GMAT Performance Evaluation for a retest

[AkshayM751]

Hello.

I was a student in the ManhattanPrep Bootcamp way back in Feb/March 2020. Due to the pandemic and subsequent lockdown in my city, there were problems in the test delivery. However I was finally able to give my GMAT test on 10th September. I scored a 710 (Q50 and V35). Although I have been told it is a decent score but I can't help but feel that I could have done better. In my GMATPrep tests, I was scoring between Verbal 38-42 and Quant 49-50. I am happy with the score in quant but the verbal part is disappointing for me. I'm planning for a retest because I think I can do better in the verbal part of the test. I did the MGMAT CAT tests, OG materials and the GMATPrep tests. I'm not really sure what exactly went wrong in the verbal part. I'm pasting the ESR for the verbal part below. While I understand that I need to be doing better in the CR and SC portions but I was wondering if there might something else that I might be missing. I'd be grateful if an instructor could please help me understand the areas where I might be going wrong and how I could improve them.

- Akshay

Verbal ESR -
• Your Verbal score of 35 is higher than 76% of GMAT Exam scores recorded in the past three years. The mean score
for this section is 27.11.
• Your performance on Critical Reasoning questions was equivalent to a score of 35, which is better than 70% of GMAT
Exam scores recorded in the past three years. The mean score for this sub-section is 27.59.
◦ Your performance of 75% on Analysis/Critique questions is considered Above Average.
◦ Your performance of 50% on Construction/Plan questions is considered Weak.
• Your performance on Reading Comprehension questions was equivalent to a score of 37, which is better than 78% of
GMAT Exam scores recorded in the past three years. The mean score for this sub-section is 27.17.
◦ Your performance of 66% on Identify Inferred Idea questions is considered Above Average.
◦ Your performance of 100% on Identify Stated Idea questions is considered Very Strong.
• Your performance on Sentence Correction questions was equivalent to a score of 32, which is better than 63% of
GMAT Exam scores recorded in the past three years. The mean score for this sub-section is 27.34.
◦ Your performance of 75% on Grammar questions is considered Above Average.
◦ Your performance of 50% on Communication questions is considered Weak.
• You completed 36 questions in the Verbal section.
• You responded correctly to 88% of the first set of questions, 57% of the second set of questions, 71% of the third set of
questions and 63% of the final set of questions.
• The average difficulty of questions presented to you in the first set of questions was Medium, the average for the
second set of questions was Medium , the average for the third set of questions was Medium and was Medium for the
final set of questions.
• The average time it took you to respond to the first set of questions presented was 1:28, the average time for the
second set of questions was 2:25, the average time for the third set of questions was 1:34 and 1:44 for the final set of
questions.

[StaceyKoprince]

This is a really good score! I know you want more, but just make sure you give yourself credit for getting a 710.

And even those who get really good scores sometimes want to go for more—nothing wrong with being ambitious! First, some questions for you:

(1) How did both sections of the exam feel to you compared to your practice exams? Did they feel about the same? Did anything feel different? (Please answer this for both Q and V. I know your Q score was comparable to your practice scores, but having the answer for both sections will allow us to better understand where you might have *felt* that there was a difference but that difference didn't impact you—since the Q score was comparable—vs. where something felt different and that might have actually made a difference on V.)

(2) When you took practice tests, did you do anything that would not be allowed for the real test? For example, pause the exam, take longer breaks than allowed, etc. And had you seen or studied any of the questions on the practice exams before you took those exams? (I'm asking because these kinds of things could have artificially inflated your practice scores. I'm trying to figure out whether your "true" scoring range is more like a V40 but you had a slump on official test day or whether official test day really does represent your true range better than your practice test scores.)

Here are some things I'm noticing in your ESR data.

RC (37) is obviously stronger than SC (32). CR (35) is within the margin of error in comparison to either of the other two, so that one is a little tougher to say. It might be that RC and CR are relatively even or that CR is weaker than RC.

The sub-categories for content areas are not that easy to interpret; they haven't released much info about what the V categories actually mean. So I'm not 100% sure how they classify CR into the two categories listed in the report, but it seems likely that the categories refer not to the type of question asked but to the form of the argument itself—a more "classic" Claim-type argument vs. a Plan-type argument. Plan-type arguments are more about what a company / person / group is planning to do or how well a plan worked or why a plan failed or could fail or what assumptions someone is making in assuming that the plan will work.

For SC, I think that Communication is weighted more heavily toward Meaning issues, so it looks like you have some work to do on Meaning issues in SC.

