Practice exams, timeline and strategy

[akshat_kumar]

Hi Stacey,

I am an Internal Medicine resident and started studying for GMAT in September this year. I purchased GMAT interact, as a flexible study option and I am glad that I did.
I followed the syllabus strictly and took the different MGMAT exams (including IR and Essay and with 8 min breaks ).
Below are my scores in chronological order :-

GMAT Prep 1- Aug/14- 640.
CAT 1 - 9/20/14 - Q43 + V35 = 640
CAT 2 - 10/11/14- Q45 + V35 = 660
CAT 3- 10/26/14- Q46 + V35 = 670
CAT 4- 11/08/14- Q42 + V36 = 640
CAT 5- 11/23/14- Q44 + V37 = 670

GMATPrep2-11/30/14- Q50 + V39 = 730
GMATexamprep3:12/7/14- Q49 +V42=740

CAT 6: 12/14/14: Q47 + V39 = 700.

My target score is 750. And my exam date is 31st December. Last 2 weeks I have invested time in Manhattan Advanced Quant. SC and timing are my biggest weaknesses.
It will be great if you can advise me with the following :-

1. Exam Date of 31Dec ?: I have taken my yearly leave and have lots of time in next 2 weeks. Is that enough time to give me a fair shot at my target score ?

2. Practice Exams- As you may have noticed, there was a difference in my CATS and GMAT prep. Which exams, do you recommend, that I take next, to assess my actual level of performance ? ( noticed a , which error in my sentence :) )

3. Essay Question:
Is it a good idea to enumerate and describe in different paras the flaws with the argument ? I have been doing that and wondered if anything wrong with numbering the paras.

4. Overall strategy: Given my weaknesses, do you recommend any specific strategy for next 2 weeks ? ( I am also wasting too much time on tough quant ).

Apologies for the long post. But finished my 6th CAT today and need guidance to plan my next 2 weeks of studies.

Thanks !!

[StaceyKoprince]

My first question: why a 750?

Based on your test results, your current scoring level is in the lower 700s*, which is good enough for any school. (Of course, they won't admit you based on your GMAT score. But a 700+ score is good enough for the school to say, "Yep, you can handle the work!" and then look at other parts of your application to make the real decision.)

*The numbers you're seeing on your most recent tests are within normal standard deviations. You're just somewhere in the middle there, that's all.

In other words, why go for a 750 when you don't actually need that. :) If you do want that, you're probably not going to get there in 2 weeks, so you'd likely need to change your whole study / test timeframe. Going from ~710 to ~750 is as hard as going from ~600 to ~700.

Am I convincing you yet? You are already where you need to be - really! Now, you want to go into comprehensive review mode, both to solidify that scoring level and maybe even to pick up another 10, 20, 30 points... (so maybe you will get there in the end... :)

The basic theme: focus on low-hanging fruit. STOP spending time on too-hard quant. This is a triage situation. You don't have time and resources to get to everybody, so figure out how best to spend what you've got!

Next: careless mistakes. You already know how to get these problems right, so focus on how to minimize making those kinds of errors:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/2012/ ... -the-gmat/

That's easier than trying to turn a weakness into a strength.

Finally, use this to structure your final 2 weeks:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... game-plan/

Essays: don't number the paragraphs at the beginning, no. It should read as a continuous essay, not a numbered list. But you can use numbering in the writing itself. First, blah blah blah. Second / next... etc.

[akshat_kumar]

Thanks a ton !
Yup. I am not that rigid about 750 but also can not keep a lower target to begin with.
I am going ahead with the 31st date and hoping that it works out.

I went through the mentioned blogs. They were very helpful.
Will try to focus on the low hanging fruits and on a comprehensive review over the next 2 weeks.

Thanks once again

Regards
Akshat

[StaceyKoprince]

I think it's great to have high goals and push yourself as long as you recognize that you can still be successful even if you don't hit that ultra-high level. :)

Good luck with everything - let us know how it goes!

[akshat_kumar]

Hi Stacey,

Took the official exam a few weeks back.
Scored 700 (IR-4, Quant-49 and Verbal 36).
If you would go through my earlier post- it had outlined my studies and my scores on different exams. After that I had taken the 4th GMAT Prep and scored 750 ( Quant 49 + Verbal 42) with IR and essay.

The score was borderline for me. I visited my target schools and have decided to take the exam again ( based on the feedback from different people ). Hope its the right decision.

Throughout all practice exams, I was scoring between 39 to 42 in Verbal and thats where i dint perform to my expected level on the exam. Quant was my weakness and tried to work hard on it. scored 49. ( my highest score on manhattan GMAT was 47 ).
Still not sure what went wrong with verbal on the day of the exam.

I have taken the Manhattan PEA and it was quite useful
Because of my schedule, it will be most convenient for me to retake the exam in July August now. Will that work ? Or is it too much of a gap ? Can one develop a sound 6-8 month strategy to go from 700 to 750 ?

I am beginning my review with 30mins-1 hr every day for first 2 3months. TO begin with- Content Based review ( GMAT interact Syllabus in more depth vs Questions based review ? What do you recommend ?

And thanks again for your support and guidance before the exam !

Akshat

[StaceyKoprince]

First, congrats on hitting 700! Yes, I know you want to take it again, but that's still a great score. :)

In terms of what might have gone wrong on verbal: one possibility is mental fatigue. We often don't know when we're suffering from it (because we're mentally tired - that's the point!). Some of the symptoms include: difficulty concentrating / having to keep re-reading things; difficulty making decisions / finding yourself agonizing over something; on the flip side, feeling like you just want it to be over, so making quicker decisions / not working as carefully as usual.

Do you feel like any of this could have happened during the test?

Timing issues are always a possibility too - going too quickly or too slowly. Did anything like that happen?

If you would re-take in July or Aug, when would you start to study again? I'll guess about 3 months in advance, so your break would maybe be 2 months? That's fine. You'll need a little time to get back up to speed, but 2 months is not excessive.

Oh, I see - you're not going to take a break? Hmm. That could be spreading it out a bit too much. If it were me, I'd probably take a break for a month. Then spend about a month doing an hour 4 times a week to start to remind yourself of everything / get back into things, then ramp up from there.

What do you think?

For the "light" part, just start by doing a general review of everything - question types, major rules and formulas - to get yourself back up to speed. Then, start diving deeper based on the stuff that you've identified as "Bucket 2" - see here:
http://tinyurl.com/GMATTimeManagement

When you're ready to take another practice test, you'll identify new items as bucket 2 and begin to work on those, and so on till you're ready for this thing. :)

[akshat_kumar]

Hi Stacey,

Thanks for the last post.
I would appreciate if you can briefly go through our older posts- to get a background idea and my GMAT journey so far.

In summary I took the exam end of dec- scored 700. And now planning to retake it in late July/ early August.

For one reason or the other- I have not been able to do much for the last 3 months. Tried some Kaplan Tests ( Already exhausted allMGMATs and GMAT prep tests- and giving some time before retaking them)- and scored 740, 750. Similar to my GMAT prep scores before the official exam.

Now I need to switch gears somehow.
Trouble has been finding questions to keep me motivated.
Some specific questions:

1. What do you think about OG 10th or 12th edition as a resource ?
And which one is better out of those 2 ?
I want to save revising OG 13 and the 400 GMAT exam pack for last 2 months.

2. I took the enhanced report.
Quant- 49.
Verbal- CR- 95 percentile. SC and RC- in the 60s.
Those 2 are my weaknesses. Especially the time part- I am a slow reader and under stress it becomes more difficult. I put in a lot of hours for SC before the first exam. Did improve overall but not where I want to be.
Any specific targeted strategy for these 2 areas ?

3. Does my timeline of a 3 month break and now a 4 month period sound ok ? For the first of these 3 months I will be working and will have limited time but can put in lot many hours after July 1.


Thanks
Akshat

[StaceyKoprince]

From OG10 to OG13 / 2015, they swapped out about 20% of the questions each year. So OG12 is mostly the same as OG 13 / 2015. That would make it seem that OG10 is better, but...there's a big but. A lot of the questions that have been retired out of the older editions of these books now show up in various GMATPrep products (free tests, paid tests, question pack). So even though OG10 will have a higher proportion of different questions than OG13 / 2015, you may end up "spoiling" yourself for those questions over in GMATPrep.

So, I don't have a great answer for you there.

You mentioned that you're having issues with timing on SC and CR. What did your Enhanced Score Report show as your average time for those question types?

Next, since you're going to take a 3-month break, when you start up again, you should start with an overall review of the major CR question types and SC topic areas. So you're just going to start by reminding yourself of everything that you're supposed to know / do for these two types. Then, as you practice, you'll see which specific CR question types or SC content areas are giving you the most trouble and need more work. (These may be the same as what was giving you trouble before, but there may also be some differences - you'll have to look at the data and see.)

So what I'd recommend is to do a couple of weeks' worth of work when you get started again in July and then report back on your strengths and weaknesses at that time. We can discuss a more targeted plan once we see what the data says.

[akshat_kumar]

Thanks for the reply.

1. Weaknesses- They are actually RC and SC. I have started to review these areas already with the new Manhattan strategy guides. Hope that is good enough for a score improvement.

2. New Questions: I started doing the OG 10 after a PEA in Jan/Feb.
But overall finding new questions has been a challenge for the retake.
OG 14 is coming out- how long do you think will it take for Manhattan to update the OG navigator for the new books ?
Any other question bank that you recommend ?

3. Enhanced Score Report:
Verbal- 36- 81st percentile
CR- 96th Percentile. 2.25
RC- 66th Percentile- 2.0
SC- 66th Percentile- 1.46


Thanks once again .
Akshat

[StaceyKoprince]

Just a bit of nomenclature: GMAC has dropped edition numbers. The current book is OG2015 (which is identical to OG13). The next version coming out in June will be OG2016. All three books are changing and will have approximately 25% new questions.

