Help required -Stuck at 680 - One more week left for my exam

[bijus76]

Hi,

I am stuck at 680 for the second time (in 1 week) in manhattan practice test.I am aiming for 700+ in the exam and my exam is on 11th Oct( just a week left).
Recent score split up is as below.
Quant score - 46
Verbal score - 36

MGMAT Assesment says i have to improve on the CR and DS questions.

My dilemma is should i go back to basics and concentrate on these two topics or maintain the status quo (study everything evenly) ?


I was stuck at 630 before and jumped to 680 last week.This i did working on my timing and Reading Comprehension skills.
I am good in Quant and ok in Sentence correction.
More info below.
I used OG 12th Ed to study.

Took 6 MGMATs.
#1,2 - could not complete
#3 - on Feb 2010
Score - 570
Quant - 43
Verbal - 25

#4 - in July 2010
Score 610
Quant - 44
Verbal - 31

#5 - on 9/26
Score 680
Quant - 46
Verbal - 36

#6 - 10/01 - with essay (did not write essays in any of the prev attempts)
Score 680
Quant - 46
Verbal - 36


I started concentrating on CR, but I somehow feel that i m loosing out in other topics.

My background:
I am an indian with 7+ years of experience in IT( 4.5 years international exp).I like to get into one of the top 50 colleges sometime in 2012.

Please help me out.

Thanks
Biju

[StaceyKoprince]

I am stuck at 680 for the second time (in 1 week) in manhattan practice test.

When you take two tests in a week (or 1 week apart), the typical expectation is that you'll get about the same score. Progress generally isn't linear - most people don't get better on some sort of steady basis. Rather, we make jumps (as you found in your 630 to 680 jump).

The bad news: what you score on a practice test taken under 100% official conditions (including the essays) about 7 to 14 days before the real test is approximately what you should expect to score on the real test.

There is some sort of good news, too, but I have to explain something before I tell you what it is. These tests all have "standard deviations" - meaning you are expected to score within a range, not that exact score, if you keep taking the test. The standard deviation (SD) on the official test is about 30 points; the SD on our test is about 50 points.

This means that, if you were to take the official test and score a 680, and you could then somehow take it again the next day, you would have a 2/3 chance of scoring in a range of + or - 30 points from your first score. Ditto for our test, expect it's +/- 50 points.

So, the somewhat good news is that you are technically already within range of that 700 score you want.

Now, I have some questions for you. Did you take these tests under 100% official conditions, including the essays, the number and duration of the breaks, and so on? (I see that you did take the essays on the last one - that's good.) If so, then your score is more likely to be a valid representation of your current scoring level. If not, tell us how you deviated from official conditions. If you deviated a lot, then that would make it more likely that your practice test score was inflated.

So, now you have to make a choice. If you absolutely must have a 700 minimum, then you should think seriously about postponing your test until you take at least two tests under 100% official conditions that hit 700 or higher.

If you want the 700 but would also be okay with a high-600s score, then you can are likely in that range and can feel confident keeping your test date ASSUMING you did take your practice tests under official or close-to-official conditions. (If you skipped the essays and used the pause button periodically, for example, then your score is likely inflated.)

If you haven't taken the test before, you might consider taking it just to see, and then just taking it again if you don't hit the 700. (Schools take your highest score.) Be aware that you have to wait 31 days before you can take it again, so go check any deadlines and see whether you'd have the time to do that.

Next, what to do for the last week before the test. This is not when you should work on weaknesses, actually. The closer you get to the test date, the more you just accept that your weaknesses are what they are, do a comprehensive review, and get ready for test day. You actually start making that switch around 14 days before test day; these two articles explain how:

http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/08/ ... -game-plan
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/08/ ... -to-review

Let us know what you decide to do. If you keep your test date, start doing what I describe in the two "14 days" articles above. If you decide to postpone, then do the analysis described in the below article on your last practice test and come back here to let us know the results:

http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/e ... -part1.cfm

(Note: this is a two-part article; do both parts!)

[bijus76]

Hi Stacey,
I had decided to go ahead with my plans and ended up scoring 590.

Quant - 45
Verbal - 26
AWA - 4.5
Overall 590

I decided to give it shot once again after a small break. Could you please guide me on how to prepare for the exam?

Following are my observations about what happened during exam:
1. Lost time on couple of hard wordy problems (25th or 26th question) and ended up guessing 3-4 of them.After that i did not get any hard questions.
2. Weakness in Verbal (obviously) - Was tired by the time i started writing this section. But, did not realize I am making mistakes and i am heading to this bad a score.

Thanks
Biju

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry to hear that you had a tough time on the test. The key now is to figure out why this happened so that you can prevent it from happening again.

Go back to my last post and answer the questions that I asked you there.

Also, do the analysis described in the below article and post your analysis here:

http://www.beatthegmat.com/a/2009/10/26 ... went-wrong

Pay particular attention to verbal, because that's really where your score dropped.

[bijus76]

Hi Stacey,
Thanks for the quick turn around.
Please find below the answers to the questions and my analysis.

Question : Did you take these tests under 100% official conditions, including the essays, the number and duration of the breaks, and so on?

Answer : No.Even in the last practice test, i wrote only one essay.And i used to drink water during the test, and this was more during the verbal section.

