Improvement in my verbal

[sureshreddy003]

Hi Stacey,

This would be a lengthy post from my side, but I need your help in improving my verbal score from below 30 to 40. I would explain the situation I am in and also the books which I referred. I am planning to get into any of the top 20 B-schools and for this I need a score of 700 or above.

I would post my scores in few practice tests before I started actual preparation of GMAT.

Manhattan sample test - 550 ( before I started preparation)
Princeton - 500
GMAT PREP 1 - 480(Math 45, V- 19).

During this I did not know how to score or what GMAT was. Then with the help of one friend Mukul who is a GMAT taker, I started following his preparation schedule from the past 2.5 months on daily basis strictly. Left out all the activities and spending about 4 hours daily on the preparation.

I completed all the books prescribed by him, mostly verbal.

OG 12,
MGMAT SC & RC
Kaplan 2011, Kaplan verbal, Kaplan 800

I was very weak earlier in verbal as seen from above scores. I improved a lot in SC, thanks to Manhattan SC guide. After writing few tests, I came to know that I was doing RC's very bad. So I took the MGMAT RC guide and thankfully it provided me good tips.

Below are the scores after my 2months of preparation.

MGMAT1 - 580 ( M-44, V- 25) - 3 weeks back
Kaplan1 - 650 (M-46, V-34) - 2 weeks back
GMAT Prep1 - 600(M-47,v-27) - Last week

I felt questions in MGMAT very tuff, as in Maths all the questions were on 700-800. In verbal I got all the RC questions wrong mostly(this was before I studied MGMAT RC).
http://www.manhattangmat.com/OnlineExams/CAT_scores.cfm

Kaplan I felt easy, as I got only 3 wrong from math and Verbal got a good score. Coming to GMAT Prep, I should have scored more in verbal, but unfortunately I got most of the SC questions wrong this time and all the RC questions right.

I have no timing issues now as during my study plan I practiced keeping in mind the timeliness which helped me manage my time.

I Know that I am at score 30 level, but I want this to be improved to at least 35 and nearly 40. The problem in verbal is that I am able to eliminate 3 options based on the knowledge levels I got from these guides, but from the remaining 2 options I am selecting a wrong answer choice. When I review, I feel dejected about the selection of the answer.

I needed your suggestions in improving my verbal score. I am done with almost all the books, but if i need to study any other book please let me know. Also, please tell me a good Maths book which has the toughest questions and strategies. I have to also improve my score in math to 50 which I am confident I can do this.

I thought of writing the GMAT in Sept Last week, but now I don't have the confidence levels seeing the scores. I am getting let down with these verbal scores and not sure how to improve the scores. I have done everything and studied all the books(true that I have improved a lot), but during the test I am not able to score well.

Please advice.

Thanks,
Suresh

[sureshreddy003]

Hi,

Request you please respond to my post :)

Thanks,
Suresh

[messi10]

Hey Suresh,

Don't 'bump' your post. This will just put it at the end of the queue.

You will get a reply, please be patient.

Regards

Sunil

[StaceyKoprince]

Indeed, varun is right. In fact, unluckily, you waited more than a week longer than you would have - because of the GMAC conference news etc, I've been too busy to come in here, and I was last here on 11 Sep - after your first post but before your "bumped" second post. :(

What did you use for CR? You mention two books you used for SC and RC, but you don't mention anything specifically for CR.

I need more detail on your verbal strengths and weaknesses. Use the below article to analyze your most recent MGMAT test, then come back here to post. Note: do NOT simply post the data. Tell us what you think the data means - you have to learn to self-assess. We'll tell you whether we agree with your assessment. :)

http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/

Also tell us any ways in which you deviated from official testing conditions (skipping essays, taking longer breaks than allowed, using the pause button, etc.).

