Study and Strategy questions relating to the GMAT.
rajmago
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Making steady progress - need advice on breaking 700 barrier

by rajmago Mon Apr 19, 2010 3:47 pm

Hey Guys,

I've been studying for the past 2 1/2 months and have steadily been pushing my score up. For the schools I am targeting, I really need to be above 700 to have a real chance at admission. Preferably 720/730-ish. Here's my score history

Test 1 - MGMAT - February 4th
Score: 600 Quant: 42 Verbal: 32

Test 2 - MGMAT - March 5th
Score: 620 Quant: 42 Verbal: 33

Test 3 - MGMAT - March 17th
Score: 660 Quant: 42 Verbal: 38

Test 4 - MGMAT - April 13th
Score: 670 Quant: 43 Verbal: 38

Some additional information:

The first exam i took was without much studying. a few days of looking over the princeton guide. After that first exam I started studying with the Manhattan guides and improved my score steadily. You'll notice that my quant score hasn't moved much. I had a whole month of studying between the third and the fourth exam. I expected to much better on the fourth exam. Here's what happened.

Exam 4 - What Happened
Two Things.

1. I was doing ok on time but as I got close to the end (last 10 questions) of the quant section, I freaked out and got super nervous. My score was at 84th percentile at the end of the 27th question but I missed 9 of the last 10 questions and my score steadily declined to 70th percentile

2. I found that of the super difficult problems in the Official Guide and Quant Review, I am getting about 85% of them right and within the time alloted (2 minutes per question). However, the difficult problems (700-800 level) on the manhattan gmat exams are more difficult than these. I can still solve them (given enough time). Time is unfortunately a luxury and the more time i spend on one problem the more i take away from others.

I need advice on two things.

1. How to stay calm during and towards the end of the exam.

2. Practice on the more difficult GMAT problems.

What else can i do to boost my score above 700?

Thanks much,
-Rajat
StaceyKoprince
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Re: Making steady progress - need advice on breaking 700 barrier

by StaceyKoprince Tue Apr 20, 2010 4:31 pm

You've made good progress so far - nice work.

I think you also need some help with timing. You're expected to get a decent percentage of the questions wrong (most people get about 40% of the questions wrong), so part of your task is literally time management. Can you recognize when they've given you a problem that's way too hard for you, and can you then make an educated guess and move on without losing time on that question? Time management's an important skill in the business world, too. :)

I'm going to give you some articles to read below. After you've read them and done any applicable analysis, please come back here to discuss anything that you want to discuss.

Analyzing your practice tests; use this one to analyze your most recent MGMAT test:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/a/2009/09/23/evaluating-your-practice-tests

Analyzing a practice problem; this is HOW to study, how someone at a 700+ level analyzes problems:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/a/2009/10/09/how-to-analyze-a-practice-problem

Time management:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2009/12/22/critical-skill-development-time-management

Stress management:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/stress-tips.cfm
http://www.manhattangmat.com/strategy-series-stress.cfm

"Best of How to Study" articles
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/03/22/the-best-of-beat-the-gmat-mgmat-how-to-study-list
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
rajmago
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Re: Making steady progress - need advice on breaking 700 barrier

by rajmago Thu May 20, 2010 6:04 pm

Hi Stacy,

Thanks for all the articles. Interesting reads. I am already doing most of the things mentioned in the articles. I think you may've accurately diagnosed a timing issue. I wanted to share with you some analysis from all four exams to see what you think. Look at this table below.

Low = Average Difficulty Right Answer
High = Average Difficulty Wrong Answer

Problem Solving Data Sufficiency
Exam**Low***High**% Right **Low***High**% Right**Score
Exam 1 610***660****50%****560***640***53%****42
Exam 2 590***670****41%****650***680***60%****42
Exam 3 630***710****48%****690***690***47%****42
Exam 4 660***740****58%****700***730***40%****43

I see two things here:
1. My problem solving skills are getting better
2. My data sufficiency skills are also getting better but i am getting more questions wrong.

What do you make of this? Also, i feel like i need more practice on difficult problems. What do you recommend for this?

Any insight you can give me would be extremely helpful. Thanks for all your advice Stacy.

-Rajat
StaceyKoprince
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Re: Making steady progress - need advice on breaking 700 barrier

by StaceyKoprince Wed May 26, 2010 12:00 pm

Interesting data. I agree that, generally, your skills are getting better.

There's also some random luck involved - what topics happen to get tested via each type on any given test. If geometry is your biggest strength, and you happen to get more DS geometry questions on one test (as opposed to PS), then that will help your DS percentage. Or, if you happen to get a mix of harder questions for one type, then your percentage for that type would likely be lower.

For example, on your last test, your DS % correct is down to 40%, which doesn't look good, but your average difficulty levels are in the 700s for both right and wrong. The average difficulty level of your correct PS questions is 40 points lower than for DS - so it makes sense that you'd be getting more of those right. (Though that drop to 40% correct is still pretty large - it would be a good idea to dive into those a bit and figure out some things. See below.)

Question: as you've improved, have you gone back to things you already know how to do and learned how to do them more efficiently? As you're offered a harder mix of questions, one of the things you need to learn how to do is to save / shave time on things you already know how to do. When the 650-level questions are at the high end of your range, it's okay to be doing those in the full 2m, or maybe a bit longer. But when the 650-level questions are at the lower end of your range, now you need to be able to do those same questions in 1m30s or 1m45s, so that you have a little more time to tackle the harder questions you're now seeing. Make sense?

If you're not actually learning how to become more efficient at the lower end of your new range, then it becomes tough for you to lift your score. Most people will still end up spending a bit longer on the new harder questions they're seeing, but then they'll make more careless mistakes on the lower-level questions, because they haven't actually learned how to do those more efficiently. Take a look at your percentages by difficulty level (the second and third score reports). Are you leaving points on the table at the lower levels? When you do get lower-level things wrong, WHY do you get them wrong?

Go back to your exam 4 and take a look through the problems that you missed (PS and DS). Put them into one of four categories:

1) I really should have gotten this one right (careless mistake of some sort, but I did know how to do this)
2) I wasn't going to get this one right but at least I didn't waste any extra time on it
3) I wasn't going to get this one right and I did waste extra time on it

For #1, why did you make that careless mistake and what can you do to minimize the chances of that happening again?
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/04/07/how-to-learn-from-your-errors

For #2, the way I handled it is generally fine, though was there an opportunity to make a better educated guess? How might I have done that?

For #3, how can I recognize sooner that this one's just too hard for me? How can I make a decent educated guess? How can I let go so that I don't waste extra time here?
Stacey Koprince
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Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
rajmago
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Re: Making steady progress - need advice on breaking 700 barrier

by rajmago Tue Jun 22, 2010 2:14 am

Hi Stacy,

Thanks for your tips and advice. I decided to take one of the GMATPrep exams. Here's my score:

Overall Score: 700
Quant: 46
Verbal: 40

So I broke the 700 barrier. :-) This is after I ran out of time and didn't get a chance to answer the last quant question. I understand that you're penalized more if you do not answer a question versus answering a question incorrectly. Is it possible that if I had answered the last quant question, incorrectly even, i would've scored 710?

Also, i am getting ready to sit the exam in 2 weeks. What do you recommend in terms of prepping for the home stretch?

I noticed that the manhattan guides do not provide any guidance on the writing assessments. What resource do ou suggest I use to study for this?

Your advice and insight has been extremely helpful.

Thanks,
-Rajat
StaceyKoprince
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Re: Making steady progress - need advice on breaking 700 barrier

by StaceyKoprince Tue Jun 22, 2010 5:11 pm

Is it possible that if I had answered the last quant question, incorrectly even, i would've scored 710?


