Test score dropped 100 points from mock test

[sameer.vepa]

Hi ,

I have been preparing for my GMAT for the past one month. Intially last year I gave my GMAT and got a score of 610.
This year my preparation for the exam has been decent. I purchased GMAT exam pack and scored 660(Q 49 V31) on the first exam and after 2 weeks scored 710( Q49 V37) on the second one. For both the exams I started attempting from the IR section. But On the final GMAT exam I got a score of 610( 49 Q 25 V). I am unable to concretely understand the reasons behind the score . Is it a skill gap or lack of mental stamina or loss of focus. The only thing that I remember from the exam was that during my AWA ,during the last minute when I was trying to proof read my essay, automatically 2 paragraphs of my essay got deleted like somebody pressed the back space button. Although I called the proctor, he said he could not do much and will try to report to GMAC. I was a little upset by this,but finished my IR section nervously . I was very comfortable with Quant and so finished the section without taking too much stress. Coming to the verbal scetion, I normally take too much stress and think too much while writing any exam( makes me little more careful) ,but on this section when I reached the 10th question I was relaxed and started answering questions.Around 25th question,I realized that I was answering too many easy questions. I frankly did not remember my approach at that point of time but ended up scoring 610. Additionally my RC in mock tests are always good I get 2 questions wrong out of all the attempted questions ( including the exam pack exam) but in the main exam found the RC's tough .I took 5 Mock exams each for a week before my final exam.
Kindly help me out in Analyzing my performance.
Regards
Sameer

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry that you had a disappointing test experience. If you were answering easily on verbal and can't remember now what was happening...then, yes, you were experiencing mental fatigue and that would have pulled down your score.

You didn't do the essay in practice, so the real test was half an hour longer. You were still working on verbal when you were used to being done with the test.

You also know the real test counts, so that adds to stress - and stress affects your mental stamina.

And then you had that unfortunate experience during the essay, adding serious stress - and again that affects your mental stamina.

That combination could cause you to become fatigued enough during the test that you just feel like you're ready for it to be over and you're not working / concentrating as carefully as you normally do. Then, you make careless mistakes without realizing it and your score suffers.

I took 5 Mock exams each for a week before my final exam

Does this mean that, in the 7 days before the exam, you took 5 practice tests? That would also contribute pretty significantly to mental fatigue on test day. Our official recommendation is to take your final practice test 1 week before the real test (and no closer than 5 days before the real test).

So I think at least part of the problem is pretty likely due to mental fatigue. Going into the next test, there are several things to do to improve mental stamina:
1) All practice tests must be taken under 100% offiical conditions, including all sections, length of breaks, etc.

2) Twice a week, plan stamina-building study sessions. Plan out work that you think would take about 3 hours. Then GO for 1 hour without stopping. No phone, no email, no food, nothing. Take a 15-min break, then go again for 1 more hour without stopping.

Then stop. (The 3 hours' worth of work is just in case you finish faster than you think you will. I don't want you spending any time thinking about what to do next. That's a mental break. You only get the one break halfway through.

Also, don't do this for 4 hours straight. You're still trying to learn, which requires making new memories. If you're too tired out, you'll make bad memories and your study time will be wasted.

3) For some study sessions, study quant first and then verbal, or study verbal after a long day at work - so that you're practicing having to work on verbal while mentally fatigued. How are you going to be very systematic in your process for each question type so that you don't lose that process when you're tired?

4) How can you save mental energy during the earlier sections? You are almost certainly spending time and mental energy on some IR and quant problems that are just not worth your time. Learn how (and when) to cut those off so that you save more energy for verbal.
This can help too: https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... you-crazy/

But part of it is literally just NOT trying certain IR or quant problems that are going to take too much energy.

There are also probably content areas that you could stand to improve. The GMATPrep tests unfortunately don't give you very much data to work with, so I'd recommend taking one of our practice tests and analyzing it so that we can understand your strengths and weaknesses better.

You may also want to order the Enhanced Score Report from your official test to see whether your verbal suffered across the board or whether only certain question types were problematic. Here's more info about what that report contains: https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... re-report/

If you decide to take one of our tests, first read these two articles:
http://tinyurl.com/executivereasoning
http://tinyurl.com/2ndlevelofgmat

Think about how what you've been doing does and doesn't match up with that and how you may need to change your approach accordingly.
Then, use the below to analyze your most recent MGMAT CATs (this should take you a minimum of 1 hour):
http://tinyurl.com/analyzeyourcats

Based on all of that, figure out your strengths and weaknesses as well as any ideas you have for what you think you should do. Then come back here and tell us; we'll tell you whether we agree and advise you further. (Note: do share an analysis with us, not just the raw data. Your analysis should include a discussion of your buckets - you'll understand what that means when you read the last article. Part of getting better is developing your ability to analyze your results - figure out what they mean and what you think you should do about them!)

