Quant weakness..

[ali.gmat01]

Hi,
I am decent in quant section of GMAT but not very good.. so i end up taking too long to solve a question and in the end get it wrong. This is why i cannot attempt all the 37 questions of Quant and have to just randomly mark answers for approx last 10 question..

Does it make sense not attempting all the 37 Q's and go concentrate on as many question as i give my best attempt.

I noticed this in the first two tests of the 6 test set.

I have to take the test in 5 days... any inputs will be appericiated.

[RonPurewal]

whoa, no, that's about the worst thing you could possibly do to yourself.

you MUST keep close to a timing pace that will let you get through all 37 of the problems - even if that means throwing away problems along the way in order to maintain the overall pace.
the end of the test is absolutely the worst place to leave questions blank, since doing so will impose penalties from which you'll have no way to recover. if you throw away problems during the middle portion of the test, though, you'll be able to recover in later questions.

please read the following post in its entirety (it's very long):
post37361.html#p37361

all the timing information in that problem could apply to you as well.

good luck!

[ali.gmat01]

Hey Ron Thanks for the reply.

Just took my test today and got a very disappointing score. 590. (Q42 V30)

I have taken all the 6 practice MGMAT test.
CAT 6(Along with essays): 670(Q47 V34) on 6th Mar
CAT 5(Along with essays): 640(Q43 V35) on 4th Mar
CAT 4: 650(Q46 V33) on 3rd Mar
CAT 3: 590(Q40 V32) on 2nd Mar
CAT 2: 560(Q37 V30) on 28th Feb
CAT 1: 620(Q47 V29) on 23rd Feb

After taking the last test attempt i was confident enough to get atleast a 650 but i dont know what happened.

I have decided to take the test once more in 4-6 weeks time as i dont want to start my prep all over again after a long break.

Can you suggest what approach i should follow considering the fact that i have taken the test once and also the done my prep once. I belive that 590 is a score that i dont deserve even with the prep that i had done.

The follwing is assesment report of the 6 tests that i have taken so far.(You might be able to view this properly if u copy paste this in Excel)
QUESTION FORMAT Total Right Wrong Blank % Right Avg Time for RIGHT Ans Avg time for WRONG ans Avg diff for RIGHT ans Avg diff for WRONG ans
PS 126 74 50 2 59 02:13 01:46 660 690
DS 87 44 43 0 51 01:59 02:29 680 710
SC 89 54 34 1 61 01:19 01:23 640 690
CR 83 37 46 0 45 01:56 02:15 610 690
RC 72 36 36 0 50 01:49 02:16 620 660

Also let me know if there is way to share my entire assesment with you.

I am eagerly waiting for your reply. Help me make it through this time.


Thanks,
Ali.

[StaceyKoprince]

The first thing we need to do is figure out why your score dropped - only then we can do something about it.

Read this article, do the analysis described, and come back to let us know what you discovered. We'll then help you figure out what to do about it.

http://www.beatthegmat.com/a/2009/10/26/my-score-dropped-figuring-out-what-went-wrong

(Note: one of the reasons people have "score drops" is that their practice test scores were inflated for some reason - eg, not taking the tests under official conditions. If this is the case, it will take longer for a student to fix whatever problems exist because the problem is actually that the student's actual ability / score was lower than what the practice test said. The article will help you to figure out whether this is the case for you.)

Also, use this article to help you analyze your practice test results; you can include that information in your next post as well:

http://www.beatthegmat.com/a/2009/09/23/evaluating-your-practice-tests

[ali.gmat01]

1. Official Test Condition
Q: Do both essays?:
A:I had taken as many as 9-10 practice tests and written essays only for the last two.

Q: Take only two 8-minute breaks (the first between essays and quant, the second between quant and verbal)?:
A: As far as the breaks are concerned many a times I skipped the breaks(all such incidents were during the test in which I hadn’t written essays)

Q: Complete the test in one sitting (e.g., you didn’t do the verbal section later that evening or the next day)?
A: Completed all the test in one sitting except for one.

