Improving score to a 700

[CM246]

I need help getting my score to at least 700. I took the official GMAT last weekend on 8/1 and scored a 650 (47Q and 34V). Below are my tests and scores:
11/11/14 Official GMAT 560 44Q 26V
4/4 MGMAT 620 43Q/32V
5/9 MGMAT 590 39Q/33V
6/14 MGMAT 640 44Q/34V
7/3 MGMAT 630 42Q/34V
7/18 MGMAT 630 44Q/32V
7/26 MGMAT 640 45Q/33V
8/1 Official GMAT 650 47Q/34V

I’ve been stuck at these levels for a while. I had a lot of timing issues when I took the official GMAT in November. I feel comfortable with the Quant and I think I can bring it up another point or two past 47. When I took the test on 8/1 I got 5-6 probability/combo problems, which I usually skip (the harder ones) because they are a weakness for me. I tried all of them, the first 3 or 4 being easier and last 1 or 2 looked at for about a minute and then skipped. For the first 15 questions I was ahead on time by about 4 minutes but I slowed down, fell behind by 2-3 minutes by the low 30s, skipped a question, and finished with about 2 minutes. I got hung up on 3-4 problems and spent more than the 2 minutes on them but no more than 3 minutes though. I was comfortable with the Quant section this past time but definitely made a few dumb mistakes, mostly when I blanked towards the end of a question. I was fading a little too towards the end of this section and I used the extra 2 minutes as an additional break before moving on the break. I feel I may have used a little too much energy on the IR section.

On verbal, RC is my strength and I usually get 1-4 wrong. I’m decent with CR and SC, but have improved a lot on SC. When I reached the questions in the low 30’s I was losing focus and found it hard to concentrate. I was reverting back to on old habit of not taking notes on the CR questions.

Prior to taking the test on 8/1, I made practice sets of 6 PS and 4 DS using the Quant book and review every problem afterwards using the explanation provided. I practiced my timing by skipping question I got hung up on or didn’t know how to solve.
For verbal, I created practice set of the odd questions for RC for on passage, 4 CR and 4 SC. I would review each answer, write why each was wrong, and then compare my explanation to the answers in the guide.
I reviewed each MGMAT test I took. I created a log from the OG and Quant/Verbal books.

I plan on reviewing the CR and SC guides, creating problem sets for quant using the OG, and watching Thursdays with Ron for a deeper dive on some topics. Is there anything else you suggest? Any advice on how to tweak my studying? Am I correct on focusing on boosting verbal to really push my score higher?

[CM246]

I also bought the ESR:

Quant scoring: 47 (68th percentile)
Problem Solving: 45 (62% percentile)
Data Sufficiency: 48 (70% percentile)
Arithmetic 49 (77% percentile)
Algebra and Geometry 44 (57% percentile)

Timing
Overall Quant: 2.02 minutes
Problem Solving: 1.99 minutes
Data Sufficiency: 2.2 minutes
Arithmetic: 1.95 minutes
Algebra/Geometry: 2.25 minutes

Verbal Scoring 34 (71st percentile)
Critical Reasoning - 31 (57% percentile)
Reading Comprehension - 40 (85% percentile)
Sentence Correction - 26 (44% percentile)

Timing
Overall Verbal: 1.82 minutes
Critical Reasoning: 2.06 minutes
Reading Comprehension: 2.03 minutes
Sentence Correction: 1.61 minutes

[StaceyKoprince]

I think you probably need to work on both. It's true that your Q is already high enough that no schools will have a concern, while V needs a few more points to get into the "no concerns" range.

But Q is also your strength, and it's easier to improve our strengths. So I think the goal should be to try to pick up 1-2 points in quant and then get into the 37+ range on verbal.

What do you think you should do differently next time on IR to minimize mental energy spent there? (I have ideas...but I want to know what you think first.

...found it hard to concentrate. I was reverting back to on old habit of not taking notes on the CR questions.

