MGMAT CAT analysis

[niketdoshi123]

Hi,

I have been preparing for GMAT, for almost 3 months now, with an aim to score 690+

I started my preparation after giving GMAT Prep practice test 1, in which I scored 530 (Q48 , V16). I saved around 20 mins in the Quant but had to guess the last 5 problems of the Verbal section in 60 seconds.
At that point of time I had no idea how to strategically approach any verbal question.

In the next 45 days' time I solved the Quant section from OG12, read the sentence correction from MGMAT SC Guide and solved it's OG problems.
(CR and RC were not even touched)

Now it was the time to see my progress. So, I retook GMAT Prep practice test 1 and scored 580 (Q50 , V20). Again faced time management problem, guessing 5 questions in Verbal section.
Though, it was an improvement but I was still lagging behind, by more than 100 points,in my target score.

I realized that it was a high time now and that I should concentrate on verbal. So, I ,for the second time, picked MGMAT SC and started reading it. Again solved all the OG SC problems,but this time with the time limit of 105 seconds per question. This time the accuracy was higher and I could solve almost 90% of the problems within the time limit .
I devoted next 10 days for CR, watching the Thursdays with Ron videos and solving OG questions.

On 13th June I took Kaplan CAT with IR
Scored 600 and 4 correct in IR. didn't get a break-up score.
I was disappointed this time as I got just 57% of the Quant questions correct. However, on the other hand I improved on Verbal (40% accuracy) and on time management.

I reviewed the test and solved RC from OG before attempting next test.

On 22nd June I took MGMAT CAT-1 with IR
Scored : 600 (Q45, V29) & IR : 2 correct :-(
In Quant I got a number of strings of 2 incorrect answers, a string of 3 incorrect answers ,and a string of 5 incorrect answers (actually 6 out of last 7). I never expected this. A few were careless mistakes, for some I didn't know the concepts ,and for the rest I panicked.
In Verbal I got 2 strings of 3 incorrect answers and 2 strings of 4 incorrect answers.
I reviewed and analysed every question thoroughly and prepared a separate excel sheet, mentioning what went wrong and how can it be improved. I think this helped me.

Yesterday I took MGMAT CAT-2 with IR
Scored : 680 (Q48,V34) & IR: 5 correct :-);-)
In Quant I got 4 strings of 2 incorrect answers (including 3 out of last 4 ). But for the majority of the time I was in the 99%ile.
I have not reviewed the test now but I am sure I must have made careless mistakes.
In Verbal I got 2 strings of 2 incorrect answers and a string of 3 incorrect answers.
Though I have scored good, I was surprised as I saw the verbal score because I was not confident while selecting a particular answer to numerous questions and I did not expect this big leap in my score compared to the previous ones.

I have scheduled my GMAT appointment on 12th July and had planned to postpone the date before I took yesterday's test.
But I still believe what I planned before is a better option because I want to be confident before I sit for the exam.
What do you suggest?

Please make a rigorous one month study plan for me by analyzing my assessment reports (I don't know how to send those to you ) and tell me how can I improve on my weak areas.

Thanks a ton
Niket

PS: I don't have any problem if you post my analysis report on this forum or use it as a case study for others.:-)

[StaceyKoprince]

Nice work so far! I agree that the big leap in verbal, while very nice, is also... well, you want to make sure that it wasn't a fluke before you take the real thing.

Please make a rigorous one month study plan for me by analyzing my assessment reports (I don't know how to send those to you ) and tell me how can I improve on my weak areas.

That would be a tutoring kind of service - it would take a couple of hours for someone to develop that for you. :) You can certainly sign up for tutoring if you like, but it's expensive. If you'd like to get free advice here, then I'll tell you how to do the analysis and come up with a plan yourself. You can then come back here to tell me what it is, and I'll tell you what I think!

Here's how to analyze your tests:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/

And here's how to develop a study plan:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... tudy-plan/

I think you'd also benefit from this:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -the-gmat/

Pay particular attention to the time management information and the articles on how to study.

