CAT Exam Analysis MM

[mm88]

Quant 36 36 %
Verbal 36 81 %
Total 600 61%


Context- no prep since February 2015. My analysis is focused on the Quant. Overall, I had timing issues that impacted me on the first 15 questions and set me up for a bad performance on the second half of the section. I had 8 questions in the 700-800 level in my first 15, and got 2 right by guessing. By question 16, I was 5 minutes behind the target cumulative time. From then on, I was fighting a dual battle and losing- trying to answer questions correctly while catching up on timing. I did neither well.

Strengths (not many strengths at this stage, given that I have not looked at material in quite some time)
Exponents and Roots
Odds/Evens
Algebraic Translations

Holes
Geometry is the most obvious hole
Other areas I need to prioritize are quadratics, formulas, divisibility and primes, statistics, consecutive integers, overlapping sets, fractions, percents, and ratios

Ugh
Rates and work problems

[StaceyKoprince]

From then on, I was fighting a dual battle and losing- trying to answer questions correctly while catching up on timing. I did neither well.

Which isn't surprising, right?

In general, if you find yourself more than 2-3 minutes behind, guess immediately on the next hard question that you see - either something you know is a weakness or something that just looks super annoying. Save (most of) that whole 2 minutes (for quant). In other words, sacrifice as little as possible to catch back up as fast as possible.

Holes: I'm reorganizing in order of importance:
fractions, percents, and ratios
quadratics, formulas, statistics
divisibility and primes, geometry
consecutive integers, overlapping sets (these could get moved to "ugh / don't bother" if lifting the earlier stuff gets you to where you want to be)

I know from another post that you're going for as close to 720 as possible. In order to do that, you're going to have to lift verbal to at least your prior level (again from your other post, here's your official GMAT score from before: 680 total, 44 Q, 41 Verbal). I know you haven't studied for a while, so it should just be a matter of getting that back up to speed again, but make sure that you don't neglect it. It's still part of the equation.

I'm going to recommend that you start with Foundations of Math. Make sure that there aren’t any holes in your foundation by trying problems at the ends of the relevant chapters for your weakness areas.

eg, you need to study fractions. Find that chapter in FoM and diagnose yourself via end-of-chapter problems. Anything wrong, long, or feels funny? Go into that chapter to learn the material, then do the rest of the end-of-chapter problems. Do this for all of the content areas that appear in the same "main" strategy guide (eg, fractions, percents, ratios).

When ready, go to the main strategy guide chapter and do the same thing: try end-of-chapter problems to diagnose, then learn what you need to learn from that chapter, then go do more end-of-chapter problems to practice. When done, try the related Interact lessons to reinforce. (Note: you may want to do all FoM work first, then move to all main strategy guide work. Some topics do cross problem areas. And, in general, your brain learns better when you learn across topics in that way vs. focusing just on one topic for a week and then moving to another.)

Then try a set of OG problems. I like to do the sets in groups of 4, 8, or 12 so that I can practice the time management method that the Interact Timing lesson discusses (in session 6). In any set of OG problems, make sure to include some randomly-chosen questions (because you never know what you’re about to get on the real test!). Here’s where you’ll practice your timing and decision-making, and also get a review of things you haven’t directly been studying (this is via the randomly-chosen problems).

Once you've covered a few topic areas / books, your sets should consist of recently-studied material, older material (for review), and again some randomly-chosen ones.

Now, how do you learn from those problems? There are two broad things that you're analyzing:
(1) Decision-making. Are you making good decisions about what to do and what NOT to do? Are you spending your time and mental energy well? Or do you need to make better decisions? How?
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -the-gmat/

(2) Problem-by-problem: how can you get better the next time you see something like this? (Note: "getting better" includes "recognizing faster that I should guess and move on.")
http://tinyurl.com/2ndlevelofgmat
That article contains a link to another article on the 10 questions to ask yourself when analyzing problems. Print that out.

To help with the decision-making / time management on a more micro-level, see section 4 in the second half of this article:
http://tinyurl.com/GMATTimeManagement

That same section also has links to two articles on educated guessing (one for quant, one for verbal). Follow the links for quant at least. And note that the question "how can I make an educated guess?" is part of your list of 10 questions for the 2nd-level study. It all links up!

Okay, that's a lot - certainly enough to get started. Try that out for a week or so (ask any questions, of course!) and then let me know how it's going.

And remember: you're not trying to do everything all at once. You're focusing on the most obvious things that need help right now, and then we'll see how far that lifts you. And then you'll do the next set of most-obvious things and we'll see how far that gets you. Eventually, you'll get where you want to be without having to do *every* possible thing that one could study for the GMAT.