640-Practice to 580-Actual :(( - very dissappointed

[dilip_vvn]

Practice tests -
1) Baseline: MGMAT1 - 640
2) T-30days: MGMAT2 - 590
3) T-15days: MGMAT3 - 640
4) T-13days: GMATPREP1 - 590
5) T-8days: GMATPREP2 - 650
6) T-7days: MGMAT4 - 640

Actual Test day (T) - 580

I was very confident of hitting 640 but not sure what happened during the actual test.

I felt actual GMAT was more stringent with Verbal section and the RC questions were especially tougher than MGMAT.

Anyways, after a break of 2weeks, I am back to give it another shot.

Also I felt IR is more tougher than is generally credited with. It takes the juice out of you before you hit the Quant section. Desperately need some tips to manage IR.

I hardly did any of the verbal questions from OG13 which is something I plan to rectify this time around but please provide some suggestions on the study plan. What are some of the things I can do better. Goal is 700+/-20 (ofcourse). Plan to give the 2nd try in a month's time.

[StaceyKoprince]

There's an important reason you actually shouldn't have been very confident of hitting 640. Your score kept jumping up and down between high 500s and mid-600s. Until you figure out why, you can't guarantee it won't happen again on test day.

Also, it happened on both our test and GMATPrep and one of those tests was just 2 weeks before the real thing.

So you'll need to try to figure out what was going on. On the 590 tests, did both scores drop, or was the drop mostly due to Q or V?

Did you take all of the tests under 100% official conditions, including IR and essay? As you noted, IR takes a lot of mental energy. One of the reasons your second GMATPrep test might have been higher is that the IR questions are identical to the IR questions on the first test - so your brain wouldn't have been as tired as normal when you got to Q and V.

Another common cause of score fluctuations: time management issues. Unfortunately, GMATPrep won't tell you your timing data, so you'll have to use your MGMAT CATs, but timing problems will show up even on your higher-scoring tests.

Another common cause: holes in your foundation. The GMAT rewards people who are generalists (pretty good across all topics) vs. specialists (really good at certain things and not good at others). If you are a specialist and you happen to get a few more questions in your areas of weakness, your score will drop. (Or if you get a few more questions in areas of strength, your score will jump.)

Take a look at this article for ideas about how to figure out what happened:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... t-wrong-2/

Then come back here and tell me what you think might have happened. Once we know what those things are, we can figure out what to do about them.

Also, when you come back to post again, use the below to analyze your most recent MGMAT CAT (this should take you a minimum of 1 hour):
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... ts-part-1/

Figure out your strengths and weaknesses as well as what you think you should do based on ALL of your analysis. Then tell us; we'll tell you whether we agree and advise you further. (Note: do share an analysis with us, not just the raw data. Part of getting better is developing your ability to analyze your results - figure out what they mean and what you think you should do about them!)

Next, you mention that your goal is a 700 and that you want to take the test again in a month. Are you hoping to hit 700 in a month? Or are you hoping to hit the 640 range in a month and you'll then take the test a third time?

It's unlikely that you will both fix whatever problems are causing the score fluctuations and lift your score to 700 in one month's time. Anything's possible, but most people would need more time.

If you're hoping to hit an intermediate score and then take a third time, that's fine - though you may want to think about whether you want to plan that, or just give yourself several months to get up to that 700 range.

[dilip_vvn]

Hello Stacey - Thanks for the response. I pushed out my test as far as I can, closer to the application deadline. My new date is June17th. Starting today, I have close to 45days.

Quant - I think I can hit >65% even on an off day. There was not much fluctuation in the scores from all tests. 62+/-5%. Actual test result was also the same.

Verbal - This is what I am more concerned about.
SC - I want to do the split and resplit and then apply the rules. But I can't really do that consistently in 1.15min. Sometimes I end up listening to my ear.
CR - When I use the process steps from your lessons, I am able to hit a very high correct percentage. But meeting the <2min timing is very difficult. I am unable to do it consistently. On the actual GMAT, I hardly used the techniques I learnt and went back to my pre-MGMAT way of doing things.
RC - Due to years of reading stuff online, so far I am doing OK. But at the same time I felt MGMAT RCs were easy to glance over than the GMATPrep ones. In the real GMAT I felt like I was rushing through RC's aswell.

I have done the analysis on my latest MGMAT test (days before the actual one) and am wondering if there is a way I can send this across to you as an attachment.

Added to all of this, on the real GMAT, I had the login screen locked out with the clock ticking down, at the beginning of every section. I got close to 30min break between Quant & Verbal sections, instead of 8min, because of this. The test administrator added the lost time half way through the test, interrupting my work for 5mins each time and all the way along, I thought this is good for me because my brain was getting the much needed rest. I ended finishing both the sections with more than 5mins remaining. I might have rushed through or my rythm was messed up - not sure. I am no longer picking that venue for my 2nd attempt.



Thanks!

[dilip_vvn]

Hello Stacey -
After the analysis it seemed like I scored well when I managed my time better and did not do 4+ Questions wrong in a row.

Based on that can you please help me on few specific topics:
1) How to increase the speed on RC while following the steps given in your material
2) SC - I am not able to apply the concepts consistently. When I read the answer I understand the reasoning, but while doing the problem I cannot figure out what the issue is. Any suggestions here?