[sameer.vepa]

Thank you for your detailed reply Stacey.Sorry for taking my time to reply. I have been trying to implement some strategies which you have mentioned. I think I have less mental stamina because ,as I analysed my last 2 mock tests, I put in my full focus for my AWA, IR and when it comes to Math, I generally do not take much stress as I am comfortable with it but then give my full attention. When I attempt verbal section, the process which you have mentioned should be intact is not happening. I am not able to put my full focus on each question. For one exam I tried to vary the focus and decreased the effort for IR and Math, As a result ,my score dropped in IR as well as Math section. I am really worried about the exam . I took one Mock test each for a week for 5 weeks.Now,I am solving verbal problems after solving quant questions and also after I come back from work.

My data analysis from the Mock CAT is that Out of the 3 areas in Verbal ,I am better at RC. I can understand the gist and flow of the passage in under 4 min, But I am not able to answer some tough questions in under a minute. SC and CR are of concern. I realize that strike rate for easy questions is good and for Moderate questions, it is around 70-80%. Also I am taking more time to answer these moderate questions as well ( 1.30 sec - 1.55 sec for SC and 1:45-2:15 for CR) , But for tough questions I am spending too much time more than 2:15 sec for a Sc and around 2:30 sec for CR questions. My strike rate for these kinds of questions is also low around 50-60%. So I think due to taking more time on solving the moderate and tough questions, I am not able to give ample time for solving questions in my strong area. My mindset is that If I let go of the hard question,then my level will drop to a moderate question and then again I have to work extra hard to get back to a better level.Is this approach wrong? One more issue in SC is that about more than half of the problems in moderate and tough questions, I come down to 2 choices and after a final select a choice which in 90% of the cases is wrong. Is there any specific approach to address this issue? Please do let me know your thoughts on this. I am really worried if I can improve my mental stamina and also close the knowledge and the skill gap.

Regards
Sameer Vepa

[StaceyKoprince]

How far did IR drop? Maybe the score is still good enough.

As I mentioned in my last post, part of the mental stamina task is being able to identify specific questions that you just don't want to do because you recognize that they're the top that tend to cost you a lot of mental energy. That doesn't mean you aren't doing all hard ones - just certain ones.

We all have certain things that are harder for us, even when spending the same amount of time. I can do a hard weighted averages problem without it affecting me too much. Turn that into a 3-D geometry problem and my brain is going to get drained much faster. Just the way my head works. So part of your task is to figure out what those categories are for you.

Another part is looking for more mentally efficient / easier ways of solving problems that you already know how to do.

And part of it is to try to build stamina as I described in my last post.

But I am not able to answer some tough questions in under a minute

Get them wrong in under a minute instead. That's the better outcome!

My mindset is that If I let go of the hard question,then my level will drop to a moderate question and then again I have to work extra hard to get back to a better level.Is this approach wrong?

This is wrong. Imagine this: your current scoring level on the section is 700. (Of course, the individual sections are not scored this way - I'm just using this as an example to talk about it.)

You're offered a 720-level question. If you get it wrong, your score does not drop. It just doesn't increase. If you're offered a 670-level question and get that one wrong, now your score will drop. (And this may be happening to you now due to timing or mental fatigue or both. If you really don't know it, that's one thing. But to get it wrong just because you're tired or rushing...that's not good.)

Conclusion: do not sacrifice ones that you find easier in order to spend extra time and mental energy on ones that you find harder. Bonus: working this way consistently across all sections will help you to have more energy in the mental tank throughout the verbal section.

in SC is that about more than half of the problems in moderate and tough questions, I come down to 2 choices and after a final select a choice which in 90% of the cases is wrong.

It's not actually wrong 90% of the time. You just think it is because you're not noticing many of the times that you do end up getting it right! Observation bias.

But here's what you can do to get better at that stage of any verbal problem:
1) why was the wrong answer so tempting? why did it look like it might be right? (be as explicit as possible; also, now you know this is not a good reason to pick an answer)
2) why was it actually wrong? what specific words indicate that it is wrong and how did I overlook those clues the first time?
3) why did the right answer seem wrong? what made it so tempting to cross off the right answer? why were those things actually okay; what was my error in thinking that they were wrong? (also, now you know that this is not a good reason to eliminate an answer)
4) why was it actually right?

And don't forget to do that whenever you narrow to 2, not just the ones where you narrow to 2 and then get it wrong.

Okay, so are you getting a better idea of what I meant in terms of making decisions to reduce the mental stamina expended? And why what you've been doing hasn't been working?

You can learn how to deal with that "down to 2" scenario on verbal. You won't get them all right, but you can get better by following that process above!