Next, have you read the latest news about SC, yet? Go check out our blog (my post on 19 September). Do you think that you might have been concentrating mostly on grammar and not enough on meaning? In particular, you mention being able to get rid of 3 answers based on grammar, but then struggling to decide between the final 2 - and that makes me think that there's some work to be done on meaning issues, because that's more likely to be the distinction between the most-tempting wrong answer and the right answer. What do you think? (Go read that article posted on Mon 19 Sep on our blog first before you respond.)

[sureshreddy003]

Hi Stacey,

Thanks for your response. Yes I didn't know that if i Bump my thread it would put back my post. So I was waiting for your response before I posted my queries.

During this gap I took another MGMAT2 and scored 590(Q44,V29), the same score in 800score.com is coming as 610, anyways a below par score for me.

MGMAT1- 580(Q44,V25) ( Without essay)
MGMAT2-590(Q44,V29). (With essay)
GMATPREP - 600(Q47,V27)

I never paused or took longer breaks during these tests, even for gmatprep1.

For CR, I have studied Kaplan 2011 edition, Kaplan Verbal & Kaplan 800 books and felt quite comfortable with CR questions as they gave a detailed explanation of different questions. Presently I am at 50-60% level in CR and I need to improve on this. Getting most incorrect answers on questions at 600-700 level(below 40%) and for 700-800 level(at 50%). Could you suggest how to get these tough questions correct?

My verbal weakness is RC, as in MGMAT tests I am getting most of the RC questions wrong and I am below 30%(in GMATPREP1, I got only 3 wrong in RC, feel that may be in MGMAT questions are tuff or a bit tweaked). From this, I am getting most of the Inference & Main Idea questions wrong. Please suggest on how to improve on RC skills.

For SC, I have improved a lot after I studied MGMAT SC guide, and presently I am at above 50% level with the expected time frame(spending <=90 sec). But I am getting most of the questions wrong above 600 level.

I have seen your blog on SC, quite surprising that GMAT concentrates on Meaning! Yes, I totally concentrated on grammar most of the time as I was weak on this side, but I don't know how can I improve on Meaning side. After I eliminate options based on grammar, I go with the option which seems to be good English( I know GMAT English is different). Yes, as u said the wrong option which I select comes out to be the most tempting wrong answer mostly(sometimes a silly mistake), I found out this during my practice when I see the explanation provided.

However, I am happy that I have improved my score levels from below 20 to nearly 30 level in verbal. But I need to improve this further and for this I need to get at least half of the questions correct which are above 600 level. Please suggest me

Coming to Quant, a score of 44 is very low as per my standards in Maths, but I feel MG-MAT math very tough. During the last test(MGMAT2), as the questions were tough, I spent most of the time on the initial questions and as a result I had to run through my last 8 questions and unfortunately all 8 questions were wrong. Until question 30, I was at 90% level, but because I got the next 8 wrong my score came down to 70%. I am getting a majority of 700-800 questions during the test and as a result spending most of the time and getting them wrong.

In Maths, I am good at PS but I am getting DS questions wrong and I need to work on this, but do not have a good material to do this. Please suggest me a good material for Maths which has all the tough questions(above 700 level for both PS & DS). My stronger point is Maths and I should be scoring above 49 for a good score.

Waiting for your reply.


Thanks,
Suresh

[StaceyKoprince]

For CR, are there specific question types that are giving you the most trouble? Or is it any harder questions?

In general on CR, you need to be able to do these things for any question:

(1) Read the question stem first (not the argument) and, from that, be able to identify the type of question I have.

Based on that type of CR question, I should know
(1) the kind of information I need to find
(2) the kind of analysis I need to do on that information
(3) characteristics of a correct answer for that type
(4) characteristics of wrong answers for that type

So that requires a lot of studying up front - knowing how to recognize the different types and knowing what to do with them.

(2) Then read the argument and take (very abbreviated) notes to understand that flow of information. I should also be thinking about any unstated assumptions that might be important - I can't brainstorm them all, but if any jump out at me, I'll make a note of them.