Q: Pause the test, look at books or notes, eat and drink during the test, or do anything else that wouldn’t be allowed on test day
A: Used the pause button few times(not more than 5 times through all the tests) mostly to answer a call or door or to eat/drink.

2. Stamina
Q: Take the practice tests at the same time of day as you took (or plan to take) the real test?
A: Not all the test but tried taking 2-3 test at around the same time as that of the actual test.

Q: Avoid taking a second test (practice or official) within 3 days of taking another practice test?
A: Took the last practice test two days prior to the actual attempt. And I had taken most my test in the last week and a half prior to the actual test.

Q: Eat good "energy" food before the test and during the breaks, drink liquids to stay hydrated, and stretch or do light exercise to loosen up and get your blood flowing?
A: Did this but only during the actual attempt.

3. Timing

I seem to have a major timing problem mostly with my quant section. Of all the tests(Practice & actual) that I have given till now, I have managed to complete the entire quant section only once and unfortunately it was not the actual test. I cannot figure out which questions I have to just giveup and move on to the next question. I started my prep with quant as a strength and verbal as weakness, as a result I concentrated a lot my verbal section to reach a early 30 score and couldn’t concentrate on quant as I did on verbal. Another reason for not being able to do better at 700-800 level difficulty level questions is lack of resources for such questions.

Though I can complete my verbal section in time most of the times, I couldn’t on my actual test.


Also let me know how can i share the reults and the test reports with you.. i'm working on them but can figure out how to share them with you...

Ali.

[StaceyKoprince]

You can't actually share the reports with me via this platform. We will go over student tests and reports with a student during tutoring sessions but we don't offer this as a free service, unfortunately.

So, on the real test, you ran out of time in both sections. That brought your score down - possibly a lot, depending upon how many questions this affected and how you handled the situation.

It also sounds like you may have tired your brain out in the last week before the test. The general rule is that, the closer you get to the real test, the less you do and the more you rest.

It also sounds like your practice test conditions were inconsistent and possibly the scores were a bit inflated. e.g., you did take the essays on the last two, but did you use the pause button? You can't pause during the real test to take a mental break or have something to eat and drink - that's an advantage that you'll never have on the real test. And, of course, when you skipped the essays, that was another big advantage.

So, now what? Well, you know you need to fix the timing problem. You know you need to take practice tests under full official conditions from now on. And you know not to tire yourself out leading up to the real test.

First, go into your student center and read The GMAT Uncovered Guide. You can find this in the "Extras" area of your student center. There's a lot of info in there about the timing and how that affects the scoring - I want to make sure you really understand how that works.

Next, you need to learn about how long one minute is without looking at a watch or stopwatch. If you don't have one already, buy yourself a stopwatch with lap timing capability. When you go to do a set of problems, start the stopwatch but turn it over so you can't see the time. Every time you think one minute has gone by, push the lap button. When you're done, see how good you were - and whether you tend to over or underestimate. Get yourself to the point where you're within 15 seconds either way on a regular basis (that is, you can generally predict between 45 sec and 1min 15 sec). Note: at the same time that you are using the stopwatch to time this "1-minute" thing, also use the OG Stopwatch (in your student center) to track the total time spent on each question.

Now, how do you use that when doing problems? If you're not on track by one minute*, make an educated guess and move on. (The general idea is that if you're not on track by the halfway mark, you're unlikely to figure out what's holding you back AND have time to do the whole problem in the 1 min you have left.)

* For SC, 1min is well beyond the half-way mark (we're supposed to average about 1m15s here), but you can almost always eliminate at least some choices on SC in that timeframe. Once you've got that "I'm around the 1min mark and I'm struggling" feeling, go through any remaining choices ONCE more. Pick one. Move on.

You'll also need to get better at making educated guesses, so that you know what to do when you have to do that. The process varies depending upon the question type and content being tested, so you'll have to learn to do that as you study the material.

