Sad! Demoralised! distraught! Weird score!

[SoumojitG329]

I have been studying for quite sometime now.(say4-6 months) . Here are my scores :

4/8/2017 MGMAT : 600 (QA 40 VA-33)
5/11/2017 MGMAT : 580 (QA 42 VA-28)
6/26/2017 MGMAT : 600 (QA 43 VA 31)
3/5/2017 GMAT Prep 1 : 580 (QA 44 VA 27)
6/18/2017 GMAT Prep 2 : 610 (QA 44 VA 30)
8/6/2017 GMAT Prep 3 : 660 (QA 48 VA 32) [ Totally ignoring this score as I did pause twice for two sums, coz I was running out of time, there was no change in anything else apart from the two sums in the quant section)

GMATclub quant scores :
Q46
Q44
Q44
Q40
Q33
Q44
Q45
Q47
VA Range 27-30

Q47 in GMATclub test was one day before the real gmat. Yes, these were standalone quan sections.

8/16/2017 Real GMAT : 490 (QA 35,VA 26)


Test preparation
Quant : MGMAT, Magoosh Questions, OG, GMATClub Forum, GMATclub test
VA : Egmat, OG and GMAT Club.

I gave this exam as I missed rescheduling end date. I knew my scores werent enough to give me 740 on the real gmat, but since this was my first attempt, I thought I'll give this anway.

Now, needless to say I have yet to figure out , wht the heck went wrong? My attempt was on selection order 2. Verbal,Quant,IR and then Essay. Yes, not often I spent a lot of time on QA and IR questions in Mock tests, but I dont see how that should have an impact on my GMAT as I started with VA and then QA and went to essay and IR later.Further, my target is clearly 740-750 and I dont have any option other than that and any scores below .

When I was giving the exam , i could realise I was reading SC questions and RC passages but nothing was really going inside my head. I was feeling blanked out. I read an SC statement and sort of looked at the options and seemed to just select one. In my practice exams and while practicing I really would go through meaning of the sentence and then check errors in terms of Clause,Modifiers,pronoun,comparison & parallelism. It's not that my basics are shaky. I had an accuracy of around 85-95% in 500 level ,60-70% in 600 level and at least 35-45% in hard SC questions. I was good in CR. pretty much above 95% in 500 level, and then around 75% in 600 level and at least 55% in hard level questions. What happened during the exam is beyond me!

I read a RC and I just did not get the head or toe of the paragraph. I am not saying, that I deserve to score 700+, but I was expecting at least 620-640 for this exam. Quant was more bewildering, I have no clue what just happened. The whole exam for 3 hours felt like I dont know what the heck I did. I can't tell you one sum if you ask me to recollect as a question. I dont remember anything in the some. I can gurantee , If I get that paper now, in my home and I sit to solve with without any time limit, I'll get at least 95% of the questions correct. I do have timing issues, and I did hurry in the exam, but how do I explain the sheer magnitude of mismatch in my mocks and the real exam. I mean , I got a Q48 , couple of weeks back. Yes, I paused for TWO sums, but how on earth does that number come down to Q35 in the real GMAT ? Please Help! I dont have any option other than scoring 740, i am more than willing to keep smaller targets and achieve it, but anything below 740 eventually, makes no sense for me! i mean I was scoring 610 in EXACT exam condition. How can I rationalise such a low score of 490 ?

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry that you had a frustrating test experience. The good news: from your description, I think I know what happened.

Here's what I noticed first:

...in GMATclub test was one day before the real gmat.

(emphasis added)

i could realise I was reading SC questions and RC passages but nothing was really going inside my head. I was feeling blanked out. ... Quant was more bewildering, I have no clue what just happened. The whole exam for 3 hours felt like I dont know what the heck I did.

These are classic symptoms of mental fatigue and anxiety. Your brain was too tired and stressed to process in the way that it normally does.

If you took a practice test the day before, then you tired yourself out. And if you took a practice test the day before, I'm guessing you may have done a lot of other study that day and in the couple of days before that?

My general recommendation is not to take a practice test within 5 days of the real thing. I also recommend no more than a couple of hours of high-level review on the day before.

This sentence also reveals something else:

If I get that paper now, in my home and I sit to solve with without any time limit, I'll get at least 95% of the questions correct

This sentence reveals that your mindset / approach to the test is still the "old school" mindset of "I've got to get (almost) everything right!" If you take this mindset into the GMAT, you won't score 700+. And, if you try to use this mindset on the test, you are going to increase your anxiety, which increases your mental fatigue...and bad things happen.

The good news is: Fix the mindset, and that will go a long way toward helping you better manage nerves, time, and all of the other things that you have to manage in order to perform well on this test.

On the GMAT, your goal is never to answer 95% of the questions correctly—that cannot happen because of the way that this test works. You'll answer around 60% of the answers correctly. (You also, of course, will always have a time limit.)

For the mindset issues, start here:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... lly-tests/

Then read this (or watch the webinar linked at the beginning):
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -the-gmat/

Think about how to incorporate that mindset into your daily studies all the way up to and including practice tests and the real test. (For starters: Do you now see why it was very problematic to pause your exam so that you could spend more time trying to work through those two questions that were giving you trouble? You were literally training yourself to do the opposite of what you want to do in that situation on the real test.)

For the anxiety / stress piece, start here:

https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... mat-score/

The above article links to some free resources from UCLA.

There's also this program:
http://www.10percenthappier.com/mindful ... he-basics/
It has a free 1-week trial and is then paid, but I've had several students who have really liked it, so that's another option.

Review / think about all of that and then come back here and tell me what you think.

[SoumojitG329]

Thanks! I'll first go through all these links . Thanks a lot again!

[StaceyKoprince]

You are very welcome! Let us know what you think after you've gone through everything.

[markE405]

Great progress！！！

[StaceyKoprince]

.