(3) Then go to the answers and start to evaluate. In general on any verbal Q:
1st pass through answers: place answers into 1 of 2 categories, definitely wrong or maybe. DO NOT decide whether something is right at this stage.
2nd pass through: look only at the "maybe" answers, choose one
When you are down to two answers on verbal, look at each answer ONCE more, then pick one and move on.

(4) When studying, be able to articulate:
A) why was each wrong answer tempting (especially the one I picked, if I got it wrong)? why did it look like it might be right? (be as explicit as possible; also, now you know this is not a good reason to pick an answer)
B) why was it actually wrong? what specific words indicate that it is wrong and how did I overlook those clues the first time?
C) why did or could the right answer seem wrong? what made it so tempting to cross off the right answer? why were those things actually okay; what is the error in thinking that this one is wrong? (also, now you know that this is not a good reason to eliminate an answer)
D) why was it actually right?

Do the above on all questions, not just the ones you get wrong. You can learn a lot from the ones you get right!

In particular, if you are fine with easier questions of all types but really struggle with the harder ones, then the above answer analysis is really going to help you - because the difference between an easier Q and a harder Q often has to do with the trickiness of the answers.

For RC, start with these two articles:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... p-passage/
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/07/ ... rc-passage

Then move on to these three:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/09/ ... prehension
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/a ... estion.cfm
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/11/ ... il-problem

For SC, have you read the new article I posted yesterday on the blog that goes into more detail about meaning issues? We're also posting commentary on a bunch of OG12 questions that deal with meaning - some of that was posted yesterday, too. Go take a look at that material and start to incorporate the ideas into your SC study. You will likely want to go back over OG questions that you've already done so that you can study them from the point of view of meaning.

You describe a timing problem on quant; read the below article and start doing what it says:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... anagement/

Don't assume that your timing problems are just due to the hard MGMAT quant sections - CAT tests in general will just keep giving you harder stuff (when you're doing well) until the test finds things that you can't do. So no matter how much you study, you're always going to be given some questions that are too hard for you, and you have to learn to manage your time appropriately. Go read that time management article. :)

I am good at PS but I am getting DS questions wrong and I need to work on this

Hold on - why are you getting these wrong? Check your timing. Most people who have timing problems spend too much time on PS and then speed up on DS to make up for it. As a result, DS performance drops - not necessarily because you're bad at DS but because you're not spending adequate time. Make sure that's not what's happening in your case.

For more specific quant recommendations, I need more specific data from you, so go and do that in-depth test analysis on all of the quant content areas and question types and tell me what your strengths and weaknesses are in terms of both accuracy and timing!

[sureshreddy003]

Hi Stacey,

Thanks for the reply! All the suggestions provided for CR & RC were very helpful. So I went back and studied MGMAT RC guide once again and practiced OG 12 questions. Also as you said I tried to find why were few answers wrong and why did i keep them right. This was a very helpful suggestion.

Coming to CR, I feel comfortable while practicing questions and would be almost in the 70% range.(Timing these problems though). But I am not sure what happens during the test, as I fall on the lower side sometimes.

After your reply I took two tests but not of MGMAT in official test conditions

Kaplan - 630 (Q 47, V26)
GMAT PREP1 - 580(Q 48, V22)

From Kaplan & previous MGMAT tests, what I came to know is that I am spending about 6minutes on 1 ques and about 4min on 3-4 questions in Maths section. That's a big mistake which killed my quant scores earlier. So in GMATPREP, I did not repeat this on Math and completed the section without timing issues and scored 48.

Also I have improved a lot in RC as i got only 3 wrong in both the tests and maintained time for the RC's. Now I am confident with RC section that I can be in the 80% levels. I felt MGMAT RC's are a bit trickier & tougher, so I would be taking 1 MGMAT test next week which would show to which level I have improved.

But the real issue comes now, What I find from all my tests is that I am getting most of them wrong in either of the section in verbal(Either CR or SC or RC). If I perform well in SC & RC then worst on CR and vice-versa. Now that I have improved in RC, I have to improve on both the other sections as well.

In Kaplan, CR(3R/9W), SC(9R,6W), RC(10R/4W)
In GMATPREP1, CR(5R/6W), SC(6R/11W). RC(10R/3W).

What is shocking for me in GMATPREP is that I screwed my SC which is the stronger point as I was in 70% levels in all the previous tests. What I noticed is earlier I used to concentrate on grammar, but in the last test I concentrated on Meaning(after you suggested that there is a change and practiced it too and felt easy while practicing as there was no grammar involved). I hope this was the mistake which killed my SC completely. Please suggest me on this as this is the stronger point for me.

Also I noticed in Verbal is that I am getting most of them wrong during the end of the test(last 10questions). I am not sure if this is because of stamina or losing interest or something else. In GMATPREP I was aware that I am losing my score at the last, so i concentrated to see that I am not getting them wrong this time, but the same thing repeated as I got about 7 wrong from last 10Q.

Also I find that in verbal I am getting a loop of questions wrong in a row(about 4-5), and I know this would kill my score to the maximum. I am not sure how to solve this as I have seen that I maintained time, but getting them wrong.

For Maths, You asked for the weaknesses & strengths. What I found from my analysis is that DS-Inequalities & PS-Word problems , I am getting them wrong in most of the tests.(These are not my weaknesses, but I am getting them wrong either because they are trickier or due to silly mistakes). I was good at Probability/Permutations earlier, but because now I am into work, I almost forgot all the logic's. But from all your posts in forums I found that we would get a max of 1Q from these and need not worry much. I discussed about my timing issues above which I resolved now and would not be repeating again the same mistakes.(Stuck to the tennis logic from now)

I am planning to buy Advanced Math guide as I want my score to be in 50 range as I have a good math background and I want to utilize this to the maximum. I have my date on Nov 24th which would leave me with more than a month and I want to be in 700 level to get into top-20 b-schools.

Please advice.


Thanks,
Suresh

[StaceyKoprince]

Yes, part of the difficulty is being able to do all of the different question types and tasks well at the same time. :)

It's good that you've found a way to make such strong improvements in RC. As you dive into CR more, juts make sure that you are periodically testing yourself on RC and reviewing RC so that you don't lose those skills. And periodically do a mixed set of all 3 - it's easier to do well on RC when you're ONLY doing RC, etc. Switching back and forth among the question types takes energy and is tiring, so you do have to practice that.

Also note that part of the variability in your performance on the 3 different question types is going to come just from how you progress through the test. On one test, you might happen to get a greater mix of harder SCs, while on another you happen to get a greater mix of harder CRs. So you should expect some variability there - when you have a harder mix of a certain question type, of course you're going to get more of those wrong!)

For SC, it isn't that you always have to use meaning, but sometimes you can't rely on grammar. If you're more comfortable with the grammar, it's okay to start there, but then you still need to know what to do when the real issue is about meaning and NOT grammar. So practice both, but start any new question by going for whatever is easiest for you. Eliminate as many answers as you can in the easiest possible way *for you* and then move to the "harder" thing when needed. And move on when you get stuck.

Hmm, yes, if you're consistently seeing a bunch wrong in a row at the end, then mental stamina / concentration may be a factor. Have you read this article before:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... you-crazy/

It's got some interesting advice about reducing the number of decisions you have to make, because the more decisions we make, the more tired we get and the more we get distracted or just want to "get it over with" and so we start making worse decisions. Figuring out how to minimize decisions throughout the test can help to keep you fresher at the end.

Also, when you're studying, practice stamina. Figure out everything you're going to do in advance, so that you never have to stop. Turn off your phone, don't check email, don't get up to get something to drink - just like the real test. Study for 1 hour straight. Then take a 10-minute break. Then study for another hour straight. You're getting your brain used to having to concentrate for long lengths of time.

