Help on fine tuning study plan post CAT

[AmbikaN407]

Hi,

I appeared GMAT twice, back in 2011/12, with the help from two test prep companies (of course not Manhattan GMAT ) and got abysmal scores.
Nov 2011 - Q48 V20 AWA 5.0 (560)
June 2012 - Q49 V23 AWA 6.0 (610)

After these scores, I gave up studying for GMAT till this year January because of many professional and personal reasons. In January ,I started again with the help from Manhattan Prep materials and retired OG/GMAT Prep questions and have been successful in coming back to GMAT track. More, I purchased 6 CATs and my scores are below

GMAT Prep Test #1 - Q48 V33 IR5 (660) [Apr 02 2016] [2-3 questions I have seen before]
GMAT Prep Test #2 - Q49 V26 IR7 (610) [Apr 16 2016 - Got a series of questions wrong including 3 Q in one RC passage]
CAT #1 - Q44 V31 (610) [May 01 2016]
CAT #2 - Q42 V35 (640) [May 08 2016]
CAT#3 - Q43 V34 (640) [May 14 2016]

You can see scores are almost stagnating, although I am spending time diligently in analyzing wrong answers and taking actions on the mistakes. Only constraint I want to put on myself is /I want to crack 700+ score with self-study/

1) I am unable to move up in Quant say to Q49- Q50/51
2) Verbal has always been my weak point. I am determined to get v37-38 in next actual GMAT
3) I am kind of unsure how to proceed after these CAT scores. I can assure you that all the CATs are taken under official conditions with 2 8 mins breaks. It was difficult for initial CATs but I m kind of used to it now.

I am planning to appear exam in June 3rd week but I have not booked a date yet. I do not want to take a date as I am still behind my target score. Any help will be appreciated.

Regards
APN

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry that this test is driving you crazy. You're not alone!

Your English is good but I can tell from certain types of errors in your writing that you are going to struggle with certain kinds of important / fundamental issues in Sentence Correction (particularly around modifiers, meaning, and idioms) - and that's going to hurt your performance on SC. A 37 or 38 on verbal is quite a high score; it might be very challenging to reach that level given the types of errors I'm noticing in your writing.

If you are going to have to take the TOEFL, IELTS, or a similar test of English language skills, then you may want to consider switching over to that test for a while to drill those nitpicky grammar skills further, before coming back to the GMAT later in the summer.

If you can hit V35 / Q50, you could hit 700. And f you can score a Q49, then you are also capable of scoring 50 or 51...if you are approaching the test in the optimal way. It's important not to approach quant as though it is a "school math" test. If you are trying to get everything right and "learn all the math," you'll struggle to hit the very top quant scores.

Have you read this before:
http://tinyurl.com/executivereasoning

And this:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2016/02/ ... n-the-gmat

The idea basically is this: the way to get a top score is not to know how to do official math on every math problem - because, unless you are a math PhD, it's going to take too long, you'll run out of time, and then your score will drop anyway.

So you have to make sure that you are doing two things:
(1) Use strategies that can help you to get to the answer in more of a "quick and dirty" way (eg, estimation, back-of-the-envelope calculations) or in a way that won't make the math really long and drawn out (eg, choose smart numbers, test cases, work backwards)
(2) Know when not to continue working on a problem. Have the presence of mind to recognize bad opportunities and the discipline to let those questions go. (Yes, even at a 50 or 51-level score!)

I am writing about this because of this sentence from your post:

I am spending time diligently in analyzing wrong answers and taking actions on the mistakes

It's very common for people to focus on this, but it is only one aspect of getting better on this test. If this is your primary focus, then you are not doing everything that you need to do in order to lift your score to the 700-level.

Read this too:
http://tinyurl.com/2ndlevelofgmat

Think about how what you've been doing does and doesn't match up with these ideas about how to approach the GMAT. Also think about how you think you may need to change your approach accordingly.