Yep, this indicates definite mental fatigue. We'll need to address that before you go back in. What did you score on IR?

Okay, the ESR data is very interesting. You're about equal in PS and DS, but you have a definite strength in arithmetic and a weakness in alg / geo. So there's an area to be addressed. We'll need some more specific data to come up with a study plan - more on that in a minute.

For verbal, you called it: RC is great, but SC and CR need some work.

So let's figure out where you need to work. First, read these two articles:
http://tinyurl.com/executivereasoning
http://tinyurl.com/2ndlevelofgmat

Think about how what you've been doing does and doesn't match up with that and how you may need to change your approach accordingly.
Then, use the below to analyze your most recent MGMAT CATs (this should take you a minimum of 1 hour):
http://tinyurl.com/analyzeyourcats

Based on all of that, figure out your strengths and weaknesses as well as any ideas you have for what you think you should do. Then come back here and tell us; we'll tell you whether we agree and advise you further. (Note: do share an analysis with us, not just the raw data. Your analysis should include a discussion of your buckets - you'll understand what that means when you read the last article. Part of getting better is developing your ability to analyze your results - figure out what they mean and what you think you should do about them!)

[CM246]

Hi Stacey,

Thank you!

Sorry for the long post.

I got a 5 in the IR. I moved pretty quickly in the beginning and I usually skip the question where you sort through the data table. These questions weren’t showing up so I pushed myself to do all the 10 knowing the data table questions didn’t show up yet. Maybe I should skip the ones that seem too mentally exhausting and try the data table as 2 questions can be answered without too much energy wasted.

I reviewed my past MGMAT CATs. I took all of them with AWA and IR. On the first 4 CATs my timing on the Quant was horrible and I was behind 5-6 minutes on those. After realizing this, I worked on timing myself on the quant and verbal practice questions and skipping question in the practice sets that took too long or I didn’t know how to answer. I thought I fixed this because my overall time was good and I guessed on 2-4 questions for timing in the last 2 CATs, timing is problem. For 9 problems I spent an average of 3 minutes, getting ~ half right, and balanced out the time by spending an average of ~50 seconds on 7 questions, which I got all correct but one. I guessed on one problem. CAT 5 was a little worse and opposite of CAT 6 where the ones I did quickly I got more than half wrong. On both of these I was not behind by more than 3 minutes. On the previous CATs I was behind up to 6 minutes at some points if not a little more for CATs 3 and 4. Despite these variances, some problems I get very quickly and just spend less time so I allocate that time gained to some of the other problems. Is this a bad thing knowing that overall I was not behind by about 2-3 minutes for the overall timing when comparing my time to the cumulative time? Some problems I need to guess and move on quicker. I got more questions wrong from 2 minutes to 3 minutes on the last two CATs because I realized I need to guess and move one. Still made some dumb mistakes but they definitely decreased as time went on… I think this is from just studying and recognizing the types of questions on quant. On CAT 4 I had 2 strings of questions of 5 wrong. The second set was guess to catch up on time.

The “In it to win it” article helped me a lot because I used to think I needed to answer all the questions. Big paradigm shift and I think that is was help moved me up in quant and helped to keep the anxiety down.

On verbal, my timing is much better. On CATs 3 and 4, I was behind on time at some points up to 5 minutes. SC is consistent across all my CATs and take up to 3 minutes on some. CR and RC are in line. In general I get about ¾ of SC wrong past 2 minutes. For questions that take the least amount of time, I noticed I get a majority of them correct. On these questions, I recognize what is being test right away in SC and correctly break down/understand the argument in CR. Overall timing shifted in CATs 5 and 6 and I was ahead but by no more than 2 minutes. On CAT 5 I got a string of 7 questions wrong starting with question 25. On the last 17 questions I got 11 wrong and 6 right.

