Practice Test Scores are getting lower HELP!

[rkim81]

Thomson/Arco
2009-10-21
V31
Q35
560
Manhattan FREE cat
2009-10-21
V33
Q33
550
Power Prep 30
2009-10-26
V35
Q32
560
Manhattan CAT 1
2009-10-29
V29
Q35
530
GMAC 2006
2009-10-30
V27
Q34
530
Veritas Prep
2009-10-31
V24
Q33
520

I've been studying only quant for the past week and a half. So the decrease in my verbal score I can understand. But why am I not seeing a significant increase in my quant? It all seems to be in the same range!!!!

Within that week and a half I went through MGMAT Geometry and number properties. I have a very good grasp on GEO but feel I need to brush up a little on number properties, I've had the same problem in converting words into algebra, so why is it that after a week and half of study, my quant score is in the same range? Is verbal weighted more than quant? Was my initial strategy correct in only focusing on my strengths (verbal) to get a higher score than to waste time on quant only to get a score in the same range as before? What am I doing wrong or not doing right? My test is in three weeks and I cannot afford to study this coming week at all. Suggestions? I'm definitely considering pushing the test date back!!!

[StaceyKoprince]

It can takes weeks of study to see any kind of significant score difference, so it's not surprising that you haven't seen much of a change in 10 days. Also, improvement typically is not linear - you don't improve, say, 10 points for every two days you study. Usually, the score stays flat for a while and then there's a bigger jump after you've improved over a whole series of things.

Your score is not, by the way, going down - not from a statistical standpoint. It's just staying the same. The score differences you're seeing are all within the standard deviation. Also, you're comparing different tests, which isn't that useful. There are variations between the tests - better to pick one or two sources and stick with those so that the results across tests are actually comparable.

Here's the bigger issue. You don't learn much by taking a practice test - when you take a test, you're just trying to spit out everything you learned before you started that test. That's not actually learning - that's just doing. CAT exams are really good for (a) figuring out where you're scoring right now, (b) practicing stamina, and (c) analyzing your strengths and weaknesses. The learning part comes from what you do between tests to improve.

So if you're taking 6 practice tests in 10 days, you're spending a whole lot of time doing but not much time learning. As a result, it's also not surprising that your score isn't budging much. There's really never a good reason to take a practice test more frequently than once a week. If you're not doing at least a week's worth (and maybe two or three weeks) of learning after a practice test (based specifically on your strengths and weaknesses from that test), then you're not getting what you can out of your last practice test experience - and it's a waste to take another test until you've done everything you can to improve from the last test.

You don't mention what kind of score you want to get on the real test, but I'm guessing that it's at least decently higher than you're scoring now or you wouldn't be upset. You have 3 weeks left and can't study at all for at least one of those weeks, which means you really only have 2 weeks left. It's not typical to have a huge improvement in only 2 weeks, so you're right to think that you may need to postpone your test.

Take a look at these articles (link below). Are you doing this kind of analysis when you review your practice tests? Are you analyzing practice problems in-depth, as described in these articles? These are the kinds of things that actually help you to improve - the review and analysis, not the simple act of doing a practice problem or practice test.

http://www.beatthegmat.com/a/2009/09/23/evaluating-your-practice-tests

http://www.beatthegmat.com/a/2009/10/09/how-to-analyze-a-practice-problem

[rkim81]

Thank you Stacey, I never really considered looking at my error logs but now consider it a big part of studying! I sat for the GMAT last week Saturday. My practice test three days before the test, GMAT Prep, was Q35 V38 600. It was the first time I ever got to 600 and took me about a month to do. On Saturday, an hour before the test, I drank lots of coffee and half a can of Red Bull, thinking it would give me an advantage. By the time I got to the verbal section, I was crashing on caffeine and my final score was Q42 V 23 540 AWA 6.0.

I was shocked. I've always been stronger in verbal than quant ( I was a social science major ) but my verbal was almost half of my quant. The result was also surprising because of the 7 point increase in quant something that was inconceivable to me. The verbal section was much harder than any practice I've ever seen, and while crashing on caffeine I was not as mentally acute. In addition, I only completed one practice test with the AWA, so endurance was an issue, thus my decision to consume large amounts of coffee, which was in retrospect the dumbest thing I could have done. I left the test center not as angry or crushed as I thought I would have been but with a new found sense of confidence. It looks like my month of quant focus had paid off when it came to the clutch. However, for the actual test, I did not study combinatorics or probability as much as I should have, and saw at least 4-5 probability questions.