I'm also noticing that your 2nd quadrant was your "lowest and slowest"—your average time was considerably higher than for the other three quadrants and you had your lowest percentage correct here. Your first quadrant was close to perfect and fast, so I'm wondering whether you may have lifted quite high, spent extra time and mental energy in quadrant 2, and then possibly had to rush a little or made some careless mistakes due to mental fatigue in quadrants 3-4. You may need to work on (a) being able to quickly identify too-hard problems and (b) having the discipline to choose an answer and move on earlier (so that you save both that time and that mental energy for elsewhere).

The ability to maximize your score is going to depend not just on what you know but on how you make those kinds of decisions throughout the test. It could mean a few more points by the end of the section (or, if you're not making the best decisions, it could mean dropping a few points by the end).

Thoughts about that?

[AkshayM751]

Hi Stacey,

First of, I apologize for the late reply. After I had posted my query, I went back to check if my post was uploaded and under my username, the number of posts was zero. I thought maybe I have contravened one of the rules of posting in the thread and therefore, my post was taken down. Clearly, it wasn't the case but fortunately, I decided randomly to visit the forum and I found my post and your reply.

Point 1 - The Quants section seemed easy to the point that I thought I must have gone horribly wrong somewhere. Some of the questions were too easy, again to the point where I thought there must be a catch, than the questions in my practice exams. Overall, I would say that Quant section didn't throw surprises. Some questions were difficult but it wasn't a case where I had no idea what I'm doing or I didn't know the concept that was tested.

In the SC questions, normally I can pin point the concept - SVA/parallelism etc. - that is being tested but during the test, there were some questions in which I was not able to figure out what rule was tested. This started happening around question number 14. I did feel that I was encountering SC questions that I didn't face during my practice. For CR, some of the options were written in a confusing and twisted manner, in the sense that it was hard to comprehend what the option was trying to say. For RC, I felt that the passages were straightforward but again, the options to the questions were too close. I'm sure that there must be a decisive word/phrase or that renders one of the two options incorrect but I wasn't able to find it.
When it comes to difficult questions, I am able to zero down to two options (at worst, three options) but then I think I am not able to figure out how to get to the correct one. Overall, I would say that I was comfortable with the initial quarter of the section but the section felt different mid way through.

One thing I have noticed about the difficult questions, I don't know whether my observation is right, is that if it is a difficult sentence/stem/passage, then the options will be easier to sieve through and if it is an easy sentence/stem/passage, then the options are hard to eliminate. I noticed that the harder SC questions were ones that had just a word or a couple of them underlined and that the CR and RC questions have very close options, making it harder to choose between them.

Point 2 - No, I tried my best to ensure that I could get the test environment and in my official GMAT practice exams, I did not face any questions that I had seen before. In my last three GMATofficial practice exams, I got 710(Q49V38); 720(Q48V42) and 720(Q50V38).

Lastly, regarding performance in the 2nd quadrant of the verbal section, I had a disturbance around that part during the test. It is a small test center. Another candidate sitting next to me lost connection to his test. He started talking loudly to the test administrator, protesting that the time his test took to reboot was eliminated from his test time. This entire "drama" took about one to one-half minute to resolve before normal test conditions were restored. I was mid-way through a passage when this disturbance happened and my entire train of thought got derailed. I had to start the passage again from the top. That disturbance just threw me off my momentum and I admit I did panic. However, I did respectfully lodge my protest with the test administrator during the break but I was too dismayed at my score to write anything in the feedback form after the test.

Thank you for your reply.

- Akshay

[AkshayM751]

Hi Stacey,

I think I am experiencing a problem in posting in the forum. When I posted my initial post, I checked my post status and the status showed that I had zero posts. I thought my post must have deleted because it violated some forum rule - even though I'm not sure which one. After seeing your reply, I had written a reply back 2-3 days ago. I'm not seeing my reply to your post so I'm typing my reply again just to be sure.

First of, thank you for the reply. I'll answer your questions but I wanted to share something that happened at the test center. As I was giving my test, the candidate sitting next to me lost connection to his test. Thinking that the time it took for the test to connect again was deduced from his test time, the candidate was loudly speaking to the test administrator, who was sitting in the room adjacent to us. Even as the test administrator entered the exam room to re-establish the link, the candidate was still protesting that some of the allocated time for the section has been deleted. I was in the middle of reading an RC passage (this must be around question 9-10). I got disturbed by the episode and I had to read the passage from the start again. Maybe I could have just carried on without paying any heed to that "drama" but it did throw me off my momentum and the fact that I had to re-read the passage from the top because I got thrown off in the middle of it simply left me flustered. It took me some 20 seconds to calm myself down and understand that I just went through one of those horror testing experiences. I soldiered on but during the break after the verbal section, I did lodge my protest with the test administrator. Coming to the questions -