It's possible, sure, but it might not have changed the score. There's no way to tell, unfortunately.

Here's an article about the AWA:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2009/12/ ... -no-thanks

The last couple of weeks should focus more and more on review and less and less on trying to fix weaknesses. If you have one or two big weaknesses, then it's okay to spend the 2nd to last week continuing to push those, but in the last week, you really need to say, "Okay, this is where I am. These are my strengths and weaknesses; I accept that." Review everything, acknowledging the stronger vs. weaker areas, and give yourself permission to let go faster on weaker areas, that sort of thing.

In your MGMAT student center, there's a PDF of a free e-book called The GMAT Uncovered. It has a section about things to do and avoid leading up to and including test day. Take a look at that - I wrote it, so it includes everything I would advise! :)
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
rajmago
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Re: Making steady progress - need advice on breaking 700 barrier

by rajmago Wed Jun 30, 2010 3:22 pm

Hi Stacey,

I have an weird query for you. How accurate is the GMATPrep software in terms of predicting the score on the actual exam? The reason i am asking this is because i did some analysis on the result from my last GMATPrep exam and found some points of interest. Specifically on the verbal section

Overall Score: 700
Quant Score: 46 - 40% incorrect (15 of 37 questions wrong)
Verbal Score: 40 - 26% incorrect (11 of 41 questions wrong)
* 7 Incorrect Sentence Corection
* 2 Incorrect Critical Reasoning
* 2 incorrect Reading Comprehension

I find it worrying that nearly 74% of problems were correct on the Verbal score. If the exam is designed so that on average 40% of questions are incorrect, then for me to get only 26% incorrect is unusual. Hence, I am a little worried about the accuracy of the GMATPrep exam as a predictor of the actual score. I understand that the Standard Deviation even on the GMAT exam is roughly 30 points, but this 26% incorrect is worrying me.

As always, your insight is helpful and appreciated.

Thanks,
-Rajat
tim
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Re: Making steady progress - need advice on breaking 700 barrier

by tim Fri Jul 02, 2010 2:31 pm

Remember that both the practice tests and the GMAT are intended to predict your true ability level, rather than practice tests predicting your GMAT score. That said, there will be a lot higher variability in terms of your predicted ability level on the practice tests than there will be on the real GMAT, simply because the practice tests are drawing from a smaller pool of sample questions. This is particularly true at the high end of scoring - most of us instructors will get 790 or 800 on the practice tests because there just aren't enough hard questions and we end up getting like 95-100% of the questions correct. At 700 you are likely experiencing some of that effect already..

But the real question is why you should be concerned with this. Ultimately the only thing that should matter in your GMAT preparation is the score you eventually get on the real test. Every minute you spend worrying about how you did on a practice test is a minute you've lost that you could be using to improve your scoring potential and hopefully your GMAT score as a result.. :)
Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

Follow this link for some important tips to get the most out of your forum experience:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/forums/a-few-tips-t31405.html
rajmago
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Re: Making steady progress - need advice on breaking 700 barrier

by rajmago Wed Jul 07, 2010 5:03 pm

Hi Stacey,

I sat the exam today and i wanted to come by and say a sincere and heartfelt Thank You. Your guidance, help and support made the difference. You and the MGMAT staff are just just plain...

AWESOME!!!


I scored a 710 (V48, Q38) today.

Thanks again,
-Rajat
StaceyKoprince
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Re: Making steady progress - need advice on breaking 700 barrier

by StaceyKoprince Thu Jul 08, 2010 4:09 pm

You're awesome! I'm really happy for you. :)

I just want to add something to your previous discussion with Tim: the 60% correct thing applies for most of the test, but not the ends of the range of scores. You scored a 40 in verbal on that GMATPrep test, which is right around the 90th percentile, so you should have gotten something like 70% or so correct (which you did, so the test was accurate).

Good luck on apps; let us know how it goes!
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep