Regarding Poor performance in Real GMAT exam

[shubhrayandg]

Hello,
Myself Shubhrayan Dasgupta, I joined Manhattan GMAT mock tests couple of weeks back. As of now, I have appeared GMAT twice.
2/11/10 GMAT 600 (M-50, V-20)
09/09/11 GMAT 620 (M-51, V-22)
As you can see, in both of my attempts, I have scored poorly in Verbal section.
However, during CAT exams in Manhattan and GMAT prep, my scores in verbal were decent
29/09/11 MGMAT4 740 (M-51, V-40)
27/09/11 MGMAT3 730 (M-51, V-38)
20/09/11 MGMAT2 700 (M-49, V-36)
19/09/11 MGMAT1 690 (M-51, V-34)
in both GMAT prep exams, I have consistently scored 710 (M-51, V-35). Since, some of the OG questions is repeated in GMAT prep so, I tried to finish verbal section in 65 -70 mins.
Before last GMAT exam, I practiced Kaplan CAT exams, the scores varied from 690-720.
Apart from that, I also practiced free tests of Veritas and Knewton, my scores were around 730-740.
I am going to reappear GMAT on 11/10/11. I am seriously looking forward for your advice.

Thanks and regards,
Shubhrayan

P.S.: in most of my exams, I haven't attempted AWA because of that I do consider that my scores will inflate.

[mohit.khemu]

Hi Shubhrayan
I was in a similar situations few months back. Can somewhat relate to your situation too.
You need to i mean seriously need to do the AWA's. That's another hour of your mind working and hence it takes a part of your energy.
Give the mocks as close an environment as your real GMAT.The break should not exceed 5 minutes, do not have tea/snacks in between and in no way you should use the pause function.

How did your mocks compare to the prep regarding time management. You have mentioned that your mocks used to get over 5-10 minutes before but what about your real GMAT.

If you are thinking about the score and proceeding with your exam I guess that might be hampering your performance. Also if you see an easy question in between difficult questions that also does not mean that you have done something wrong.

The idea is to see the question and approach the question only and not the paper as a whole. If you keep doing them right, the score will inevitably be good. Thinking about how your score is changing with every question you are doing will only take away a part of your concentration which should actually be used in the question you are doing.

All the best for your next attempt. Am sure you will do well.
Cheers
Mohit

[shubhrayandg]

Thanks Mohit

Actually in most of my CAT tests n Real Gmat Exam except Manhattan Tests, I finished Quant Section in around 40 mins but in Manhattan test.. quant questions are bit lengthy so it takes a longer time. However in Verbal section I make sure, I finish Just in time i.e. around 1min to spare.
I agree that.. if someone attempts essays, he'll be more exhausted. In GMAT prep exams, I appeared both the essays. And from now on, I'll make sure, that I attempt AWA essays.
I must be lacking in some area which I am not able to figure out in CAT exams. So, unless and until I identify my weakness, or I'll keep on making the same mistake over and over again. Btw How did you corrected your mistake? My elder brother and some of my friends who appeared GMAT, they have scored 730-740 but unfortunately, they are only able help me with gmat strategy, they are not able to identify my mistake. Sincerely looking forward to know my weakness.

Thanks n Regards,
Shubhrayan

Here is my verbal assessment report for last three tests:
--------------------------------------------------------------
C.R. 42 31 11 74% 1:46 2:23 690 700
300 - 500 3 2 1 67% 1:22 1:17
500 - 600 3 3 0 100% 1:25 NA
600 - 700 7 5 2 71% 1:59 2:17
700 - 800 29 21 8 72% 1:48 2:33
R.C. 36 20 16 56% 1:55 2:44 680 710
500 - 600 5 4 1 80% 1:12 0:48
600 - 700 12 7 5 58% 2:29 2:07
700 - 800 19 9 10 47% 1:48 3:14
S.C. 45 24 21 53% 1:13 1:15 710 740
500 - 600 1 1 0 100% 1:56 NA
600 - 700 11 8 3 73% 0:50 1:00
700 - 800 33 15 18 45% 1:22 1:18
--------------------------------------------------------------

[mohit.khemu]

Hey. I knew immediately after my second attempt in which I had a 660 that it was a lack of concentration and psychic game for me. If you can get the score in mocks why not the actual thing.
I knew from my verbal performance that I was not able to do my CR in a time span of 2 minutes. Hence I did some CR practice, tried to understand the trend and where do these examiners try to catch us. I saw a video by Ron on strengthen and weaken questions that really helped me. I practiced from other sources too since I had extinguished almost all in my second exam.
Took a date just ten days in advance. This reduces the redundant time and the anxiety period.
But yes the one thing I really focused was on " Just to focus on the question", try to take it as a game that you have to do it right. And I made sure that i do not think in a way that harder questions coming means am doing good and easy questions mean my exam is going bad.
I did not think about this till my 40th question which was a boldface. Though I could not do it properly but I had a gut feeling that it might be going good ;)

Plus you are brilliant in quant. 40 minutes is WOW.
I feel that since you are so fast paced in quant , taking the same same pace to verbal may not be the best idea since it requires a lot of concentration. Hence try to restrict yourself to 1:45 per question.

HTH. Cheers :-)

[shubhrayandg]

Thanks Mohit, I really appreciate your help.
I am also facing the same problem, I have exhausted most of the quality study material. Repeating CR n RC questions will not help.
Btw how you managed your time in verbal section, did you gave any special attention to starting questions 1-10?

Thanks and regards,
Shubhrayan

[mohit.khemu]

No dude not really. Nothing special was done for the first ten. I say it again. See the question as a question. Give each question an equal amount of attention. If you think first ten are special so again as I mentioned in the previous posts you are bending towards thinking about the score and not the performance. If you are doing questions right, there is no stopping you.
In addition to this if you really feel that doing first questions is more important, you might end up with a time crunch in the end.
Try doing the last 6-7 questions wrong on one of the mocks. The score just dives down.
Question to question. Try to do the questions right and not get the score. It will just fall in place. No stopping you then.

[shubhrayandg]

Thanks a lot.

Regards,
Shubhrayan

[StaceyKoprince]

Why do you think you are doing so much better on verbal in practice? What feels harder or different when you take the real test?

Have you been taking these practice tests under 100% official conditions, including essays and length of breaks? Ah, just saw your last line - no, you skipped the essays. Yes, that will likely cause your score to be inflated, especially the verbal portion.

When you do see repeated questions on a test, the way to handle it is this: look at the clock and make yourself sit on that question for whatever the normal length of time is for that question type. Do NOT just answer it quickly and move on. While you're sitting there, make yourself re-do the problem and ask yourself: completely honestly, do I think I'd get this right if I were really seeing it for the first time? If not, or if you're not sure, then get it wrong on purpose (and still make sure you take the full length of time). Otherwise, you are likely inflating your score.

Do you have any timing problems? If you're not sure, read the below article and do the analysis described. (Note: you can still have timing problems even if you're finishing the section on time.)

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

What about test anxiety / nerves? How have you performed on important / high stress tests in the past? Do you generally tend to perform at the level that you'd expect, or do the nerves get to you at all?

[StaceyKoprince]

Also, Mohit, thanks for helping a fellow student. :)

[shubhrayandg]

Hello Mam,
Thanks for the reply
During preparation, I never repeated any mock tests. In case a question gets repeat, I make a count for it and deduct 1.5*( No. of repeated questions) mins from 75mins. I do agree that skipping essays will inflate scores. So, in some tests I attempted essays and sometimes to test my stamina, I attempted two test in a day. There were deviation of 20-30 points but it was never so drastic.
Anyways I'll again attempt GMAT on 11th Oct. Lets see what happens.
Thanks and regards,
Shubhrayan

[mohit.khemu]

My pleasure.
ATB for your GMAT Shubhrayan.

[StaceyKoprince]

ok, let us know!