Looking at the generated reports of my last 3 CATs, number properties is a clear weakness at 37 % of the questions and I spend the least amount of time. The average time is lower though because I usually skip the hard combo/probability questions right away. Overall my PS and DS are basically the same except I spend about 10 seconds more on DS. I spend about 50 seconds more in algebra questions that are wrong than right. I spend the least amount of time on number properties and algebra, mostly because these cause me to stress more when I get questions like these.

On Quant the 300-600 level questions are all below 1 min 30s but I got them all right. DS is higher than PS in 600-700 at 70% and 55% respectively. One interesting thing is I spend more time on the right answers than the wrong answers. This is because I usually just guess if I hit a roadblock. On verbal nothing stands out except RC 600-700 level I spend 40 more seconds on wrong answers.

RC is the only on that stands out in verbal where I spend over a minute more on wrong 600-700 problems than right and 40 more seconds on worn than right in 700-800. I need to start guessing on these questions.

My bucket analysis is below. Based on the analysis, I should focus on number properties and algebra in quant. Reread the books and when practicing question, I need to tell the sub topics the question is asking for. I usually recognize this too late.

For verbal, I need to focus on the breaking the argument down. In the assumptions family questions, I usually get these wrong because I did not understand the argument and misread some answers. For SC I will reread the books and focus on modifiers, meaning, and verbs. SC is a clear weakness though even on the 600-800 level questions. These seem to be my weakness when I went back and reviewed questions even though it is hard to group these types. I find the Thursdays with Ron are very helpful with SC.

I will do times sets of 10 question for each, 10 quant then review and 10 verbal then review. For me this will help me work on timing issues.

What are your thoughts?


Bucket 1
Linear equations- all correct but at 600 level and about 1 min 30s
Formulas
Stats
Fractions
Ratios- become more efficient
Overlapping set- need to do faster, additional time comes from making chart


Bucket 2
Exponents- stumble on properties sometimes
Quadratic- need to recognize faster when hidden in some problems, because of this my time is 2:16 for correct
Inequalities- dumb mistakes, work faster… slightly over 2 minutes, guess on harder ones quicker
Triangles/diagonals- make dumb mistakes
Coordinate plane- good but usually guess on harder ones
Divisibility and primes- dumb mistakes from missing info in the problem or miss testing a type of number
Odds and evens- dumb mistakes from missing info in the problem or miss testing a type of number
Positives and negatives- dumb mistakes from missing info in the problem or miss testing a type of number
Percents- dumb mistakes
Rates and work- spend too much time on the harder questions

Bucket 3
Circles and cylinders- spend way too much time on right and wrong problems ~3 minutes, but all questions are above 700 difficulty
Combinatorics- always guess unless easy
Probability- always guess unless easy
Algebraic translations- wording stress me out sometimes and guess
Consec integers- usually forget properties and spend too much time
Digits and decimals- spend too much time, close to 3 minutes

Verbal
Bucket 1
Find the assumption- 43 % correct, low timing, and 720 average correct, 730 average wrong
Describe the role
Draw the conclusion- 63 % correct, on time, and 710 average correct, 720 average wrong
RC Passage structure
RC Inference- answer quicker
Pronouns

Bucket 2
Evaluate the argument- guess quicker on harder problems
Strengthen and weaken
Explain the discrepancy
RC Specific detail- get faster
RC Main idea- guess quicker and read for better understanding of passage
Modifiers
Verbs
Meaning
Concision
Parallelism- get better at noticing the correct marker

Bucket 3
Quantity- always get confused with rules because I doubt my memory
Connecting punctuation- spend too much time
Idioms

Average timing for verbal questions is not off on any.

[StaceyKoprince]

Excellent analysis. I'm going in order of your post.

IR: I think it's a good idea to know what question type you like least, so that you can selectively skip those, but still be flexible. If you discover a horrible question on a type that you would normally answer, you may decide to guess on that one and do one of the ones you'd normally skip. (Note: "skip" = guess quickly and move on; you can't actually skip a question, of course.)

