means a stamina issue. Things you didn't know means that there are holes in your foundation and the GMATPrep test happened to find those holes.

What other differences can you think of between the different practice test experiences? Anything, no matter how small, and no matter whether you think it wouldn't have made a difference to your score. Any differences at all?

[thomaspham259]

I am definitely doing the essays, and trying to mimic the real thing as close as possible. I don't really have issues with timing, because i'm following the benchmarks for the 60-45-30-25 minute marks that were online exercise in class, so when i see i have some extra time i actually slow down a bit, and it's been this way for the last four tests. actually one thing i was concentrating more on has been timing and staying within the allotted time frame, but that use to be an issue i had more with quant before i took the mgmat class, not so much the verbal.

my tests have all been done on Saturday morning about a few hours after i wake up, i make sure i have some breakfast before the tests so i don't get hungry. i'm not excessive on the breaks. for either in between sections.

looking at the gmatprep i'm getting more of the SC questions wrong than i did on the mgmat test. which was my vice, so during the course i actually concentrated on it more than the RC and CR. I thought i was doing better in it, since my mgmat tests that seemed to be my strongest section in verbal.

as far as strategy and whether i'm rushing them i'm not having that much difficulty through them. for RC i'm giving my self about 3 minutes to read through and do the skeleton. SC usually i'll cut my losses at a certain point but i can't say i do that more than 2-3 times during the test. for CR, is similar to RC. but i treat them the same way as i do with the gmatprep as i do with the mgmat test. most of the tests though i think i had an extra 2-3 minutes, meaning i noticed that had like 5-6 minutes left on the last two questions. but that was consistent with all of the tests regardless of mgmat or gmatprep.

i just find it odd, everyone else seems to have substantially higher gmatprep and complain that the mgmat questions are harder. i do think the quant section seems to be harder. however i just assumed it all balanced out. where as the verbal i'm not so sure. when i do the quant portion of the mgmat i feel horrible because of the difficulty, opposed to the quant portion in gmatPrep which seems a lot easier. however when i do the verbal on the mgmat and the gmatprep and to me it doesn't really seem that hard at all. but as i listed the scores don't really convey that. when i use to take the tests in February and January, taking princeton review practice tests. i would score around 29-31, however, i would be exhausted and i just wanted to get the test over with. i don't feel as tired anymore. so i'm thinking there is something with the way i'm thinking about the test differently that's screwing me up in the verbal. i would actually be happy if i had the same verbal score now that i did in february. since i know my quant has increased.

[thomaspham259]

All that worrying was all for naught...

I went in took the test, got a 660(Q42V38). GO FIGURE!!!

I have NO clue why my verbals are THAT much higher than the verbal scores on the gmatPrep practice exams. One thing I remember is that the RC was much easier than the gmatPrep. But that might have just been luck.

Thanks ManhattanGMAT for the base needed to get past this test!

[StaceyKoprince]

Awesome, glad to hear the news! Congrats and good luck with applications!
:)