Study and Strategy questions relating to the GMAT.
KarolineM296
Students
 
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Nov 19, 2016 5:10 am
 

Not improving on quant

by KarolineM296 Fri Dec 23, 2016 10:04 am

Hi Stacey!

I have been studying quant for quite a while going through all Manhattan prep strategy guides and all correlating questions and Official Guide quant questions.
I haven't studied verbal at all.

Despite this I stay in the 47-52 percentile on quant and with no studying I am in the 72-76 percentile on verbal. I fail almost all of the hard questions in all quant-fields, so I can't see any clear pattern here and thus where I should focus...

My target is 700 and my exam is 13th of January 2017.

How do you think I should continue?

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StaceyKoprince
ManhattanGMAT Staff
 
Posts: 9362
Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:05 am
Location: Montreal
 

Re: Not improving on quant

by StaceyKoprince Mon Dec 26, 2016 3:49 pm

Hello! I'm sorry that your studies have stalled out. :/

We need to dig a bit deeper into the data analysis (and by "we," I really mean "you" :) I can't actually tell, for example, where you guessed and got lucky or where you knew what you were doing but made a careless mistake. I need you to tell me.

Use this to help you analyze all of the data:
http://tinyurl.com/analyzeyourcats

Set aside at least an hour (probably longer) and dig in. Then tell me what you've figured out.

Also, look for things that:
(1) You got right but you were on the 2+ min side: is there a more efficient approach? Or can you get better / more efficient at the approach you did use?
(2) You got right but any part of it felt clunky / annoying. What's a better way? Or what do you need to practice so that it feels less clunky?
(3) You got right this time but could see how you might not always get that right. What do you need to do to move the needle more towards "I'm confident I'll always get something like this right."
(4) You got wrong but it was a careless mistake. How to minimize that type of mistake in future? (Don't just tell yourself what you "should" do. Drill it. Make the remedy a habit.)
(5) You got wrong but the explanation makes 100% complete sense and you're like, yeah, I can totally do that next time. Or you used to know it but forgot because you haven't reviewed it in a while. Practice whatever that is.

Notice that I don't have "you got wrong and the explanation didn't make a ton of sense" as a category. That's because the proper strategy for those is "bail." You don't have to study any actual content to be able to do that—you just have to be able to recognize that this problem sucks for you and you don't want to do it. :)

Let me know what you've got when you're done with your analysis!
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep