Help with Gmat third attempt

[jeroenschlt]

Dear ManhattanGMAT instructor,

I am posting on this forum since I have a problem concerning the GMAT and I feel that this forums can give me the best insight, also I will be using the ManhattanGMAT material if I would retake the exam once more. So here is my story.

My goal is to get into a Masters programme, in the management category. My ultimate achievement would be to get accepted at London Business School at their MIM programme, so I would need a score of about 690.

My first attempt is quite a while ago just before the summer holidays, a period in which I was very busy because I also had to graduate in the same period. Nevertheless I decided to go for to the GMAT together with a full course at Veritas. Despite that the course was quite well and had a good instructor, I scored an unsatisfying 590 (Q:42, V:29). Thinking back I realise that I was just way to busy and I was emphasising on graduating as that was more important to me. Moreover the time frame was probably too short, with just 1,5 month to get ready.
Conclusion: too busy, lack of focus.

After this attempt I decided to go for a second one but with much more preparation time and no pressure of other factors, so I did my second exam in December after four months of relax studying. Much to my disappointment I scored even lower: 570 (Q:38, V:30). During the quant section I completely messed up, I was way too pressed and had more than 20 minutes left when I finished it. As a result I found it very difficult to concentrate on the verbal section, so no surprises there. Timing was an obvious problem, although during practise exams it was not, my last attempted exam was from ManhattanGMAT and I scored 630 (Q:43, V:33).
Conclusion: Too relaxed (does not work for me), wrong study plan, period too long.

Now I am contemplating to retake the exam for the last time, in late February so that I will be in time for LBS’s their third round. Now I really want to know what my study plan should be, as I clearly my study method for the second round was not good. In general I am just wondering if my goal is still in reach, and how.

I appreciate your time, and looking forward to your answer.

[StaceyKoprince]

Thanks for the detailed info; that's very helpful.

First, you mentioned that your last practice score was 630 but your goal is 690. If you are intent upon achieving a certain score, don't take the real test until your practice test scores are in the same range as your desired real-test score.

Second, it is possible to improve, yes, but as you've discovered, you'll need a different approach if your earlier approaches didn't work well enough for you. You'll need to make one big decision first, and then we can talk about how to implement it: do you want to study on your own, take a class, or work one-on-one with a tutor?

This article might help you decide which option is the best for you:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/06/ ... s-or-tutor

If you decide to study on your own, read this article first:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/02/ ... study-plan

And then this one:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/09/ ... your-study

If the MGMAT test that you took was fairly recent (last several weeks) and you took it under 100% official conditions (or very close), then use that test as your starting point for the analysis described in this article:

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

If it has been a while since you took your last MGMAT test or if you took it under fairly non-official conditions (skipping the essays counts as too non-official), then take another under 100% official conditions. Then do the analysis described in the above article.

After you've done the analysis, come back here and post it if you want to get our advice. (Note: don't post the raw data. Post your analysis. This is something you need to learn to do yourself!)

If you decide instead to take a class or work with a tutor, then of course just do whatever your teacher / tutor says. :)

[jeroenschlt]

First of all thank you Stacey for your fast response just before New Year, so before I forget: best wishes!

Now back to business, I would like to go for private tutoring but only for about 10 hours, and then continue to study on my own with the advice of the private tutor. However I am not sure if ManhattanGmat is in Amsterdam to do so.. Let me know :) If it is not possible, I am going to study on my own.

So here is my analysis, it is my first time to do it, so if it is not complete let me know so I can add whatever is missing.

Overal score: 630 (Q:43, V:33)
- 5 minute breaks
- No essay (but when I took with essay at Kaplan practice test I scored 620)

String of 4 or more answers wrong:
Quant: once.
18 WRONG PS 700 - 800 4:47 0:35:29 0:36:00 Variables in Choices (VIC) 78
19 WRONG PS 600 - 700 1:30 0:36:59 0:38:00 Percents 74
20 WRONG PS 600 - 700 5:26 0:42:25 0:40:00 Rates & Work 71
21 WRONG DS 600 - 700 1:06 0:43:31 0:42:00 Exponents and Roots 66

Verbal: none

Last 5-10 problems
Quant: 1:26 - 2:34 - 3:50 - 3:22 - 1:44 - 0:44 - 0:36 - 0:28
Verbal: 1:31 - 1:46 - 0:52 - 0:55 - 1:07 - 3:47 - 1:35 - 1:12 - 0:55 - 1:13 - 1:21 - 2:19

Way too slow
Quant (all problem solving):

4 WRONG 700 - 800 3:57 0:07:02 0:08:00 Divisibility and Primes 65
5 WRONG 600 - 700 3:31 0:10:33 0:10:00 Quadratic Equations 32
16 RIGHT 500 - 600 3:08 0:27:52 0:32:00 Fractions, Exponents and Roots 78
18 WRONG 700 - 800 4:47 0:35:29 0:36:00 Variables in Choices (VIC), Percents 78
20 WRONG 600 - 700 5:26 0:42:25 0:40:00 Rates & Work 71
23 WRONG 700 - 800 3:17 0:47:22 0:46:00 Variables in Choices (VIC), Combinatorics 67
32 RIGHT 600 - 700 3:50 1:03:50 1:04:00 Lines and Angles 70
33 WRONG 600 - 700 3:22 1:07:12 1:06:00 Exponential Equations 67

Verbal
11 WRONG CR 700 - 800 2:33 0:18:50 0:22:00 Draw a Conclusion 69
18 WRONG RC 700 - 800 5:49 0:34:18 0:37:30 Specific Detail 71
35 WRONG CR 600 - 700 3:47 0:57:29 1:04:30 Analyze Arg Structure 58
41 RIGHT SC 500 - 600 2:19 1:06:04 1:14:30 Idioms Modifiers 68

Way too fast
Quant: 3, all in the 600-700 category, two DS
Verbal: 1, in the 500-600 category, RC

Assesment
PS; 50%, with average difficulty of 640 and timing of 2.28
DS: 53%, with average difficulty of 660 and timing of 1.05
SC: 40%, with average difficulty of 640 and timing of 1.19
CR: 64%, with average difficulty of 600 and timing of 1.28
RC: 58%, with average difficulty of 675 and timing of 2.02


Is there any hope for me to go from scoring around 600 to 690 in only 1,5 month? I do hope so, and I am going to order the ManhattanGMAT books right now!

[StaceyKoprince]

We don't have any tutors physically in Amsterdam, no, but we do offer private tutoring via our online teaching platform (the same one we use for online classes). You and the tutor can speak, use slides and a whiteboard together, write on the slides and whiteboard together, etc. Basically, the only difference is that you can't physically see the tutor.

Some people really like it, some people find it about the same as working in-person, and some people don't like it as much - so you'll just have to think about whether that's something that might work for you.

100 points in 1.5 months is... ambitious. Most people would need more time than that. That doesn't mean you shouldn't try, but if you have flexibility in your schedule, you may want to keep in mind that most people would need more time.

Next, you gave me your data, but you didn't give me your analysis. What do you think all of that data means? Where are your weaker points and where are your strengths, across content, question type, timing, etc.? What do you think you should do about those things?

I can tell you what I think but I'm not going to do so yet. You need to be able to read and interpret the data for yourself - you can't keep coming back to me every week to do it for you. :) So take a crack at actually analyzing this stuff and tell me what you think. Also tell me what you think you should do about the things you notice in your analysis Then, I'll tell you where I agree and disagree and we'll go from there!

[jeroenschlt]

Dear Stacey,

Sorry for only posting the data, I will now draw a few conclusions based on the data. Also I think it is worth mentioning that I decided to take a new practice exam, and move from that point. The exam was taken under full conditions, so including essays and the 8 min breaks. My score was 640 (Q:45,V:33), I was actually pleasantly surprised with this score considering that I did not do any GMAT related study for the past 3 weeks.

This analysis is based on the Free practice test (Completed 12/2/2010 6:53 AM EST) and CAT 2 (Completed 1/6/2011 7:55 AM EST) to get a better overview of my weak areas. Although in for example analysing "the last 10 questions" I of course only took the last exam as source.

Assessment summary
QUESTION FORMAT Total Right Wrong % Right Average
Time
RIGHT
Answers Average
Time
WRONG
Answers Average
Difficulty
RIGHT
Answers Average
Difficulty
WRONG
Answers
Problem Solving 44 21 23 48% 2:07 2:46 600 690
Data Sufficiency 30 19 11 63% 0:58 1:18 610 700
Sentence Correction 30 13 17 43% 1:25 1:27 620 680
Critical Reasoning 28 20 8 71% 1:24 1:56 620 680
Reading Comprehension 24 11 13 46% 1:22 2:42 640 670


Critical Reasoning 28 20 8 0 71% 1:24 1:56 620 680
300 - 500 2 2 0 100% 0:46 NA
500 - 600 6 5 1 83% 1:23 1:08
600 - 700 13 9 4 69% 1:33 2:04
700 - 800 7 4 3 57% 1:27 2:02

