~ 3 weeks left for D day - scores still in the 600s, advice?

[kartik.money]

My journey studying for the GMAT has been bumpy to say the least! I've taken a number of practice tests in the last month or so and here's how I have been tracking so far (and in this order):

MGMAT 1 - 580 (Q37/V33)
Kaplan Free Practice Test - 620 (don't have the breakup)
MGMAT 2 - 670 (Q46/V35)
GMATPrep Test 1 - 670 (Q46/V35)
MGMAT 3 - 670 (Q43/V38)
MGMAT 4 - 650 (Q40/V39)
Knewton Free Practice Test - 640 (Q42/V37)
Veritas Free Practice Test - 630 (Q40/V38)
Princeton Review Free Practice Test - 610(Q39/V36)

From my scores, it is fairly obvious to me that quant is where I need to apply the most attention. I've switched gears from taking tests to reviewing material and solving questions off of the OG and strategy guides. Any tips on what the most efficient way to improve in Quant would be. I have 3 weekends left before the GMAT and plan on at least one practice test each weekend and review every weeknight (from the OG and MGMAT question banks) I seem to be having the most trouble with probability and combinatorics; and mostly with the DS questions. Would much appreciate some expert advice on what I can do to improve here and what my study strategy should be here on out.

While I'm definitely consistently in the 80th percentile on Verbal, I'm also afraid that my increased focus in quant might affect my Verbal score - though I recognize I could probably do better to get my score to the 40s in verbal - I'm pretty good at SC, but my scores on CR and RC vary. RC is by far where I've run into the most trouble. Any tips on what my focus should be over the next 3 weeks?

Thanks!
Kartik

[StaceyKoprince]

9 practice tests over a month - there's part of the problem right there. Did you know that just the act of taking a practice test doesn't help you to improve? (Not much, anyway.)

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.

So stop taking so many tests. Spend more of your very valuable time learning how to get better!

Ah, I just read this:

I've switched gears from taking tests to reviewing material and solving questions off of the OG and strategy guides.

Good. Now, what do you want to score on this test - what's your goal? And did you take those practice tests under 100% official conditions? If not, tell me which tests were taken as close to official conditions as possible - with essays, with normal breaks, etc.

I'm trying to get a sense of your current scoring level, because your scores are swinging up and down. If you take tests under non-official conditions, it's possible that those tests have inflated scores. If those are the higher scores, then we'd know that your current scoring range is at the lower end of your scores. That wouldn't be fantastic news, but at least we'd have a true picture - that's important.

Forget about probability and combinatorics. Get those ones wrong faster, that's all. I got one question in prob + comb combined on my last test - they're just not that commonly tested, even at high levels.

Re: DS, is it possible that you have a timing problem? At least half of the people who tell me they're not good at DS turn out to have a timing problem. Many people spend too much time on PS problems, and then go faster on DS to make up the time. Not surprisingly, performance on DS then suffers - it's hard to do well when you're rushing!

Use this article to analyze your most recent MGMAT CAT:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/

Then come back here and share your analysis (note: don't just give us the raw data - tell us what you think it means - self-assessment is an important skill to develop).

You mention having 3 weeks left but you don't mention your goal score, so I can't advise you as to whether that length of time is appropriate. In general, 3 weeks is not much time. The last 1 to 2 weeks are reserved for review, so you're not really improving a ton in the last week or two. If you're not already close to your goal score, then you may need more time. If you have a timing problem, you definitely need more time to fix the timing problem.

If you do discover that you have a timing problem after doing the test analysis, start doing what this article says:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... anagement/

Also, you mention struggling with RC; take a look at these resources:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... p-passage/
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/07/ ... rc-passage

http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/a ... estion.cfm
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/09/ ... prehension
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/11/ ... il-problem

[kartik.money]

Thanks Stacey for your response!

All tests were taken under exact test conditions - 60 mins for the essays followed by a 5 minute break, 75 minutes for quant, followed by a 5 minute break and 75 minutes for verbal.

My goal score is 700-720. What baffles me about the swing in scores (on quant at least) is it appears I got a higher percentage of questions correct on the tests in which I scored lower. On the MGMATs, I kept getting at least 10 questions wrong in the Quant section, yet my scaled score was higher (in comparison). It appears that the scoring algorithms on the free Knewton, Veritas and PR practice tests vary quite a bit from MGMAT. I honestly don't know what to make of it.

Timing was initially an issue for me (I would come down to the wire on my last 5 in Quant) but since the last MGMAT test (and all subsequent tests), I've been able to pace myself better - however, it seems I may have sacrificed accuracy in favor of pace (I made more silly mistakes).

Since the Princeton Review test (which I took last Friday), I've been spending time reviewing Number Properties, Inequalities, FDPs, VICs, Rate and Work, Ratios, Stats, Geometry and Coordinate Geometry. I created a cheat sheet of useful formulas of things I needed to remember. I spent a lot of time initially on Probability and Combinatorics - but I always seemed to be getting mixed up on when to apply a combinatorics principle. Also the trickiness of the wording on DS questions got the better of me on more than one occassion.