Then, use the below to analyze your most recent MPrep CATs (this should take you a minimum of 1 hour):
http://tinyurl.com/analyzeyourcats

Based on all of this analysis, figure out your strengths and weaknesses as well as any ideas you have for what you think you should do. Then come back here and tell us; we'll tell you whether we agree and advise you further. (Note: do share an analysis with us, not just the raw data. Your analysis should include a discussion of your buckets - you'll understand what that means when you read the last article. Part of getting better is developing your ability to analyze your results - figure out what they mean and what you think you should do about them!)

[AmbikaN407]

Thank you for your time. First I was speechless after seeing your reply but quickly gained my composure to go ahead and do the easiest thing in your list.

Let me explain. All the suggestions you gave are worth categorizing under three headers.

Category #1 Efficiency – Your suggestions to analyze CATs fall into this category. Maximum section of my post will adhere to this category, in which I have analyzed CAT (the most recent one) and CATs (all three) to arrive at 3 buckets. This exercise has opened up many gaps in my content knowledge. The last bucket is most interesting one, which points to the questions I need to skip and save time, so that I can spend more time in rest of the questions. Very interesting thought process and I promise to include this in my next CAT. In the meantime, my CAT results are posted at the end of the post.

Category #2 Effectiveness – Most of your suggestions are in test effectiveness category, in which you have directed me to a few articles. I have gone through some of them earlier and found them extremely useful. However your article on http://tinyurl.com/2ndlevelofgmat needs a lot of deep soul searching and I need to spend some more time on this before coming back on my action items.

Category #3 Reaching 700+ score – I need to be honest here. I take all your suggestions on moving up from Q49 to Q50/51 in positive spirit, but the ROI will be much less and there is also an element of luck involved. Nevertheless, I will focus more on the areas identified in CATs and selectively miss questions so that I can spend the time in DS areas and difficult PS areas.
Coming to verbal, I am sure you would have guessed by now that I am a non-native speaker of English and have some inherent weakness in English. These weaknesses are going to weigh heavily in a standardized tests i.e. GMAT. As you have rightly pointed out, they are going to show up in SC sections.

Do you think weakness in SC can be compensated by doing better in other two sections? Your suggestion on TOEFL is difficult to implement in the current time frame. You may not be so surprised to know that I am already spending 75% of my time (weekly about 18-20 hours) in verbal and rest 25% of my time (4-5 hours) in Quants. The quants time will be further squeezed if I start spending time on TOEFL. Is there anything else I need to do to reach to 700 level?

Analyzing the last CAT
Verbal :
Step #1
Goal – Strength (S) and Weakness (O) w.r.t to timing aka uncover timing issues (if any)
Correct/Incorrect column – There are two series of wrong questions with each one consisting 3 incorrect answers. The first one in the series has three incorrect Qs of second RC passage and the second one in the series has mixed question bucket (2 SC and 1 CR). RC passage had all 3 questions with 700-800 range. I didn’t find the passage to be very difficult one but the questions were tricky and threw me off the cliff.
Cumulative/Target Cumulative – Mostly ranging behind 3:30 mins of the ideal time. Some skipping of questions during 20-30 and 30-40 brought back the cumulative time to its ideal range.
Time on individual questions – CR – Got 2 out of 3 questions wrong – all are in Too Fast track with 600-700 range of questions
SC – Got 3 out of 6 questions wrong – all are in Too Slow track with 4 700-800 range and 2 600-700 range
RC – 2 General Q on the Too Slow category. Got 1 correct and 1 wrong

Conclusion – Large number of SC problems in the Too Slow category (Mostly 700-800 range) is a problem area and question is how to recognize this is above your skill range and quit the problem to save time for other sections. The other section can be CR, in which some problems (especially in 600-700 range) are coming in “Too fast” category. May be extra time spent on “Too Slow” SC question can be spent on “Too fast” CR question. Another observation is one completely wrong RC passage? Need to be more careful on easy passage but tricky questions.