1) The quant did not feel alien. I felt comfortable as I was attempting the questions. I did face some challenging questions which I'm sure I got wrong but it wasn't a case of not knowing the concept or the area that the question sought to test me. Overall, I would say that my range in quants has always been around 49-50 so I'm happy with my quant score. The verbal part was challenging. After around question 15 of verbal, I saw SC questions in which I wasn't able to figure out what grammar rule they were violating. Normally, you can pin point that the subject verb agreement is off or the tense is incorrect but I wasn't able to figure out exactly what was wrong. In the CR questions, while the stem was easy to understand, the options were written in a very twisted way - I remember an assumption question that had every option beginning with "At least some X do/do not do Y". You knew negating them is going to be painful. For the RCs, some of the questions had options that just too close to take a call - as in you didn't have an out and out winner. A common theme in the verbal section for me has been that I am able to narrow it down to two or three choices and then mess it up. I guess post question 15 of verbal, I was not comfortable with the section.

2) No. I didn't. In my past three gmat official practice mocks I scored 710(Q49V38); 720(Q47V42) and 720(Q50V39). I understand that my final test score is close to what I got in my mocks but the verbal score hurts. I do think if not for the disturbance I could have done better and now with the ESR, it does seem that I was doing all right before the disturbance.

Thank you for your reply.

[StaceyKoprince]

Hi, I'm not sure whether that feature updates properly—so, yes, always just come back to the folder and check. I'm on twice a week, so you shouldn't ever wait more than a week for a reply. (Also FYI your first post of your two most recent posts got caught in our spam filter for some reason. That happens sometimes when the post is long.)

So Q felt good...and you scored a 50 (out of 51), so you were obviously getting hard problems. That's good news.

V was more of a struggle. What test order did you use? Do you think there's a chance that mental fatigue could have been a factor? What about stress / test anxiety?

Yes, it's common for very-short-underline SCs to be harder ones. It's easy to compare the choices (not many words) so they make the actual content quite hard. And yes, it's also the case that there are two ways to make a verbal problem harder—the question/passage/argument or the answer choices. And if you want to make it super hard then you make both hard.

For V in general, it sounds like you've gotten to the stage where you can reliably parse the question and get rid of at least some answers (most of the time), but you're still getting stuck sometimes on distinguishing between the correct answer and the most tempting wrong answers. Here's what you need to study (on all of V):

(1) Why was the wrong answer so tempting? Why did it look like it might be right? (be as explicit as possible; also, now you know this is not a good reason to pick an answer)
(2) Why was it actually wrong? What specific words indicate that it is wrong and how did I overlook those clues the first time?
(3) Why did the right answer seem wrong? What made it so tempting to cross off the right answer? Why were those things actually okay; what was my error in thinking that they were wrong? (also, now you know that this is not a good reason to eliminate an answer)
(4) Why was it actually right?

It's unfortunate that the disturbance happened in the test center. Anything can happen of course, so it's good to be prepared in general for something to go wrong or distract you. Did the test center have earplugs or noise-canceling headphones? If you weren't already using them, you might consider that for next time.

As long as the test fee is not a hardship for you, it's worth going back and taking it again—you may be able to eke out another 10-20-30 points!

[AkshayM751]

Hi Stacey,

Hope you're doing well.

I gave the exam a go again. I scored 730 (Q48V41). I'll admit that the high from seeing an above 40 score in verbal quickly settled down after seeing the 48 in quant. I understand that the average for the top schools is 730.

I'm just a little worried about the quant part because I remember reading that for a Chinese/Indian student, the quant range is normally 49-51. As an Indian who is targeting the top ten schools, will this latest quant score be taken against me?

Also, thank you so much for your initial reply. The things you mentioned were the things that I worked on specifically. I read my Manhattan SC book once again (especially the modifiers chapter) to get a grip on the meaning based questions. I also started practicing some LSAT CR and RC questions to deal with the complexity of the higher level questions. I guess as the prep goes on and we deal with higher level questions, you loose some of the connection with the basics. Thank you for guiding me back to them!

- Akshay

[StaceyKoprince]

Woot! Congratulations!!

I think you're good. You'll put in your 730 as your highest score, but you're also going to report your 710 score. If they're at all concerned about the 48, they'll glance at the other and see the 50...and there you go.

("You're fine" doesn't of course mean "they'll admit you." A lot more goes into the decision than your GMAT score.)

I'm not an admissions person, though, so please do feel free to ask an admissions expert. MBA Mission offers a free 30-minute consult. If you haven't used that yet, sign up! (They also have a live chat service on their website if you've already done it or want to save the consult for other stuff.)

[AkshayM751]

Hey Stacey,

I'll do that straightaway. Thank you so much once again for the advise!

[StaceyKoprince]

Good luck with your applications!