[Note: you don't have to make your study sessions 75 minutes, nor do you have to do this over the course of 3.5 hours - the length of the real test. Studying is actually more mentally taxing than taking the test because you're trying to create and recall memories. While taking the test, you're only trying to recall memories. So an hour straight (twice) is enough.]

If you do start feeling too mentally fatigued, figure out what can help to get you back on track. For some people, they decide to sacrifice one question and, during the time for that question, they close their eyes and meditate / try to clear their brains. Others do mini-exercises while sitting in front of the screen. Roll your neck or shoulders around, stretch your legs out, flex the muscles in your legs, and so on. Just figure out what works for you to give you a "refresh" boost. (And don't underestimate the importance of what you eat and drink during the breaks!)

I am getting them wrong either because they are trickier or due to silly mistakes

There are different actions to take in those two cases. Silly mistakes are higher priority, because you DO already know how to get those right. Here, figure out exactly why you made the mistake that you made, and then figure out how you could have set things up or written things down differently in order to avoid making that careless mistake. Make yourself re-write all of the work again. If necessary, do some drills with whatever the careless mistake was.

"Trickier" means "I generally know how to do these, but this one had a twist and was harder for a real reason... and I didn't know how to handle the twist." Then you have to decide - is this something that I can learn and is it something that I want to spend the time to learn? (As you noted, if something's not very common and would be very hard to learn, then it might not be worth our time.)

Your quant scores do look like they're in the right range to take advantage of the Advanced Quant book. Do that right away, though, because you want to give yourself adequate time to learn and implement the things discussed in that book. It isn't just stuff to memorize - it's a whole way of thinking and learning, and that's going to take time and you're going to want to apply it to all the other questions you're doing from other sources.

Good luck!

[sureshreddy003]

Hi Stacey,

Thank you for all the suggestions. The day after you replied to my post I took a MGMAT test and the result I achieved was very good. An increase of about 100 points from my previous MGMAT tests. Between these 3 weeks, I took 3 tests, 1 MGMAT & 2 Kaplan and below are my scores.

MGMAT - 23rd Oct - 670(Q47,V34)
Kaplan2 - 30th Oct - 580(Q39,V25) - Bad experience
Kaplan3 - 6th Nov i.e today - 660(Q50,V28).

Firstly, I want to tell about the 2nd test result which was a shock to me as I got 39 in Quant and it was not even possible in baddest of my dreams. I made many silly mistakes and got most of them wrong, which is why the score dropped and this would be a worst scenario case for me(when anything doesn't go well on the exam day) and I would take this as a experience and remember this so that at least I don't repeat the mistakes in quant.

Coming to MGMAT test where i crossed the 650 barrier for the 1st time and also a score of 34 in verbal. During verbal section, I kept in mind that in earlier tests I was getting most of them wrong in the last 12 questions and fortunately this time I got all the last 12 questions correct in a row. Until question 27, I made mistakes which dropped my % level to 35, but as I got the next 12q correct, %le level increased and I got a good score in Verbal.

In this test, I got most of the CR's wrong( I got the answer at the 1st sight, but don't know I marked a different answer). This situation happens to me in every test, where the answer which I get or at least guess on the 1st instance would be correct,but I some how try to think in a different way and change the answer. I am trying to see that I am out of this as soon as possible.

As suggested, I am practicing CR/RC/SC as a mix so that I don't lose a grip of them. Also, in SC i found that the incorrect answers which I am marking are mostly of Idioms and I hope I should not be worrying about this as I may or may not see Idioms being tested on the real GMAT.

As said, I have purchased Advanced quant and practiced all the strategies and guessing tactics and I should be very thankful for this book as I was able to recollect all my old methods and also found new methods to solve the tougher questions. I was in a bit confused state earlier while solving DS questions, but this book has helped me a lot and now I am very confident in solving DS questions. This is a mandatory book which I would suggest to people who want to be in the 90% level.

After practicing Adv quant, today I have taken another Kaplan test and scored a 50 on quant.Wow, this is what I wanted to be in quant and I would maintain this level at any cost.

But while I was at question 10 in verbal, my net got disconnected and I had to check out for the next 30 minutes what the problem was. Later, when I continued the test, the tension got on me and I some how made mistakes. What I found was I got 10 questions wrong in a row from Q23 to Q33. This is worst I know and this is another bad experience for me which I hope wouldn't be repeating on the test day. I read the article provided by you regarding the no. of questions getting wrong in a row(stamina, guessing). I was completely prepared and confident today that I would be scoring 30+ at least, but some how my luck didn't favor me.

Also, in this test I found that SC questions which I got wrong were related to Idioms and as I stopped practicing idioms list, i couldn't recollect. I should have been above 680 level today, but some how could not reach that as I changed the answers in verbal for about 8 questions which would have been correct if I had marked the answers which I thought were correct. As said earlier, I am getting stuck between 2 options(in CR & RC), as in SC I almost got rid of this by checking the meaning.

Please suggest me some ways to improve my score by at least 20 points and I have 2 weeks to go for the real test. I have 2 MGMAT tests & 1 GMATPREP which I would be taking in the next 2 weeks and I am hoping that I would touch the 700 barrier and a bit confident now after seeing the two results.

Please advice.


Thanks,
Suresh

[StaceyKoprince]

where the answer which I get or at least guess on the 1st instance would be correct,but I some how try to think in a different way and change the answer.

Do not second-guess yourself. EVER! Once you pick an answer, stick with that answer UNLESS you can say to yourself, "Oh! I totally made a mistake. Here's my mistake right here. It's not B." Okay, then you can change your answer to something else. Otherwise, you STAY with B!!

The real GMAT does still test general language idioms, but it does not test American-centric idioms. Any idioms that are the same across all forms of English can still be tested on the test. So if you see an idiom (on an *official* test question) that you don't know, study it. (I emphasized *official* there because non-official sources might test American-centric idioms - so let's just work from official sources for those issues.)

It sounds like you may already be able to lift your verbal score 10 to 20 points if you stop second-guessing yourself. If I understand correctly, you said that on the 680 test, you had 8 verbal Qs where you first picked the right answer and then changed it to a wrong answer. If that's the case, just stop switching your answers. :)

When you get stuck between 2 answers, in the moment, just pick something. Afterwards, though, study it from the point of view of "what was the trap?" There are two traps when you're stuck between the right answer and a tempting wrong answer:
- why the wrong answer is so tempting to choose
- why the right answer is so tempting to eliminate

If you can articulate those reasons, then you know that the reason the wrong answer is tempting is a BAD reason, so don't pick answers for that same reason in future. And you also know that the reason for eliminating the right answer is a BAD reason, so don't eliminate answers for that same reason in future.

It sounds like you're almost there - you just need to clean up your errors, work on that mental stamina, stop second-guessing yourself, and dig in a little bit more! Good luck!

[sureshreddy003]

Hi Stacey,

Thank you for the clarifications and suggestions. I had taken a MGMAT test and the score was a drop, but I found the reasons for this.

MGMAT4 - 620(Q47,V29) - 76%
Same score with same % is shown as 640 in calculator.

Maths I am consistent in MGMAT and this time I made 2 less mistakes(13wrong, last time I got 16 wrong).Also what I found with the analysis was that when I made a mistake my scoring % dropped about 5% and when I got correct it only increased by 1-2% for 700-800 level questions. I hope this is not the case in the original GMAT test.

Also, at 31st question my % was 81 and in the next 6 questions, I got only 1 ques wrong and all the other 5 correct(all ques above 600 & 700 level), but my % increased by only 2% i.e at the end of the test my %le was 83%(I got last 3 correct) and the score displayed shows the %le level as 81%. I am not sure about the calculations and I hope that the %le increases when we get a series of questions correctly and also the score will be rated with the %le which we end our quant section. Please clarify if this is the same case in original test.