Step #2
Goal – Observations from assessment reports
Assessment Summary – In CR, Average time to wrong answers is the lowest (1:33s) and they are right next to the right ones in terms of difficulty. Need to spend some more time in CR to increase the Right category of answers. RC looks like the strongest area even if only 42% answers are correct. Difficulty levels are already touching to my maximum levels.
Question Format and Difficulty – Even if SC has the maximum correct answers in terms of percentage (60%), the time spent on 700-800 level questions is too much. On the other hand in CR, the time spent on 600-700 level questions is too low. I need to trade in those two time chunks.
Question Format and Topic – Here I took into consideration all 3 previous tests so that I can get the complete assessment of S/W areas as per topic.
CR – S (Strengthen the Arg, Draw a conclusion, Explain the discrepancy) W (Draw a Conclusion, Describe a role, Weaken the Argument). In Draw a conclusion type of questions, I am making lower difficulty ones incorrect.
SC – S (verbs, Quantity, Comparisons) W (Connecting punctuation, Modifiers, Idioms) others are in neutral category. Modifiers and Idioms are biggest worries and to some extend comparisons are next in the worry scale.
RC – S (Main Idea, Tone, Inference) W (Specific detail, passage structure). The conclusion here is straight forward – Be more watchful on specific detail questions. What is the thought process and How to correct it?

Step #3
Goal – Fill your buckets
From the timing analysis in Step #1 and observations in Step #2, the following conclusions can be drawn
Bucket #1 - Recognize your strengths – From all the 3 sections of the verbal test, RC is the strongest section. However there are two worrisome trends – 1) In each test, Test #3 and GMAT Prep Test #2, I got one complete passage wrong. One was a science passage and other one was a humanity passage. Only pattern that I can locate is passages were easy but the questions were tricky. 2) A large number of specific details questions are wrong - May be worth moving this question type to Bucket #2. Next section that is strength scale is CR. Among the question types in CR, strengthen the argument, Draw a conclusion and Explain the discrepancy are the strong areas. However draw a conclusion gives a trend where average difficulty of wrong answers is lower than avg. difficulty of right answers. This needs to be pushed to Bucket #2 category. Finally. In SC, comparisons and verbs are coming under strength category. But in comparisons, results are not consistent (average difficulty of wrong answers is lower than avg. difficulty of right answers). It is one of the best candidates to push to Bucket #2.
Bucket #2 – Prioritization in studies – For RC section, this bucket will have specific detail questions. For CR section, this bucket will have Weakening, Draw a conclusion and Assumption questions. In SC, this bucket will have Modifiers, Comparisons and Idiom sections.
Bucket #3 – Skip problems faster - On top of the list is 700-800 range SC problems that consume too much of a time. Next on CR, describe a role question takes longer time and is a good candidate for skipping. Finally on RC, specific detail questions are my weakness and I need to have more better strategy which ones to skip.

Quant :
Step #1
Goal – Strength (S) and Weakness (O) w.r.t to timing aka uncover timing issues (if any)
Correct/Incorrect column – There are two series of wrong questions with each one consisting 3 incorrect answers. The first series of wrong questions came with in the first 10 questions mark and I missed one 500-600 level DS question in that series.
Cumulative/Target Cumulative – There is apparently no timing issue and I could finish the test 2 mins to spare.
Time on individual questions – PS – A few questions are more than 4 mins but they are in 600-700 range. There must be another way of doing these questions. I can see a lot of incorrect answers too.
DS – Got only 2 questions in 700-800 range and that too took a lot of time. This explains higher than average % of correct answers in DS section. There are no tough questions in this category.
Conclusion – Large number of incorrect PS answers pushed the difficulty level of exam down, that explains the higher number of correct DS questions. There is as such no timing problem but a few questions took longer than usual time.

Step #2
Goal – Observations from assessment reports
Assessment Summary – The Avg time for DS right answers is 1:17, which is unusually low. Geometry and Algebra have less than 40% of correct answers. This is something to worry about.
Question Format and Difficulty – The PS area shows a large number of incorrect PS questions. Those which are correct, also took almost close to 3 mins to get to the right answer. In both PS and DS, all the questions in 700-800 level have incorrect answers.
Question Format and Topic – Here I took into consideration all 3 previous tests so that I can get the complete assessment of S/W areas as per topic.
Algebra – S (Linear equations, Quadratic equations) W (Inequalities, exponents & roots, Formulas). Inequalities are one of the most important question type and deserves more attention.
Geometry – S (Co-ordinate plane) W (Triangles and Diagonals). Triangles and diagonals had 0% of the correct results.
Number Properties – S (Combinatorics, Positives & Negatives) W (Odds & Evens, Divisibility & Primes). The odds and Even had 0% correct answer and time taken also more than average 2 mins
Word Problems – S (Rates & Work, Overlapping sets) W (Statistics, Consecutive Integers)
Fractions, Percent and Decimals – W (Digits and Decimals)

Step #3
Goal – Fill your buckets
From the timing analysis in Step #1 and observations in Step #2, the following conclusions can be drawn
Bucket #1 - Recognize your strengths – Fine control of overall timing is one of the strengths. However spending extra time (close to 4 mins) on PS questions is driving the time spent on DS to a low level. Even after spending more time in PS, the % of incorrect answers are high, there by pushing the level of difficulty of DS questions down. Strategic skipping techniques need to be applied here. Word problems, Linear equations are a clear strength
Bucket #2 – Prioritization in studies – Inequalities, Positives & Negatives, statistics are the priority areas for studies
Bucket #3 – Skip problems faster - Triangles and Diagonals, DS involving Inequalities are the two areas that I need to skip. I need to keep working on this list to include more topics as and when desired.

Regards
APN

[StaceyKoprince]

Very thoughtful analysis - good work.

I'm not saying that you can't get to a V37/38; I'm just saying that it's going to be harder, especially since you have a limited timeframe.

So let's say this: aim for Q51 / V38. Both are higher than you need to hit 700 so if you fall short on one, you still have a chance to hit your 700 goal.

But please don't neglect quant because you think the ROI is higher on verbal. You already got 49, which means you have the math content knowledge to hit 51. If you can learn to approach the math problems in the way that I was describing--what's the easiest way to get to the answer when I do answer, and when shouldn't I try to get the right answer?--then you have a really good chance to hit 50/51. And that takes some of the pressure off of verbal.

And yes, you can overcome some of the issues in grammar by working hard on RC and CR, where you won't have to worry about very nitpicky grammar rules. On grammar, spend some time working on modifiers and pay particular attention to prepositions - where we need to use them in general and also which ones need to be used for a particular type of expression.

From your CAT analysis:
Verbal
SC. Agreed that you'll want to learn to let go faster on some of these very hard SC. It would be worth trying to pinpoint any common characteristics of SC questions that are taking you a long time. Are the underlines very long? Are the answer choice structures changing a lot? Do the splits / differences in the answers point to certain kinds of errors that are tripping you up? You can learn to recognize, for example, that a particular kind of difference signals (for example) an idiom issue, and if you know that area is weaker for you, then you can just guess and move on.

Have you seen this for SC:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... ce-part-1/

CR: Agree that there is a potential opportunity when you get something wrong fast. Unless it was fast specifically because you knew that you didn't know how to do that problem (ie, you got it wrong fast on purpose), it may be the case that you have a better chance to get it right if you aren't rushing.

Great observation that you need to move time from the hardest SC to CR! This might help you for the CR question types you're trying to improve:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2015/12/ ... stion-type

RC: On the RC passage on which you got three 700-800 questions and got them all wrong, you got three very hard questions in a row. Sometimes that's just going to happen - that's okay. You're still great at RC.

You asked how to be more careful on specific detail questions. When you miss these, do you tend to understand the correct answer and why it is correct afterwards? If so, then I think what you need is an article that I'm just about to publish - check Beat the GMAT on Tuesday of this week for my article on working systematically through CR and RC to avoid errors.

Or is it the case that, when you read the correct answer, you still think that the wrong answer was pretty good and you don't understand why the right answer is right? If that's the case, then you still need the article that's about to be published on Beat the GMAT (BTG) - but look later in the article where I talk about how to learn how to avoid the traps that they set for you.