A 5 is a good-enough IR score; you just want to try not to get too tired out while you're getting that score. You can guess on at least 3 (and even 4, if needed) and still hit a 5 (and this does assume that you will also get some wrong that you try to answer). So plan next time to bail on 3-4 and also be willing to be flexible if you see a really hard one for a type that you'd normally do.

Timing: Yes, it's okay to allocate some extra time to some questions, since you will have some that you answer more quickly than average (either because you're good at them or because you know you can't do it and cut yourself off).

Here's the key, though: a good way to allocate an extra 30 or 45-ish seconds is because you know exactly how to do it but it's a somewhat longer problem than typical, so it just has a few more steps that will take some more time. This problem objectively takes more time; it's not that it's a weakness of yours or you need more time to figure out what's going on. A bad way to allocate an extra 30 (or 60+) seconds = any variation of "If I just had some more time, I'm sure I could figure this out."

Also, another key: you never try to save time on something that you already know how to do. If, working at your normal pace, you can answer that question in 1m20s, great. But never try to take a 1m40s problem and turn it into a 1m20s problem so that you can spend more time elsewhere. That's what opens you up to careless mistakes.

Further, if a quant problem is going to take more than roughly 3 min, then that problem is likely not worth the time and mental effort even if you get it right. It's okay to have a couple of problems in that timeframe, but a 3m30s+ problem is a problem that you don't know how to do in a reasonable amount of time and with a reasonable expenditure of mental energy. Don't prioritize getting something right over your time and mental energy.

In general I get about ¾ of SC wrong past 2 minutes.

And I'll just point out the full significance of this: if you don't even read the question, just guess randomly, you have a 20% chance of getting it right. If you spend 2+ minutes, you've calculated that you have about a 25% chance of getting it right. Obviously not a good ROI. Remind yourself of that whenever you're tempted to go past 2m on an SC!

All of this gets at what that exec reasoning article says: the test is ultimately about a series of "business" decisions that you're making as you move through it. One of your main goals as you continue to study will be to internalize that decision making mindset. Read this too:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2015/08/ ... r-the-gmat

Alg: 50 seconds longer on wrong than right is a bit too long - signals a bit of stubbornness going on at times. Try to keep average time on wrong answers to around 30 seconds longer; yes, they're harder, so they'll be somewhat longer, but you're still able to make good decisions to cut yourself off.

Your other main goal will be to improve the content areas / questions types in your Bucket 2.

Buckets
You mention careless mistakes in some areas. It's crucial to figure out why you made the specific mistakes you made and then to implement new habits in how you do the work / write things down / etc that will help to minimize those same kinds of mistakes in future. Read this:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -the-gmat/

I'd move coord plane from bucket 2 to 3. Sounds like you can do the easier to medium ones. Usually, there's only one on the test. And you can get one hard one wrong and not have that really affect your score.

I'd also move harder rates and work to bucket 3. Ditto.

Other than that, I agree with all of your quant buckets.

Verbal. CR. Strengthen and weaken definitely the most important here, as these are far more common than the other types you listed in bucket 2. Also, you say "guess quicker on harder problems" for Evaluate...that describes bucket 3.

SC: the test often uses false concision as a trap. If I ever find myself thinking about that as an issue, I know it's time to guess (or look for some other reason). So I wouldn't think about that. But your other bucket 2 items are good.

Yes to your plan to do timed sets of questions to help with the timing / decision-making. For quant, you may also want to look into the GMAC (official test) product GMAT Focus. It's a mini-quant section (24 questions instead of 27) but still fully adaptive, so it's a great way to practice putting it all together. (I wish they had this product for verbal!)

Your review of the questions will follow the 2nd Level studies / process that I linked in my previous post, yes? That detailed review will then tell you what you need to go back and study from books, lessons, and other materials / resources you have.

Also, don't forget to do an overall "decision-level" review. Where did you make good decisions about how to spend your limited time and mental energy? Where, in hindsight, should you have made different decisions? Why? How will you know to make those different decisions next time?

Great work - now go do it!