GMAT Strategy for the next 14 days?

[ShahzilM692]

Hi Stacey Koprice,

Hope you're doing well.

I gave the GMAT yesterday and got 590 (Q44, V28, IR4). I cancelled the score immediately as last year on 23rd November, 2018 I got 620(Q40, V35, IR3) on my GMAT. Last year, I completed the e-gmat verbal online course and Math Revolution Quant course.

It was a horrible feeling yesterday when I saw the score because I had got good scores in the mock tests(all unseen questions). Following are my mock scores:

GMAT PREP#1 on 28th September, 2019 610 (Q46, V27) - Low verbal score is because I got 7 wrong out of the first 10 questions - I rushed through the first 10 questions

GMAT PREP#2 on 29th September, 2019 670 (Q46, V36, IR4) - I prioritized accuracy in Verbal this time

GMAT PREP#6 on 4th October, 2019 690 (Q44, V40, IR7) - Same strategy as in GMAT PREP#2

All the questions in the above mock tests were unseen.

I was aiming for at least 670 on the test. My aim is not 750.

This year, I studied with TTP and completed the Quant course in full spirit in about 6 months. My analytics are 87% accuracy, 2m 11s/question with around 2300 questions attempted on the TTP course(all questions attempted). I also gave the global review tests of TTP and got 100% accuracy on the first and 90% accuracy on the second.
For verbal, I completed the e-gmat verbal live prep course in around 50 days with 90% accuracy on all application and practice quizzes on SC, CR and RC and did a lot of practice with OG's and other material with good accuracy output. I also completed the cement method phase with excellent accuracy on the scholaranium.
So, I think I was very well prepared for the GMAT. I have put in around 400 hours of preparation this year with roughly 220 hours with TTP, 150 hours with e-gmat and 30+ hours with mocks + revision + error log analysis.

The only positive I guess is that my Quant score improved from Q40 to Q44 this year! After completing the TTP course in 220 hours with such dedication and accuracy, I wanted at least Q46!

However, a really low score on verbal has left me dejected. But, I have not lost faith. I still strongly believe that I can get 670+ on the GMAT. I just think that it was a bad day. I have registered to have another go at the GMAT. My next GMAT is scheduled on 25th October, 2019 at 10:00 am at a different test center.

Please guide me, what can I do to increase my score to 670? I have around 2 weeks to refine my skills. Should I order the ESR? How can I do so for a score cancelled at the test center?

I have already spend around 1000$ on my GMAT prep and completed the e-gmat verbal course(2 times- 1 last year and 1 this year), Math Revolution course(last year), TTP course(this year). I still have GMAT PREP#3 and GMAT PREP#4 up my sleeve that I plan to give before 25th October.

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry that you had a frustrating experience on test day.

The 4 point increase on quant (40 to 44) is very good. I know you want more, but let's at least acknowledge where you did improve!

But your verbal, unfortunately, went down by 7 points (35 to 28). So let's try to diagnose what happened there so we can get your verbal back up. If you could get Q44 and V35 on one test, you'd have about 650—and that doesn't even include improving more in either section. If you can pick up 2 more points in each section, you'd be at around 680.

You are able to purchase the ESR even for a canceled test—so, yes, that's one option.

Do you have any sense of why your V score might have gone done so much? I know it's been almost a year since you last took the official test, but if you remember anything about how the V went then compared to this most recent test, let me know. (For all questions below, pay special attention to anything that felt notably different between the two test experiences.)

How did you feel during both exams? Nervous? Tired? Hungry? How was your routine during the week before—were you getting enough sleep? Were you really stressed out? Etc.

Did you do both tests in the same order? Q first or V first?

How did your time management feel? Were you rushing at any point? Having to guess? Or did you finish more than a few minutes early? And how did the difficulty feel?

I sometimes have people reporting that the test felt really easy, they even finished early, but they got a lower score than expected. Usually, that means they were distracted and rushing—which leads to careless mistakes. So the test felt easy because they didn't realize they were making mistakes, but the score showed that they were.

Was there anything else that you noticed felt especially good or bad about either test? Or anything that just felt different between the two, even if you don't think it's something that could impact your score?

If you do decide to get the ESR, give us the data in your next post (for both Q and V). I'm in the middle of writing a new article series on how to analyze the results—it won't be posted for another week or two, but you can just give me the data here and I'll tell you how to analyze it.