Also, I think from what you wrote that you haven't taken the second GMATPrep test yet. That's the single best indicator of how you might do on the real test, so you definitely do want to take that before you go in to take the real thing. (And if you're not happy with your GMATPrep score, then you shouldn't take the real thing until you fix whatever the problems were.)

[niketdoshi123]

Hi Stacey ,

Thanks for the reply.

As I was not confident enough to go in to take the real thing, I have postponed the test and now I have 45 days to bolster my confidence.

As you suggested, I have analysed my test and have made a report.

Time management
Quant
a)Too Slow: On 7 questions I spent more than 3mins per question ,with a maximum of 5:12, but got 5 of them correct.
b)Too Fast: On 12 questions I spent less than 1:20, with a min of 0:18, and got 4 of them wrong.(3 careless mistakes and 1 concept problem)

Verbal
a)Too slow:
RC reading : 3 questions : time spent >5 mins (2 correct and 1 wrong)
CR : 3 questions :time spent > 2:30 (2 correct and 1 wrong)
SC : 3 questions : time spent >1:40 (1 correct and 2 wrong)

b)Too fast: 2 uneducated guesses on CR: spent less than 15 secs(1 correct & 1 wrong).

Difficulty Analysis
Quant
a) Avg difficulty of wrong answers in both PS & DS was 750, but I am struggling with DS as I got just 53% right.
b) Avg difficulty of right answers was 730 in PS and 750 in DS.

Verbal
a)The worst is CR with just 43% accuracy.
b)The avg difficulty of wrong answers in RC was 720, but the accuracy was 50%.

Topic wise analysis (Combined analysis of two tests)
Quant
Worst Accuracy: Statistics , Inequalities and Co-ordinate plane.
Worst Timing: Ratios, probability, FDPs and Co-ordinate

Verbal
CR : weakest of all.
Worst Accuracy: Weaken (most problematic)
Worst timing : Boldface
and only 50% of the time I am accurate on Strengthen , Conclusion and Assumption type of questions.

RC:
Worst Accuracy : Specific detail and inference
Worst timing: reading the passage.

SC:
Worst Accuracy : Quantity and Sub-verb agreement.
I don't have timing problem in SC

Please tell me how can I improve on the aforementioned topics and what should/can I refer to improve those.

Books that I have
1) OG 12 : completed once
2) MGMAT SC : completed once
3) Kaplan premier 12-13 : completed only quant
4) Verbal Review : newly bought
5) Kaplan 800 : newly bought

I have planned to take one practice test each week to record my progress.

Also tell me how have I worked on my analysis. :-)

Thanks
Niket

[StaceyKoprince]

On 7 questions I spent more than 3mins per question ,with a maximum of 5:12, but got 5 of them correct.

Don't say "but." That makes it sound like it was not too terrible because you still got 5 of them right. Change the mindset - you *lost* at least 7 minutes in this sequence (more, actually, since they weren't all right at 3m).

Where did that time come from? If you took 7 other questions and chopped them to 1 minute instead of 2, you just massively increased your chances of making mistakes on 7 other questions. In practice, most people will try to rush less but on more questions - eg, 14 questions that are each 30 seconds faster. Now you've just given yourself a chance to miss 14 questions in order to get 5 right!! Not a good tradeoff!!

At best, you simply guess randomly on 3 questions (save 6 minutes) and do another in 1 minute instead of 2 (to save the 7th minute). Now you've gotten 3 more questions wrong and possibly a 4th. Add that to your 5 right / 2 wrong count from the original 7 questions.

Okay. See why I said "don't say 'but I got 5 right?'" :)

Now, what to do about those? Go back and see WHY they took you so long. For the 5 that you got right, did you eventually figure it out or did you get a bit lucky? If you did eventually figure it out, can you learn how to do those in 2 minutes instead? If so, great, learn how. If not - cut yourself off next time and guess.