A few days after the test, I started studying combinatorics and probability in more detail, completed the Veritas books for those sections, did well on the advanced sections and on the OG questions as per Manhattan's Guide. I continued practicing on all other sections and on last week Wednesday I completed a practice test, GMAT Life by Veritas Prep, their newest test. I scored Q45 V39 total score of 710. This is the first time I've ever broken the 700 mark. What's interesting is the consistent jump in quant score from my previous practice tests and the actual test. The latest result has given me a shot of confidence, because it did take me about a month to get to 600 but less than a week to 710. Knowing that it is only a practice test and that I can expect there to be a 50 point discrepancy I pose a question to all those in the 700 club, a club that I would most definitely love to be apart of but also seek the guidance of Stacey.

In the course of your studies, what were some factors that catapulted you to mid to high 600's to 700? Did you differ in your approach to studying? Assuming that the old adage is correct and perfect practice makes perfect, how did you all approach practice questions and tests after seeing your score climbing? Sources of practice questions are almost depleted, but I still have 3 MGMAT tests,3 Veritas and 2 800 score. I'm going to focus more on MGMAT because I feel the test content is much more difficult, and planning to divide my study time for quant and verbal so that it is more balanced. I'm planning to retake the GMAT as soon as I can so any recommendations, suggestions or advice is appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[StaceyKoprince]

Nice work! You're making great progress.

As you noted, skipping the essays on practice tests means you're not ready for the full stamina of the test. I assume you're doing the essays every time now, right? (If not, start doing the essays, and also discount any practice test scores for tests on which you did NOT do the essays.)

that I can expect there to be a 50 point discrepancy

That's actually only on our test - we've calculated the standard deviation for students who take our test and then take the real test to be about 50 points (from the last MGMAT practice test to the official test). I don't know what the standard deviation is for Veritas' tests. You may want to ask whether they publish that data; as far as I know, MGMAT is the only company that does that (so far, anyway!).

I note that you scored 6.0 on the essays. You may want to spend some time learning how to write a 5.0 essay in only 20 min instead of 30. If you can do that, you'll save a lot of time / stamina / energy on test day - and you can devote that stamina / energy to the multiple choice portion of the test.

The way you get a 5.0 instead is simple: write less. I only write 2 examples (and I actually still get 6.0 with only 2!), I write only about 4-5 sentences per paragraph, and I only write 4 paragraphs. If your writing is good and your logic is sound (and it is, or you wouldn't have scored a 6), you should still be able to get a 5.0 minimum with less effort, and that's good enough.

So, in terms of the differences between a sub-650 level test-taker and a 700+ test-taker: a lot of that is included in those two articles I linked last time. A 700+ test-taker actually studies the test questions, analyzes from the point of view of the test writer, picks the test questions (and the test itself!) apart. This means that it doesn't matter that your source of practice questions is exhausted. I keep going back over them because there are new things to learn and notice every time. In class, I teach the same questions over and over for maybe 6-9 months, and I'm still constantly learning / noticing new ways to approach them, new things to think about, etc. Everything that's in that "how to analyze a practice problem" article!

The biggest thing that sets people apart at the 700+ level is the ability to recognize a totally new problem: you look at it and think, "Oh, I've seen something like that before! And that problem was all about primes and divisibility, so this one should be too, and it hinged around knowing <insert some specific math rule / principle here>. Oh, and the numbers are really big, but this kind of problem is all about some pattern, so if I just figure out the pattern, I don't have to worry about trying to work with the really big numbers. Let's go!" That ability to recognize a problem both allows you to know, very quickly, what's going on, and it allows you to choose the best solution method (as opposed to having to figure out some solution method from scratch).

This article may be useful to you, as well, in figuring out what went wrong on your official test (so that you can prevent it from happening again next time!):
http://www.beatthegmat.com/a/2009/10/26/my-score-dropped-figuring-out-what-went-wrong

[rkim81]

Stacey,

Thanks for the prompt reply. I wonder how you can answer so many of the same questions online and stay sane. For the AWA I felt that my analysis of an argument was much stronger than analysis of an issue. In fact, I felt the latter was very shotty and half assed. The issue sometimes will largely determine the amount and quality I write.

Looked over the posted articles, and again sound advice. It turns out the new Veritas prep practice CAT has a very large standard of deviation, but I'm still confident that this test is absolutely beatable. Thanks again for the advice and I'll keep you posted after test day!

[StaceyKoprince]

Then just try to write less for your argument essay - again, the idea in general is just not to use up too much precious energy on the essays.

Good luck - let us know how it goes!

[rkim81]

The first time I ever took a GMAT practice test was in a loud basement internet cafe in South Korea where I was working as a TOEFL instructor. It was late night and I was inspired by my friend who scored 720 and was working on his admission essays at the time. It had been at least 10 years since I had done any math. I dropped statistics in my first year of university and scored a 51% in Calculus in my final year of high school. I was also a Political Science major, so coupled with the a long time away from doing any kind of math and my unfamiliarity with GMAT type verbal questions, I knew that studying for the GMAT would require a lot of work on my part. That night, I scored a dismal 380. I was determined to do better, a lot better.

After 4 months of study, one with OG 12 a book that I was NOT using properly, and enduring a really bad prep course in Toronto, I sat for the GMAT for the first time as noted above, needless to say I was very disappointed with the result (caffeine is my mortal enemy!) I sat for the GMAT today and achieved my target score!

The Test Experience

My test was scheduled at 5 pm. I started reviewing about 3 hours before the test. I went over all the questions I got incorrect from GMAT PREP and the 198 700+ level questions on beatthegmat.com<http://beatthegmat.com>. I also did a set of 10 LSAT CR questions and about 15 SC questions. I was pumped. I read my notes on the train, was confident for the verbal section, aside from SC an area that I had been lacking in for about a month.

During the month after my first test, I had been practicing while drinking Red Bull in between breaks, so I brought one for the real thing. I finished 1/3 of my red bull, hacked about 4 smokes outside then went through the identification checks for the test. Before I took the test, I went to the bathroom, splashed water all over my face, replayed a classical tune in my head that usually puts me in a good mood and calms me down. I conducted a pep talk to my self in the mirror, told my self that this was going to be THE last time that I would take the GMAT and that today would be the culmination of my 5 months of study.

I walked into the room pumped up. The first essay came up. The argument itself wasn't that bad, so I had to be a bit creative as to show its weaknesses, but overall was not a problem. For the issue essay, I felt I did a great job with 5 paragraphs and finished with 15 minutes to spare. My fingers were blazing.

Took the break, drank another 1/3 of my red bull and ate a full tangerine, damn thing had seeds in them! I went to the bathroom again, confident and splashed some more water on my face.

The first quant question was a doozey. A really difficult number properties question in Data Sufficiency format. I think I must have spent at least three minutes on it, and then hesitantly chose E. It felt like a bad start, but I made up for it in the next question which was a problem solving exponent. Overall, I felt I had to guess on about 5-6 questions - majority of them number properties in inequalities format. Surprisingly I saw a lot of geometry questions. I saw at least 5 probability questions, one in a DS format that was really tricky. Too bad I don't know if it was correct or not but I think I got it right. I finished the quant section with about 2 minutes to spare. Overall, I felt like this GMAT test presented harder quant questions than the first one I did. But it was done with so I tried to ignore my reservations.

For this break, I walked directly to my locker, grabbed my coat and red bull and headed down stairs. I hacked a smoke in about 90 seconds, gulped down the remainder of my red bull and headed back up. I headed to the bathroom, but maitenance was painting and told me to go to womens bathroom. I didn't want to risk walking into the test late, so decided to hold it.

The first question was sentence correction. It was fairly easy, I solved it within 30 seconds, but read through all the answer choices again just to be sure, because it was the first question. After about 3-4 more SC questions, I saw a CR question, strengthen, my best question type. I solved it, then another sentence correction. Then an RC passage popped up, I followed through with the same strategy I thought in my TOEFL classes. I was convinced that I got everyone of the questions right. The next CR questions was explain the paradox question. So I felt I was doing well. In fact, I saw 4 explain the paradox/situation questions in total, so I felt like my hardwork on LSAT CR paid off. I was a bit uneasy about a lot of the SC. I second guessed myself on a lot of the questions. Majority of them were idiom related problems, my weakest focus on SC. I did not however let the anxiety get to me. I was completely focused for each question. Overall I feel that my SC performance could have been a lot better, but I know that CR and RC could not compare to SC.

The last RC passage had me really confused. It was only three paragraphs, so I expected lots of inference, weaken or strengthen question types, I was right. I guessed on 3/4 of the questions pertaining to that passage, and was a bit discouraged. I had 3 questions left, with 9 minutes to spare. Seeing as how I had finished three RC passages, I knew the rest would only be CR and SC. I completed the next two questions, which were CR, the last one being an explain the paradox, that was really tricky. I narrowed it down to two answer choices, but debated for a lot longer than I should have. I looked at the time and had 90 seconds left for the last question, so I was out of my comfort zone. If the next was a CR I would be forced to guess, so I chose what seemed to be the best and moved on. Thankfully, it was an SC question, a fairly easy one at that.

I finished the test. GMAC wanted to get some more info on me. I blindly clicked next, knowing that they would use the information that I had inputted into my mba.com<http://mba.com> account. Report Score? There was no hesitation, I pressed report. I closed my eyes, for about a minute. The suspense was killing me. I evaluated my performance, told myself that I could have done better but would have to live with the decision. I knew it would be under 700 but over 600. I played the same tune in my head. I played it out until I finished the tune and opened my eyes to see,

Q 42 V 37 = 650.

I immediately smiled. My last batch of practice tests were at the 620-670 level. As I walked out, however I was a bit disappointed. I know that with a little more studying I can get a 700. Funny how you get greedy huh? On my trip back home, I decided that 650 is good enough and in fact, I achieved my goal for a 650 that I set when I first started studying for the GMAT. Seeing how I should use this time for my essays I decided against taking the GMAT again for the possibility of a better score.

Well its all done with! I'll never do the GMAT again! It was quite a ride, lots of ups and downs, lots of memorable moments and coffee. I definitely learned a lot about myself through this process and will work intensively on my essays for the next few weeks.

Here's an overview of the last few practice tests.
MGMAT CAT 3
2009-12-1
V33 Q44 640
MGMAT CAT 4
2009-12-10
V36 Q42 640
MGMAT CAT 5
2009-12-17
V34 Q40 610
GMAT PREP 2006 #1
2009-12-20
V37 Q39 620
MGMAT CAT 6
2009-12-22
V37 Q44 670
MGMAT CAT 1 A
2009-12-23
V34Q 37 590 (Was getting worried at this point)
GMAT PREP #2
2009-12-25
V27 Q40 560 (Ok very worried)
GMAT PREP #1
2009-12-26
V34 Q47 650
GMAT PREP 2006 #2
2009-12-26
V37 Q45 660
MGMAT CAT 2A
2009-12-27
V38 Q40 650
GMAT PREP 2006 #1
2009-12-27
V34 Q46 650


I want to thank Manhattan GMAT for making such a solid and thorough curriculum. I learned more from your quant books than I did from 3 months at a prep course at a different company. In retrospect I really wished that I took Manhattan GMAT instead. I've recommended MGMAT materials and courses to all my friends thinking of pursuing an MBA. MGMAT practice tests are the ultimate study tool along with the flash cards and additonal question banks. I am also indebted to the intelligent, insightful and just as beautiful Stacey Koprince, your advice was always sound and helped me put things into perspective. Your tips on test taking strategies and managing anxiety were invaluable. GMAT is only ONE part of the equation, and I'm convinced with the strength of my essays that I've outlined I'm sure a 650 is enough for admissions. Thank you so much for helping me overcome a big step and getting me one step closer to my dream! I wish the best to MGMAT in the New Year. Now on to the essays!

[StaceyKoprince]

Congratulations! I'm really happy for you. Thanks for the kind words - though you did all of the hard work yourself. :)

Good luck with apps - let us know how it goes!