Question for you, Stacey K.

[adetayoakisanya]

Hey Stacey...

I took the GMAT about a week ago and scored a 650 (39Q, 41V). Of course, like everyone else who signs up with MGMAT, I think I need to break a 700 to be given good consideration at my top choice schools.

A few notes:
1) My timing was horrible. I was just completely daunted by the entire experience, and each second seemed at most a third the length of a regular second. I've seen your replies to other students regarding timing and learning to know/count a minute, so I intend to work on that.

2) I've heard that a high verbal score can lift a middling quant score. I'm fairly certain I can raise my verbal score from a 41 to a 44-45 with some pacing practice (I was also pretty discouraged because I knew my Quant was horrible, so my confidence on Verbal was shot; I didn't give it my all)

I'm not really a natural with Quant like most people, and tend to panic once I don't know the answer to a problem fairly quickly...then I re-read, burning clock in the process.

I hear that Quant is the easiest section to fix. Its all about "recognising the type of question" and "understanding what the question is asking for". Some GMAT instructors boast that they can teach students how to take apart a question logically within 30 seconds. Do you have any idea what they're referring to? (I'm currently reading your "How to Analyze" series, btw...)

Any advice on how to get to the "core" of problems quickly? Is it also possible that I just didn't study enough 700-level questions? I've got about 3 weeks to go from a 39Q to 48Q. Save me.

[StaceyKoprince]

If you took our course or one of our Guided Self-Study packages, then you're eligible for a free Post-Exam Assessment (if you haven't done it already). This is a phone call with an instructor to figure out what went wrong and come up with a plan to re-take the test. If this applies to you, please send an email to studentservices@manhattangmat.com and request the Post-Exam Assessment.

If you qualify, please go do that right now - that's the best way to get advice! If you then want to discuss that advice here, come back here and tell us, and we'll tell you what we think.

Have you seen the links to the Time Management article? If not, here it is:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... anagement/

Start working on that right away - most people need at least 4-6 weeks to develop a better time sense.

It's true that verbal is weighted a bit more heavily than quant, though not as much as it used to be. Still, if verbal's your strength, then that's good news for you.

Note that some of the *very* top programs do look at the individual quant and verbal subscores. Maybe the top 5 (do your research to find out for sure) say they want to see an "80/80" split - that is, at least 80th percentile on the two subsections.

I've got about 3 weeks to go from a 39Q to 48Q. Save me.

I wish I could. Honestly, 30 percentile points in three weeks is a tall order. The vast majority of people could not make that kind of jump in that timeframe. Plus, if you have a timing problem - as I mentioned, it typically takes people at least 4-6 weeks to really fix timing problems. You may have to make a choice between lowering your goal score and postponing your test. I know you won't like that message, but better to hear it now so you can think about what you want to do.

In addition to the How to Analyze series, read this:

http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/09/ ... t-problems

Re: your question about not studying enough 700 (or 90th percentile) problems... nope, that's not what held you back. Your score was 50th percentile. There's a lot of ground to cover between there and 80th or so percentile - and, whether we're talking about timing, technique, or content, none of it involves 700-level questions. You can't skip over all of that stuff - you have to get those right in order to get offered those harder questions in the first place.

But you don't even need to worry about 700 level (again, 90th-percentile-equivalent) problems on quant, because you're going for 80th percentile on quant. (Percentile is really the "proper" way to discuss this, since 700 actually refers to some combination of quant and verbal together - even though we all talk about "700 level problems," that doesn't really mean anything. :)

So, in addition to the above general articles about how they disguise stuff, how we need to analyze to learn, etc., you can also use the below article to analyze your most recent MGMAT test and tell us the results (your analysis, not just the raw data). That'll give us more detail with which to figure out where you're falling short on timing, technique and content.

http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/