Fluctuating score and uncertain performance in Verbal

[pranabiitkgp]

Dear Instructor ,
Today I have completed all the 6 MGMAT CATs . My last 3 scores are 700,650 & 680 . In my last two test, I have consistently scored 51 in math and 30/33 in Verbal .
In verbal my main problem is SC, I could not make out the answer after single read or for that matter after 2 read, it is taking time and because of this I end up with less time for RC passages. CR is relatively stable. I have all the 3 MGMAT strategy guide and comfortable with the theory/concept. Please help me understand what strategy to take to improve my Verbal .I have my GMAT test on 13th March -another 15 days .

Thanks in advance.
PM.

[StaceyKoprince]

What's your goal score? If it is very different from your current practice test scores, you should consider postponing your test date.

Have you been taking your practice tests under 100% official conditions, including the essays and the breaks? If not, tell us how you've deviated from official conditions.

Note: deviations can lead to artificially inflated scores, so that may be part of the explanation for your fluctuating scores. Also, if you have been doing things like skipping the essays, taking longer breaks than allowed, etc, then you should take a test under 100% official conditions to get a better picture of your true scoring range.

You should also know that 30-33 is not a huge fluctuation. At least part of that can be explained in general by normal differences in performance that always occur from test to test.

You mention timing issues and that could be part of the problem that is sometimes hurting your verbal performance. Have you read this article?

http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... anagement/

It typically takes at least 3 weeks, and often 4-6, to fix timing issues. So this is another reason you may need to postpone your test a bit.

You can use this article to analyze your MGMAT CATs and pinpoint your problematic areas more specifically:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/

my main problem is SC, I could not make out the answer after single read or for that matter after 2 read,

Does this happen on all SCs? Half? A few? You should expect that there will always be some questions that are just too hard - you'll need to guess and move on. That's just how the test works (no matter how much you study!). The trick is to identify those and move on before you've spent too much time, so that you don't hurt yourself on other questions later in the section.

Read this: http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... to-win-it/

[pranabiitkgp]

Hi Stacey - Many thanks for your valuable advices.
My target score is 700+ (nothing bellow 700 :-)

(As my concerns are mostly in Verbal, the bellow writing is specific to Verbal section)

# I had checked the time management link earlier and already using the 1 minute sense while answering questions. This is becoming very useful for hard questions and helping me to quickly guess and move on .
# I have checked the other link about how to analyze my score .
Analysis of time taken for right and wrong answers gives me following understanding -
For initial 10 questions, time taken is same as the target cumulative time, but mainly because till that period no RC passages were there . After that, one RC passages came and I checked the time at 20th questions and the difference between time taken and target cumulative time were 7-8 min.
As during the test I was aware about this increasing difference, most of the cases I hurried up after questions 20th, and the no. of questing getting wrong started increasing . Also another strategy I took for all these test to compensate the extra time for initial 20 question to skip one RC passage completely . But that makes 3-4 questions consecutively wrong and the percentile score drop by 10 points in most of the cases .
So I understand this skipping one RC passage is wrong rather I should skip any difficult SC/CR question starting from the beginning.
This will help me to avoid making 3-4 qs wrong at a stretch.
# The third link - Being in it to win it - Very simple and very practical advice. I also had the tendency to answer every question right , but now I understand, that is not possible and that very tendency is actually hurting by taking excessive time for questions which I am anyway doing wrong .
So I will have to develop another mindset which will run parallel and tell me exactly after reading a question whether I can solve it in first read or not . If not guess and move on even before spending 1 minute.
There are anyway 41 questions and I have the liberty to make mistake for at least 6-7 to get my desired 700 + (the last sentence is for myself - auto suggestions :-))

Please feel free to advice me further or ask me any question , in my journey of achieving 700+ in GMAT on 13th March ,2012 .

Thanks ,
PM.

[StaceyKoprince]

After that, one RC passages came and I checked the time at 20th questions and the difference between time taken and target cumulative time were 7-8 min.

And it's the case that you specifically lost all of that time on the RC passage and questions? Or were some of the others too long as well? For the RC, did you spend too much time on the first question (which includes your initial read-through)? The later questions? All of the above?

Note: for RC, expect the read-through + first question to be anywhere from 3 to 5 minutes, depending on length of passage and whether the question is general or specific.

For later questions, expect to average around 1m for general questions and 1.5 to 2m for specific questions.

Agreed that you don't want to skip one entire RC passage. But if RC is your weakest area scoring-wise, then you could skip one RC question within the passage - then you can spend a little more time on the other questions and yet still not be behind on the whole passage.

You can make more than 6-7 mistakes on verbal. That's your weaker area, so your quant is what's going to be pulling your score up. On verbal, you're likely going to be in the 60% correct range, so 40% wrong = 15-16 questions!! Yay! :) You just want to make sure that you're getting the hard ones wrong - in other words, you're choosing which ones to skip and get wrong, rather than being forced to guess at the end and get a bunch wrong in a row, some of which you could've gotten right with better timing.

Also, buy a can of tennis balls. Keep them on your desk or with you when you're studying. When a problem just isn't happening, pick a ball up, say "Nice shot!" and then get ready for the next point. (That is, move on.)

Finally, here are some RC resources:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/04/ ... mp-passage
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/07/ ... rc-passage


http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/09/ ... prehension
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/11/ ... il-problem
RC: http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/analyze-RC-question.cfm

[pranabiitkgp]

Hi Stacey ,Thanks for your reply .
>> I got your point on the flexibility I have on the number of mistakes i can make and the difficulty level of those wrong answers .
>> Regarding RC strategy - I have already studying MGMAT RC Strategy guide , and I see your articels are mostly conveying the same thought . So try to implement these aswell .
>>The 'nice shot !' -move on - may be something I will have to practice hard . I am taking too much time before leaving a hard question .

>For RC - on an average it is taking 8-9 min , but the accuracy level is very low .

>>As i have taken all the test including last 3 in last 30 days (scores :700 on 29th Jan ,650 on 25th Feb,680 on 26th Feb ) in perfectly official environment without any pause or without leaving initital writings sections, what is the +/- chances of getting into 700+ score in actual GMAT . Or in other words how these MGMAT scores are linked with actual GMAT score ?

Thanks,
PM.

[StaceyKoprince]

Seriously, get those tennis balls and re-read the In It To Win It article every day until you really get it. You're trying to play a different game than the actual game that you're playing. Imagine yourself out on the tennis court holding a baseball bat and trying to hit the ball over the fence. You're never going to win that way! :)

For RC - on an average it is taking 8-9 min , but the accuracy level is very low .

There's an easy, immediate remedy that will lift your score a little bit. Get them wrong faster.

Seriously. You're getting them wrong anyway. Do it faster and spend that time on SC and CR instead.

There's a limit, of course, to how far that strategy can take you, but it's a start.

Our tests have a standard deviation of about 50 points (compared with an SD of about 30 on the real test). So I'd say that you look like you're in the high-600s range right now, with 700 a possibility but not a guarantee of course. The other big factor there is the timing problem - if timing gets really messed up, that can absolutely kill your score. So really need to work on that timing and I'm playing tennis / nice shot / moving on mentality.

[pranabiitkgp]

Hi Stacey ,
Your advice has worked like a majic .
Doing RC mistakes faster and "I'm playing tennis / nice shot / moving on mentality" have helped me to minimize the timing issue . However i find this tough to maintain the 2nd mindset throughout the test ...so need to work on that ...

1. I am doing silly mistakes in verbal . I should answer some simple questions and indeeed while reviewing I am surprised - how can i make such mistakes ....any remeady on this ? :-)

2. Is there any caution on giving full length test on each day for next 6 days leading to my test on 13th ? Specialy should I spend the previous day of the test giving a full LENGTH test or I should revise the content ....though silly qs ...but still if, here also, i can get any expert advice.....

Thanks ,
PM

[StaceyKoprince]

DO NOT take a test every day and DO NOT take a test within 5 days of the real test!!! This is CRITICAL!!

Think of this test as the equivalent of a (mental) marathon. Would you run a practice marathon the day before the real thing? Of course not - you'd just tire yourself out! Same thing here.

The closer you get to the real thing, the LESS you do, and the more high level your review. Read these:

http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... game-plan/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... to-review/

(Don't do everything those two articles describe - you don't have a full 2 weeks left now, of course - but these should give you an idea of what to do for the last few days.)

Re: careless mistakes, you have to figure out WHY you made the mistake. On verbal, there are always at least two reasons: you thought the wrong answer was right for some reason, and you thought the right answer was wrong for some reason. What were both of those reasons? (They might be related - you might have thought B was better than C because _____ <some reason that relates to both B and C>)

Once you figure out why you eliminated the right one, now you know that it wasn't a good reason to eliminate so you won't do it again. And once you know why you picked the wrong one, you'll also know that wasn't a good reason to pick, either, so you won't do that again. :)

Good luck!

[pranabiitkgp]

Hi Stacey , Some bizarre things happened with my test . I went to the centre on 13th March to give the test but that could not happened due to some server issue at test centre.
Till date my next test date is not confirmed but contacting the customer service , I got to know that by next week Monday-19th they would be able to reschedule my test either on 21st or on 23rd (after discussing that with me) .
>> I am mentally beat disturbed by these happenings and given the fact that I would only get to know my test date on 19th, is there any caution regarding selecting test dates either on 21st or on 23rd . Or any related advice at this situation.

Thanks,
PM.

[StaceyKoprince]

That's annoying. Okay, let's see - they'll tell you on the 19th. If it were me, I'd probably want to take it on the 23rd so that I have a couple of extra days for review. BUT, for me, a bigger factor is time of day. I'm really not a morning person. So if they offered me 8a on the 23rd and 11a on the 21st, I'd take the 21st, even though I'd have only 2 days instead of 4.

If the timing doesn't matter, then you might as well go for the 23rd. But the 21st would be fine too.

[pranabiitkgp]

Hi Stacey , I gave the test on 23rd and scored 600 (Q-48,V-25) . I never, in none of the mock test, scored so badly. Even in my first MGMAT test, with which I started my preparation 6 month back, scored 590 . In most of the other mock test scored around 680-690 . In last GMATPrep repeat test scored 730, and also in MGMAT repeat test scored 730 .

I gave the actual test on 23rd with very good confidence. The quanta score 48 is as expected but the Verbal score - i could not make out how this has happened. During the test I remember i was thinking i am giving good test , no big hurdle , I was strict with the time , finished the test properly and answered the questions with confidence . Only shocked by seeing the score.

I was beat tired as expected , was beat anscious as the previous test date was cancelled due to test centre issue , i was having back pain ,but none of these are reason enough to get such an dismissal Verbal score .

Now i have exhausted all the MGMAT test (2 times), and nonetheless i have always scored around 35 in verbal , not sure what to do now . I have 10yrs experience and may not get this much preparation time immediately due to job commitment . My purpose of doing MBA is also to know the subjects to get into my own business . So thinking about that i don’t need after school placement facilities as much as others need , i am considering doing a part time/evening MBA from not so repute college . (back of the mind i am thinking to avoid another GMAT test and to see another sick Verbal score.....). Please help.

Thanks,
PM.

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry you had a rough time with the test.

What happened with your timing problems? We talked about how you were spending too much time on RC and having to rush on other questions to make up the time. You said that your timing was fine - but you can finish the section on time and yet still have significant timing problems, if you just rush enough on the other Qs to make up for the extra time spent on some. Were you able to correct your timing so that you were spending about the right amount of time on EVERY question?

Did you take GMATPrep tests recently? I'm concerned because the recent MGMAT tests you were taking were the second time - so you may have had an advantage in seeing questions that you saw before. If you took GMATPrep or other tests that were fully "fresh" for you (no repeated questions), how did you do on those?

Oh, wait, I just saw your note that your last GMATPrep was a repeat also. Have you taken any clean tests lately, from any source? Tests where you didn't see any repeats?

And you were taking the practice tests under official conditions, including the essays, right?

The tiredness, anxiety, and physical pain would also certainly have contributed, so don't discount those items. If you decide to retake the test, you'll want to do what you can to minimize those three things next time.

In terms of whether to take it again or whether to apply to an evening program that doesn't require as high scores - the first thing to decide is where you want to apply based upon your profile but also based upon your goals and what you want to do with your b-school degree. Talking to an admissions consultant about the various options might be helpful. Then you can use that to help you decide whether you need to look at this test again.