Test Day Did Not Go Well

[WilliamK927]

Hi all!

Just going to dive right into it, today I scored a 510 (Q29, V31) on my first official GMAT. This comes after about 6 months of studying and shooting for a goal score of around 650, and I am pretty demoralized by this score I received today. I shall break down what I have done so far, and some insight into why I think I got this score, and if anyone has advice going forward I would gladly appreciate it.

Magoosh 3 Month Study Schedule for Beginners
-Using OG17
-Premium subscription
Nailed down a lot of the basics. Never took a practice exam until the very end of the self paced course, and I received a 560 with GMATPrep- I don't remember the breakdown but I know that my verbal was much higher than my quant score. I knew I needed some great quant material so I bought the manhattan 1 through 5 quant books. These books took me to the next level and I felt confident in my math skills.

I studied the 5 books over about 2.5 months completed all of the OG problems while following along with the books. I took two full MGMAT Practice Exams while studying through the books. I also worked through the after exam breakdowns and had an error log for these.
MGMAT 1 (10/1/17)- 630 (Q40, V36) (with pauses because the quant had me in fits)
MGMAT 2- (10/16/17)- 640 (Q41, V36) (without pauses)

The last two weeks before my exam were spent going over weak topics with OG questions and the Manhattan Quant books, while brushing up on my verbal since I did not touch it for quite some time. I took a GMATPrep exam 7 days before without pauses in a library for full test like atmosphere and received a 650 (Q42, V38). Feeling confident.

Day of the test- Up to this point, I had thought about this test every day for the past 6 months. I had built it up to be more than just a test, I put it on a pedestal. I was nervous, and felt a fair amount of pressure. I chose to do quant first, and when it began I felt almost cloudy headed- I was seeing the questions but like I wasn't diving into them. I was getting easy questions (never a good sign in quant), and they just kept coming. Something was off and I felt it- but hey at least I never fell behind on timing (lol). It also felt like I received 80% DS questions, and hardly any PS questions. Moving on to the verbal section after my break I was torn up about my quant that I did poorly on the verbal- usually my strong point. When I clicked submit score I did not feel confident and the score showed for it.

Feeling just a little lost after receiving this score. I know that my goal of 650 is very much within reach (I did it just a week before!) and I feel like I did not perform my best on test day. I realize now that I really only did 4 practice tests in full before the real thing so maybe that is a factor. Also the not-so-calm head didn't help.

Any advice on what is next? More practice tests? Anything is greatly appreciated!

[StaceyKoprince]

The not-so-calm head was the biggest culprit, I think. I'm sorry that you had a frustrating test day.

Your description of the cloudy-head during quant and then losing confidence as you went is the key. And even thinking that you had 80% DS. I can tell you that you didn't—we all see approximately the same number of DS questions. The fact that your memory is playing tricks on you indicates that your brain was under serious stress in that testing room.

When we are super nervous, we just can't think in the way that we normally think. Your body is basically in panic mode, telling you to flee this situation (classic fight or flight). All of your brain energy is going towards that rather than thinking about the test and processing everything normally. You start making careless mistakes left and right. And, of course, as you lose confidence, you start second-guessing yourself, doubting everything you're doing...it's all downhill from there.

The good news: There are things you can do to combat this for next time. Start here:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... mat-score/

The above article links to some free resources from UCLA. There's also this program:
http://www.10percenthappier.com/mindful ... he-basics/
It has a free 1-week trial and is then paid, but I've had several students who have really liked it, so that's another option.

Next, you have now gotten one look at the testing center. You know how all the security stuff works, you know what the room is like, etc. That's also going to help next time, because it won't be such an alien environment.

Also, keep reminding yourself that schools do not care if you take the test multiple times. It's totally fine. They just care about your highest score. And you know you can get a much higher score—you did on that GMATPrep test. That wasn't a fluke! You can't have that kind of luck on a test like this; you really did earn that practice score.

So what do we need to do before you get back in there? You need to develop coping mechanisms for the stress and that's the stuff linked above). It also wouldn't hurt to prove to yourself that you can do this again in practice. I don't think, though, that you need to do a ton of work or take a ton of tests. You may be ready to try again in 3-4 weeks, depending on how the mindfulness training goes.

And you don't need to significantly change or improve your content knowledge—what you were doing before already got you up into the 600s on two tests. (I'm discounting the test on which you used the pause button...you know not to do that again, right? You gave yourself a pressure breaker / out that you can't use on the real test. Make yourself deal with all of the pressure in practice. That helps you to deal with it on the real thing, too.)

So keep doing what you were doing (except don't pause on tests / never give yourself a break that you can't have on the real test ) but add in the mindfulness stuff. If you find that your performance anxiety (see, there's even an official name for it) is still too strong, there are sports / performance psychologists you can talk to (this is a big thing in the professional sports and entertainment world). Let me know and I can refer you to someone.