Also, CAT exams are really good for (a) figuring out where you're scoring right now, (b) practicing stamina, and (c) analyzing your strengths and weaknesses. The actual act of just taking the exam is NOT so useful for improving. It's what you do with the test results / between tests that helps you to improve. Don't take an exam more than once a week ever! And, most of the time, people should be taking exams every 2 to 4 weeks. Generally, don't take an exam again until either (1) you've made a LOT of progress since your last exam, or (2) the real test is coming up in a few weeks, in which case you can take an exam once a week just to get used to the process, practice stamina, etc.

[ali.gmat01]

Hi Stacey,

I have just resumed my prep for 2nd shot at GMAT. I wanted your help in planning out my schedule for Quant prep.

Quant Raw scores in the 6 practice test I took last time :

1. 47
2. 37
3. 40
4. 46
5. 43
6. 47

I have a problem solving 700-800 level questions(i cannot solve most of them and even if i have solved its not worth it considering the time I have lost)

break up of question difficulty wise:
Difficulty, total # of Q's, # of Q right, # of Q wrong
1. 300-500, 6, 6, 0
2. 500-600, 20, 14,6
3. 600-700, 86, 50, 35
4. 700-800, 101, 48, 52.

So If we go by the numbers above it indicates that i know the concepts to solve the medium difficulty problems but not well enough to solve high difficulty problems.

So, could you help me with material that should I be referring and an approch that i should be using to make the most of that material.

Thanks in advance.
Ali.

[tim]

No, you actually DON'T appear to have the skills to solve medium-difficulty problems. You are very clearly missing far too many medium-difficulty questions to bump your score up much higher than it has been. You need to get back into our books and do a thorough review of the concepts AND learn how to recognize problem types and choose an appropriate strategy. (By the way, this will also help you with the timing problem you described earlier.) i hope this helps; with the limited data you provided, this is about all i could suggest. If you took one of our courses, definitely sign up for a post-exam assessment, which will give you an opportunity to talk with one of our instructors who can provide the kind of in-depth analysis and detailed suggestions that are just not appropriate here on the forum..

[ali.gmat01]

Hi Tim,

I have bought the 6 test from MGMAT. Can i still sign up for the post-exam assesment? If no, can i enroll for it seperately?

And what should be % of correct answer for medium-difficulty that i should aim for before taking the next step i.e concentrating on high difficulty problems. And I hope that 600-700 is medium difficulty level and 700-800 is high difficulty level.

And Tim thanks once again for bringing to my notice that i need to focs on medium difficulty level problems.

It would be wonderful if I could get a comment on the schedule that i have for my quant.

Step 1. OG10 & reviewing of concepts(i dont have books for this I am just following a few forums for the same)
Step 2. OG11 & review of quant questions in MGMAT tests.
Step 3. OG 12 & any backlogs
Hopefully by the time I have done this I would have got my Basics right and be in a better position to solve those medium difficulty questions.
Step 4. PR 1012
Step 5. Kaplan Premier 2008
Step 6. Kaplan 800

Any suggestions/modifications would be appreciated.

[tim]

i actually don't know whether you can get a post-exam assessment based on what you've purchased. My guess is no, but you can always call MGMAT and ask..

As for your study plan, it is absolutely overkill. PLEASE understand that GMAT studying is about getting a thorough understanding of each problem that you do rather than doing as many questions as you can. If you are studying properly, the three OG books (current editions ONLY) are the only practice problems you should ever need to do. If you find yourself exhausting these too quickly, you are not getting enough out of them..

After you've done a math problem, go back and do it three other ways if you can. If you can't find another way to do the problem, go back to basics and study that topic more until you can. Then change some of the numbers or constraints on the problem and see if you can still solve it..

After you've done a verbal problem, make sure you thoroughly understand not only why every incorrect answer choice is wrong but also why they included it as a choice..

DO NOT do the 10th or 11th edition OGs. There's a reason why they released an updated version. :) And yes you should be focusing on getting more of those medium level problems correct if you want to see hard questions on the GMAT. You should be close to 100% on anything lower than 600 and 80% or higher on 600-700 level problems if you're aiming to see a lot of 700+ questions on the test..