Buckets: excellent analysis. I agree with everything you wrote. Given that RC is so strong in general, let's look to push hard on the specific detail questions to help offset some of the grammar issues. (Though you still want to have an idea of when something is just too hard. Again, that article that's about to be published at BTG should be helpful for you.)

Quant

There is apparently no timing issue and I could finish the test 2 mins to spare.

For quant, also pay attention to how much mental energy you are using, because you still have to do the verbal section afterwards. So just because you aren't pressed for time...you shouldn't necessarily spend time / mental energy on a too-hard question. That is likely to cause more mental fatigue during the verbal section, and that can pull your score down.

A few questions are more than 4 mins but they are in 600-700 range. There must be another way of doing these questions.

Agreed! The question is whether you can find that other way. It's fine to try to study how to do these faster in future, but you also still need to study how you are going to know to cut yourself off on the real test when you don't know a good way to do a problem. I *guarantee* you that you will be given questions on the real test that you can't do in a reasonable amount of time. No matter how good you get, they'll just give you something harder. So think about how you are going to be disciplined and know when to cut yourself off.

There is as such no timing problem but a few questions took longer than usual time.

You spent more than 4 minutes each on some questions. That is still a problem. Even though you managed to finish the section on time, you still cost yourself mental energy that may have resulted in careless mistakes later in the quant section or in the verbal section.

Buckets: agree. Good conclusions.

Great! Now you have a specific list of things on which you need to work--whether that means improving accuracy or just guessing faster when you see certain things. The way in which you're going to learn about these things is detailed in that article on the 2nd Level of study. You said that you needed more time to think about that, so just let me know if you have any questions about it.

From what you wrote, I think you now have a different way of seeing this test - you're starting to see what it really is, a test of your executive reasoning skills. It takes some time to make the mental transition and to internalize this way of thinking, but you're on the right path!

[AmbikaN407]

I spent some time to digest your http://tinyurl.com/2ndlevelofgmat article and then went ahead to the other article that talks about how to analyze a Practice Problem. Both the articles are complimentary to each other and show a way to do effective pattern recognition not only in questions itself but also in answer choices following each question. Here I have a couple of areas that I need your help

Verbal
-----------

1) In RC, I can easily find the patterns in questions - the level of detail in each question, some obvious incorrect answers (out of scope, one word wrong in answer choices, very similar words from passage used to construct an answer choice but doesn't answer to the question asked, so on). So far RC has been my strength. I am repeatedly making mistakes in passage structures questions and have moved the category to Bucket #3 in my list.

2) In CR, I am facing difficulties in last two answer choices, especially in harder 700 level problems. However it is not much of a challenge in many question types but specifically limited to Assumption (Active assumption type) and Weaken questions. Some how I am not able to focus on what are the possible ways to weaken an argument ? As you have pointed out in the article, there can be one tempting incorrect choice which looks better that the right answer. I fall for this trap in these two question types.

3) In SC, I am getting better at pattern recognition day by day. Sometimes, I can just tell from the first look itself that something is wrong in the answer choice reading half way thru the sentence. But the moment my rational thinking kicks in, it tends to take longer time, especially elliminating one in the last two answer choices. My average in harder SC questions is close to 2.5 mins and I do not see the time coming down fast.

You have written an beautiful article on how to read core of a sentence. I enjoyed it very much and on my first line of defence, I now a days use - meaning and core sentence. When to apply this technique ? Is it to all the SC questions ? One catch, though, when the complete sentence is underlined, this technique fails to work, as the whole sentence structure is moving around with multiple errors - you will have a modifier error, structure error, and sometimes to make things even harder GMAT loves to toss one or two idioms in between two choices. Do you have an article that points to an effective strategy when the whole sentence is underlined ?

Let me be honest with you. I have seen one of the videos in which Ron talks about it for a few minutes but he moves on to solve problems in the context of comma +ing modifier issue. Here also he picks up sentences which are 60-70% underlined and there is a good 30% part, which gives you a clue on what is being talked about.

