MGMAT Mock CAT, reducing percentage sharply for last 2 miss

[Kedar]

Hello MGMAT community !

Greetings of the season ! (is that of or for? grammer ! ..)
So, I am regular MGMAT student. Just took my Mock cat (exam 2). GMAT date is Jan3. Exam #1 one was a big mess, please ignore.

Q1)
Not sure if this is usual & GMAT also does the same..but I found that Mock CAT breaks my score so badly even if i miss out last 2 questions (or guess them wrong). I see sharp decline in %, if i miss out (or guess) last TWO questions ! More evident on verbal & little on Quant section. Please check my 2nd test individual question's right wrong performance.
(sorry, dont know how to attach screen shot).

Please notice in verbal, my last 2 missed out questions (one guessed), made me fall from 57% (600-700) to 47% (600-700).
My final percentile for verbal was 46%. Total test score was 520

Q2) what does last 47% thing mean? does that mean, for this instance of test, 46% equals to 520+ something?

Q3) I was sleepy, hungry & bored when verbal started. Over excited as I was able to pace very good in Quant, hoping for a great score. (didnt know that my Quant was even worse then Verbal. Last 12 questions, with good time left, 22 mins, I scored almost 90% of them wrong. All silly mistakes.) Anyways, in verbal, when i came to 21 st question, i had realized that i have spent too much time so far. & I had to speed it up. Most were strategy guesses & most RC, were just random read & guesses. Same for critical reasoning. I am typically weak in SC too.

I wasn't my self in that verbal & i really need to work on that. what do i do to get better pace on it? I write all those things in my yellow note, abt each 5 mins pacing, but then i tend to override it. Dont check it so often.

a) Shd I just practice Verbal only section test, to time myself in verbal? b) what kind of questions shd i give free pass to? I saw that late RC was costly for me. I cant guess all three questions ! c) To whom shd i give free pass? (like, just see the question & forget it)

I realized that freepass is something to be given more in start then later part (Not when you realize you are out of time, lol !)

Below is my last few question performance on verbal, CAT 2

31 SC State Assembly 600 - 700 0:31 68:30 57:30 Pronouns
Idioms
55%
32 SC Berlin Wall 600 - 700 1:13 69:43 59:00 Subject Verb Agreement
Verbs
53%
33 SC Science Library Policy 300 - 500 0:58 70:41 60:30 Comparisons
Idioms
Verbs
55%
34 CR Reason For The Seasons 500 - 600 0:34 71:15 62:30 Analyze Arg Structure
52%
35 CR Lactic Acid (2) 600 - 700 0:41 71:56 64:30 Analyze Arg Structure


55%
36 CR City Schools 500 - 600 0:53 72:49 66:30 Find the Assumption
58%
37 SC Stephen Hawking 300 - 500 0:35 73:24 68:00 Concision
Clarity of Meaning
Idioms
54%
38 SC Termite Damage 600 - 700 0:43 74:07 69:30 Comparisons
Verbs
Idioms
57%
39 SC Seamus Heaney 500 - 600 0:37 74:44 71:00 Quantity Expressions
Pronouns
54%
40 NA SC Insect Coloring 600 - 700 75:00 72:30 Parallelism
Modifiers
48%

[StaceyKoprince]

The real test can indeed penalize us heavily for a miss even at the end of the section. It depends what's going on in the section, what your scoring level is, what the difficulty level is for the missed questions, etc., but this is perfectly possible.

Note: we can't look up your tests ourselves and go through them - we do offer that kind of service via private tutoring, but it takes too long for us to offer for free on the forums. (Not to mention, then we'd be doing that 24-7 since everybody would want it! :)

But, I do have an article for you that tells you how to analyze your CATs yourself:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/

And when you're done analyzing, you can come and post the results here. (Note: don't just post the raw data - post your actual analysis. That's a crucial skill to develop.)

The "percentile" stat in the final column for the test questions is the estimated percentile ranking for you after you have answered that question. Each test section has its own 2-digit score and percentile ranking, and then those scores are combined into one overall 3-digit score and percentile ranking.

A percentile ranking indicates how well you did compared to the others taking the test. A ranking of 46th, percentile, for example, means that you did better than 46% of the people taking the test.

Re: timing, read this and start doing what it says:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... anagement/

The other difficulty with verbal is that it's the last section in the test and that affects everything - you are going to be tired by then, so you need to practice how to handle that. Plus, good practice CATs aren't that easy to find. So, no, you don't want to use good practice CATs to take just the verbal section.

You do, though, want to set up "mini" verbal sections for yourself, where you do 10 or 15 or 20 questions in a group under timed conditions. And then you're periodically going to take a full-length CAT (every 10 days to 2 weeks) to try to put it all together.

Here are some other articles to help overall, while we wait for your specific CAT analysis:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... p-passage/
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/12/ ... c-passages

http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... n-problem/

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

[Kedar]

[img]Thanks Stacy !! (& a happy new year too !)

I have gone through all those pacing articles now.. And the lab too. I think I am quite good analysing MGMAT mock CAT analysis. But there is a stop. I can't think beyon to advise myself now !