We expect to start using the new books in our classes about 3-4 weeks after they come out (enough time to get everything converted over), though I don't have an exact date yet.

Re: new questions, remember that if your score is not yet where you want it to be, then there are still things to be learned from those old questions that you've already done. Part of the issue is that you didn't learn everything you could've the first time around. So one of your tasks is to make sure that you know how to learn best - otherwise, you're just going to be making similar mistakes on the new questions that you do.

For instance, could you take an SC question and look only at the answer choices (never read the original sentence), and based on the differences that you see in the answers, correctly identify what is being tested and narrow down the answers? (You will not be able to get to the single correct answer on every question, because on some there will be clues in the non-underlined portion that you are not reading.) See how far you can take it without reading the original sentence!

For RC, do you know whether your issues are more on the reading / big picture / main idea question side of things or more on the detail / inference side of things?

[akshat_kumar]

Hi,

So the eventual break turned out to be almost 5 months ( From January- score of 700, 36verbal ,49quant)
Now the exam date is 20th August and planning to apply to round 1 of my target schools in September.

- Have gone through your earlier posts. Thanks as they have been very useful.

- To improve from 700 to 750 :-
I followed GMAT interact for my first take.
What do you think about the [b]live in-person class or the boot camp [/b]? Is it worth it given my specific situation ? And if so which one will be better for me ?
I can travel to NYC- its an hour away.

- Official Guide 2016- Any idea when will the Navigator be updated ?


thanks once again

Best,
akshat

[StaceyKoprince]

Navigator was updated on Wed of this week! 2016 is in / live. (But there seem to be some formatting issues with certain math images, FYI, and our office is currently closed for the holiday week-end, so that won't be fixed till Monday. But the program itself still works, even if some symbol is not showing up properly for an answer choice.)

Hmm, an hour away. Are you working during the week?

I don't recommend bootcamp to most people - it is VERY intense. But you've already gotten a 700 on the real thing and done a lot of studying, so it could work for you. Would you have the ability to just go and stay in NY during the week? Set up study groups with the other students and just take advantage of being in that environment for 2 weeks.

Otherwise, the once-a-week meeting will work nicely. If you're working during the week, just choose a week-end class.

Also FYI: all classes from July 1st on will be using 2016 edition OGs. You may see some of the same problems in a live class that you saw in Interact; there is some overlap between the programs.

[akshat_kumar]

Yup. I am working during the week.
GMAT 9 week problem is that it finishes after my target exam date of 20th August.

Yes, I got the new navigator. But it does not have explanations of any questions-even the old question form OG 15. Hope they figure it out soon.

Planning to stick to GMAT interact only and the resources I already have. I know my weeknesses ( SC and RC) and hopefully can overcome them this time.
Going to take a Manhattan prep exam today to set the pace going.

[StaceyKoprince]

Do you have a deadline - is that why you have to take it on / by the 20th? Not that you have to take a class, of course. It's up to you.

Navigator contains solutions for all DS, PS, and SC problems and for many CR and SC problems from OG2015. I'm logged into my own student account right now - they're all there. If you're not seeing them, then there's some kind of setting that you need to fix or something like that - contact our tech support team and they'll help you figure out why (800.576.GMAT from US and Canada or techsupport@manhattanprep.com).

[akshat_kumar]

Hi Stacey,

Retaking the exam on the 20th itself. Scored 720 in last MGMAT and 730 in official GMAT Prep1. Aiming for 730-750.

Finally I have realized that my biggest weakness is timing on Verbal. In quant I have got used to the 2 min pacing and that is helping me score 49-50 consistently.

But with verbal just not able to consistently switch gears. Take 1.30 min on SC, 2.30 on CR and 2.10 on Rc on average.
Trying different yellow pad techniques- earlier was doing 6 questions in 11 mins and marking off 11,22,33,44,55,66 on my yellow pad. Did not work out probably because of short time gap and variability of questions.
So now trying the GMAT interact way- 8questions in 15mins with cutoffs- 15,30,45,60.
Do you recommend any particular technique ?

Creating mixed timed sets for verbals has been a challenge. Both GMAT Prep software and GMAT Wiley for OG problems has shortcomings. They give a RC passage with only 1 question and don't really mix them well. Plus I am not able to use navigator and maintain a reliable error log or log the questions that are done/remaining.
Trying to create my own sets fro OG 16 but then spend too much time flipping pages.
Is there a better way ?

My score on Verbal in my first attempt was 36 ( CR-96, RC and SC in the 60th percentile). Stress in the actual exam and rushing through some questions I believe adversely affected my score. As I was scoring 40-42 in mock exams. Don't want to repeat that again. Whats your advise ?

Thanks a ton !!