Verbal > Quant in CATs, but BOMBED in actual GMAT!

[IVAN.CH.WANG]

Hi

I hope Stacey can address my post as I found her articles and posts extremely useful. I am a MGMAT online class student from Dec7'10 to Feb15'11..and i recently wrote my GMAT on Mar 19th. My initial goal was 700, but to be honest, my realistic goal is high 650+. I am not the best studier or academic, so after reading tons of reviews i decided MGMAT was my best chance at doing well on GMAT...

I am an Electrical Engineering grad working in Financial Services industry (4 yrs) in Toronto, so i would expect my Quant to be greater than Verbal.

To my surprise though, my Verbal scores have been consistently higher (in terms of percentile) than my Quant in my 5 CAT exams, therefore i focused primarily on Quant during the last week of my prep (which probably wasn't the best idea). Here are my CAT results:

Cat 1 (Feb 7): Q38, V27 - 540
Cat 2 (Feb 19): Q34, V30 - 540
Cat 3 (Feb 27): Q41, V35 - 630
Cat 4 (Mar 6): Q43, V35 - 640
Cat 5 (Mar 12): Q39, V33 - 590

Therefore, since verbal is less reliant in terms of preparation (not as concrete as math in my opinion), i focused heavily on PS the last week cause i couldn't comprehend that my quant scores were so low (being an engineer). I realized that MGMAT cat math IS relatively more difficult than OG, however, i had no opinion regarding the verbal since i was doing relatively well.

However, come to the actual exam, my brain must've fried during the ACTUAL exam after quant cause i BOMBED the verbal section. I scored a Q43, V21 - 530!!!!!!

It's as if a) i couldn't read or B) i guessed all the answers lol. i admit, i had a lot of difficulty with wrapping my thoughts around the Long passages..so i tried to answer and move on rather than reread the whole thing....but i didn't expect to completely blow it. My strengths in CAT were SC, and i didn't find RC that bad since the passages were short; but i clearly must've gotten a lot of those wrong too.

As for now, i've already planned to retake on May 14th, giving me 7 weeks. I do not wanna drag it on into the summer, and i'm motivated to rid myself of this embarrassing score!

Going forward, i plan to:
a) not take verbal for granted, and do every RC/CR OG question (i stil have lots i didn't do)
b) practise advanced math techniques more
c) practise aWA more, cause i found the issues pretty hard. i only practised on cat #5.
d) do the GMATprep exams since they are better indicator ( i didn't do them cause they wouldn't work on my macbook)

I will consult my class instructors individually, but any additional advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Idubbz

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry you had a disappointing test experience. Very first thing: because you took our course, you're eligible for a free Post-Exam Assessment. This is a phone call with an instructor to figure out what went wrong and come up with a plan to re-take the test. If this applies to you, please send an email to studentservices@manhattangmat.com and request the Post-Exam Assessment. (Note: there are many instructors who do these, but you will increase your chances of happening to be assigned to me if you say that you're available on weekdays during the day. :)

The good news is that your quant score was at the high end of your practice test range. Obviously, the verbal is the bad news.

Next, read this article and do the analysis described:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/a/2009/10/26 ... went-wrong

I can already tell you at least part of the trouble. You only did a practice test with essays once. Plus, you found the essays pretty hard. That means that, as far as tests were concerned, you trained yourself to be finished with the test at the time that, on the real test, you were just starting the verbal section. Not good for mental stamina. From now on, all practice tests need to be taken under 100% official conditions.

Given the amount of the drop, there were likely other things going on, too. Often timing is a major factor, so check into that (using the article above to help). You also mention having spent all of your time on quant leading up to the test; that would have an effect, too.

Okay, so start with the above and let's first figure out all of the factors that we think came into play in causing this big score drop. After you've analyzed your test using the article and had your PEA, come back here to discuss what you discovered, and then we can figure out where to go from there.