Before/After MGMAT 10 point Improvement in Score

[mcinerney.b]

Hi

Prior to taking the Manhattan course I took the diagnostic exam and scored a 640. With one week left in the class, I took a second exam and scored a 650. After class ended, I have spent the past 3 weeks reviewing course material and doing the Official Guide problems. I just took a third exam and got a 650 on it.

I am a bit puzzled as to why I have not seen any significant increase in my score after MGMAT and all the questions. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[mcinerney.b]

Below you will find some more detailed analysis of my exams. All exams were taken under strict test conditions, and I wrote both essays prior to taking the exams every time.

4/2: 640 (Q43, V34) - this was before taking class session 1

5/30: 650 (Q44, V354) - this was after class session 7

6/26: 650 (Q43, V36) - this was two weeks after the last class session.

Here is further breakdown of the second and third exams. I have chosen not to place too much emphasis on the first exam as that was taken prior to the class, and I believe that I learned about test taking techniques.

Test 2:
Verbal
8/14 on CR
8/12 on RC
6/15 on SC

I had three SC that took longer than two minutes; all were 700-800. I got one right and two wrong.

I kept all CR questions to three minutes or under, and for the RC the first question took me a few minutes but all subsequent questions were under 2 mins.

Quant:
7/15 on DS
13/22 on PS

I had 5 questions that took longer than two minutes (1 DS, 4 PS). I got 4 of the 5 problems correct. There was also a string of 4 problems that I got incorrect. 3 of these 4 consecutive incorrect problems were DS.

Test 3:
Verbal
9/14 on CR
7/12 on RC
11/15 on SC

I had three SC that took longer than two minutes; all were 600-700. I got one right and two wrong.

I kept all CR questions to three minutes or under, and for the RC the first question took me a few minutes but all subsequent questions were under 2 mins.

Quant:
7/15 on DS
14/22 on PS

I had 6 questions that took longer than two minutes (2 DS, 4 PS). I got 1 DS and 1 PS correct. There was also a string of 4 problems that I got incorrect. All 4 of these consecutive incorrect problems were DS.

I am a bit frustruated because between my second and third tests, I have studied pretty hard yet I have not seen any improvement. I am confused as to where I should be focusing my time as I want to reach the 700 mark yet it seems like I am fairly consistent in my tests. It seems like DS is somewhat of a weakness of mine, but I cannot figure out what else I can be doing to better prepare myself.

Please help me out Stacey. Thanks.

[tim]

Sending in a bunch of data won't actually allow any of us to determine why you haven't improved. All we can do is look at the data and tell you that the computer assigned the correct score based on which questions you answered correctly. It doesn't tell us anything about why you didn't answer more correctly. I notice you spend almost your entire post concentrating on data but you have said exactly two words ("pretty hard") about how you studied. This strongly suggests your focus may not be on what it needs to be on in order to make the improvements you are looking for, and that is probably why you haven't improved..

Try writing as much detail about the way in which you studied, what you did and for how long, and the process by which you review problems and attack your weaknesses, and my guess is you'll have some pretty solid answers on your own before you even submit the post to us. But go ahead and submit it anyway, because we'd love to share our insights into what you've done right and where you might make some improvements!

[mcinerney.b]

Thanks Tim.

Since the course has ended, I have spent my entire focus on answering the Official Guide problems listed at the end of each MGMAT study books. The way I have attacked these problems is by focusing on one question at a time and then looked at the answer. If the answer is right, I usually plow on to the next question; however, if the answer is wrong, I review what my mistakes were and what the correct solution is. I have also marked in the Official Guide all problems that I have gotten wrong in the past so that I can circle back to them. I have focused my efforts on quant as that is where I believe I can improve more (and where I am more disappointed with my score). I randomly decide what Official Guide section to focus on as I cannot see a major weakness within quant. I typically study two hours after work has ended and also 4-8 hours on the weekend.

[StaceyKoprince]

So, there's a dichotomy between "doing" and "reviewing." You do a problem and then you review that problem (or you do a set of problems, and then review that set, etc).

Probably 15% of your learning comes from doing the problem and 85% comes from reviewing that problem. Checking the answer and the solution comprise about 5-10% of that 85%. :)

So, basically, the issue here is that you need some help with how to learn better.

I'm going to start first with this article because it describes how to review your practice tests.

http://www.beatthegmat.com/a/2009/09/23 ... tice-tests

This will allow you to extract much more useful data for yourself and to share with us here. I think you do actually have some of that data in your post above, but you may not yet have the knowledge to be able to interpret it all appropriately. For example, you said:

"I had three SC that took longer than two minutes; all were 700-800. I got one right and two wrong."

If I saw that on my own test, this is what I would then think after that:
"So, when the questions are really hard, I get sucked into spending too much time, and that doesn't help me anyway because I only got 1 right. Did I make any careless mistakes elsewhere on this test? (Of course I did - I always do!) Were any of those careless mistakes due to speed? Oh, yes, I answered this SC in 40 seconds and this CR in 1m13s, and I got both wrong, and I really should have gotten them right. So spending extra time on some problems ALSO cost me these other two problems that I might have gotten right if I weren't rushing...

Okay, so I have to learn to cut myself off and make an educated guess more quickly on these really hard ones. At what point should I have recognized that this question was too hard for me? (Hint: approx. between the 30 and 60s mark on SC.) What should I have done then? Could I still eliminate some of the answers? At what point should I have told myself I just need to guess?"

Etc. The above is part of what's called "analyzing" or reviewing your work. This next article will go into much greater detail about how to do this on EVERY problem - yes, even the ones you answer correctly.

http://www.beatthegmat.com/a/2009/10/09 ... ce-problem

I typically spend between 2 and 5 times as long reviewing a problem as I spent doing it in the first place. If you are not spending at least twice as long on the review of EVERY problem, then you are not learning much on that problem. (Again, including the ones you get right.)

Argh - I made an error on this problem! Now what?
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/04/ ... our-errors

There was also a string of 4 problems that I got incorrect. 3 of these 4 consecutive incorrect problems were DS.

What was the time on those problems? Were they too fast? Maybe you were rushing because of the others on which you spent too much time? (I'm totally guessing here - that might not have been the issue - but sometimes we get something wrong primarily because we were rushing, and we were rushing because we spent extra time somewhere else. So the problem is not that we're bad at this type of problem. It's that we are weak somewhere else and mismanaged our time, and that caused us to make this mistake on this one. Everything's connected. :)

http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2009/12/ ... management

Okay, so starting to get the idea? (You do have to read the above articles before you can reasonably answer that question.)

After you've done your test analysis, please feel free to share the results with us here; we would be happy to tell you what we think and help you to interpret the results.

Also, because you took the class, you're eligible for a free post-course assessment (PCA). Email your teacher to ask about this. (You're supposed to make the request by the end of your course, but perhaps your teacher will extend the deadline for you.)