How to tackle MGMAT CAT quant

[priyankur.saha]

Hello,
I have very low score in MGMAT Quant section, ranges beteween 39 and 43. I need suggestion to improve quant section. In my last GMAT attempt, I scored 48 in quant but I do not know why my score reduced so drastically. I could recollect basic concepts pretty well but I feel clueless when I see excruciating word problems or riddling geometric figures.

Please guide me how should I practice and where should I, have test within 30 days.

[StaceyKoprince]

How have you been studying so far? What materials have you been using and how have you decided what to study?

How is your timing? Are you timing yourself when doing practice problems? Are you generally moving steadily through a test or set of problems, giving appropriate time and attention to each question, and averaging about 2 min per question? Or are you having to rush at times and possibly make random guesses to avoid running out of time? If you do have to rush and/or make random guesses, on how many questions would you say you do that in a typical 37-question quant section? Do you do it on a lot of questions in a row or are the guesses scattered throughout?

The real test includes experimental questions, while practice tests don't. As a higher-scoring quant student, you are going to get some lower-level experimental questions on the real test, which will feel easy to you and allow you to save time and spend that time on other questions. You don't get that luxury on practice tests, so it's easier to mess up the timing and fall behind.

If this is happening to you, it's important to know this, because a tendency to get hung up on harder questions can really hurt you on test day.

[priyankur.saha]

Hello Stacey,
Thank you for quick response. Probably I have realized my fault in quant section. I become too much impatient on word problems and too much over conscious on geometric question. When I get too much word problems in a row, I linger around them (even 4-5 mins) and waste my allotted time for other questions. Last Saturday I scored 670(V34, Q47) on my MGMAT CAT test and unbelievably my quant score improved little... :) but my verbal score went to 34 from 37... :( .

Sometime I feel that greater concentration on quant section precedes by lower concentration on verbal or, otherwise, the scoring algorithm is insane.

[StaceyKoprince]

Great! Nice job.

Okay, so as you noted, if you're spending 4-5 minutes on some questions, that means you're spending too little time on a lot of other questions. That's what's making it difficult for you to sustain the normally very high scores you were used to on quant - messing up the timing even a little bit will make it very difficult to score in the high 40s.

Do this:
1. On your last practice test, add up the number of questions on which you went over 3 min. Include in your count the number of those that you got right and the number wrong.
2. Divide the number of questions from #1 by 37. This is the percentage of total questions on which you spent way too much time.
3. Add up the total amount of time you spent on those 3+ min questions.
4. Divide the amount of time from #2 by 75. This is the percentage of your total time (75min) that you spent on the 3+ min questions.
5. Compare #2 and #4. What percentage of your total time are you spending compared to what those questions represent as a percentage of all 37 questions?
6. Add up the number of quant questions on which you spent 1min or less and you got wrong. These questions represent an additional potential cost for spending so much time on other questions, because when you go that quickly on a problem, you tend to make more mistakes. Maybe you could've gotten some of these right if you'd spent closer to the normal 2 minutes.

How do those numbers look? Probably not so great. I think you know that already, based on what you wrote above, but do the math to prove to yourself how MUCH this timing problem is really hurting you. It's big!

So if you can fix this timing issue, then chances are your quant score won't fluctuate quite so much (and will hopefully stabilize at the level you're used to).

It can happen that when you concentrate more on one, the score on the other section can suffer a bit. A lot of mental energy goes into these tests, so if you spend "too much" energy on the quant section, you will find it more difficult to perform on the verbal section. That's another reason why it's so important to fix your timing problem on the quant - because then you will be more fresh when you get to the verbal section.

Go through your verbal assessment reports and see if you can figure out what went down from the last test (37) to this one (34). It won't be everything - just certain things. Try to figure out why / what was different and then we can help you to assess what to do to fix those problems.