Reading Comprehension 24 11 13 0 46% 1:22 2:42 640 670
500 - 600 5 2 3 40% 1:33 1:16
600 - 700 13 8 5 62% 1:27 3:08
700 - 800 6 1 5 17% 0:15 3:07

Sentence Correction 30 13 17 0 43% 1:25 1:27 620 680
300 - 500 1 1 0 100% 0:52 NA
500 - 600 4 3 1 75% 1:23 1:46
600 - 700 17 7 10 41% 1:38 1:34
700 - 800 8 2 6 25% 1:00 1:13


Problem Solving 44 21 23 0 48% 2:07 2:46 600 690
300 - 500 2 2 0 100% 1:01 NA
500 - 600 8 7 1 88% 1:51 1:31
600 - 700 22 10 12 45% 2:20 2:37
700 - 800 12 2 10 17% 3:09 3:05

Data Sufficiency 30 19 11 0 63% 0:58 1:18 610 700
300 - 500 1 1 0 100% 0:21 NA
500 - 600 6 6 0 100% 0:32 NA
600 - 700 17 11 6 65% 1:12 1:06
700 - 800 6 1 5 17% 1:33 1:33


String of 4 in a row wrong:
Verbal: timing was no issue, but two were difficult SC questions (700-800) and then a difficult RC text.

Last 10 questions
No issues, good phase and had 4 minutes left on both verbal and quant.

(Way) too long
Verbal: none
Quant: 9 with over 3 minutes, all PS. Six in 600-700 category others in 700-800.

(Way) too fast
One problem in quant PS (57 sec), it was a misread. Stupid
All others were way too fast but correct:

Topics
Quant, problem areas
Topic Total Right Wrong % Right Average time Right answers Average time wrong answers Extra info
Rates & work 3 0 3 0 NA 3.48 Worst, Slowest
Variables in choices 3 0 3 0 NA 3.32 Worst, Slowest
Circles and Cylinders 3 0 3 0 NA 1.45 Worst
Divisibility and Primes 4 0 4 0 NA 2.27 Worst, Slowest

Verbal, problem areas
Topic Total Right Wrong % Right Average time Right answers Average time wrong answers Extra info
RC: Inference 10 2 8 20% 1.12 2.31
SC: Idioms 4 1 3 25% 2.19 1.28
SC: Modifiers 3 0 3 0 NA 1.43 Worst

Overall conclusion
Strengths: DS, CR
Weaknesses: PS, RC, SC
Timing: no real issue, and feel comfortable during the test.

Cannot help the terrible format, hope you can still make sense out of it..

[StaceyKoprince]

Overall conclusion
Strengths: DS, CR
Weaknesses: PS, RC, SC
Timing: no real issue, and feel comfortable during the test.

That's a start. But you can push this a lot further. :)

DS is a strength and PS is a weakness? Okay. What about specific content areas? What about specific kinds of questions? RC infer and SC modifiers are low, performance-wise, and they're also common on the test so they're worthy of immediate attention - get that specific.

Also, you may be finishing the test on time and feel fine on quant, but timing IS a problem. 9 Qs over 3m? I don't care that you only had one "way too fast and wrong" Q. Whenever you make yourself have to go that fast, you're more likely to make careless mistakes, and you do NOT want to make mistakes on things that you do actually know how to do.

Compare your time for DS and PS Qs. On 700+ Qs for both, you got the same percentage right - 17% (a random guess position). Yet you averaged 3m on the PS problems and only 1m33s on the DS problems. DUMP those PS problems and actually spend normal time on the hard DS ones instead! DS is your strength - if you're going to get 700+ Qs right, it's going to happen on those, not on PS! And you got 6 600-700 level DS Qs wrong while averaging only a minute. Too fast and wrong, right there. Cut off those 3m questions at 2m and spend that time in places where the time could actually do something for you.

Fix the way you're allocating your timing and that right there might give you a 20 to 30 point boost.

Get the idea? There's a lot more there than you pointed out in your post.

Here are some articles to address the various weaknesses we just discussed:

Timing:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2009/12/ ... management

Analyzing practice problems:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/a ... roblem.cfm

Samples for how to analyze practice problems (note that the RC article covers and RC Infer question - you need help with that):
SC: http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/GMATprep-SC.cfm
CR: http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/CR-assumption.cfm
RC: http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/a ... estion.cfm
PS: http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/a ... roblem.cfm
DS: http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/a ... roblem.cfm

SC technique:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/06/ ... on-problem

Full article archive is below; as you uncover more specific weaknesses, go look for additional articles that address those topics or issues.

MGMAT: http://www.manhattangmat.com/resources/
Beat the GMAT: http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/manhattan-gmat