Finished OG books....no improvement in CAT score

[Guest]

I have spent the last 3 months going over the OG guides page by page and have not seen any improvement in my last 3 CAT exams (630, 650, 630). I even went back back and redid (several times) problems that I had missed to build up my weak areas. At this point, I am able to do +90% of the OG problems correctly, yet cannot seem to do better on the CAT exams.

What am I doing wrong here? What else can I do to boost my score into the 700 range?

[StaceyKoprince]

Unfortunately, you're not studying in the right way. Don't worry - you're in good company; most people don't know the right way to study.

You don't actually get much better by simply doing problems. You get better by analyzing problems and figuring out how to make connections with past and future problems.

People who score well on the test do so because they recognize what to do with a problem, not because they can somehow figure everything out from scratch in 2 minutes. If you want to score well, you should be able to have a problem pop up on the screen and, within 30 seconds, be able to categorize it by question type and sub-type, content area and sub-area, and techniques applicable to those categories. You should also be able to recognize that you have done something like it before and remember what technique(s) you used. Finally, you should have already though about how to decide which technique would be best for this particular question based on those connections you are making to past problems - so that you can make that decision very quickly. 750-level testers can do this with probably 80% of the questions they see. 700-level testers can do this with probably 50% of the questions they see. 650-level testers can do this with probably 30-35% of the questions they see.

Note: when I say "recognize," I do not mean that you are seeing a problem you've actually seen before. I mean that you have seen a problem similar to that one and you actually remember and recognize what to do as a result.

Okay, so how do we do all of that?

Ask yourself these questions:

1) Did I COMPREHEND the symbols, text, questions, statements, and answer choices?
2) Did I understand the CONTENT being tested?
3) Was I able to CATEGORIZE this question by topic and subtopic?
4) Did I make a CONNECTION to previous experience?
5) Did I choose the best APPROACH? If there are multiple approaches, how do I DECIDE which one is best?
6) Did I have the SKILLS to follow through?
7) Am I comfortable with OTHER STRATEGIES that would have worked, at least partially?
8) Do I understand every TRAP & TRICK that the writer built into the question, including wrong answers?
9) Have I MASTERED this problem well enough that I could explain it to someone else?
10) How will I RECOGNIZE different problems in future that test the same or similar things?

You need to answer these questions for every single problem you do - not just the ones you get wrong. I can easily spend 5 to 15 minutes analyzing a problem after the initial 2 minutes in which I do it, and 90% of my learning comes from that analysis, not from the initial 2 minutes.

Good luck!

[Guest]

Stacey,

I am average in Reading Comprehension and I believe I can do well on the exam if I can improve my hit ratio to 85%. You mentioned that Reading Comprehension has a pattern. I have gone through the OG questions and I have not recognize a pattern to be wary of. Do you mind sharing some those patterns that you are referring to?

[StaceyKoprince]

RC Passage:

What is the main point or purpose of the entire passage (most commonly found in the first couple of sentences or the last couple of sentences of the whole thing)?

What is the purpose / main idea of each individual paragraph?

What kind of info is contained in the various paragraphs?
- background info / context
- support for the main point / purpose (this is generally the largest category of info)
- the actual main point / purpose
- follow-on discussion / expounding upon the main point / purpose

Is there any foreshadowing that gives you an idea of what's coming?

RC Questions:

Is it a general question or a specific one?

If general, what type?
- main idea
- passage structure
- tone

If specific, what type?
- specific detail, what
- specific detail, why
- inference
(those three are the main types, though there are other minor types)

Do you know how to handle each of those types? Do you know what they want? (This is different for each type.)

RC Wrong Answers:

Why are the wrong answers wrong, especially the tempting wrong ones? What kinds of commonalities can you notice after you've thought about a bunch of these? Here are some I've found:

RWP: Real World Plausible. The info sounds good in the real world, but I'm supposed to limit myself only to what the passage tells me.

DC: The info is directly contradicted by the passage

The Mix-Up: Two different pieces of info from the passage have been mashed together in a way that is not what the passage actually says - it just looks good b/c the two different pieces are discussed (separately) in the passage

Extreme: extreme words -- always, never -- typically indicate wrong answers (on RC - this is not as certain on CR)

TBNR: True But Not Right. This info is actually presented just as stated in the passage... but it doesn't answer the question that was just asked.

And, of course, the biggest category of all: Out of Scope. (RWP is a subset of OOS.) The info goes beyond what the passage actually says and we can't do that.

That should give you some ideas. :)

[Guest]

Stacey,

What are the best (preferably free online) periodicals, books etc. too read to improve reading comprehension skills? Economist, Editorial sections of NYTimes ?.... I understand question patterns of the RC and am ~670 scorer, but i feel that to improve my RC score (which is my weakest verbal skill), i need to improve my reading skills.

Thanks :)

[StaceyKoprince]

I do like The Economist and NYT. Also Wall Street Journal (I think you can do google news search and get those for free as well). A lot of the other "business" magazines have gotten really fluffy. Another one that can help if you dislike the science passages is Scientific American (not sure if that's free online though - you'll have to check). Occasionally Wired can have some good technical stuff, though most of it is too fluffy.

[Helios]

Really good input.....even I took Printout and read atlest 5 times. I have the same problem. Did OG atleast three times but still swirling around 620-630 zone....

[Guest]

ummm...personally i dont think reading those stuff is so helpful. the gmat is trying to test if you understand the text not if you have background knowledge in the topic. the best is practice reading comp questions...if you notice it is not the passage that is tricky...it is the answer choices....so practice OG and 1000 reading comp document. :wink:

[StaceyKoprince]

Generally, I agree with you - there's nothing like studying from the real thing. Some people struggle with reading speed / comprehension in more general terms, though, and can use some more daily reading to get better at that, especially non-native-English speakers. (Though it's best to have someone else reading the same articles and then discussing them - not to remember the content, but to discuss what is said, what isn't said, what's the main point, etc.)

By the way, the 1000 sets thing is part of what got Scoretop in trouble, I think. I'm not 100% sure, but I wouldn't download that stuff myself right now.