VERY low Verbal Score on Actual Test after high CAT scores

[saraviamario]

I had been consistently scoring 40 plus on the verbal section of the CAT's and got a very low 33 yesterday on the actual test.

I did better in Quant which I thought was my weakness!! (44)

I scheduled to take again in 30 days, but want to make sure I have the right study approach to increase my verbal score....


Any thoughts?

Thanks!!!

[StaceyKoprince]

That's frustrating - but great job on quant! There are any number of reasons why your score could have dropped - we'll need some actual details to try to figure out why. :)

How was your timing? Any possibilities it was either too fast or too slow?

Give me your gut reaction, but also use the below to analyze your most recent MGMAT CATs:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/

And tell me whether the data indicates that you were having timing problems, even if you think you were fine.

What about mental energy / stamina? Read this; were you feeling any of these things?
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... you-crazy/

Did you do essay and IR on your practice tests and limit yourself to two 8-minute breaks? Or did you skip one or both of those sections, or take them less seriously than you did on the real test, or give yourself longer breaks, or use the pause button, or... anything else that isn't allowed on the real test?

If so, then your practice score may have been artificially inflated. It may have represented a score that you weren't capable of achieving under official conditions.

What did you do for the last couple of days before the test? Did you study a ton or did you give your brain a break? How did you sleep the last two nights before the test? Was there any reason why you might have been more mentally fatigued than usual, leading to a "crash" in the verbal section?

How were your nerves? Did you feel anxious to the point of having physical symptoms (heart racing, sweaty palms, inability to concentrate, etc)? Even if this happened only earlier in the test, that would have used up a lot of mental energy, leaving you more fatigued by the final section.

Finally, you can also use the test analysis article I linked above to help you come up with a general study plan, in conjunction with these two articles:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... lly-tests/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -the-gmat/

Feel free to tell us what you think that study plan should be based on your analysis; we'll tell you whether we agree and advise you further. (Note: do share an analysis with us, not just the raw data from your tests. 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!)

Finally, just a note: I don't know whether you meant you did better on quant than you expected or whether you meant you did better on quant than you did on verbal. You actually did NOT do better on quant - you still did better on verbal. I just want to make sure you know that!

The scoring scales aren't the same. V33 is 68th percentile. Q44 is 61st percentile. So you still did well on verbal - just not as well as you were hoping!

[saraviamario]

Hi Stacey, thanks for your response.

To address your questions regarding timing and stamina:

1. On the Practice tests, I have been falling a bit behind in CR questions, but making up for it on SC. I think this was a problem on the real test, because since I have done so many CAT's, I now recognize the SC questions and can answer those faster.

2. Stamina: Here lies the main Issue, I think..
I’ve studied for over 8 months for the test, long, long hours. The week before the test however, I thought I needed a refresher, and did very heavy review of all the topics and took several practice tests. I scheduled the test for Monday at 4 pm since I have done better on afternoon practice tests. That was a huge mistake, since I woke up at 9, and had pretty much nothing to do all day other that wait. I drove to the test center 3 hours before the test, trying to avoid rush hour traffic. I had to find a way to burn time so I ended up in Starbux reviewing my flash cards and reading the newspaper (I could feel my heart about to explode)

Now, I don’t want to use these explanations as excuses; perhaps I was not as prepared as I should have been. I got a 9 out o 12 on IR, higher than expected on Quant, but a very low Verbal.

I scheduled another test for December 16th- this time at 8am

Not sure how to use the time in between, so your input is greatly appreciated.

Best

Mario

[StaceyKoprince]

Remember this for future: you NEVER want to go faster than usual / comfortable on the things that you do know how to do / are good at answering.

You may be faster at SC than the average person - that's fine. But you don't want to make yourself go even faster than appropriate for you, because now you're just giving yourself a chance to make careless mistakes on the things that you do know how to do.

If you find that CR is slower / tougher, then the better strategy is to pick 2-3 CR questions for immediate guesses (particulary in sub-categories that are tougher for you - eg, if you're worst at Evaluate or Role questions, guess quickly on those). Then that gives you a little extra time to spend on other CRs.

