Scored dismal 600 in GMAT, appearing again what should i do?

[saumil5408]

Hi Stacey,

I appeared for a GMAT Test last week and scored 600 (49Q, 23V). I'm really disappointed with myself. My target score is 720+. Before giving details about the examination day, let me tell you about my preparation.

I started my preparation about 3.5 months ago. I studied OG-12, Manhattan GMAT SC, PowerScore CR.

All tests under 100% timed condition
Kaplan Test 1: 600 (50Q, 23V)
MGMAT 1: 650 (47Q, 32V)
MGMAT 2: 640 (47Q, 31V)
MGMAT 3: 620 (48Q, 28V)
GMAT Prep 1: 670 (49Q, 32V) (1 RC was exactly similar to that of OG, so it took less than 2 minutes to solve 3 questions)
MGMAT 4: 640 (48Q, 31V)
GMAT Prep 2: 610 (47Q, 28V) (a week before the exam)

One thing that was common in all the tests was poor time management in Verbal. (I have already read the time management article written by you. I think it is published on beat the gmat). I did try to manage the time during the test but most of the times I was left with 5-6 questions at the end. I had to complete these 4-5 questions in less than 2-3 minutes. So obviously I had to guess them randomly. The number of correct answers among these 5-6 questions was 20-50%.

Also, in all the tests I had to guess at least 1RC blindly. Again sometimes I was lucky (getting 2 out of 4 questions correct) and sometimes all were wrong.

#GMAT Test Day: I will talk about Verbal directly. Till 1st 10-12 questions I thought I was doing pretty well. Reasons: 1> 57 minutes were left 2> I got one short RC and I guess I did solve it correctly 3> 11th question was "CR Evaluate the argument - 3 line question" - i guessed it and moved to 12th question. The 12th question was again "CR Evaluate the argument". This time the CR question was of 4 lines. Stacey - Does this means I was doing well? Please correct.

After 12th question - I felt some of the SC questions were difficult (SC questions on dashes & colons) than the ones I saw in MGMAT or GMAT Prep. By the time I reached 30 question I was around 8-10 minutes behind. So I did guess some of the CR questions and blindly guessed 1 RC (3 questions). In the last 3 questions again I had to guess the penultimate question. So in all (if I remember correctly) I had to guess blindly on 5 questions and educated guess on 4-5.


My questions: Q1 - Please suggest what I could have done on GMAT day to improve my verbal score?

Q2 - After giving the practice tests whenever I did the analysis of verbal section - I could easily solve the incorrect SC & CR questions. I even tried to keep a track of time per question & error log in last 3 tests. But my time management along with accuracy in Verbal has been a problem. If I made sure time was on track then I made silly mistakes. I don't know is it because of my knowledge or I exhausted myself by studying too much? Pleaseee suggest what should I do to improve my verbal score?

Q3 - I'm planning to retake the test in a months time. What should I do for Verbal? How much time do I need to spent to improve my score?

I'm really dejected and feeling discouraged, please help.

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry you're having a tough time with the test.

Did you take the essays with your practice tests? On future tests, if you see something you recognize, look at the clock immediately and make yourself stay on that question (or questions) for the full normal length of time. Don't give yourself an artificial time advantage - that'll never happen on the real test. Also think about whether you really should get all the questions right - even if you remember the answers, there might be some you should get wrong on purpose (because you feel they're probably still too hard for you).

If we toss out the 670 test (where you saw an OG RC passage), your practice test scores were in the low 600s, or in the same range as your real test. For future, know this: if you have a certain goal score, but you are not scoring at that level in practice tests taken under 100% official conditions (including essays), then you are very unlikely to achieve that score on the real test. Maybe you knew that already - I just want to make sure.

We can't know how you were doing just based on the question types you received - there are higher and lower-level questions for all types.

Did you read the most recent time management article - just published last month, I think it was? Here's the link, just in case (and for others reading this):

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

That time management article is going to really help you with everything you need to do for timing, but I just want to mention one thing. No matter how good you get, you are still going to have to guess on the GMAT. Everybody does. However good you get, they'll just give you something harder. So you don't have a choice about whether you have to guess.

You DO have a choice about something though: WHICH questions. That's where you have some control - you want to pick the hardest questions as you move through the section, and make those ones your guesses.

Q1: on the day itself? Nothing. It's what you do beforehand that will get you better prepared for test day.

Q2: yes, you've got some work to do on timing. That article that I linked to above has techniques for you to work on this. Also, what you're describing here makes me think three things:
(1) there are times when you're probably spending time even though you really know deep down that you don't really know that question and you should just be cutting yourself off,
(2) the time you lose on those then causes you to rush on others, where you make careless mistakes
(3) afterwards, you may not be spending adequate time working on these questions: "Okay, so I can get this one right, but it took me 30 seconds too long. Where was that time spent and how can I shave some time while not sacrificing accuracy?" and "Okay, I got this one wrong and I took too long. When should I have cut myself off? How should I have known that this was a bad question for me?" and "Shoot, I made a careless mistake on this one. WHY did I make the careless mistake? What do I need to do differently next time to avoid making that exact same kind of careless mistake?"

