Help to create a study plan for the third GMAT test attempt

[susana.gmat]

Hi Stacey,

Last month I took the real GMAT test and scored 580 (Q40, V29). I studied mainly using 8 MGMAT strategy guides (3rd edition), OG 11 and 2 OG review supplements (1st ed).

I want to retake in mid August so I purchase MGMAT self study guide prep plus. Since I have only about 5 weeks to go and I had work on most of the In Action problems, I think I should modify the 10-week self study (from the syllabus) to 5-week self study.

I'm thinking to spend more time on studying the online lab, watching the recorded sessions and doing OG problems. I will refer back to the study guide only if I have difficulty with certain section.

Please advise whether my plan is sound and provide suggestion how I should prepare differently this time. Thanks so much for your help!

[StaceyKoprince]

You don't mention your goal score. What do you hope to get the next time you take the test?

In general, 5 weeks is a short period of time in which to make a lot of improvements. It may be reasonable to seek up to 50 points in improvement in 5 weeks; if you are looking for greater improvement than that, then I would suggest that you extend your timeframe.

If you are hoping for a score in the low 600s, then your plan to modify the syllabus to last for 5 weeks sounds good. (One major reason I think this is that you have already studied the 8 strategy guides once, though they were 3rd edition rather than 4th edition. For others reading this, if you haven't already learned the material once, then it would be much tougher to do what susana is describing when she says she'll only go back to the guides when she has difficulty with something.)

If you are going for a low-600s score, then you pretty much don't need to worry about the material found in the advanced chapters of the books. If you are reviewing a problem and realize it comes from an advanced chapter, then your best tactic is probably going to be: how can I make an educated guess on this problem without losing any time? I should expect to get it wrong, but I should hope to be able to improve my odds of guessing right, so that sometimes I do get problems like this right.

In terms of more detailed suggestions, I'd like to know your goal score first. Also, if you have taken an MGMAT test, you can use thie below article to analyze your strengths and weaknesses. If you do this and would like to share the data with us, that will make it easier for us to give you more detailed feedback and ideas about what and how to study.

http://www.beatthegmat.com/a/2009/09/23 ... tice-tests

If you do this analysis and share your results with us, then please also indicate whether you took the test under official conditions, including essays and length of breaks.

[susana.gmat]

Stacey, thanks so much for your response. My goal is to score at least 700. Reading your advice, I believe 5 weeks will not be sufficient to achieve that goal. Therefore, I will change my plan by following the suggested 9-week + 2/3-week self study plan. Doing so means I will re-read each study guide (4th ed) and re-do In Action problems in addition to doing OG problems (11th and 12th ed), watching the online labs and recorded sessions.

I took MGMAT tests about a year ago so I will retake again, maybe this weekend. After retaking, I will analyze the result according to your suggestion and share the result. I hope that you can give me feedback and ideas on what and how to study.

Thanks again Stacey! :)

[StaceyKoprince]

That sounds like a good plan. We'll wait to hear from you again!

[susana.gmat]

Hi Stacey,

I took the MGMAT test and scored 630 (Q40,V36). I took the test under official conditions, including essays and breaks. I didn't take extra time but the internet connection did fail couple times during the verbal section so I had to reload (total reloading about 3 minutes).

My verbal scores in other CATs were never above 30 before. This is somewhat odd but I think the increase is attributable to better pacing. My percentile score dropped to zero at the fifth question but then gradually increased starting the 15th question.

My quant score is about the same with the actual GMAT score. I feel that I took too long to answer difficult questions. I need to learn pacing and educated guess. My percentile score dropped to 37 at the 2nd question but I could recover at the fifth question (76), with a tendency to decrease by roughly 2 percentiles each question after the 17th question)

Below are the statistics and metrics. Please comment on how I should do to study effectively. Many thanks!

1. Quant (Correct: 16 questions; Incorrect: 20 questions; Blank: 1 (running out of time))
4 or more incorrect answers: 1 string (# 31-35, running out of time: less than 5 minutes left).
Last 10 questions: 8 minutes left

2. Verbal (Correct: 26 questions; Incorrect: 15 questions)
4 or more incorrect answers: 1 string (# 2-6: 4 CR questions, 1 SC questions)
Last 10 questions: 21.5 minutes
Last 5 questions: 12 minutes

Way too slow:
1. Quant (3+ minutes) : 9 questions (total: 38 minutes; 2 FDPs, 3 Words Translations, 2 Number Properties, 2 Algebra)
PS:5 right, 2 wrong
DS: 2 wrong
2. SC (2+ minutes): 1 questions (4.5 minutes; Parallelism; Right answer)
3. CR (3+ minutes): none
4. RC (1st question, 5+ minutes): 1 question (5.75 minutes; Specific detail; Wrong answer)
5. RC (not 1st question, 2.5+ minutes): none