I needed one more clarification on MGMAT, as I hope that MGMAT tests does not have any experimental questions just as the original test which has some experimental questions, as in MGMAT for every wrong answer, %le gets dropped and I hope this is the not the same during original test. Please confirm if this is true or a myth.

In verbal section, I find this as a improvement as my past scores were in the range of 25 and this is at almost 30. In the earlier test where I scored 670, I got 34 in verbal and during this test I got only 1 700 level question. I hope this was the reason for my score increase in the earlier test. In the present test, I got a bunch of 700 level questions and this may be the reason for my score drop.

From last two tests, what I found in verbal was I am getting a series of questions about 8 wrong continuously, and I am still unable to see the reason for this. Earlier I had problems during the end of the test as I made most mistakes at the end and now I have rectified this as I am getting most of them correct at the end of the test.

But something is wrong during the middle of verbal section where I am getting a series of questions wrong(and I don't think this is because of stamina or fatigue). If I can rectify this, then surely I can touch the 35 mark in verbal.

I had one more clarification and I hope you could help me on this. My name in mba.com is SURESH REDDY PUTHI(First,Middle,Last name and this is according to my Passport ID),but in the confirmation mail which I received from GMAC, Candidate Name is displayed as PUTHI,SURESH(they have skipped middle name as it is not a mandatory field in the profiling, they took only First & Last name). So, would this be an issue at my exam center as I have given my correct name(would show my Passport as a proof ID), but GMAC people did not display the same as they skipped the middle name. Please clarify regarding this issue, as I don't want any hurdles on the test day and want to be as cool as possible :-)

Please advice.

Thanks,
Suresh

[StaceyKoprince]

Generally speaking, the score drop or gain will depend upon several factors, including how high above or below the question is from your currently-calculated scoring level and whether you are earlier or later in the test.

Generally speaking, if the question is below your currently-calculated level, the lower it is, the more likely you are to lose more ground if you get it wrong. On the other hand, if the question is above your currently-calculated level, the higher it is, the more likely you are to gain ground.

Also, the earlier you are in the test, the more one question can affect the overall calculation because there aren't as many data points yet. (In the end, all the questions are weighted equally.)

The algorithm is so complex, that you can't just look at the question by question progression and conclude anything about how much you're gaining or losing on each one.

Next, that data that you see on your score report is NOT your calculated percentile score. It's actually the percentile rating for the QUESTION - but that does not necessarily match your exact score (much of the time it won't). The test has quite a lot of leeway in what it selects as the next question - there are a lot of parameters and "match to current score" is only one of them.

MGMAT tests do not have experimentals, no.

Where are the 8 Qs wrong in a row happening? In the middle somewhere?

When you review these questions, do you know how to do some of them after without looking anything up or spending extra time? Do you think you made careless mistakes on some of them? That can indicate a concentration / mental stamina issue.

Are you falling into traps? Getting distracted by really tempting wrong answers during this sequence, more so than you usually are? That can also mean concentration /mental stamina issues.

Or did you really just get very unlucky and get a whole sequence of questions where you really didn't know what to do / how to answer? In that case, there are some significant holes in your foundation and some work to be done to plug those holes.

For your name, I'm not sure how they print their forms - it may be that they only show the "last, first" thing because otherwise the names will be too long for the form letter. You can call the test center, explain and ask to make sure.

[sureshreddy003]

Hi Stacey,

I was waiting for your reply from past 1 week, but I hope you were busy with your schedule.

After the above post, I took some tests.

Kaplan5 - 660(Q51,V28)
MGMAT - 670(Q48,V33)
GMATPREP2 - 590(Q49,V23) - I hope this doesnot happen on exam day
GMATPREP1-Repeat-650(Q48,V31),- after a 1month,took it today

In Gmatprep2, I don't know what happened to me during verbal, but I was on a lower side, which shook all my confidence. I got about 18 wrong in verbal and again this time I got most of questions wrong at the end, may be I was tensed during this test, as I kept in mind that this would be the replica of the main score. I made mistakes to the answers which I know(some questions in GMATPREP would be from OG12, and when I see those questions, I feel that I know the answer and suddenly would stop thinking rules and try to recollect the answer).

I lost all my confidence and went down, although I knew that I shouldn't be taking practice test before 2days, I took it today as I did not want to go to the center with all my confidence lost. Today, I scored 650 which I hope is better and where I stand. In GMATPREP1, I got only 13 wrong in verbal,which is the least incorrect answers in all my practice tests. I hope to continue this on the exam day as well.

I have my test on Nov 24th, and in the next 2days I would be revising all the basics and would be practicing a minimal questions from OG12. I fixed myself mentally that I would not be doing a second guessing nor thinking out of box. If I feel that this is the correct answer with the knowledge of English I have, then I would go with the answer irrespective of what the result is.

Unfortunately, my health is going down from the past week and everything is going wrong, which has to go with me :(..I took MGMAT and GMATPREP1 with fever and scored a good 650+. I hope I don't face any issues the D-day and determined to give my best forgetting about the result.

I hope if luck is on my side on that day, then I can score 670+ the D-day as until now all the guesses which I made in practice tests went wrong.

I hope that by the time you respond to this post, I would have completed my test, but if by chance you happen to respond to this thread before the test(Nov 24th), please suggest some ways to be at my best on the test day. Hope your suggestions would increase my score by 10points at-least :)

Thanks for all your support :)


Thanks,
Suresh

[sureshreddy003]

Hi Stacey,

I thought that I would be posting my score happily, but unfortunately that is not the case. I screwed up my score today

GMAT - 590(Q48,V23)...

I did not expect this, as at least I thought that I would be getting 650, but somehow screwed it....Everything was good until Maths...I expected 49 on Maths...

But in verbal I did the same mistake as I did in GMATPREP2, spending much time on earlier questions....for the 1st 20 questions I took 45min...thats it I knew I screwed my exam....n 3rd RC, I had to rush to maintain time....

Until GMATPREP2, I never had timing problem or such kind of thing in MGMAT tests(atleast I had in Maths), but tension got on me even though I was mentally prepared that I should not get tensed. But some how, you know luck was not on my side today :(

I am taking a break from this now, as from the past 6months I have spent a lot of time preparing, leaving aside everything, the life which I am not used to...I need to get back to original now and plan myself for the retake. I would take a month gap and then come back again, and I hope next time I would feel better while writing the exam.

Also, for now I had exhausted all my practice tests & materials, so i remember most of the answers from OG..so again starting now would not yield much....I would have loved to join MGMAT classes if you had branches in India, but unfortunately you don't provide your support in India. Hope you start a center in India as most of the people are loving your materials..please do take this a s a suggestion :)

Thank you for all the support and suggestions Stacey, you were excellent, but the only thing is I could not reach that...

Will see you soon :)

Thanks,
Suresh

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry you had such a rough time on test day. The timing problems you describe would definitely drop your score a large amount. It's actually impressive that you *still* scored 590 even with such severe timing problems - so, even though you didn't get the score you wanted, you still did well considering the circumstances.

It sounds like anxiety / nerves got to you as well. I think you got anxious after doing GMATPrep 2, which caused you to increase the amount you were doing and take a practice test shortly before the real exam, which just would have tired you out and increased your anxiety even more.

For future (and for everyone else reading this): if you take a practice test within a week before the real exam and your score drops so much that you lose confidence, reschedule the real test. Even if you do take another practice test just before the real thing and get a score you like, you're still going to be worried. (What if that first test was really my level? What if that happens again on test day? What if...???) Plus, you're also going to tire yourself out by taking a test 2-3 days before the real thing and trying to study a ton to get your confidence back up.

Let us know when you decide to get started again.