I have my first GMAT exam tomorrow. (i am sure i need to retake it within 30 days, so I wrote "first")
So I took 2 more tests. One MGMAT, One GMAT Prep (test 2)
Let me know your suggestions. May be I should skip 1 RC in verbal & leave out few questions in Quant too (as soon as I find them tough, just leave. No trial. Having 8 wrong in first 15 is better, then having "all" last 8 wrong. What are your thoughts?

- My first Mock CAT on GMAT was crap. So I am ignoring it.
- Second Mock CAT - 520 (give under stressed & sleepy condition. Missed out lot of last questions)
- First GMAT Prep - 520 (give under stressed & sleepy condition.Missed out lot of last questions)
- Third MGMAT CAT - 580 (give under stressed condition.Missed out only few last questions)
- 2d GMAT Prep test, Under very stressed condition. However, in very wrong time. At 9 pm night, when I was not at all attentive (hungry, sleepy & all my excuses, lol !)  got 490

Below is my analysis for my third MGMAT Mock.

TYPE SCORE ESTIMATED PERCENTILE RANK
Quantitative 40 61 %
Verbal 32 67 %
Total 590 67 %

Quant
I dont know abt maths, what can i do to improve...
- Mostly, I have missed out last few questions in all the test.
- In midst of test, i tend to give more time to tough questions & then i got them wrong. ( i dont want to have multiple, consistent wrongs, Right? So as soon as I miss one tough one, i put my full eneregy in next one). Last few were wrong here.
- Any tips?

Verbal -
- In every single test, I have missed out last few questions.
- I have seen very bad performance in RC. Spent lot of time, (I thought) understood the comprehension well, still got wrong answers. (esp all 600-700 & 700-800 range)
- A question - Should I just skip the first RC (as far as I find it even a little harder?)
- Second worse performance is CR. Spending much time on that.
- I am improving in SC

I will try to take one GMAT Prep test now !
-----------
Taken GMAT prep test 2

 2d GMAT Prep test
 Under very stressed condition.
 However, in very wrong time. At 9 pm night, when I was not at all attentive (hungry, sleepy & all my excuses)
 490 

Quant (37 Question - 16 incorrect - last 8 consistently wrong). SCORE was 36 (I don’t know what it means)
- I was quite consistent until 29. Very few were wrong.
- But probably, I didn’t maintain time.
- For last 7-8, I had only 2 minutes left. I chose to randomly select last 7 & just give a shot to last one. (which I got wrong.. lol )
Lesson learnt (Quant) -
 I quite slowdown in first 8 question. And then try to speed up for 8-20 questions, which is not happening. So I should just start rushing from the first question may be....?
 Silly mistakes in few questions. Lack of concentration
 Something wrong big time with time management. I ended up guessing last 8 questions. Instead, I should have given free -pass (left) to few starting questions

Verbal (41-21 incorrect. Last 7 consistently wrong) Score 22
 Last Questions 33-41 ~ 7 wrong in the end
 Pathetic time management
 In first 3 RC, I spent noticeable time. (total 4). I had one correct in each. I don’t know if I should leave out one RC in real exam or not.
 I am taking ~ 3 mins in critical reasoning. I can’t build a statistics if I am getting all those wrong or not. Likely I should leave even little complicated CRs. Anyways 3 mins is not a good thing.
o However, if I leave out one RC, then I need to get other parts of verbal more right
 I got few of the SC wrong this time. I overlooked my learnt skills of parallelism. Likely because of bad timing of taking test.

Below is the summary of my performance...
Any suggestions please ...?

[StaceyKoprince]

Hi, sorry we're slow right now - been crazy here!

Okay, first you were asking about bailing on certain questions to make the timing work. Ideally, you get your timing fixed so that you don't have to completely bail immediately on questions (and so that you don't have to consider bailing on an entire RC passage - that's 3 or 4 questions in a row!). If someone's desperate, then maybe, but you're not going to get the best score you can get by doing that.

Ideally, you do give yourself a shot on any question (a "shot" means being able to spend at least half the expected time for that type of question), but you're also willing to say, "Nope, this one's just too hard!" and guess when needed. You have to be able to recognize when something is just too hard, and you also have to have the discipline to be able to let go. The "1 minute time sense" section of the Time Management article will help with that.

i tend to give more time to tough questions & then i got them wrong. ( i dont want to have multiple, consistent wrongs, Right? So as soon as I miss one tough one, i put my full eneregy in next one).

What's the logical flaw in this strategy? You can't make yourself get something right just by spending extra time on it. If it's too hard, it's too hard, period. You do what you can on the ones you can do, and you make sure not to waste any extra time on a problem that you really don't know how to do anyway.

Again, go back to the time management article. Develop that 1 minute time sense and then practice knowing how to tell (around the 1min mark) that you aren't going to be able to do this one. Also practice knowing how to make educated guesses, so that you can do that and then move on.

For RC, do you miss all of the different question types? Or are there certain question types that are harder for you? (eg, maybe you're okay on main idea questions but find inference questions really hard?)

Have you looked at the RC articles I linked to last time?

To start with, given that you're spending lots of time and only getting 1 right per passage anyway, sure - skip maybe the 2nd RC passage and save that time for other Qs. (But longer term we're going to try to get better at RC!)

For CR, are you spending 3m on all problems or only on some? Are there any patterns? Are there certain question types where you take a lot more time? Certain topic areas for the arguments - business vs. science or something? Or maybe it has to do with length - the longer the argument, the harder it is for you?