730 on MGMAT, 650 on official exam

[NGL]

After 4 months of studying, I took the official exam yesterday and am feeling pretty disappointed. I scored 650 (Q37, V42). On both of my last two practice tests (GMATPrep and MGMAT), I scored 45 on quant. All tests were taken under official-like conditions, including completing the essay and IR. I'm planning a retake, but at this point I've lost a ton of confidence.

There were several little things that stressed me out before my exam, but I actually felt pretty good during the test. Therefore, I was completely surprised when I got my score.

One of my biggest issues in my practice tests has been my time management. I tend to spend too long on several challenging problem solving questions, and then rush on some DS questions. Yet, during my official exam, I felt like I managed my time better than ever.

I'm not planning to apply to b-school until next year, so I still have plenty of time. However, I also don't want to wait too long before retaking, because I'm ready to be finished with the GMAT.

At this point, what do you recommend for next steps? I'm planning to take a week or so off to clear my mind, and then jump back into study mode.

Does it make sense for me to review all of the MGMAT guides and OG problems again? I haven't completed all of the OG problems, so I still have plenty of new problems to work on and plenty of things to review.

My goal is to score a 48 or 49 on quant. I thought that having scored a 45 on my practice tests, I would be able to bump that to a 46 with better time management. At that point, I wouldn't be too far from my goal. However, now that I scored a 37 on the official exam, my sense of progress has been affected.

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry that you had a disappointing experience on test day. When you say that you managed your time better than ever - how exactly did you do that?

I'm worried that what you did was this:
- you still spent too long, or maybe even longer than usual, on a subset of questions (and you likely got many of them wrong, because the whole point of needing extra time is that those questions are too hard in the first place)
- you then sped up even more on other questions, maybe trying to save 30 seconds here and there many times, and then made lots of careless mistakes that you didn't even notice because you were rushing so much

This is especially concerning because you felt that things were going well. The better you do on this test, the HARDER it feels. You should have felt like you were having to abandon questions sometimes and that there were even one or two "Oh my G-d! This question is crazy!" moments. That's how you know you're doing really well.

The time pressure is hard to handle. If you go into the test without good timing patterns, it's very easy to mess things up even more. This is especially true on the official test because they are so very good at writing questions that don't seem particularly terrible but yet are VERY tricky. If you're rushing, you'll have no idea how many mistakes you're making.

At this point, what do you recommend for next steps? I'm planning to take a week or so off to clear my mind, and then jump back into study mode.

Good idea. That'll also give us time to come up with a plan.

I'd like to get some more detailed data on your strengths and weaknesses in order to advise you. Use the below to analyze your most recent MGMAT CAT(s):
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/

Then come back here and tell us the results of your analysis and what you think you should do based on that analysis. (Note: do share an analysis with us, not just the raw data. 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!)

Also, read this (especially the How to Learn section):
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... an-part-1/

And here are a couple of articles on time management; read and start doing what they say:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... to-win-it/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... nt-part-1/

Re: what to do with OG, we'll discuss that later. Let's get the big picture first.

[NGL]

Thanks, Stacey.

Results of my most recent practice test, taken one week before my official exam:

Score: 730 (Q45, V45, IR 4.57)

I completed the essay and didn’t do anything that wouldn’t be allowed under official testing guidelines.

The below analysis is focused on the quant section, because that’s where I saw the big score drop from practice test to official test. My verbal score on the official test was the median of my last 3 practice tests, and I didn’t spend much time studying verbal. So, as I prepare for a retake, I’m focusing on quant again.

String of 4+ wrong
One string of 4 questions wrong. The first three were in the 700-800 level, and the last one was in the 600-700 level. I spent 3:56 on a 700-800 level PS question.

Last 5-10 questions
My timing was good for most of the last 10 questions, but I had to rush on the last 2 questions.

Way too slow
I spent 3+ minutes on 6 problems. 5 of the 6 were problem solving, 1 was DS. I only got 2 of the 6 correct.
The question topics were inequalities, triangles, quadratic equations, overlapping sets, formulas, and divisibility and primes.

