Wild Swings in CAT scores.

[sahale72]

Hello MGMAT instructors,

Long time lurker, first time poster. Let me first begin by saying I have been happy with your product for the most part. I purchased the self study option without the class tapes and have gone through the self study program. I have taken the following tests: MGMAT tests plus 1 GMATReview (I do not have the split on the GMAT review)

11/18/10 Q30 V34 530
12/21/10 Q28 V35 530
1/12/11 Q40 V31 580
2/18/11 Q43 V33 630
2/19/11 GMAT Review 620 (upper 30's verbal, I remember it was my best score so it was above 35)
3/8/11 Q34 V35 580
3/11/11 Q45 V29 600

Stacy, before you ask, all tests have been taken as closely as possible to the real deal (completed both essays, dry erase for scrap paper, 8 min breaks, done in a library with earplugs, ect.). Also, I do not believe timing has been an issue for me at all. I have read and stuck with your advice regarding timing. If anything, I had a little issue on Quant today when I got 45 (my best score) because, for the first time, I received multiple 700-800 level questions in a row. As a result, I got behind and guessed on two questions to get back on track.

Two things really jump out from my splits.

1. Wild swings in split numbers, ie. 29-35 in verbal, 34-45 split in Q even though I took these respective tests three days apart.
2. Overall downward progression, or at least flat progression, in verbal. How do you get worse? Or at least zero improvement?

To be fair, I would say I have put more time in on Quant because this was obviously my weakness after I took the first test. But only a marginal difference, say 60-40 Q to V.

I take my first official test in 10 days, and I am really dissappointed in my scores, especially because I have put in well over 200 hours of work. Truthfully, I am starting to panic.

Thoughts/Feelings/Ideas?

Thank you,

A dissapointed GMATer

[StaceyKoprince]

What is your goal score? I'm guessing higher than your practice scores or you wouldn't say that you're disappointed. If your goal is significantly higher then your current level (around 600, according to your practice tests), then you have to decide whether to take the test as planned with a lower goal score (realistically) or whether to postpone your test.

If you postpone your test more than 7 days in advance, you only have to pay a $50 rescheduling fee - you don't have to pay the whole $250 again.

So that's your first, immediate decision.

Next, looking at your last two tests, there's a big jump in quant and a big drop in verbal. Why? We need to figure that out, so that we can then figure out how to get you to maximize both at the same time!

Use this article to analyze your last two tests:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/02/ ... sts-part-1

NOTE: this article is an UPDATE to the one that I have been using for a long time. The new version is not up on our site yet, so I'm linking to Beat the GMAT instead. It's mostly the same but does have a few differences.

First analyze each test individually, then run the assessment reports on the two tests together. In addition to the usual, also really dive into any differences you notices between the two quant or the two verbal sections. What made the difference for you in each section? Why was the higher quant higher and why was the lower quant lower? (And same for verbal.)

Then come back here and tell us what you discovered (data + your analysis, not just the data). We'll help you figure out what it means and where to go from there.

[sahale72]

Thanks Stacey,

Initial Target Score: 700
Revised Target Score: 650

I have decided to take the test next week, although if it does not stack up I would strongly consider taking the test again.

After reviewing my last two tests, I came up with the following:

Test 5 Verbal (35 Score): 5 too fast, 3 warning track, 4 too slow. Quant (34 Score): 13 too fast, 2 warning track, 7 too slow.

Test 6 Verbal (29 Score): 2 too fast, 2 warning track, 4 too slow. Quant (45 Score): 6 too fast (3 gueses), 3 warning track, 6 too slow.

Although in my previous post I stated I did not have a timing issue, your benchmarks suggest otherwise. Also, for the most part my overall timing is pretty good except for test 5 quant, where I got behind. This might explain my low quant score on test 5.

It seems you will describe this as "up and down" timing. I should note a large percentage of the the too fast questions were correct. On test 6, 3 out of the 6 too slow questions were correct.

In addition based on the assessment reports it is obvious my verbal score is getting killed by Sentence Correction, and Critical Reasoning is my rock. Guess where most of my time has been spent the past few weeks? Sentence Correction! And I am getting worse! I basically haven't touched CR! My only theory is that I am getting cluttered with sentence rules and losing my natural instinct (I am a native English speaker). Truly, I feel much, much more knowledgeable on SC, but obviously this has not translated into a better GMAT score.

Please let me know if there is any addition info I can give in order to make an assessment.

7 days until test day. Thanks for your help.

[sahale72]

Stacey,

Also, this evening I completed the SC Question Bank and scored only 10 correct out of 25. More evidence that my SC skills are pretty bad...Very frustrating considering it easily consumes the majority of my Verbal Practice. Timing was pretty good, maybe a hair too fast. Just very difficult for me to split and find the correct answer in under 1:15. If I don't get better I can pretty much kiss goodbye any chance of scoring well.

When I study SC, after I do the problem I will read the explanation, read the correct answer explanation, and read the wrong answer explanations to understand what makes them wrong, so it is not like I just whiz through problems without analyzing them.

I just finished listening to the Thursday with Ron recording regarding the "Boxing" Analogy for learning to develop SC Skills. If you are not familiar with it, he basically recommends looking for things such as parallelism over and over in the OG without regard to what the answer is. I really, really wish I had done this when I was reviewing all those hundreds of SC Problems. Do you think I would receive any benefit from doing this now? Or Is it too late in the game?


Thanks.

[StaceyKoprince]

Sorry I haven't been back to you sooner. I have been both sick and traveling for work. Not a good combo! I think we're past your test date now but I'm still going to reply.

Yes, you do have up-and-down timing. This is a problem both because you're leaving points on the table and because our bad habits tend to get magnified (through sheer nervousness) on test day. If you hang on too long on a few problems on practice tests, you'll tend to do it even more on the real thing, and the imbalance in timing will just get worse.

I should note a large percentage of the the too fast questions were correct.

They should either ALL be right or all of them except for any ones on which you consciously chose to give up and move on because you knew that you didn't know what to do. A "too fast" question that you thought you knew how to do is a major missed opportunity if you actually miss it. You basically gave up those points in order to spend more time on other questions that were a lot harder (read: you had a lot lower chance of getting right).

So your standard is higher for those too-fast questions, because the point is that you're choosing to go faster on those because you think you know how to do them. Of course, if there are any on which you consciously bailed because you knew you had no idea, those are fine - don't count them. But other than that, you should have ALL of those right.

I do like Ron's Boxing analogy and, no, I don't think it's too late to start doing that in the week before the test. It's not ideal, obviously, but if you don't have a choice, that's when you start.

Check back in with us and let us know how things went on your test. I hope that you got your score and we don't have to talk about this stuff anymore, but if you didn't, we still want to hear from you.