Way too fast incorrect questions:
1. Quant (less than 1 minute): 5 questions (level 600-700: 3 questions; level 700-800: 2 questions)
2. SC (less than 45 seconds): 2 questions (level 300-500: 1 questions, level 700-800: 1 question)
3. CR (less than 1 minute): 1 question (level 500-600)
4. RC (1st question, less than 2 minutes): none
5. RC (not 1st question, less than 1 minute): none

Problem areas from assessment reports:
* Percentages correct below approximately 50%, especially when coupled with lower average difficulty levels:
Level 300-500 and level 500-600: none
Level 600-700: RC, PS, DS
Level 700-800: CR, RC, SC, PS, DS

* Average timing that is 30 seconds (or more) higher or lower than it should be on average:
PS
30 seconds higher: level 600-700 and level 700-800
30 seconds lower: none

DS
30 seconds higher: none
30 seconds lower: level 300-500, level 500-600 and level 600-700

CR
30 seconds higher: level 700-800
30 seconds lower: level 500-600

SC
30 seconds higher: level 700-800
30 seconds lower: none

* A big discrepancy (more than 20-30 seconds) in average time for correct vs. incorrect answers of the same type: PS, DS, RC and SC

Five buckets categorization:
1. 50% + correct plus timing within the expected timeframe (strengths)
Quant: equations, coordinate plane, positives and negatives
SC: pronouns, modifiers, verbs, comparisons, quantity expressions
CR: draw a conclusion
RC: specific details

2. Less than 50% correct plus timing in the expected timeframe (possible weaknesses)
Quant: combinatorics, algebraic translations, triangles and diagonals, percents
SC: clarity of meaning
CR: restate conclusion
RC: none

3. Less than 50% correct plus timing way too fast (an average more than 30 seconds faster than it should be)
Quant: polygons, circles and cylinders, consecutive integers, exponents and roots
SC: idioms
CR & RC: none

4. 50%+ correct plus timing way too slow (an average more than 30 seconds slower than it should be)
Quant: overlapping sets
SC: parallelism
CR: explain a situation
RC: none

5. Less than 50% correct plus timing way too slow (an average more than 30 seconds slower than it should be)
Quant: statistics, divisibility and primes, digits
SC: none
CR: analyze argument structure, resolve a problem
RC: inference

QUESTION FORMAT Total Right Wrong Blank % Right Average Average Average Average
Time Time Difficulty Difficulty
RIGHT WRONG RIGHT WRONG
Answers Answers Answers Answers

Problem Solving 22 9 12 1 41% 3:04 1:58 660 700
500 - 600 3 3 0 100% 1:16 NA
600 - 700 8 2 6 25% 4:36 1:09
700 - 800 11 4 6 36% 3:39 2:47

Data Sufficiency 15 7 8 0 47% 1:11 1:48 600 710
300 - 500 1 1 0 100% 1:03 NA
500 - 600 2 2 0 100% 0:57 NA
600 - 700 6 3 3 50% 1:07 2:01
700 - 800 6 1 5 17% 2:03 1:40

Critical Reasoning 14 7 7 0 50% 2:15 2:01 640 660
500 - 600 3 2 1 67% 2:12 0:06
600 - 700 8 4 4 50% 2:10 2:20
700 - 800 3 1 2 33% 2:42 2:20

Reading Comprehension 12 7 5 0 58% 1:03 3:20 530 710
300 - 500 3 3 0 100% 1:12 NA
500 - 600 2 2 0 100% 0:41 NA
600 - 700 3 1 2 33% 0:36 2:55
700 - 800 4 1 3 25% 1:48 3:37

Sentence Correction 15 12 3 0 80% 1:22 0:47 560 600
300 - 500 4 3 1 75% 1:09 0:30
500 - 600 4 4 0 100% 1:02 NA
600 - 700 5 4 1 80% 1:05 1:05
700 - 800 2 1 1 50% 4:23 0:45

[StaceyKoprince]

Nice job on your test (especially verbal)!

Last 10 questions: 8 minutes left

Yes, you're right that this hurt your quant score and that you have to get better at pacing and educated guessing. Make sure you're aware of the full pain, too. The extra time that you spent on those 9 questions cost you the four that you got wrong there plus the 5 more that were way too fast - that's 9 wrong questions to 5 correct ones!

First, we need a mindset switch. Think of this as a tennis match, not a test. You're going to win some points and the other guy is going to win some points; you're not going to win them all, right? Your goal is to put yourself into position to win the LAST point. Translated, that means you have to put yourself in position to answer the last question - you have to have time to address it. Otherwise, you've lost the last point, and by extension the match. When the other guy hits a winner, don't go running after it so fast that you hit the fence and injure yourself, thereby hurting your chances on the later points. (Translation: don't go way over when the problem is too hard.)