Way too fast
I completed 7 problems in less than one minute. All 7 were DS. I got 2 out of the 7 correct. Four of the 7 were 700-800 level, 1 of them was 600-700, and 2 of them were 500-600.

The question topics were inequalities, statistics, polygons and divisibility and primes, linear equations, rates and work, FDPs, and consecutive integers. The consecutive integers problem was the second to the last problem and I was running out of time so I rushed.

Assessment Summary
% Correct

None of my percentages correct were below 50%.
PS 59%
DS 53%

Average timing
Average timing on PS wrong answers was 2:37 and average timing for DS wrong answers was 1:14.
My average time on my correct answers was pretty good: 2:08 for PS and 1:51 for DS

Discrepancy between average time
There’s a significant discrepancy between my average time on right vs wrong answers for both PS and DS.
PS Right Answers 2:08
PS Wrong Answers 2:37
DS Right Answers 1:51
DS Wrong Answers 1:14

Categories

Category 1: 50% + correct plus timing within the expected timeframe (otherwise known as strengths)
- Geometry
- Number Properties
- FDPs

Category 2: Less than 50% correct plus timing in the expected timeframe
- Word Problems (I got 7 out of 10 Word Problem questions wrong. Two of them were 600-700; One was 500-600 and my timing was too fast; Two were 700-800 and my timing was too fast; One was 700-800 and my timing was within the expected timeframe; One was 700-800 and my timing was too long)

Category 4: 50%+ correct plus timing way too slow
- Algebra (Average time on my 3 wrong answers was 3:32)


My Analysis

I used your article to analyze my practice test before taking my official exam, and I was shocked to see how skewed by timing issues were for PS for DS questions. I was spending way too long on a lot of PS questions and then making up for that time on DS. Because of that analysis, I made a concerted effort to not get so hung up on PS during my official exam, and to not give up too easily during DS. In my previous post when I said I thought I managed my time better than ever, that’s what I was referring to. However, in an effort to not spend as much time on PS, I think I probably made some careless mistakes.

At this point, it looks like algebra and word problems are my weakest areas. Particularly, I seem to struggle a lot with inequalities and work rate problems. I know there was a work rate problem on my official exam that I spent too long on and then finally just guessed.

I started studying in June and saw steady progress in my quant scores. Naturally, there were some times were things seemed to click and I had bigger gains and then times when my score dropped by 3 or 4 points, but my quant score on the official exam (Q37) was the lowest that it has been since July. I took 5 practice tests between July and my test (October 2nd), and my quant score ranged from 40-45, with 45 being on my last two tests taken 3 weeks and 1 week before my exam.

[StaceyKoprince]

Okay, so definitely a timing issue on quant. That last test was 7 days before the real test, so you'd have discovered the timing problems then. The problem is - just knowing that the problems exist is not enough to fix the problems on the next test (the real test). It typically takes weeks and weeks of work, and a lot of practice, in order to develop better timing habits.

First, you actually have to break bad habits - spending too long on some, rushing on others to catch up. You can't break a bad habit simply because you know it exists. :) You have to build better habits to take the place of the bad ones; that takes time.

Second, you have to learn HOW to make good decisions about when to keep going, when to cut yourself off, how to make a guess, etc. Again, not something you're going to develop in a week and not something you're going to be able to do completely effectively on your very next test. (At first, people will mostly go too far in the opposite direction and cut themselves off too quickly on too many questions, leading to mistakes on questions that you might have been able to do within the normal timeframe.)

Third, the real test counts. You know this. Therefore, you are going to be more nervous when taking that test, which is going to mess you up at least a little bit. If you are also trying to do things very differently than you've done them in the past, but without a really solid understanding of how and why things should be done... well, that's going to mess you up even more. Under those circumstances, a score drop is not a huge surprise.

The good news: you know what the issues are now. :) Start doing what the time management and in it to win it articles say. Use the material in that How To Learn article to help you learn how to build better decision-making habits (which will also lead to better timing). Check back in here and let us know how things are going. (And of course let us know when you have questions!)