Disastrous Gmat Score-Help Ron Purewal and Stacey

[taurian91]

Hello guys,

I've never posted in the MGMAT forum or for that matter any other forum. But well here we go. I gave my GMAT yesterday, Aug 30th (5.00-9.00pm) slot. Result 560 (Q 43, V 25). A 25...:( I was so shell shocked i dunno how i managed to even get home. I've had trouble getting off bed today and i look myself in the mirror devastated. The reason i am taking this so damn hard is because i was scoring about 680-690 on the MGMAT tests and 3 days before the test day i gave my GMAT prep 2 and got a 690 (Q 49, V 34). I started prep this May, giving the first gmat prep to find out where i was. I got a 560 then. And after 4 months hard work i got the same damn score. the reason i mentioned Ron and Stacey is because i followed study hall with Ron since late July. I know I discovered the study halls late, but they felt like a breath of fresh air for me. Ron is absolutely awesome. I gave my first MGMAT Cat and got a 590 (Q 44, V 28). But after sessions with Ron my score increased in the practice tests to 680-690-670. (Q 47, V 37).

During the exam yesterday, I found the AWA and IR smooth. Infact was doubly confident after IR went well. But the first Quant question was some convoluted question and i guess the downfall began right there. I battled on till question 25 or so and then got a whole bunch of fairly easy questions. They were so easy that i psyched out and knew i bombed out on the Quant. The air conditioning blasted cold air directed at me and that made matters worse as my brain literally froze before Verbal. I didn't display any nerves. I never do. But it looked as if i moved on to some kind of passive state from there. Verbal started well. I handled the SC's well m sure, got 3 boldfaced CR's in all. Other fairly tough CR's as well. But i knew i cracked them coz CR was never ever a problem for me through all my practice hours as well. RC's i followed Stacey's Methods mentioned on the Blog closely. I never had problem with English Language though i am a non-native (From India). I read a lot of books and my comprehension skills were never doubted by anybody i know, least of all me. I adapted well to Stacey's methods and accuracy shot up during practice. But on the exam around the 28-31 questions i got a RC that i didnt bother understanding as my brain was dead literally. I dunno why this happened. All my practice tests taken were during the same time slot as the test day. Though i felt drained after practice test, during was not a problem. After the RC, i got a set of two tough CR's. I am sure I nailed them as one was assumption and i developed the knack of prethinking very effectively. I was expecting to see a score of atleast 35 on verbal, coz despite my brain-dead *passive state*, the difficult questions edged me to expect 35. Busted 25. And the end of my GMAT journey this year. I will be starting my professional career soon (with a 6 month tough training period included), that leaves no room to even think of retaking gmat now. I won't be applying for any sort of program for another 3-4 years, but i just wanted to be done with GMAT when i had a 3 month work free period (I just graduated with a Electronics Degree). I know this is a relatively huge post but I am looking to advice from anyone out there, especially Ron and Stacey, as to what different i could have done, and why this happened to me. I will kickstart my prep fresh next year around february or march. Is it a good idea coz i sure as hell have no other option. All my confidence has been shot down and i can't seem to face anyone right now. Please Help! I know deep down i am much much more worth than a 560. I was gunning for a 660-680 on the test :(

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry you had a disappointing test experience.

Your quant score dropped about 20 percentile points (from practice tests). Your verbal score dropped about 30 percentile points.

It sounds like you probably had some time management issues in quant. You describe getting tough problems at the beginning and "battling" through. When people say that, what usually happened is this: you let yourself get stuck on a bunch of too-hard problems (usually because you're still defaulting back to the school mindset of "I need to get everything right!), so then you rush on other problems that you find easier (to make up that time). You make careless mistakes on those easier ones (and you don't get the too-hard ones right anyway!) so your score goes down.

By the time you started verbal, then, you'd have a "double whammy" - you'd have that same mindset, plus you'd know that quant didn't go that well, so you'd be demoralized... and that would make verbal even worse.

Also, did you do essay and IR on your practice tests? Did you take those sections as seriously as you did on the real test? If not, then you were likely also suffering from greater mental fatigue during both sections of the test (especially verbal) and that would also bring your score down.

Yes, you describe your brain feeling "dead literally" by about 3/4 of the way through verbal. That's a hallmark of mental fatigue.

I know you're disappointed but the good news is that you're not trying to apply right now. So let's just dig into this to understand what went wrong with your approach this time and what you need to do differently next time. Then, the next time you've got a slower period, you'll know what you need to do.

Read these two articles first:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... lly-tests/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -the-gmat/

Then start to write a reply to me in which you describe how what you did before does not match what you just read in those two posts, and how you need to change your approach / mindset the next time.

Next, read these two:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -to-do-it/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... nt-part-1/

Analyze your two most recent MGMAT CATs using this:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/

Then tell me the results of your analysis and what you think you should do next time based on that analysis. I'll tell you whether I agree and advise you further.

(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!)

One last bit of advice. Don't tell anyone when you start studying again. You might have had some anxiety issues because you felt like "Oh, it's not going well, and everyone knows that I'm taking it, so I'm going to have to tell them my score, and what if I don't do well..." You don't want to be thinking that when you take the test again! Or, if you have to tell some people that you've started studying again, don't let them know when you're going to take the real test. :)