In other words, you save time on your worst question types, not your best ones. :)

Next, the stamina issue - It does sound like you might have tired yourself out leading up to the test. Now you know not to do that next time.

Is flipping all the way to the other end (8am) the best choice for you though? That's fine if you are a morning person, but I'm wondering because you picked the extreme opposite time the first time around. It might be better to look for an 11a or 12p appointment.

(Note: they tend to release 8am appointments first and then add appointments in the later morning / early afternoon timeframe as they see how the site books up. They're just trying to maximize the usage of their facility. So, if you like the idea of a later-morning appointment, you might want to keep checking the site until you find one that opens up, and then you can switch your appointment. Note that they charge $50 to change the existing appointment.)

it sounds like you might have also had some anxiety issues on top of that, too, so you might want to look into this:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... mat-score/

What do you think about that combination of fixes? Making better decisions about where to spend your time on verbal, making sure you don't tire yourself out, trying some meditation techniques to help keep anxiety in check.

As I mentioned last time, you may also want to analyze your most recent MGMAT CATs in order to see whether there are any more detailed weaknesses that you need to address. If so, let me know.

I'm curious about one thing. You said you got "9 out of 12" on IR. The IR scores run from 1 to 8, and unless they've changed something VERY recently, the scores don't correspond exactly to a certain number of questions correct (that is, if you earn a 6 on IR, that doesn't tell you exactly how many you got right). Can you let me know where the "9 out of 12" figure came from? Thanks.

[saraviamario]

Hi Stacy, thank you again for your reply.


The exact scores I got are: IR 7 (82%) : Quant 44 (61 %) : Verbal 31 (60%) Total: 620 (68%)

I took your recommendation and changed the exam time for 12 pm. I think I'll do much better in terms of stamina at this time.

For the time being, I'm going to dedicate most of my time to Verbal, specifically CR and RC, and maybe do general Quant reviews- Not sure if its worth killing myself with more Quant drills at this stage. I've decided to cut back on the heavy studying (4 to 5 hours a day) and balance out some other activities (sports, outings, etc) in between. I plan on studying 2 to 3 hours a day and doing reviews and CATS on the weekend. Ill take one or two more cats before the test, and then take real one on the 16th.

I'm actually aiming for a 680, which will probably get me in the school I want.

I appreciate all your input and thank you again for your help.

Best

Mario

[StaceyKoprince]

Thanks for the update. I like your plan to spend 2 to 3 hours a day - a little every day is much better than burning yourself out.

I would study quant and verbal pretty equally at this point - you maxed out your quant score relative to practice, but you don't want that to go down next time. If you can work out the stamina and timing issues on verbal, then you'll hopefully be able to get that score back up into the range of your practice scores.

Practice stamina! When you sit down for 2 hours to study, first figure out everything you want to study. Then GO for an hour without stopping - no bathroom breaks, no email, no nothing. Then you can take a 15-20 minute break (yes, this is longer than the real test, but you're also trying to learn right now, so you don't want to tire yourself out too much and waste your study time). Then GO again for a second hour without stopping.

Then get out of the house, watch a movie, exercise, whatever you want. :)

[saraviamario]

Thank you Stacy,

Any recommendations on what materials I could use to review? I have used up all the OG and Quant 2nd edition questions and have done all the MGMAT question banks.

For Verbal I’m using the Verbal 2nd Edition, but I'm not sure what to use for Quant.

Thanks a lot

Mario

[StaceyKoprince]

You haven't actually "used up" those resources. You can learn lots of things from problems you've already done - 80% of your learning comes AFTER you've finished working on the problem. :)

Second, GMATPrep sells a question bank of about 400 questions (about 200 of which are quant) for about $25 or $30, so that's the next place I'd go for extra questions. You can find the link to buy it right in the GMATPrep software.

But be careful - don't just do them all right away! You learn first, from old problems. THEN you test yourself on new ones. (And then you learn from those before you go do more new ones.)

You might also want to try using another official product, GMAT Focus. It's only for quant - mini-CAT sections of 24 adaptive questions. The website for that is: www.gmatfocus.com