For CR and SC, you're about 50/50 when you go too long, plus you had to make random guesses on two CRs (and you should "count" those as both wrong even though you did get lucky on one), which pulls you below 50/50. In other words, extra time = not worth it.

For RC, it's a bit more complicated, because there are more questions. Do you have the sense that that extra time was more due to reading the passages or dealing with that first question? Because it happened on 3 of your 4 passages, I'm guessing it was the reading itself, but you tell me.

I disagree that you're necessarily struggling with DS - you have really high difficulty levels here. Also how was the time on DS vs. PS. Those 7 too-long questions - were they about 50/50, or was there a skew? I find that many people are more likely to spend extra time on PS, and shave time from DS to make up for that - which then pulls the DS percentages down a little (careless mistakes)... but not because you're not good at it. Rather, it's because you're not really giving yourself adequate time. Could that be the case for you?

Stats and Inequalities are more commonly tested than coord plane, so more important.

Ratios and probab are not super common; know how to make guesses and move yourself on!

When you say "FDPs" do you mean all of FDPs in general, or do you mean only what we call FDP Connection problems (problems that test our ability to move back and forth among fractions, decimals, and percents)?

Re: everything, start here; make sure you're actually studying in the right way:
How To Study / analyze practice problems:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/a ... roblem.cfm

examples of the above, one per Q type:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/GMATprep-SC.cfm
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/CR-assumption.cfm
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/a ... estion.cfm
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/a ... roblem.cfm
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/a ... roblem.cfm

CR:
process:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... g-problem/

main question types:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... e-Problem/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -problems/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... n-problem/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... n-problem/

boldface:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/02/ ... ce-problem

RC:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... p-passage/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... c-passage/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... rehension/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -passages/

http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/09/ ... prehension
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/11/ ... il-problem
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/a ... estion.cfm

SC: Quantity Qs are not that common. I'm actually going to ask you to go look at the individual questions you tend to miss, because SC tends to test 3-4 things at once, but only one or two will show up on the "category" list for the test reports. So you could get a sub-verb agreement problem wrong in which you didn't actually mess up SV agreement but something else. Go take a look and confirm the problem areas.

[niketdoshi123]

Hi Stacey,
Thanks for the reply.

you *lost* at least 7 minutes in this sequence (more, actually, since they weren't all right at 3m).

Yes, I lost almost 13 mins. I understand that I should not lose this much time, but there are questions, which I can actually solve in a minute. (Of course not 13 , but around 7-10).
For the 5 questions that I got right, I figured out that I took time while comprehending complex question stems, which I eventually figured and solved correctly.

I disagree that you're necessarily struggling with DS - you have really high difficulty levels here. Also how was the time on DS vs. PS. Those 7 too-long questions - were they about 50/50, or was there a skew? I find that many people are more likely to spend extra time on PS, and shave time from DS to make up for that - which then pulls the DS percentages down a little (careless mistakes)... but not because you're not good at it. Rather, it's because you're not really giving yourself adequate time. Could that be the case for you?

You got me this time.. This is the exact case. Out of those 7 too-long questions 6 were PS. Also I made 3 careless mistakes on DS.

When you say "FDPs" do you mean all of FDPs in general, or do you mean only what we call FDP Connection problems (problems that test our ability to move back and forth among fractions, decimals, and percents)?

I mean the later one. I am good at percents, fractions and decimal types.

SC: Quantity Qs are not that common. I'm actually going to ask you to go look at the individual questions you tend to miss, because SC tends to test 3-4 things at once, but only one or two will show up on the "category" list for the test reports. So you could get a sub-verb agreement problem wrong in which you didn't actually mess up SV agreement but something else. Go take a look and confirm the problem areas.

I reviewed the questions and found out that I am able to eliminate the options with SV agreement and quantity errors, but every time I messed up with some minor topics.
But when you say SC tests 3-4 things at once , do I need to find all the errors?? or just the knowledge of any two can lead me to the correct answer.

In between these days I developed a two-topic improvement plan, in which I will improve my two - worst topics from the previous test and after I improve will give a new test.