Q3. You're currently at the 600 level and want a 700. Most people would need more than a month - most people would need a minimum of 2 months and possibly longer. So you're going to need to decide whether the timeframe is more important or the score is more important.

Use the below article to analyze your most recent MGMAT test taken as close to official conditions as possible. If you skipped the essays or did anything not allowed on the official test, let us know.

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

Then you can come back here and share your test analysis with us (not just the data - your actual analysis!) and we'll help you figure out what to do.

You mention RC several times, so I'm going to get you started with some resources there:

http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/04/ ... mp-passage
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/07/ ... rc-passage

[saumil5408]

Verbal Section Analysis of MGMAT Test - 13 days before exam:

640 (48Q, 31V)

1> In 100% exam condition; I did the essays also. Took two 5mins break (not 8 minutes)

2> Number of correct/incorrect in RC, CR, SC:

SC: 9R, 6W - 60% accuracy. Avg difficulty right answer: 660; Avg. difficulty wrong answer: 660

CR: 9R 5W - 64% accuracy. Avg difficulty right answer: 650; Avg. difficulty wrong answer: 710

RC: 2R, 10W - 17%. Avg difficulty right answer: 700; Avg. difficulty wrong answer: 690

3> strings of 4 or more answers wrong: 24-28 ( 2 SC, 3 RC)
2 SC - total time spent : 2.20 minutes
3 RC - total time spent: 5:50 minutes (the passage was very difficult, so instead of reading the passage I tried answering the 1st question by looking for the specific detail in the para and ended up spending 1:47 min in the 1st RC question and got it incorrect. Then in the 2nd question (inference question), I read the para but again got it incorrect.

4> strings of 4 or more answers wrong: 30-33 (1 CR, 3 RC)
CR - Time spent: 2:33min
RC - it was a blind guess. Time spent: 1:30 min (I read all the options before selecting one)

5> strings of 3 or more answers wrong: 39-41 (I was left with 40 seconds when i was on 39 question - so quickly guessed last 3)

[so clearly I had to rush in the end]

6> Correct questions but time difference greater than 30 seconds:

Q10: CR - 4:23 minutes (evaluate a conclusion)
Q20: SC - 3 minutes (Modifier)
Q21: SC - 1:54 minutes (Verb Modifier)
Q36: SC - 2:26 minutes (Idioms) [I wanted to solve it correctly as I had guessed 31-33 RC questions]

7> Incorrect questions and time difference greater than 30 seconds:
Q3: CR (find the assumption) : 2:53
Q5: 1st RC Inference question (includes reading time) : 6:19
Q15: CR (Mimic the argument) : 2:34 minutes
Q18: CR (Draw a conclusion) : 2:55 minutes

8> Incorrect questions but time on track:
Q6: RC 2nd question (specific detail): 2:00 min
Q7: RC 3rd question (Inference) : 1:12 min
Q11: RC (specific detail including reading time): 5:14 min
Q16: CR (strengthen the conclusion): 2:08 min
Q24: SC (Quantity expressions): 0:56 min
Q25: SC (Idioms): 1:32min

I have tried to provide you all the details. Please let me know if you need more information. One thing is sure I somehow always presume during the test that I will have to guess last 2 RCs because of shortage of time.

I know there is an issue with timing and RC. Please reflect on above details. What I should do? I have to beat the GMAT & score 720+.

[StaceyKoprince]

Yes, you definitely have a timing problem. You are exhibiting what we call "up and down" timing - you spend way too long on some questions, and then you have to rush on others to catch up. When people do this, they usually spend too much time on questions that are too hard (so they're getting them mostly wrong anyway) and then they also get the too-fast questions wrong because they're rushing.

Have you read that time management article yet? If not, go do that right now. You need to start implementing the strategies discussed in that article. If you don't, you are not going to hit 720. (It's very hard to hit 720 in the best of circumstances - but it's especially difficult if your timing is way off.)

Your percentages correct look very nice for SC and CR, but you didn't tell me your average time for those questions. Looking at percentage correct without the timing is only half the story. Some of your later data indicates that you are spending too long on SC and CR (and RC) at times. Even if you're getting something right, you can't spend way too long on it. I would rather that you had gotten Q10 wrong in 2 minutes than right in 4m23s, because that 2m23s lost just guaranteed you at least two other questions wrong later in the section.

So go get started on that time management stuff discussed in that article. For RC, start with the two articles I linked to last time, and you may also want to add this third one:

http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/09/ ... ading-comp

When you feel pretty good with the material in those three articles, you can move on to specific question types:

http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/09/ ... prehension
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/a ... estion.cfm
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/11/ ... il-problem