Dec 20th is when I plan on taking the GMAT (which is exactly 3 weeks from tomorrow). I have 2 MGMATs and 1 GMATPrep left, so I figured the best thing to do would be to review during the week and take 1 test each weekend. Does that sound like a reasonable plan of action?

I know that the last 1-2 weeks won't have a significant impact on my score - but since I was scoring at the 650-670 level (until I switched to the free practice tests), would looking at 700-720 score 3 weeks from now be too ambitious? I want to make sure I go in to the test with the right expectations!

Thanks again for your help!
Kartik

[StaceyKoprince]

since the last MGMAT test (and all subsequent tests), I've been able to pace myself better - however, it seems I may have sacrificed accuracy in favor of pace (I made more silly mistakes).

WARNING. What that probably means is that you are still going too long on some questions, but you're making up for it by going faster on other questions that you think you know how to do so you try to do them faster to save time... and then you make careless mistakes. You need to cut off the ones that are taking too long (regardless of whether you're getting them right!) - that's what's really killing your timing and causing your score to fluctuate!

Go do that test analysis and then read that timing article!

it appears I got a higher percentage of questions correct on the tests in which I scored lower

That is perfectly possible. The test is NOT scored based on percentage correct. (Obviously you can't get them all wrong and get a good score, but % correct is not the primary scoring measure.) Read the Scoring section of our free e-book The GMAT Uncovered Guide (in the downloads section of your student center). I know you have limited time, but the read is worth it - if you don't understand how the scoring works, then you are a LOT more likely to mess up the timing and take the test in the "old school" way. "Old school" (trying to get everything right) will mess you up on the GMAT!

Skip combinatorics, probability, coordinate geometry. Not common enough so not worth limited time.

In terms of whether you can get from 650-670 to 700-720 in three weeks... I don't know. Most people probably wouldn't make that kind of jump in that timeframe. Maybe 670 to 700, but not 650 to 720. The big variable here is the timing - if you do continue to having timing problems, then anything can happen. (And, by anything, I mean any kind of score *drop* - your score never goes up when you have timing problems, sadly. :)

So, you have two paths here. You can decide that the score goal is more important, so you'll take the time you need to reach that (and maybe it really will only take 3 weeks, but maybe it'll take longer). Or you can decide that the test date is more important (eg, if you have a deadline), and so you'll temper your expectations for the score goal. You'll still go for the 700-720, of course, and do everything you can to get there, but you'll also be happy with something in the mid to high 600s.

[kartik.money]

Today's timed test was a relief. I finally broke the elusive 700 score on MGMAT 5 under exact test conditions (all sections timed and 2 5 minute breaks)

MGMAT 5 - 700 (Q42/V42)

While I had a strong showing in verbal (having had no practice in verbal whatsoever over the last week), my quant woes continue. Some of the DS questions got me and again, the desire to pace myself better resulted in careless mistakes.

DS questions in Inequalities seem to be a big problem area and once again word translations seem to be giving me a harder time. Do you have any effective practice suggestions now that I am coming up to the 2 week mark before test day? I'm reviewing all wrong answers on all my previous tests to learn what I did wrong and why. Do you have any tips specifically around what my strategy should be for DS?

Thanks!
Kartik

[StaceyKoprince]

Nice work!

the desire to pace myself better resulted in careless mistakes.

How? Pacing + careless mistakes is when you rush, which means going faster (usually significantly faster) than 2 minutes. You never HAVE to go faster than 2 minutes UNLESS you went too slow on other questions. So really the "too-slow" questions are the ones that are holding you back.

And I would argue that you can't make a careless mistake on a too-slow question. Yes, technically, you can, but if you need 2m45s to answer a question, that makes it a really hard question to answer for you, and there aren't *careless* mistakes on really hard questions. Just regular mistakes - because it's a really hard question.

A careless mistake is when you 100% knew exactly what you were doing and could do it in the right time frame (or faster), and you made a mistake on something that you totally understood and knew how to do.

For DS inequalities - are the questions themselves actually testing inequalities principles, or are they using inequalities to disguise some other topic? Eg, when I see x < 0 in a problem, I know it's almost certainly a positive / negative problem in disguise, not a true inequality problem.

So maybe that's the problem - maybe you're not seeing / interpreting the disguise? Or is it really a pure inequalities principles issue?

For word trans, is that all in general - so the technique of translating from words to math? Or are there certain topics that are giving you trouble (eg, rates, or combinatorics)

If translating in general, try these two articles (and practice!):
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/05/ ... -into-math
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/05/ ... ath-part-2

If it's specific topic areas, tell me which. If it's combinatorics, probability, or set, don't worry about them - not very common, so just give those a shot and move on at or below the 2 min mark with a guess if needed.

(People hate when I say that, but that's my own strategy for combinatorics - I hate those! - and my high score is a 780. So you can do it too. :)

Finally, if you think you're struggling in general with DS, try these two articles (and the first one's kind of about translating, too, in a more conceptual way):
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/09/ ... t-problems
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... questions/