Long Post - Infinite Queries!

[punit.kaur]

Hi,

Heres a little about my background before I start shooting questions!

I have my GMAT scheduled for Dec 30th. I started my preparation back in mid-July ( I know 6 months of prep which is gen not advisable) but here is why I planned that way,when I took my GMAT Prep I , I got a 570. My Target score is 800 :). And I believe I can get very close to it provided I have an excellent strategy. I have been really good [not excellent] at quant. So I knew from my GMAT Prep that all I needed was some brush up of math skills and practice to get into the "mode" of solving problems. And I see myself progressing. I knew I was afraid of Verbal so I attacked that section first starting with CR ( which was a nightmare to me). I have improved a LOT and see myself getting approx 80% of questions right. Earlier my accuracy was 50% I believe. Similarly I attacked the other sections of verbal as well and have a similar accuracy rate in SC and RC sections. I started writing tests once a week ONLY to build stamina. Its just not easy for me to sit through for 3 hrs as I start getting restless and mind starts losing focus. Now I see myself improving on that aspect.

I took a few practice tests in the past few weeks and here are my scores-

1) GMAT Prep in Aug - 630 [Q-44,V-32] [ had serious timing issues in both Q & V]
2) Princeton Review - 640 [Q-48, V-31] [ serious timing issues in verbal]
3) Princeton Review - 680[Q-47, V- 37] [ same as above for verbal]
4)Knewton Practise Test - 750[Q-48, V-45] [ I feel this test result was inflated especially verbal, partly because the free practise test that they provide picks problems directly from OG and just changes the names/etc, so the logic and choices are clearly identifiable if you've done those questions]

NOTE: I will not take Manhattan Tests until next month as I believe them to be the most accurate tests in terms of predicting my score, so for practice I am using all the other ones. And the practice is not majorly to judge myself but to put myself through rigorous exercise of sitting at one place for long hours and focussing on just 1 thing :)

So Right now I confidently see myself in the range of 650 ish. Could be more but I am not sure. I know I have another 2.5 months and I have a strong will to go upto 750 atleast , if someone can help me here.

Books I have referred / completed till now-

1)Manhattan all Quant Books, SC
2)OG Verbal Review(SC,CR)
3)OG Quant Review
4)Kaplan 800 [doing this one and getting lots of problems wrong]
5)1000 SC
6)1000 RC

Books to finish

1)OG 11 [starting this week]
2) OG 12

I have tons of other practice material which I will work on ONLY IF AND after I am thoroughly done with OG 11 & 12. I did not touch these as I wanted to use them to track my progress and I feel now is the right time to start this book.

Now, I have the following very important questions which if answered, I belive will help me work better towards improving my score to >750.

1)Verbal Timing is a very big issue.

SC - I always see myself rushing thru last fw questions. I know the reason - I spend more than 1.5 minutes on SC, just so I dont get them wrong. If I spend less time, I might make careless mistakes of not noting for certain errors.

CR - I spend less time on assumption questions [around 1.5 minutes], and more than 2/2.5 minutes on weaken and inference questions. Though at the end of spending so much time , I end up getting them right.

RC - I have practiced only the 1000 RC document till now and feel that has given me stamina to solve long RC passages. However I am still slow in them

2) Quant- I am afraid I haven't yet solved the 700 range problems yet as I see myself getting stumped on "not so straightforward questions", many of them are from number properties.

3) What minor strategies I can incorporate in my preparation for all sections but especially my weak areas -CR and SC can help me reach the 750 + target ?

4) Is there anything I can do to emulate the exam center situation while doing the practice tests. I tend to get very nervous in such things at the last moment so I want to be prepared. Things like getting used to the scratch paper. Breaks etc. All those kinds of tips etc. I have read about the scratch paper in your forums.

Right now for CR and RC, I write down A B C D E and scrathc them off while eliminating choices, which I think is time consuming too. I am trying my best to save time on as many things as possible to make sure I dont run out of time in verbal section.

After reading so many posts where Stacy and Ron have advised students to the minutest level of detail possible, I got the confidence that I will get very good advise from here.

And I wouldn't be lying if I say that while writing this post I have been correcting my sentences to conform with SC rules of GMAT:). But I am pretty sure I would have made many mistakes.

Looking forward to your invaluable advise!

Thanks

[StaceyKoprince]

When you took those practice tests, did you take them under full official conditions? (with the essays, 8 minute breaks between sections, etc) If you did, then I agree that your current scoring position is mid-600s. If you didn't, then your current position may be a bit inflated.

You mention major timing issues. You also discuss the percentage of questions you answer correctly. Finally, you mention spending too much time on questions "just so I don't get them wrong."

On the test, you will answer about 60% or so of the questions correctly. It won't matter what your score is (unless you really do get that 800!). So don't focus quite so much on getting things right or on assessing yourself based on your percentage correct. It's actually NOT worth it to spend extra time to get things right if doing so causes you to have to rush and/or run out of time.

