Take 2 GMAT-score 620--guidance needed

[soumya2022]

Dear Mentors,

I am a working executive and have taken the GMAT second time around, yesterday, scoring 620 (Q41 V36). Although Quant has never been my forte, my scores in the verbal section were consistently above 40 in the mocks (GMAT prep and exam pack), due to which my scores were all above 670 in the mocks.

I was very surprised to see such a low score on the actual GMAT!
A few facts about the test which I took yesterday:
I got 4 RC passages- 2 long and 2 short : only 1 main idea question, and every other question was a detail question. As I am not much of a skimmer, my accuracy on the detail questions is high, but I can't figure out what went wrong yesterday.

SC was fine!

CR: I got 2 BF questions, and only one weakener and strengthener each! Everything else was evaluate, fill in the blanks and zero assumption questions!

I wanted to know whether the scoring on the actual GMAT is different from the scoring which is followed in the GMAT prep software. Also, has the general content, as in the question mix in the actual test changed over the last one year?
I usually work with only official material during verbal practice, is there any other option I should look for?

I was paced correctly on the test yesterday! fell back a bit during the 1st 20 questions,but caught up since I am faster at solving SC.

Your guidance would be of great help! I retake the test in a month's time!

Thank you!
Regards
Soumya

[soumya2022]

Dear Mentors,

Would be grateful if you could please guide me regarding this..

Thank you!
Regards
Soumya

[StaceyKoprince]

Please remember to read the forum guidelines before posting. Please don't "bump" your own post. We respond to all posts in order, oldest first, and the date of your post is based on the date of the last post in the thread, not the first. If you bump your own post, you will wait longer for a response.

Please also note that the forums are a free service, open to the public. Because of the volume of traffic we receive, it is not unusual to wait a week from the date of the last post (sometimes longer) for a response. If you see that older posts in the same folder have not yet been answered, then you know that we haven't missed you - we just haven't gotten to your question yet.

I'm sorry that you had a disappointing test experience. I know you were aiming for a higher verbal score, but 36 is still very good!

The content mix does change somewhat over time, but there aren't big changes because it is a standardized exam - they have to be very careful / gradual about introducing changes.

The GMATPrep software generally follows the same scoring pattern, though I suspect that it is not identical because their scoring algorithm is a trade secret - so they don't want people like me figuring certain things out. :)

I agree that your best bet for verbal is to work with official materials - you were doing the right thing. I think the issue at this point is more about figuring out why your score might have dropped (even though it didn't drop that much).

Mental fatigue could have been one factor. Timing could be another. Did you feel any of these symptoms:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... you-crazy/

Could any of the reasons described in here apply to your case:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... t-wrong-2/

Here's one idea: you mentioned that you received 1 weaken, 1 strengthen, and 0 assumptions (for CR). But you mentioned fill in the blank questions.

The vast majority of fill in the blank questions are Strengthen questions. The rest are Inference or Assumption. So you did get more of those types - but if you weren't recognizing them as falling into those categories, then it would have been harder to answer those questions. So there's some work to be done on CR.

Try the resources here:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... reasoning/

Finally, I think your real focus needs to be Quant at this point, not Verbal. Your Verbal percentile is 81st and Quant is 49th. In other words, your verbal performance is already where it needs to be as far as getting into b-school, but your quant performance is on the lower side. It's going to be more important to try to push that score up to 45+.

[soumya2022]

Dear ma'am,

Apologies for deviating from the forum rules and bumping up my post! I guess the anxiety got the better of me...

Thank you for the guidance-on reading the articles you suggested, I realise I have problems to plug, for sure. :(
Just to clarify further, the FIB questions on CR were draw the conclusion and weakener questions. I understand what you are hinting at, and will definitely work on the CR bit.

As regards quant, have started working on improving my score. The error log is helping.

One last guidance I would require from your end-Now that I have exhausted all the mocks (GMAT Prep 1, 2 and the exam pack mocks), could you please suggest as to which mock I could take before my actual GMAT this time around, since the mock scores would definitely be inflated if retake the GMAT prep mocks.

Thanking you in anticipation.

Regards
Soumya

[StaceyKoprince]

No worries - I know this test makes everyone anxious. :)

Do you have access to our CATs? Whenever independent websites do polls about the best practice CATs (that aren't GMATPrep), we pretty much always win. (Seriously, I haven't seen a poll that we've lost yet.) So if you've already used GMATPrep, then our CATs are the next best thing.

Plus, you get a lot of data about your performance that GMATPrep doesn't provide. Once you've taken our CAT, use the article below to analyze your results:
http://tinyurl.com/analyzeyourcats

Feel free to come back here to share your analysis with us. If you'd like to provide us with more detail about your quant weaknesses, we'd be happy to suggest resources.

If you don't have access to our CATs now and are considering buying them, just check the price to buy the CATs vs. the price to buy one of our Strategy Guides (which then come with access to the CATs). Last I checked, it was cheaper to buy one Guide (and then get access to the CATs) than to buy only the CATs. :)