2 questions (time + online exams)

[george.kourdin]

hi

have two unrelated questions. if these don't belong here, please feel free to move:

1) is there a clock on the official GMAT exams similar to the one within the Manhattan GMAT CAT tests - i.e. it counts down? if not, how do people tell where they are at time-wise? wall clock?

2) i understand that this is a mgmat forum, but can someone recommend another place that offers full-length online exams (besides the 2 official tests)? if this is not an okay question, pls ignore. asking because i've taken the 6 cat exams and my scores are inconsistent so i obviously have more work to do. rehashing older questions seems like a subpar way to prepare so i am looking for more material.

thanks,
george

[StaceyKoprince]

Yes, there is a "countdown" clock on the screen on the real test. You can toggle it on or off. If you turn it off, it will automatically come back on again when you gave 5m left.

rehashing older questions seems like a subpar way to prepare so i am looking for more material.

Not exactly. :)

CAT exams are really good for (a) figuring out where you're scoring right now, (b) practicing stamina, and (c) analyzing your strengths and weaknesses. The actual act of just taking the exam is NOT so useful for improving. It's what you do with the test results / between tests that helps you to improve.

Ditto doing individual problems - while you're simply doing them. While you're doing the problem, you're not learning (much) - you're just trying to use everything you had already learned before you started the problem. Analyzing / reviewing the problems = where you really learn.

Take a look at this:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/a ... roblem.cfm

And then here's an example problem analysis for each of the 5 types:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/GMATprep-SC.cfm
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/CR-assumption.cfm
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/a ... estion.cfm
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/a ... roblem.cfm
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/a ... roblem.cfm

That's how you really learn. Don't take another test until you've done *significant* work to improve based on the strengths and weaknesses you identified from your last test.

Oh, and speaking of, here's how to figure out those strengths and weaknesses:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/02/ ... sts-part-1

We've also taken a look at 800Score's tests and liked them enough that we negotiated a deal to offer our students a discount, so you may want to check them out.

Note: if you go off and study the way I'm discussing above, you may then be able to start re-taking your MGMAT CATs without artificially inflating your score much. If you have enough time between tests, you'll start to forget the questions. Plus, follow a few guidelines to minimize the chance of artificially inflating your score via question repeats. First, anytime you see a problem that you remember (and this means: I know the answer or I'm pretty sure I remember the answer, not just "hmm, this looks vaguely familiar..."), immediately look at the timer and make yourself sit there for the full length of time for that question type. This way, you don't artificially give yourself more time than you should have. Second, think about whether you got this problem right the last time. If you did, get it right again this time. If you didn't, get it wrong again. If you *completely honestly* think that you would get it right this time around if it were a new question (even though you got it wrong last time) because you've studied that area and improved, then get it right this time.

[george.kourdin]

thanks a lot Stacey. Very helpful.

one more thing.....

i've gone through all the question banks twice. i am still struggling with some areas in quant, particularly word problems and combinatorics. whats somewhat frustrating is that i understand the logic behind the explanations. the review of answers/explanations isn't helping a ton or as much as i'd like and an overwhelming % of the time i feel like don't learn anything new from reviewing the answer to the problems i got wrong. its more like a face-palm moment where i make "careless" mistakes or misinterpret the wording. it's never like "aha i should be doing this instead".

are there additional qbanks that I can purcahse either through you guys or elsewhere?

i've tried retaking the qbanks, but after the 2nd time i pretty much know what the right answer is, so it seems like a waste of time.

thanks again

[StaceyKoprince]

I agree that re-doing the questions doesn't help much if your primary focus is the right answer, since you already know what it is. So if your goal is to test yourself to see whether you've improved from the last time you tested yourself, then no, don't use the same Qs again to do that.

Reviewing, on the other hand, is very effective even after you already know the right answer. That's a different process with a different goal.

If you are running into a lot of "careless error" moments (I like your word, a face-palm moment :) then you need to do some work towards minimizing careless errors, which is again a totally different process.

Use this article to help:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/error-log.cfm

Note that the above article talks about all kinds of errors, including ones where you actually didn't know what you needed to know. If you're focused more on careless errors, then pay the most attention to the part of the article that discusses what to do for those kinds of errors.

The nutshell for minimizing errors is figuring out exactly WHY you made the error you made. The vast majority of the time, it really isn't random - you can retrace your steps and find the moment you got off track. If you can do that, then you can figure out how to change things in future so that you minimize the chances of derailing in the same place again.

We don't have additional Q banks, but there are lots of Qs out there of course. I'd have a strong bias towards official questions s much as possible - if you've done OG12 already, look for used copies of OG11 and OG10. A lot of the questions are the same, but there are a couple of hundred different questions in each edition. You may also want to do some GMATprep (if you haven't already).