[ShahzilM692]

Thanks for your reply Stacey. Below is a comparison of the data from last year's ESR and this year's ESR:

Nov 23, 2018 GMAT:
Verbal
Percentiles: SC 81, CR 70, RC 57
Mean response time/question: SC 1:32, CR 1:58, RC 1:50
Percent Correct Per Section: Sec 1 75% correct, Sec 2 71% correct, Sec 3 57% correct, Sec 4 38% correct
Avg Response time/Section: Sec 1 2:16, Sec 2 2:43, Sec 3 1:20, Sec 4 0:44

Quant
Percentiles: Geometry 50, Rates/Ratio/Percent 20, Value/Order/Factors 54, Equal/Ineq/Alg 100, Counting/Sets/Series 60
Percent Correct Per Section: Sec 1 71% correct, Sec 2 57% correct, Sec 3 71% correct, Sec 4 14% correct
Avg Response time/Section: Sec 1 3:02, Sec 2 2:00, Sec 3 2:25, Sec 4 0:38

Oct 7, 2019 GMAT:
Verbal
Percentiles: SC 77, CR 28, RC 35
Mean response time/question: SC 1:47, CR 1:25, RC 1:47
Questions that I got correct Per Section: Sec 1 75% correct, Sec 2 57% correct, Sec 3 43% correct, Sec 4 38% correct
Avg Response time/Section: Sec 1 2:14, Sec 2 1:39, Sec 3 2:04, Sec 4 0:59

Quant
Percentiles: Geometry 40, Rates/Ratio/Percent 80, Value/Order/Factors 60, Equal/Ineq/Alg 33, Counting/Sets/Series 60
Percent Correct Per Section: Sec 1 71% correct, Sec 2 71% correct, Sec 3 43% correct, Sec 4 43% correct
Avg Response time/Section: Sec 1 1:44, Sec 2 2:10, Sec 3 2:20, Sec 4 1:44

I am really surprised to see my CR performance so low as I think that the questions were not that difficult and I was understanding them. Maybe, now seeing the response time, I rushed through CR and was unable to pick the hidden flaw b/w 2 ans choices! BTW I am strong in CR and had an accuracy of around 80%-90% on medium and hard level questions but my average response time during practice was about 2:10/question.

I have to admit that the Verbal felt easy this time around!

Last year the selection order I took was Verbal, Quant, IR and AWA. This year I selected Quant, Verbal, IR, AWA. I was calm during verbal and thought that it was going well! However, I was distracted around Q10 with the thought that I'll do well this time! I tried my best to get that out of my head and to just concentrate on the given question. However, last year, i had to guess last 5-6 questions. Whereas this time around I guessed only last 2-3(2 CR and 1 SC) questions. Can I email the ESR to you somehow?

I got around 5hrs sleep before the GMAT and wasn't nervous during the test. I think I was calm. Should I do verbal first on the test on 25th Oct, 19? I've seen that if I spent more time on questions(On both Quant and Verbal), I get them correct! So, maybe I need to focus completely on accuracy even if I have to guess 4-5 questions on Quant and 5-6 on Verbal. What do you suggest?

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm going to look at the data and tell you what I think before I read what you wrote.

Verbal
– SC stayed about the same but CR and RC dropped quite a bit, especially CR.
– Ah. Average CR time went from about 2m to just under 1.5m. It's not surprising that your performance dropped when you were rushing that much.
– Some of that time went to SC—SC was slower on average on the second exam. But it appears that some of that time was just you rushing in general. Did you possibly have to rush to catch up and then kept rushing even when you could have slowed down again? I see this happen a lot. People will sometimes even be behind and rushing and then, oops, end up finishing early.
– You had a similar-ish timing trajectory—having to rush significantly in the last quadrant.
– Re: difficulty (as a proxy for scoring trajectory), you lifted yourself well in the first quadrant, but again a similar-ish trajectory, except you didn't keep your scoring level as high (you basically started to drop again in the 2nd quadrant vs. the third). So that would put you at a lower ending point in the 2nd exam.

Quant
– First, note that the content categories are not percentiles; they are percent correct. There's a big difference. From a % correct perspective, the big changes were rates/ratios/percents (way up) and classic algebra (way down). But this doesn't necessarily mean you got better at the first one and worse at the second. It could be that you just happened to get easier R/R/P problems this time and harder algebra problems.
– Your % correct changed significantly enough in these two categories, though, that it's likely more significant than just luck (getting easier vs. harder ones in those categories)—though that was probably some of it. So yay that R/R/P got better, but you need to work on algebra.
– If you can remember certain problems or content areas that gave you trouble during the exam, then this may help you to identify holes in your foundation or other weaknesses that you need to address.
– You did a *much* better job of managing your time and keeping your scoring trajectory more even across all four quadrants, and that paid off in your score! You want to keep up this way of taking the test (do even more of this!) while you continue to practice content to be able to lift quant a bit more.

Okay, now I'm reading what you wrote. Yep, I think we're on the same page on CR. And V should have felt easier this time around...look at your score (you were earning easier questions). So you were making mistakes without realizing it. One possibility is that you went into the test so focused on / worried about quant that you basically mentally took your focus off of verbal—you thought that section would be fine because it was good before. And then that lack of focus / attention led to those careless mistakes. Do you think that's a possibility?

The good news here is that you did earn a Q44 and you also earned a V35, so you are capable of learning to do them together on the same test. It'll just take practice.

It's definitely a mental challenge to be able to score well on Q and V on the same test—it requires a level of mental concentration that's hard to sustain for that long. This is one of the reasons I harp on needing to make good decisions about what to do and what not to do during the test—you don't want to waste mental energy on really-too-hard stuff. Even if you happen to get one right, you've now used up mental energy that you could use better on other areas of the test.

Ah, I just got to where you said that you did Q-V on the second exam. Yep, ok, that bolsters the theory that you were just mentally fatigued by that point. So one thing you definitely need to do is to continue to practice making good decisions about what *not* to do.

I've seen that if I spent more time on questions(On both Quant and Verbal), I get them correct!

Sure. If we all had twice as much time, we'd all get more right. But then, it wouldn't be the GMAT! Part of what they're testing is how you make decisions under time pressure—they're literally testing you on how good you are at deciding what not to do. You've got to get out of that school mindset that the goal is to get more right. The goal is to get the easier-for-you stuff right and to know when to let go / move on.

So, maybe I need to focus completely on accuracy even if I have to guess 4-5 questions on Quant and 5-6 on Verbal.

Your V score dropped this time because you were rushing the whole test (especially CR) and making mistakes—you thought you were getting things right that you were actually missing. And some of them, at least, were things that you did know how to do, since you did much better last time. That's what you need to fix for next time.

Should you do Q or V first next time? If you are able to fully internalize what I wrote above re: knowing when to let go, then it shouldn't matter, because you won't be so mentally fatigued for the second section. But that's the huge thing to work on between now and the test. And also just think back to your test experiences; if you know that one section tends to tire you out mentally more than the other, put that one second.

How do you know which one is tiring you out more? Interestingly, it's often not how you feel while you're doing that section but how you feel doing the section after that section. Try some problem sets where you do a 15-minute set of quant, then (immediately) a 15-min set of verbal (and then the next day you do the opposite) to see. And you're definitely going to have to actively study how to know when to keep going vs. when to just pick something and move on—and you may have a tougher time doing that on Q than on V (you may think that you should be able to figure something out on quant if you just spend a little more time, especially if you're okay on time for the Q section...but if you still have V to do, then choosing to keep going is using up mental energy that you could've used during V).

In fact, think of your mental energy as a finite resource (like time) but it's spread across the whole test rather than resetting at the start of each section (like time). You can't reset your mental energy at the beginning of each section.

Thoughts on all of that?

[ShahzilM692]

Thank you so much for the detailed analysis. To summarize it all, I rushed through CR and RC that led to the low verbal score. A lot of the times in CR and RC, I had to choose between 2 answer choices.

In CR, I went in with the mindset that this is my strong part, so better do it quickly, which is wrong! I should spend enough time on it till I get it right!

In RC, I spent significant time in understanding the passages and the passages felt easy. However, when answering the questions, I rushed! Again, this was silly on my part as I could have spent enough time on the questions till I got the exact answer.

So, all in all, for my exam on 25th October, my takeaway is not to rush through any questions on verbal and to only focus on the problem on screen.

[StaceyKoprince]

Yes, I like it. I will make this distinction:
– When you know that you know what you're doing, don't rush it. This is the classic advice "Don't take your eye off the ball"—you're approaching the goal and it's wide-open...so don't rush it. You've got this.
– By contrast, sometimes a question will just be too hard to do or it'll take too long to get right. In that case, you want to recognize that as soon as possible so that you *can* get out as fast as possible.

A lot of times, people are doing the opposite of *both* of those during the test—they spend extra time on stuff that's too hard (and they're not getting those right anyway), and then they try to rush the stuff they know how to do in order to make up that time...and then they start missing stuff that they could have gotten right.