So that week I worked on Assumptions and Draw the conclusion and gave CAT-3
Scored : 650 (Q49, V31) and IR - 6 Correct

Quant :
I improved my quant score by 1 point, was expecting 50.
This time on 4 questions I spent more than 3 mins per question and lost about 8 mins. But this can be taken as an improvement.(got 1 wrong). Made 4 careless mistakes all in DS.
Before starting the verbal section I knew I had done well in the previous sections and my morale was up.
Verbal:
The score was a big disappointment.
Improved CR, got 8 correct out of 14. This time RC came up as my biggest enemy, as I could get just 3 correct out of 12.
The count of careless mistakes was about 50% of all the wrong answers and one string of 4 incorrect answers and one of 6 incorrect answers, disappointed me even more.

When I was in the middle of the section, I got a couple of 2-line CR questions, which made me think I was doing too bad in the section. As a result I was dispirited and messed up the section by making careless mistakes.

I also checked my past few tests and found that I usually make most mistakes between question no. 20-30. (I got just 2 correct in verbal this time).

I am very nervous before taking the test and I think too much, irrelevant stuff, during the test. I know overcoming this can improve my score, but as much as I try, I cannot not think of anything.

What should I do??

Thanks
Niket

[StaceyKoprince]

but there are questions, which I can actually solve in a minute.

Without making any careless mistakes? Guaranteed? If so, that's fine. But if what you actually need to do is spend 1.5 minutes on each of these in order to work methodically enough to ensure no or very few careless errors, then that's what you've got to do - because that's a much better use of your time than spending 3+ minutes on a question. The whole point of needing to spend 3+ minutes is that your chances of getting it right keep going down because you aren't getting the 2 minute (or faster) solution... so there's already a deficit there.

For the 5 questions that I got right, I figured out that I took time while comprehending complex question stems, which I eventually figured and solved correctly.

That's great, but sometimes you're not eventually going to figure it out. Learn from these so that you can recognize similar ones if you get them in future, but this strategy: "I have no idea, I've never seen this before, but if I spend a ton of time, I *might* figure it out." is just not a great strategy overall. :)

Okay, so you need to start shaving time from PS and you also need to stop sacrificing DS in order to spend more time on PS.

You also need to do some work on problems that combine two or more of fractions, decimals, and percents. A lot of that is figuring out when it's easier to use one of those forms. Eg, if we're adding and subtracting, that's a lot easier with decimals or percents; fractions require common denominators and that's annoying. If, on the other hand, we're multiplying or dividing, then fractions are the best because we can simplify across the numerators and denominators, so we get to work with smaller numbers. That kind of stuff.

But when you say SC tests 3-4 things at once , do I need to find all the errors?? or just the knowledge of any two can lead me to the correct answer.

It varies. Usually you do need to know how to deal with at least two of the issues - it's rare that you can get to one answer by addressing only one of the issues.

But often you do not have to deal with ALL of them, so that's why you want to pick out the ones that you know the best and do those first.

In between these days I developed a two-topic improvement plan, in which I will improve my two - worst topics from the previous test and after I improve will give a new test.

That's good - always make sure you're making progress before taking another test - but you might want to do more than two topics. And give a little bit of time to the other major topic (quant) too. :)

What were the specific reasons for the individual careless mistakes - any trends?

When I was in the middle of the section, I got a couple of 2-line CR questions, which made me think I was doing too bad in the section. As a result I was dispirited and messed up the section by making careless mistakes.

Hard CRs can have very short arguments. The thing that makes CR truly hard is tricky answer choices. So don't think that you can tell how hard something is just by looking at it. :)

I also checked my past few tests and found that I usually make most mistakes between question no. 20-30. (I got just 2 correct in verbal this time).

Sounds like a mental stamina issue. You're starting to get mentally fatigued, your attention starts to wander, you start making more mistakes than usual... could that be what's happening?

And nerves, as you describe at the end of your post. See if anything in this article will help:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... anagement/