Poor Performance in GMAT after doing good in MGMAT CATs

[ranjeet1975]

Hi,

I gave GMAT on 26.05.2012 and I get extremely disappointed after seeing by GMAT test score - 600 (49 Q, 24 V), especially after performing reasonably well in the MGMAT practice tests, the scores of which are as follows:-
MGMAT 5 - 680(Q-44, V-38), 21.05.2012
MGMAT 4 - 660(Q-47, V-33), 18.05.2012
MGMAT 3 - 680(Q-47, V-35), 09.05.2012
MGMAT 2 - 380(Q-03, V-34), 08.04.2012[because I want to test only Verbal and just gone out guessing in Quant]
GPrep 1: 740 (Q-49, V-42) (there is 6 repeated ques in Verbal)
GPrep 2: 710 (Q-47, V-40) on 25.05.2012 (there is nearly 6-7 repeated ques in Verbal)

I practiced the tests (barring one) in actual simulated conditions, taking only the 8 min breaks in b/w. I also gave all the AWAs for each of the MGMAT tests.

As you see that my verbal score is not below 33 on MGMAT and 44 on GMAT Prep. On the test day there is no timing constraints, I managed timing well. Moreover, in Verbal I could not find what went wrong as the questions were clear and I answered very well after understanding the questions (as per my view). As I Was going through the questions and by the time I completed the Verbal sections, I felt that my verbal was turning out to be better than what I was expecting. I was sure that Verbal would help me score 700+ minimum (the score I was aiming for). However, I was shocked to death when I saw that I had performed very badly in verbal.

i am still not able to come to terms with this result. My queries are as follows : -
1. Can I cross 700 mark in real GMAT and if yes, what should I do?
2. Where would i have gone so wrong that i performed not badly but miserably in Verbal?
3. I am grateful to the MGMAT tests. perhaps if it weren't for them, I may have ended up with an even worse score. Does my 600 Gmat score mean that 700+ score is off limits?
5. I am severely demoralized, battered and still shell-shocked. Please care to give me sound advice whether I should prepare again or should I leave.
6. I have exhausted all material like OG, Manhattan CATs and books, GMAT Prep and its all questions that is floating on various forums. Actually what I will read.

Please help me and advise what to do.

I am grateful to Manhattan GMAT for its help so far.

Thanks

Ranjeet

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry you had a tough test day. It's important for us to try to figure out what went wrong so that we can prevent it from happening again.

Read this and see if it helps to spark any ideas:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ent-wrong/

Your GMATPrep scores were higher, yes, but with 6-7 repeated questions, you should assume that your score there would have been closer to 30-35, depending upon several variables. (For instance, did you pick the right answers for all of those repeated questions? Did you answer more quickly than you otherwise would have done, which would have given you an artificial time advantage on other questions? Etc.)

One thing is jumping out at me: you said that Verbal was going really well and you felt like it was pretty easy. Most of the time, when people feel that way, it means that the test is actually not going well, unfortunately. It means that you're seeing easier questions and likely making mistakes without even realizing it. If you're doing really well, then the test feels really hard - the better you do, the harder it feels, because the questions are literally at the top end of your ability range.

Next, just because you have one 600 doesn't mean that you can't get a 700. Lots of people have managed to do that. There's no guarantee in life of course... but you can try and maybe you'll succeed!

Next, you haven't exhausted all of your material. You haven't gotten the score that you wanted, which means you are not done with that material. There are some things there that you didn't learn well enough the first time and you need to go back and learn them.

But we're not going to start there. First, we're just going to try to figure out what went wrong. That will help tell us what we need to do in order to fix the problems.

In addition to doing the analysis described in the article at the top of my post, you can also use this article to analyze your MGMAT CATs:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -the-gmat/

Next, what differences, if any, did you notice on the real test vs. your practice test?

For example, on SC, did you have some questions where you narrowed down to 2 and realized you weren't sure how to pick from there? Or did you notice that some questions focused more on the meaning of the sentence? They've been increasing the emphasis on meaning in SC and people who've just studied grammar have reported some significant SC difficulties on the real test.

When you look back over old practice tests, how often did you make careless mistakes and what kinds of mistakes did they tend to be?