Not able to cross 650 - please advice

[Helios]

I have bought GMAT test series of 6 tests. Recently I have completed three tests but the outcomes of exams are not at all convincing. Due to average GPA score I am looking for atleast 700+ mark but unfortunately I am messing somewhere.
I am providing all my scores as of now
MGMAT Test (free) 630 (V31, Q46)
MGMAT CAT1 600(V32, Q42)
GMATPrep 720(V41, Q48) ... lot of questions were common (Do not consider my GMATPrep score. )
MGMAT CAT2 600 (V30, Q43) :(

I already did OGs and questions from forums. But I am not happy with my MGMAT test scores. Kindly provide me some info to improve my score atleast to 700 mark.

[StaceyKoprince]

Hi, Helios

We would need a lot more information than just your test scores to help you to improve. If you take a course or sign up for private tutoring, part of the process would be to assess your strengths and weaknesses in depth. In fact, it can take me up to an hour to assess the results and provide a "road map" for one of my students. Unfortunately, that's not something we can do here on the forums - in this space, we're trying to provide more concises answers for a very large number of students.

You can assess for yourself though and use that to know what to ask when you come here to the forums. Use the assessment reports to determine your strengths and weaknesses - across question type, content area, and TIMING (don't forget that!). Use that to set up a study plan, targeting those areas that are both weaker for you AND more commonly tested on the exam. (If you aren't sure what those are, list your weaker areas here and ask us which ones are most important!) Then, use the various folders here to ask questions about specific problems and strategies for those specific problems so you can learn how to get better at problems of that type.

Also, you mentioned that you took the exams recently. How closely together did you take them? Exams should be taken about once every 3 weeks or so, and many people don't see improvement until at least the third exam (sometimes the fourth). You should be doing an enormous amount of work between exams, based on the strengths and weaknesses you identified from the assessment reports, before you take another exam. Have you been doing that?

[Helios]

It's really nice to receive your response. Generally I am taking exam within every 15-20 days gap. After my last exam(on 25th June 2008), I took out all the specific types that I went wrong in my last three MGMAT CAT Tests and went back to OG for explanation on the same types. I have found some set of questions those I messed up every time. Surprisingly, every time I did 8 RC questions correctly while 6 RC questions are wrong(wonder, how digits are same in each time and does not matter what is the questions' harder level).
In another post you have written that if somebody is not getting the expected score then he/she is not through with OG. So I am going back to OG again and again to find the impediment.
Assessment report gives me the exact time spent on each question; now first of all how to maintain the stipulated time for each questions on exam? If I am too much concern about time, I miss the comprehension of question (English is not my native language) and go wrong with answer choices.
Last but not the least, my MGMAT verbal scores are 31, 32 and 30 individually. Can you tell me how much these scores will differ with the real exam? Actually I gave my last GMAT on May and horribly I scored 17 in verbal. Don't know what should I say, just gazing on good directions and enormous efforts.

Thank you very much for awesome guidance.

[StaceyKoprince]

Good - 15-20 days is about right. When reviewing your exams, go over every problem, not just the ones you got wrong. Sometimes, you get something right when you really shouldn't have - you got a little lucky. That should essentially be considered a "wrong" answer, because you still need to review that problem in the same way you'd review something you got wrong.

In addition, sometimes you get things right for the right reason - you did know what you were doing - but you didn't do the problem in the best way it could be done. You're never going to figure out a better way unless you go back and review that problem! And it's important to take the time to do this because you actually have to get more efficient at the problems you already know how to do in order to have time to do the harder problems that you'll be given as you improve.

It's also easier to learn how to make educated guesses and how to avoid traps from problems that you got right, because you understand how that problem works. Learn HOW to guess / avoid traps on problems that you understand, and apply those lessons to problems of the SAME type when you get a hard one that you don't know how to do.

Re: your timing question - yes, finding the balance is very difficult for everyone. The best thing to do, in my opinion, is train yourself as to how long 1 minute is (one, not two). If, by the 1 minute mark, you don't know what you're doing with the problem, you spend another 1 min period making an educated guess and then you keep going. This allows you to keep everything in terms of 1 minute, a consistent time throughout, and it reminds you that you've got to guess and move on when it's just not working. Buy a stopwatch with lap-timing capability, if you don't have one already, and place it facedown on the table (so you can't see it). As you're working on problems, hit the "lap" button every time you think one minute has gone by. After doing one, or five, or ten problems, check and see how good you are, and adjust accordingly. It's good if you can get to the point of being able to estimate accurately within 15 seconds (that is, 45seconds to 1min 15seconds).

Re: validity of the scores, the standard deviation on our test overall is about 50 points (compared to a standard deviation of about 30 points on the real thing). I don't, unfortunately, have SD figures just for math and verbal separately, but I would expect that the drop you experienced is wider than the typical deviation people experience.

[Helios]

Yes Stacey, generally, I do not review questions that I marked correctly. This time I will pick all the questions from MGMAT Tests and review. Do you advice me to repeat all the problems from OG11 and OG10 again? Hope MGMAT CAT Tests will be enough to learn the caveats.

Another question about Quant section: Being a student from engineering background, I am slight better in math than in verbal; although my quant scores always stay between 48 and 49 (even after finishing both OGs). I took 8 Prep Tests from GMATPrep software (last 4 months period) and each time I scored either a 48 or a 49!! Even in my last GMAT also I got 48. Initially I dropped Permutation/Combinations and Probability; but seeing my "not so good" performance in quant, I am planning to start with them and eagerly looking for your advice.

Regarding timing issue in quant, I never faced timing issue so badly because somehow I use to skip or guess 2-3 questions so that I reach at the end of 37th questions with 2-3 mins. left.

[Helios]

Kindly go through my assessment report and guide me whether anywhere I am falling behind the trap. Thank you for contribution.

[StaceyKoprince]

You don't generally need to review ALL OG10+11 questions. Use your assessment reports to figure out your weaker question types and topics (whether accuracy OR timing) and go review those areas in more detail.

Re: quant, if you're scoring 48/49 consistently, you're good. (Were you close to that when you took the official test? Or did that score drop a lot too? You said your score was "not so good" but I don't know exactly what that means!)

Some things I notice on the page you posted:
- timing for some wrong answers on CR - spending a lot of time to get things wrong!
- timing a bit high on RC in general
- SC is your strength; your time is SO fast, and you have 4 lower level questions wrong - so you might have made some careless mistakes due to speed. This is your strength, so be careful - don't want to leave points on the table here!

Also, go take a look at the pages that tell break down the different question types for these areas and see what additional detail you can get about your strengths and weaknesses. (Though don't post them all here - we're actually not supposed to do comprehensive test assessments here on the forums, but you only posted one page, so I answered that one.)

[Helios]

Hi Stacey,

First of all, thanks a bunch for analyzing my report. Just I wanted to know a quick assessment on my report so that I can do the same further. Also I did OG10/11 for more than three times, and was looking for a firm counseling from your end.

Yes, in my official test also I scored 48 but I hunch that below 50 in quant is not a good score at all. Also in my MGMAT tests I received 46, 42 and 43. So I feel that I may need to look into Quant more diligently. However, I will be glad if you provide some inputs in this regard.

Being a non-native English speaker, I have found that my accuracy as well as time is deliberately low (average accuracy is less than 45%) in inference and specific detail type questions in RC, just because I need to look for the details into passage and do moderate inference based on details. Now-a-days I can find the specific location in passage, but at the same time, start thinking either to paraphrase only the immediate line or to go further down the passage, or to read initial 2-3 lines. Believe me that decrease both my time and accuracy.

Finally I would say thank to you once again for enormous assistance.