Thanks,
Dilip.

[StaceyKoprince]

On how many verbal questions do you guess pretty quickly and move on?

If your answer is either "none" or "I don't know," then that's where we start. :)

Plan to guess - decently quickly - on 4 to 7 questions in the section. Use that time to reduce the timing pressure on the ones that you do answer.

Also, save some time by using this process once you get to the answer stage:
- 1st pass through answers: place answers into 1 of 2 categories, definitely wrong or maybe. DO NOT decide whether something is right at this stage.
- 2nd pass through: look only at the "maybe" answers, compare, choose one. If you still have 3+ answers after this, guess immediately and move on.
-- When you are down to two answers on verbal, look at each answer ONCE more, then pick one and move on. Do not agonize back and forth, ever.

We don't unfortunately download / open attachments for security reasons. But I actually don't want something that's so long you wouldn't be able to type it out in several paragraphs. I don't want all of the data - I want your summary as to what you think you should do, supported where appropriate by the data. (eg, I have a timing problem on X because I had Y questions over 3min, so I'm going to do A, B, and C to fix my timing.)

You should be able to tell me the 3 or 4 most important things for each of quant and verbal - think about what to prioritize and where to start. You'll need to do this all the time while studying.

For SC, I'm going to suggest a two-pronged approach.

Prong #1: There are some things for which you just already know, when you're reading, "this is right and this is wrong" - even if you can't state what the exact rule is. For those things, it's okay to just go ahead and pick, but pay attention to how you feel. When you know you know, no hesitations, you're fine.

Prong #2: When, however, you're really not sure and you're kind of having to talk yourself into it, then you know this is something you have to study more explicitly. Your next step here is to study the actual rule tested (using our book or some other book that teaches you the actual content - not just an explanation for that specific problem). Then, study HOW the GMAT tends to test that thing and what clues can trigger you to know that a question is testing this.

Flip open the OG and look at the answers of an SC - but cover up the sentence. (You can use one that you've done already, but a while ago). JUST by comparing the answers, could you tell me which rules are probably being tested? You can probably do this for some things right now (eg, "has" and "have" would be a pretty straightforward split), but you can also probably get better at this.

It's not always possible to tell everything, because the non-underlined portions hold clues, too, but you should be able to have a pretty good idea just from comparing the answers.

When you read the explanation and think, "Yeah, that makes sense, but I totally didn't see it myself," now go back and pick apart those answers until you teach yourself how to see it in the first place. What are the specific differences that signal that XYZ is being tested? How should you process / think about those differences? What else helps to determine which one is right?

Also, use this overall process:
http://tinyurl.com/scprocess

This can help with more advanced topics / harder splits (but get the basic study process down before you go to the harder stuff):
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... orrection/

For RC, part of the battle is literally paying less attention - reading detail and just thinking, "Oh, look, serious detail, I'm going to turn my brain half-off here... okay, new paragraph, I'm paying attention again." Do you have access to our Navigator program? If so, look at my passage video for the second-to-last OG13 passage (the one about plant hormones) - see how much I just skim right over?

Have you seen these?
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... rehension/

For the CR part, you may just need more practice. Do some and figure out which steps are taking the most time. Then think about how you can streamline those steps (or ask here for advice). Do think about the answer-choice-stage stuff I wrote about above.

Yikes, I've never heard of the problem you had at the testing center. I would file a complaint with GMAC; they might let you take the test again for free or for a discount. Sure, it's nice to have a longer break, but when it's unexpected, it can really mess with your rhythm. (If you do file a complaint, let me know what happens.)

[dilip_vvn]

Hello Stacey - For the past few weeks, I have been doing OG13 questions. If I take 2.30secs on a CR question, then I will get it right. Same with the overall Quant section. I feel its my speed. How do I improve it?

I scheduled my 2nd test for June17th. In 4 weeks, what can i do to get my worstcase score from 580 to 650?

[StaceyKoprince]

If you're spending 2.5 minutes on CR, then you're going to have to take a bunch of time from other questions in order to finish the section on time. Are you naturally faster than normal on SC or RC? If not, then you need to figure out how to balance your time better.

Try doing some CR where you keep track of time spent on the three big stages: reading / understanding the argument, trying to understand the question and brainstorm what the answer needs, and then evaluating the answer choices. Where are you spending the bulk of that 2.5 minutes?

How often do you go back and forth over the same answers multiple times? Most people can shave 15 to 30 seconds of time just by not doing this (which is a waste of time in the end). Instead, use the process I described in my last post (two passes through the answers).

Also, if you spend 2.5m on quant questions, you won't finish the section on time. First, you need to figure out when you do need extra time and when you don't - nobody needs exactly the same amount of time for every question. On which topics do you tend to be okay (2m or faster)? On which topics do you tend to go over?

Besides topics, are there any other trends? DS vs. PS? Story problem vs. "pure" math?

To get better at timing, first read this (I think I gave it to you before, but read it again):
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... lly-tests/

Then this:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... nt-part-1/

And start doing what those articles say.

Did you file a complaint with GMAC about the test center issue? If so, have you heard anything?