pls help didnt expect a 610!!! damn frustrated..

[namita.verma88]

i took the gmat today got a miserable 610 (49,24) lowest among all my mock scores...
please help me.. i am a person with good academic background n i am not able to take such a failure.
really didnt expect a 24 in verbal!!!!! its a shame(

my mock scores were as follows :

MGMAT free-670
MGMAT CAT2-680
MGMAT CAT3- 700
MGMAT CAT4- 690
GMAT PREP 1-600 (i was in shock)
GMAT PREP 2- 650
GMAT PREP 1 (REPEAT)-700 (with few repeats)

study material used- OG12, GMAT PREP, KAPLAN.
I never got below 30 on verbal before and was expecting atleast a 670-680!!

dont why i panicked myself during verbal but everything was going well until the last 10 questions

how can one rely on mock test scores then?
how wil i b able to build up courage to take a test again after 2 months!

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry you had such a tough time on the real test.

dont why i panicked myself during verbal but everything was going well until the last 10 questions

What happened? Give us more detail. Did you run out of time? Did you run out of mental energy / stamina?

Read this article and do the analysis described:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ent-wrong/

Did you do your practice tests under 100% official conditions, including essays, length of breaks, etc? Skipping the essays (or doing other "not allowed on real test day" things) can boost your practice score.

Can you also give us your practice sub scores? Was it only verbal that dropped a lot or did quant drop too?

Don't worry - we'll figure out what happened and then we can work from there.

[namita.verma88]

Thanks Stacey, I went through that link
I can say I was anxious during the exam and may be I mismanaged my time too.
But is it possible to get such low verbal score???
I am feeling very discouraged..
May be I will have to go through all the concepts again..
But I am not able to build up enough courage to do so...
Do you think I will be able to improve?

[StaceyKoprince]

Yes, it really is possible for your score to drop that much, depending upon the circumstances. You're not the only one, if that helps at all!

When you say that you mismanaged your timing, can you provide details? The more, the better (though don't give specific details about the test questions themselves). You also mentioned being nervous - can you give more detail re: what happened there?

If you can figure out why your score dropped (and whether your initial practice scores were accurate or whether they might have been inflated for some reason), then yes, you do have a chance to improve. It will require work, of course. :)

So the more detail you can give, the better. Also, you don't mention whether taking the practice tests under non-official conditions was a factor - if you did take the tests under 100% official conditions, then just confirm that for us, ok?

[namita.verma88]

i took all the tests under official test conditions.
But I guess the main problem was that I am not used to wake up before 9am in the morning.
And I booked my test appointment that started at 9am.
For this, I had to wake up at 7am on that day. May be my brain was not used to being active during this time of the day!
My essays went good, got a score of 5.0, quant went fine too, but when verbal started, I just could not concentrate. I was pretty good at SC on mocks. However, I took more time than usual on the test. I kept reading the question again and again.
As a result, I didnt get time to read my last passage properly and thus all the questions of that RC were marked in haste.
My break up in mock score were as follows:
47/34-MGMAT1
48/35-MGMAT2
48/38-MGMAT3
48/36-MGMAT4
49/37-MGMAT5

GMAT PREP 1: 48/27
GMAT PREP 2: 49/31
GMAT PREP 1 (REPEAT): 50/35
GMAT PREP 2 (REPEAT): 49/32

One more thing I was not able to apply my CR strategies on time and my heart started beating faster towards the end of the exam.
Since I am not a native English speaker. Do you think I need to focus more on reading and comprehension speed?
How should I go about it?

[StaceyKoprince]

Did you wake up at 7a every day for at least the week before the exam (ideally 2 weeks before)? If not, then yes, that would likely have had a significant impact.

It is possible to schedule afternoon appointments, although they are harder to get. If you have to take it in the morning again, you have to get yourself on that timing routine ideally for at least two weeks before the test - every day.

I kept reading the question again and again.

Yes, it sounds like you started to lose mental stamina, which might have been due just to the morning thing but there may have been other contributing factors. Did you burn yourself out at all the few days / week before the test? Or did you take it relatively easy the last couple of days?

You say you took your practice tests under official conditions - including the essays, yes? If not, that would have contributed to a verbal stamina issue as well. Did you take the practice essays as seriously as you took the real essays? Used the same amount of mental energy to complete them?

Ah, and you also mention nerves (heart started beating faster). Did you feel like you weren't doing well? Did you know you were getting mentally fatigued and you started worrying about that?

Let me know on the above, but it sounds like we need to do something about your mental energy / stamina, nerves, etc. And, yes, you could probably use additional practice at comprehension, since that's where you then started to falter on the test.

[namita.verma88]

Thanks Stacey. This really helped me re-evaluate myself.
The main reason I got nervous was it kept coming to my mind that my Verbal is weak and after sometime I am going to get my score. All this made me very anxious and I was not able to concentrate during this. Poor time management also increased my chances of low score.
Now, I have started preparing again. What do you think I should work on?

Thanks in advance

[StaceyKoprince]

For timing, read this and start doing what it says:

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

Also, use the below article to analyze your most recent MGMAT CAT, then come back here and share your analysis:

http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/

(Note: don't just share your raw data - tell us what you think it means.)

That will give us some good data on strengths and weaknesses, so we can develop a plan from there.