[StaceyKoprince]

Quant 48 is high-80s in terms of percentile - that's an excellent score! Don't get caught up in reading the posts of everyone who wants a 50+ on quant. Sure, that's nice, but it's absolutely not necessary. No school will reject you due to a Q48.

Also, re: finding the specific details in passages. Generally, you should only need a sentence or two to answer the question - you should stick pretty tightly to whatever the question is referring to (this assumes you have found the right sentence or two, of course). You shouldn't have to range over an entire paragraph or multiple paragraphs for a detailed question; in fact, that's how the write some wrong answers (e.g. "the mix-up" wrong answer type: when they pull two different pieces of info from two different places in the passage and mash them together as though they go together, even though that's not what the passage actually said).

The exception to this general rule is when you get a question along the lines of "The passages states all of the following about gophers EXCEPT" - okay, in this case, you'll most likely have to look in multiple places to eliminate the four wrong answers.

Don't forget the "why" question - you should be asking yourself "why" all the time when you review questions. Why is that one right? Why are these other ones wrong? Why did I pick this wrong one? Why did I cross off the right one? Why was my thinking faulty? Get the idea? :)

[Helios]

Thank you Stacey,
Now for every questions (could be right or wrong) I am doing the analysis especially the WHY factor. After walking through all my last 3 MGMAT CAT tests, I gave my fourth MGMAT adaptive test and score ( 640 - V33 Q45 ) is slight better than last time(was 600). While analyzing my mistakes, I found that 4 RC questions were really my cup of tea though I made them wrong. Surprisingly I got all those tricky RC questions (i.e. EXCEPT type, Example type) that I marked as TOUGH for me!! People said that 4th CAT test is almost near to the real test, and if it is so, I need to traverse a lot more miles. On other hand, I got almost 22 verbal questions from 700-800 question pool and 13 from 600-700 zone; so not sure where actually I am standing.
I am planning to book my date on 18th August 2008 and it is another a month from now. Also I planned to give my MGMAT CAT test 5 after fortnight and test 6 after another one week both with AWA; and the following weekend will have the real GMAT. :roll:
This time I am planning not to go with GMATPrep test at all rather stress and believe on MGMAT CAT tests because I know almost all the answers in verbal from GMATPrep so getting 760 or 740 in test will unnecessary create complacency and harm my real GMAT. I am not sure how much realistic the result will be and hence looking forward to receive responses at your earliest.

[StaceyKoprince]

It's too bad that you've "used up" GMATPrep already - that is the closest thing to the real test. Our test has a standard error of about 50 points, while the official test has a standard error of about 30 points. So ours is pretty good, but not as precise as the real thing. (And GMATPrep is built off of the real test, so it's more precise than ours as well.)

V33 is about the 70th percentile, so that's very good! It sounds like you're starting to get a handle on the kind of analysis that you need to do - keep up the good work and keep us posted here. You can also use the problem folders to ask questions about how to analyze / think about a problem.

A lot of our CAT questions have already been posted and discussed, so start by searching for an unusual word or phrase in the problem. The existing discussion might give you some good insights into the problem. If you have further questions, you can add them to that existing thread about that problem. And if you want to discuss a problem that hasn't yet been posted, you can post it yourself (make sure to read - and follow! - the forum rules for posting problems).

[Helios]

Hi Stacey,
I was taking verbal section of my last MGMAT CAT test under timed condition along with essay sections but suddenly I got the below message. After that I felt that server was super slow and even I was not able to login to practice center. :shock:

Sorry
An error occurred when you requested this page.
We apologize for the inconvenience and will work to correct the problem.

Do you have any idea about this problem? What happens to my unfinished test?

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm not sure - don't know much about the technical side of things! In general, if you ever have any technical difficulties or questions, send an email to techsupport@manhattangmat.com. They'll get back to you as soon as they can (though if there really was a general problem with the server, that could take a little while b/c presumably a lot of people suddenly experienced the problem!).