17 Days from the test (MGMAT 630 - Gmat Prep 700)

[brunoselva]

Hi,

I am studying for 3 months and my target score is 700+. My first CAT was 580 and I have improved a lot since then on the Gmat Prep tests, but not on MGMAT CATs.

I have completed all the OG questions, retried all that I missed and finished all the Manhattan Verbal books. I also did 10 CATs (MGMAT range 580 - 630, others 650 - 700).

I always do the AWA section, do the test without pausing and respect the interval time.

My last Cat scores were:
Gmat Prep #1 (May 18th): 700 - Q47 V39 - 700 IR 6.5
MGMAT #4 (May 25th): 580 - Q38 V32 - 580 no IR
MGMAT #5 (June 21): 630 - Q42 V34 - no IR *extra 15 minutes
Gmat Prep #3 (June 29th): 700 - Q45 V40 - 700 IR 7

Since all my MGMAT Cat scores were way lower than the Gmat prep scores, I made an experiment, maybe a mistake, but I tried the MGMAT #5 with 15 extra minutes on each section. I thought that the questions were too hard and I could be having time issues, so I wondered if I could get any better with extra time. I learned that not and I won't do that again.

I tried to analise the results, but I can't explain why my grades are lower on the MGMAT. Also, I don't know why I got so many hard questions on the verbal section and a low score.

Verbal
I got 35 (24 correct) from the 41 questions with 700-800 difficulty and 6 (4 correct) with 600 - 700.
Wrong questions: 9 SC, 7 CR, 3 RC

SC is my weakness, I finish those kind of questions within 1:30 to 1:45 minutes no matter if I get it right or wrong. On RC questions I spend I little bit more time than the average, but mostly right.

From the time perspective, I learned that I must be aware of witch kind of questions I should guess, because extra time didn't get me a better score. Anyway, most of my mistakes, 11 from 19, were on questions answered within 1:20 to 2:00 minutes.

Quant
On the math section, only 4 questions were 700-800 and I missed all. I got 20 questions bellow 2:00 minutes, most of them right. And above 2:00 minutes I missed almost 50%. My DS and PS hit rate is the same.

That is a surprise for me, because on all 4 Gmat Prep and a Veritas Cat that I tried, I got more than 46 points on the Quant section.

I can't figure out a difficulty on any specific Math topic, I know that I am struggling on very hard problems.

The MGMAT CATs are really helpful with the explanations. I could learn a lot with the questions that I reviewed but I am worried about my performance. My test will be in 17 days and I don't know what I should focus now.

Can anyone help me with a diagnosis and what should I do on the next 2 weeks?

Thank you

[StaceyKoprince]

Fluctuating scores typically point to timing or mental stamina issues (or both), so that might be what is going on. On the real test, you could be fine...or you could have one of your score drops, so it's important to figure out what's going on in your case.

You mention, for one test, that you had lots of hard questions in verbal but ended up with a lower score. The GMAT is a "where you end is what you get" test, so if you messed up the timing and had to rush towards the end or if you had a mental stamina crash and that caused lots of mistakes, your score would have dropped at the end of the section. Could that be what happened?

From the time perspective, I learned that I must be aware of witch kind of questions I should guess, because extra time didn't get me a better score.

This is a huge insight! This is true for everyone, but many people don't really internalize this. Good job.

In terms of analyzing the test results, use this article:
http://tinyurl.com/analyzeyourcats

Also, read these two articles:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... lly-tests/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -the-gmat/

Then process all of that and come up with what you think was going on and where you might be falling short / what might be contributing to the score fluctuations. Come back here and tell me (you can include any data that you want, but make sure to tell me your analysis as well).

Here's one hypothesis: you sometimes struggle with timing / not letting go when you should on hard problems. This leads to time pressure and an increase in careless mistakes and also possibly leads to a mental stamina problem later in the test.

If that's what happens sometimes, expect it to happen on the real test, because you will know that the real test counts - and that often causes people to hang on when they should be letting go. In this case, you'll need to start training yourself to let go when you should be letting go (and that might take you longer than 2 weeks to accomplish).