Next, you would benefit from a timing exercise: learning about how long one minute is without looking at a watch or stopwatch. If you don't have one already, buy yourself a stopwatch with lap timing capability. When you go to do a set of problems, start the stopwatch but turn it over so you can't see the time. Every time you think one minute has gone by, push the lap button. When you're done, see how good you were - and whether you tend to over or underestimate. Get yourself to the point where you're within 15 seconds either way on a regular basis (that is, you can generally predict between 45 sec and 1min 15 sec). Note: at the same time that you are using the stopwatch to time this "1-minute" thing, also use the OG Stopwatch (in your student center) to track the total time spent on each question.

Now, how do you use that when doing problems? If you're not on track by one minute*, make an educated guess** and move on. (The general idea is that if you're not on track by the halfway mark, you're unlikely to figure out what's holding you back AND have time to do the whole problem in the 1 min you have left.)

* For SC, 1min is well beyond the half-way mark (we're supposed to average about 1m15s here), but you can almost always eliminate at least some choices on SC in that timeframe. Once you've got that "I'm around the 1min mark and I'm struggling" feeling, go through any remaining choices ONCE more. Pick one. Move on.

** This also requires you to know HOW to make an educated guess depending upon the type of problem and the content being tested. So that's something else to add to your study: how to make educated guesses on different kinds of problems.

I've got an article coming out on Beat the GMAT in 2 days and it talks about educated guessing. Go take a look when it's published!

SC (2+ minutes): 1 questions (4.5 minutes; Parallelism; Right answer)

Don't let that happen again. You spent 3x longer than you're supposed to average on this one problem - it doesn't matter that you got it right! You HAVE to cut those off - if that happens 2 or 3 times on the real test, you can kill your whole section.

* Percentages correct below approximately 50%, especially when coupled with lower average difficulty levels:
Level 600-700: RC, PS, DS
Level 700-800: CR, RC, SC, PS, DS

The second row (700-800) is not really a problem area unless it's WELL below 50% (and you're trying to score 700+). The place to start is on the ones rated 600-700. Your verbal percentile right now is high 70s; to lift that to high 80s or so, you can't afford to get many sub-700 level Qs wrong.

Your quant percentile right now is mid-50s. You can still get a decent number of 600-700s wrong in the mid-70s, say, so while you do need to work on those, you don't need to worry if / when you continue to get a decent number of these wrong.

Look at your data for average timing 30 sec higher or lower. You're spending extra time on PS and you're sacrificing time on DS in order to do so. Is that really what you want to do? Look back over the individual Qs. Where should you have spent MORE time and where should you have cut yourself off sooner? Why? How should you have been able to tell - how will you know next time to cut yourself off?

Your buckets tell you which areas you need to examine and how (whether you have a timing issue, a content issue, or both). Remember that bucket 3 may NOT represent a content problem; those may be due to timing.

For bucket 1, you can move on to more advanced material if you like. Bucket 5, for the moment, should be "I'm never spending extra time on these types ever ever." Buckets 2, 3, and 4 should get most of your immediate attention.

So, now you know what you need to go do. You need to fix the timing problem on quant. You need to fix certain specific content and timing issues. You can do the latter while simultaneously training yourself on the timing strategy I mentioned above. I think it's a good idea for you to mostly follow the order of things on the syllabus, but spend a little extra time in your weaker areas and concentrate on your specific issues (content? timing? both?); you can move through your stronger areas a little more quickly to make up the time.

You're in good shape overall; good luck and let us know how it goes!

[susana.gmat]

Stacey, thanks so much for your detailed advices! I will implement them in my study.

I have one last question (at least for now :D). I've tried to analyze practice problems using the guidance you posted in BTG website. It took me at least 15 minutes to analyze each question. Is this customary? Do I need to analyze each problem or only focus on certain questions, i.e. on the ones I got wrong etc?

[StaceyKoprince]

Every problem. :) Most of your learning comes from this analysis, not from doing the problem in the first place.

You will get more efficient the more you use the analysis process, and you will be able to tell when you do and don't want to spend extra time on certain parts of the analysis. Got it right, understood it, and spent the full 2 minutes? Spend some time looking for shortcuts. Got it right, understood it, and only spent 1m20s (assuming it's normally a 2m problem)? Great, looks like you already found the shortcuts (though maybe spend 30s just thinking about it quickly!).

As you do more, too, some parts of the analysis get easier. Once you're analyzing your fifth rate problem, you already have a pretty good idea of how to make an educated guess, so now you're just checking to refine your process. Does your previously-determined educated guessing process work for this one? Yes? Great; move on. No? Why not? Spend some more time.

In short: it takes time. It takes more time at first. You will get more efficient. But it should always take a not-trivial amount of time. I would say that I generally spend between 2x and 5x as much time on the analysis as it took to do the problem in the first place. You'll get there. :)