660 on MGMAT - 1

[devang.lakhani]

Hi,

I scored 660 on MGMAT 1 - 47Q and 33V (81%Q and 69%V). I skipped the essays while taking the test. I use the following strategy in the two sections:

Quantitative:

I try to attempt each question in 2-mins. My initial (for the 1st 3 questions) accuracy is generally good. Then the questions start getting tougher and I take more time to solve the questions. Now my accuracy goes down a bit. Overall till the 30th question I kept getting questions in the 700-800 range slipping to 600-700 only once near the 22nd question. However by the 32 question I had only 3 mins remaining. I did a blind guess of the remaining questions. In the real GMAT after attempting the essays I think my position would be the same i.e. attempt first 32-33 questions diligently and guess the remaining 5-4 questions blindly.

Please comment on this strategy.

Verbal:

Again I try to attempt each question in 2 mins. At the end I do a blind guess of the last 4-5 questions.

Overall I am targeting 680 to 700. I am planning to take GMAT in the last week of Aug-2009. I am not sure, how should I direct my preparation going forward. I have a fear that 660 on MGMAT also means that my real GMAT can also slip by upto 50 points.

I appreciate your help.

[StaceyKoprince]

In the real GMAT after attempting the essays I think my position would be the same i.e. attempt first 32-33 questions diligently and guess the remaining 5-4 questions blindly.

Please comment on this strategy

Bad strategy. Don't do that. The penalty for 5+ questions wrong in a row averages 2 to 2.5 percentile points per question. The penalty for one question wrong (questions before and after are right) is only about 1 to 1.5 percentile points per question. Basically, the worst thing you can do is have a string of wrong answers in a row.

Also, go take a look at your accuracy on the ones on which you spent way too much time (3+ min). I'm betting your accuracy really went down. I'm also betting that this extra time spent didn't hurt you ONLY on the 4-5 on which you had to guess. Did you have other sub-700 questions that you answered in <1.5m AND that you got wrong? If so, you likely were rushing and made some kind of careless mistake. It's never worth it to spend extra time on a really hard question that you may get wrong anyway if the consequence is to miss a question that you actually do know how to do. (And it hurts your score more to get a lower level question wrong than a higher level question.)

Think of it this way:
1) if you get a question wrong that's below your level, that could prevent you from getting the score you should be getting
2) if you get a question wrong that's above your level, that won't prevent you from getting the score you should be getting
3) the reward for getting a really hard question right = an even harder question... not actually a great reward
4) the more time you spend on a quant question above about 2m40sec, the more likely you are to get it wrong (really - somebody did a study)

So it's not worth it to spend a lot of extra time to try to get the hardest questions right. It's actually much more worth it to let those kinds of questions go! (This is ditto for the verbal.)

I skipped the essays while taking the test.

Do the essays next time. I know you don't care about the essay score, but you do care about your multiple choice score, and if you don't do the essays, your multiple choice practice scores will be inflated. You won't do as well on the real test because you'll only be prepared for a 2.5 hour test, not a 3.5 hour test.

A 660 on MGMAT means that your "expected" score is +/- 50 points, not just -50. You still have a month, though, so you've still got some time to keep improving! If you can fix the timing problem alone, that will help you with probably 20-30 points.

[supratims]

I scored a 640 in MGMAT 1. Q46 and V32.
I found the Quant section a bit on the difficult side, too many time taking problems in the test. Verbal was a balanced test, but I carried on the bad momentum from Quant and missed a few tricks.

[StaceyKoprince]

Yes, a lot of people think our quant is extra-hard. On the real test, you get little "breaks" (easier questions) if you are a higher-scoring quant student because some of the experimentals will be lower level. But you don't get those little mental breaks on our test. :)