There are large penalties for getting strings of questions wrong in a row. There are also larger penalties for getting questions wrong that you "should" have gotten right, according to the test. As you take the test, it calculates a score range for you after each question. The penalty for getting a question wrong that is below your current score range is greater than the penalty for getting a question wrong that is above your current score range.

Whenever the test gives you a question, it is not merely asking you whether you can answer that question correctly. It's asking you whether you can answer that question correctly in the given timeframe. If you can't, then your score is going to suffer one way or another (either because you get the question wrong outright or because you get some other question wrong as the result of spending too much time on this one). If you want a 750+, you absolutely cannot afford to mess up the timing. (But you CAN absolutely afford to get a lot of problems wrong and still get a 750 - that's the way the test works!)

You mention having source books to teach you the math content and the grammar, but you don't mention source books for CR or RC. At the scoring level you want to hit, you cannot learn how to get better at CR and RC simply by doing and reviewing problems. You need something that will tell you what to look for, what to do, how to analyze, how to spot tempting wrong answers, how to work efficiently, how to make educated guesses, etc. So one of your tasks is to identify a source for CR and RC lessons - we have books for these areas and so do the other test prep companies. Find something you like and start studying!

Re: timing, every time you review a problem (and you should be reviewing every single problem in great detail!), ask yourself: what could I have done more efficiently here? How could I have shaved 10 or 15 seconds? What didn't I notice the first time through that would have helped me to save time, and how will I make sure that I notice that the next time?

On quant, I'm not sure whether Kaplan 800 only has problems or whether it also includes lessons on what you need to know. If it's mostly problem-focused, then you should start with the MGMAT guides to make sure you learn the material you need to know first. Then use OG, Kaplan 800, and whatever other problem sources you want to use in order to practice.

As an aside: while you do need to learn to be more efficient on verbal, you shouldn't stop writing down the answer choices and eliminating as you go along. That step is absolutely not a waste of time. If you want to do it more efficiently, I'd suggest this: write A B C D E at the top of your scratch paper and draw columns (on the real test, you'll have graph paper, so you won't ned to draw any lines). Use a separate row beneath the letters for each problem - that way, you don't have to write the actual letters 41 times.

As another aside: I am really not a fan of the 1000 "sets" problems. There are a lot of errors and bad problems riddled throughout the sets. I wouldn't personally use them (and, in fact, we've banned them here on our forums because we think the quality is low).

In terms of trying to mimic the real test situation, yes, there are things you can do. First, download this PDF from the makers of the test:
http://www.mba.com/NR/rdonlyres/18971069-E442-442D-9A62-B9DC00E64825/0/GMAT_bulletin_2009_v16_WebReady3.pdf

You can make yourself some laminated paper (go to Kinko's or someplace similar). We also make a version of the booklet that looks just like the real thing; you can buy it on our web site. (I think it's called a Test Simulation Booklet or something like that.)

When you get yourself ready to take a test, either make sure that you will be completely uninterrupted (nobody at home will talk to you or make noise in the background, you won't hear ringing phones, etc) or go someplace where you can have complete quiet and a steady Internet connection (eg, a library).

Take the test at the same time of day that you plan to take the real test. If this is in the morning, get up at the time you'll have to get up, have breakfast, then go walk or drive around for the time it will take you to get to the test center. Then go back home or to wherever you plan to take the practice test. Read the "Testing Rules & Agreement" section from the GMAT Bulletin (that PDF up above that you downloaded). You'll have to do this on the real test day. Pretend to select your 5 schools. Then you can finally start taking the test. (And, of course, stick to all of the official timing guidelines, including the breaks.)

[punit.kaur]

Hi Stacey,

First of all thanks for such a detailed post addressing my concerns. Here are my answers to some of your questions.

1) These tests were done without the essay. However, the breaks between Quant and Verbal were less than 5 minutes.

2) My major timing issues are only with CR and RC.

CR-

I have used Powerscore CR bible and improved my accuracy a lot but I still feel my approach towards CR problems, especially weaken is not very methodical. For example when I read the stimulus, I cannot prephrase my answer almost all the times. I look at the answer choices and use POE. Not all of my weaken problems go wrong. But many of them do and I can't figure out a pattern in "the reason why I went wrong", I spend a looot of time analyzing each problem where I spend more than 2 minutes and for problems that go wrong. But that hasn't helped yet. May be because I am unable to figure out a pattern or a common reason for why those problems went wrong. Or May be I need more practise.

I am decently good on assumption and strengthen questions. And everytime I get a weaken problem wrong I try to do it again and then I can figure out the correct answer. So it means I am most of the time stuck between 2 choices and end up marking the wrong one. I am finding it hard to find a pattern in my mistakes in weaken problems.