Analysis of the points mention in the "Beat the GMAT" link:

1. Official test conditions

Did you do both essays? - No.I wrote only one essay (Analysis of Issue).
Did you take only two 8-minute breaks (the first between essays and quant, the second between quant and verbal)? - Yes .I took only 8-minute breaks
Did you complete the test in one sitting (e.g., you didn’t do the verbal section later that evening or the next day)? - Yes.I completed in one sitting.

Did you pause the test, look at books or notes, eat and drink during the test, or do anything else that wouldn’t be allowed on test day
- I did drink water (lot of) during the test.



Analysis : Score I got in the practice tests were not representing my actual score level.


2. Stamina related questions:

Take the practice tests at the same time of day as you took (or plan to take) the real test? - No. Official test was in the morning session and almost all the time,i took the exam in the evening (during 6pm - 10 pm)
Avoid taking a second test (practice or official) within 3 days of taking another practice test? - Infact ,i did not take any practice test in the last week.
Eat good energy food before the test and during the breaks, drink liquids to stay hydrated, and stretch or do light exercise to loosen up and get your blood flowing? - Yes


Analysis: In the official test, I did not have the enough mental stamina during theverbal section.
I need to improve my stamina. Should take full length practice tests in future.

3. Timing

Quant section : Timing was good till 25th question.I even had a 1 minute advantage. I got a very wordy question and i was adamant in solving it.I ended up lagging 4 minutes.This made me guess next 4 questions.But,I did complete the section in time.

Verbal - I never had an issue with timing.But was mentally very tired through out this section. I was not able to solve the questions which I knew to solve. Verbal is my weak area.


Analysis:
Be prepared to do educated guessing in hard problems (especially wordy problems ) and move on,if i m not able to solve it in 2 minutes.

4. Anxiety

I wasnt much anxious. Was able to get over the stress.

More points about my preparation:
1. I used to solve the problems using a timer and reviewed the questions for which I took more than the allowed timing and the one's i got wrong.
2. I never had an error log as such.
3. Used to study 2-3 hours for 3 months and then studied 2 weeks (6-7 hrs a day).


Please let me know what i could do differently.

Thanks
Biju

[StaceyKoprince]

Good analysis. Yes, your exams probably were a bit inflated. You also had stamina issues and possibly had time-of-day issues. Are you a morning person? If not, take the test later in the day. If so, study as much as possible in the morning and make sure to take practice tests at the same time of day as the real test.

I agree that you need to do practice tests under 100% official conditions from now on. You did only 1 essay in practice, and then on the real test you felt very mentally fatigued during verbal. You weren't prepared for the total stamina that you needed - and the real test is even harder than a practice test because you know it counts, which spikes your adrenaline and does all sorts of other physical things to you.

I'm going to add another question that wasn't in my article, but which I find is sometimes an issue for people on verbal. What proportion of your verbal practice problems were from official sources? Sometimes, people mostly do practice problems from non-official sources, and sometimes (not always) that causes a problem.

Standardized tests are about patterns, and the patterns vary slightly based upon the test-writer. Language usage can also come into play, so this is more true on verbal than on quant. As a non-official test question writer myself, I can tell you that it's easier to mimic the patterns on official quant Qs than on official verbal Qs. The point: do make sure that a decent proportion of your verbal problems are coming from official sources - and, in particular, recent official sources. The current company responsible for writing the official test questions just got the job about 4 years ago. Before that, the questions were written by a different company - that is, a different pool of writers.

But,I did complete the section in time.

Good

I ended up lagging 4 minutes.This made me guess next 4 questions.

Not so good. Maybe your quant could have been a little higher. And higher quant takes a little more pressure off of the verbal. Work on this timing problem!

Here's an article on time management:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2009/12/ ... management

And two more on educated guessing:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/07/ ... s-on-quant
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/08/ ... -on-verbal

I used to solve the problems using a timer and reviewed the questions for which I took more than the allowed timing and the one's i got wrong.

That's a good start. Do more. :) Here's how:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/a ... roblem.cfm

And here's how to learn from your errors:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/error-log.cfm

In terms of where to go / what to start studying, use this article to analyze your most recent MGMAT test; it will help you know what you need to improve:

http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/e ... -part1.cfm

And let us know if you need any advice on specific areas after you do that analysis. Good luck!

[bijus76]

Thanks a lot Stacey.
This wil help me lot in my next attempt.


What proportion was official verbal question? -

I relied mostly on official guide during the practice sessions.May be 80-90% was official questions.
I am concerned that it is reason why I am not able to tackle hard questions in Official GMAT. I have heard that official guide contains mostly 600-700 difficulty questions.


Thanks
Biju

[StaceyKoprince]

There are plenty of difficult questions in the OG - it's a myth that it contains mostly 600-700 level questions. The distinction is that you aren't going to see those same questions on the test, of course - you have to learn to make connections between the ones you see and the differently worded but structurally similar examples you might see on the real test. That's a hard thing to do, and where a lot of people fall short, so that's why a lot of people complain that the OG doesn't have enough hard questions - they're just not seeing the connections. :)

Also, don't forget GMATPrep - that's another good source of real questions.

Good luck!

[bijus76]

Thanks a ton Stacey!!I took GMAT this weekend and scored 710.
After my 590 seven months ago, i followed the points mentioned in the your articles.
It helped me reach my goal of scoring 700+ in GMAT.

Thank you so much !!!

[StaceyKoprince]

That's so exciting! Congratulations! I hope you went out and celebrated after. :)

Good luck with applications - let us know how they go!