Quant
---------

1) You mentioned a very valid point on mental stamina on math section. In this area, I find MGMAT questions are slightly lengthy. But I am sure you already know this. I have started using all the alternate methods to get to the right answer i.e. Plugging in numbers rather than solving algebrically, back calculation from the answer choice to the question. This will take another 2 weeks to perfect. Keeping fingers crossed.

2) I must say MGMAT CATs have some of the finest quants questions. You have also suggested about getting disciplined on quitting hardest problems. The challenge is when to know that it is time to quit. I can internalize many aspects in verbal section where in I know this question is above my pay grade. Just tossed the word instead of skill grade. However in quants I fall flat on my face, as my ego comes in between. I find it extermely difficult to give up. This is coming from the fact that I am strong in quants

Reaching 700+ score
---------------------------------

If I were you, I would do the following 3 things


1) Concentrating on Quants to raise the level from 49 to 50-51 - I am taking it as a challenge to reach to this level.

2) Have better time allocation strategy in verbal - Time share from difficult SC problems to easy CR problems

3) Need something here on SC - May be how to quit problems faster ! or How to approach complete underlined problems.
Breaking down a SC problem in different categories may not be best solution as each problem invariably tests more than one concept. I am generally poor in comparisons though.

Update on Practice CAT
--------------------------------
CAT #4 05/28/2016 670 (V-36, Q-45) Here I got lucky in some of the questions and I felt intese time pressure in both quants and verbal towards the end. There were a string of 4 incorrect answers in both Verbal and Quants sections. Boundaries in each of the section of SC, RC and CR got pushed higher and I was catching my breadth towards the end. But the goal was to repeat this performance in my next CAT and that is where things didn't go so well as planned.

CAT #5 06/11/2016 630 (V-33, Q43) I will definitely analyze assessment reports and pin point issues. But a quick look tells me that CR is the area where I need to improve upon the most. I must be honest here - I am still not able to get that grip on CR questions.

It is looking like an uphill task for me to appear GMAT in this month end. This is getting hard to stay motivated.

[StaceyKoprince]

In order of your post:

CR: Have you taken a look at the article that was about to be posted on Beat the GMAT? It has now been published, so I've got a link:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2016/05/ ... -cr-and-rc

Look at the part towards the end that talks about how to analyze the right answer and the most tempting wrong answer(s).

What about the other article I linked - the "cheat sheet" you can make to help you know what to do for each type?

SC: The core technique absolutely works on full-sentence underlines. In fact, that's one of the most useful places to use it. First, look for just the core sentence of each answer choice. Cross off any where the core sentence alone is faulty. Then, check the modifiers for any remaining choices, starting with any that seemed a little...odd...when you were checking the core sentences.

Note that this core / modifier technique takes some time to do, so don't use it on questions that you find easier. If the sentence seems pretty straightforward to you already, then you don't need to take the time to strip it down to the core.

But I also agree with your comment that you have to let some of these SCs go faster. Those CRs that you can narrow to 2 are more worth your time (if you can learn better how to decide between those last 2). Also, know which SC types are your weaknesses (eg, comparisons), and make decisions accordingly as you see what you have to work with. For example, if you've narrowed to 2 or 3 answers but the only issue left is comparisons...guess and move on.

Quant: agreed that our problems can sometimes take longer than the real thing. We're trying to train people to really use those alternative strategies, because that's what will make your life a lot easier.

The challenge is when to know that it is time to quit

Read this:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -the-gmat/

Really make it that mechanical: there are certain clues that tell you when to move on because the ROI has plummeted. After that, it's a matter of discipline: you've got to make business decisions, not ego decisions. After all, ego decisions = how lots of businesses fail, right?

It is looking like an uphill task for me to appear GMAT in this month end. This is getting hard to stay motivated.

Do you feel that you are making progress in general? (Don't think about a specific timeframe or deadline. Just progress in general.) From what you've written, it seems as though you have - but correct me if I'm wrong. If so, then use that fact to help keep you motiviated. It's good to have a certain timeframe in mind, but nobody can predict with certainty exactly how much time this process is going to take. If you need more time, that's okay - as long as you do feel that you are progressing.