For RC, I get almost all inference questions wrong and to get them right I have to spend more than 2 sometimes even 3 minutes. For a 50 line passage of OG, I read the passage carefully, and it takes me 6.5 minutes. I can answer specific questions in about 1 and half minute max. But for inference its always either more than 2 minutes or else I end up getting it wrong. The latter happens often as I force myself to guess when I am unable to make out the answer. Also I have bserved, when I do these questions in the second round while analyzing and not looking at the solution, I often get them right. So either its time pressure or it just takes me more time to understand the content and reading the RC content again makes more sense to me more than it does the first time.

Again, its only with inference questions. or questions where you have to check if each choice, which may be anywhere inside in the passage is correct or not. Such questions require to refer the passage repeatedly and its very time consuming. Questions like, which of the following may be incorrect according to the author. And each of the chices may be in different places in the passage.

My main concerns are mostly with these 2 sections.

Quant-

I have studied all Manhattan guides and they halped me in brushing my fundamentals . I am currently only doing official questions. I have stopped using 1000 sets, I used them only during the first month of my preparation especially for SC to just get used to different rules stated in the Manhattan guide and they helped me get used to. Now I am just using official guide.

Thanks for your tips on simulating the exam experience. I have ordered the simulation booklet for manhattan.

I hope I can figure out the CR and RC sections. I just can't get to a fixed strategy that will guarantee me quick & accurate answers.

[StaceyKoprince]

These tests were done without the essay. However, the breaks between Quant and Verbal were less than 5 minutes.

Then your scores were likely somewhat inflated. It doesn't matter that you took only a 4-5 minute break between quant and verbal. You skipped an hour of the test - that has a much bigger impact (advantage)! (Plus, given that you have to get into and out of the testing room on the real test with the attendant security measures, your actual break time is probably only 4-5 minutes anyway.)

Re: your timing problems, it's important for you to know that you are always going to have to guess on some problems, no matter how good you get. Most people have to guess on between 4 and 7 questions per section. Your only choice is which questions on which to guess.

So, might as well make those guesses on the hardest questions, right? And the hardest questions are the ones that are taking you too long to answer. Your task is to identify when you really can't get the question in the given amount of time and then make a guess (educated, ideally, but sometimes you'll need to make a random guess!).

It is NOT the case, by the way, that it's more important to get stuff right than to finish the test on time. If you don't finish or if you technically finish but you had to rush and make a bunch of guesses to do so, then your score is not going to be as high as it would have been if you'd pulled the plug on some of the hard questions throughout the section and had time to finish the section normally. So remember that it's actually part of your task to figure out when something's too hard and let it go.

Re: struggling with figuring out where you went wrong on CR, does the Powerscore book talk about the common characteristics of wrong answer choices or anything like that? If it doesn't, then you may need a book that does discuss that (I know ours does, but I don't know about other books). You may want to browse old CR problems posted here and read how the experts explain them; that may help you to figure out where you went wrong. Or you may need some help from a tutor.

For RC, you said:

I read the passage carefully, and it takes me 6.5 minutes

Is this just to read the passage, or is it to read and answer the questions? We're only supposed to spend about 2 to 3 (maybe 3.5) minutes reading a passage, so if you're taking 6.5 to read, then there's a big timing problem here. You actually don't want to read the passage really carefully - only somewhat carefully. You want to get the overall main idea, as well as the main point of each paragraph, and you want to have an idea about the contents of each paragraph, but you don't want to know much beyond that. You certainly don't want to read all of the detail very carefully - you don't even know what questions you're going to get asked yet, so don't try to learn that detail now.

You mention using Powerscore for CR but you don't mention what you're using for RC. If you're not using anything, I recommend that you do get something that teaches you how to do RC. It's next to impossible to figure out how to get better all by yourself.

[punit.kaur]

Hi Stacey,

Thanks for the reply. I am not using any particular book for strategy on RC and just have been experimenting on my own and obviously haven't succeeded. Which book would you recommend for it?

Also if I spend 3 minutes on the passage, what is the approx time I am allowed to spend on each question. I am finding it really hard to read the passage and get all the structural info related to each para and the over all passage and also remember which details lie in which para, in just 3 minutes. May be with practice I will improve.

However, please do recommend a book for RC.

Thanks

[StaceyKoprince]

Well, of course, I like my company's book. I was involved with the research for that book and I think that book gets it right. I'm obviously biased, though. :)

If you practice in the right way (read the book for what to do!), then 3 min should be plenty. You should not actually read the details; just skim. You should be able to say something like, "Okay, paragraph 2 is about how the pesticides harm beneficial insects like bees and butterflies." (And the first sentence or two would tell you that.) But you should not know / remember the details in the remaining 5 sentences: the names of any chemicals, the exact mechanism by which the chemicals negatively affect the insects, etc. Skim over that stuff; do not even try to understand it on your first read-through. Just know "these 10 lines are about bad effects of chemicals." And then, IF you get a question about that, you know where to go.

You should also be taking some notes on your scrap paper - don't try to keep it all in your head. Again, the book talks about how to do this.

Note: most people are slow with the techniques in the book for the first few weeks of practice. It takes time to get fast at RC.