Retake strategy - need to improve quant

[ShakiraC245]

Hi,

I took the gmat a couple of days ago and got 650. Not happy with the result, but felt it was a decent improvement on my mock of 590 last week. I ended up with Q39 V41, respectively 43rd and 94th percentiles.

I have booked my retake and I now have exactly 4 weeks to get my act together. Clearly quant is my weak point and ideally I should be hitting 70th percentile as I'm aiming for a 700.

Do you have any advice on how to go about studying for the retake? I had previously used mgmat books as well as 3 CATs and Kaplan's premier book/quiz bank.

Maybe I should do another CAT before starting to study again so I know where my weak points are?

Would appreciate any tips

Thanks!

[StaceyKoprince]

I do need more info in order to advise you, yes. When did you take your last MGMAT CAT? If it was within the last 4 weeks or so, you can use that one for the analysis described below. If not, take another.

First, read these two articles:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... lly-tests/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -the-gmat/

Then, use the below to analyze your most recent MGMAT CAT (this should take you a minimum of 1 hour):
http://tinyurl.com/analyzeyourcats

Based on all of that, figure out your strengths and weaknesses as well as what you think you should do. Then come back here and tell us; we'll tell you whether we agree and advise you further. (Note: do share an analysis with us, not just the raw data. Part of getting better is developing your ability to analyze your results - figure out what they mean and what you think you should do about them!)

[ShakiraC245]

Hi Stacey, thanks for your reply.

My last full CAT with MGMAT was on 7 Aug (610, Q36 V37) which was a bit worse than my real performance last week (650, Q39 V41). Clearly my problem is in the Quant paper as my performance in verbal and IR have both been decent.

I took another CAT today - just the quant section - and scored 43 (56th percentile). I'm reasonably happy with the jump from 39 to 43, but there is still considerable room for a lot of improvement (ideally hoping for 47-48 in my retake which is in 4 weeks' time).

I took this paper after reading Everything You Need To Know About Time Management (Part 1), How GMAT is like tennis, and the Second Level of Learning. I tried to incorporate the learnings from these articles into the way I worked during the test - that is, using educated guesses and trying not to spend more than 2'30 on any question regardless of how close I think I am to finding the answer. (As it happens, it seems I spent more than 2'30 on 4 questions).

Looking through the raw data, my weak spots seem to be exponents and roots, divisibility and primes, and algebraic equations.

EDIT - struggling to attach a file to this email - would you know how I can get the data to you?

Thanks,
Shakira

[StaceyKoprince]

Good, thanks for the follow up.

I should caution you that taking the quant section by itself can result in an artificially inflated score. Skipping the essay and IR sections gives you more mental energy when doing the quant section. For some people, this doesn't result in an appreciable difference, but for others, it can give a significant boost.

We don't download files for security reasons - but did you use the file I sent that talked about how to analyze your tests? Are the topics that you gave me the ones that fall into your Bucket 2? (If you don't know what I'm talking about, go back to my last post and find the article on analyzing your practice tests. Then use it. :)

I also want to make sure you know what your Bucket 3 categories are so that you stop spending extra time on those questions.

Next, start analyzing the specific problems using the method described in the "2nd Level of GMAT study" article from last time. What are the specific weaknesses for those areas that you've identified? For example, are exponents and roots weak because you don't know the rules? Because you struggle to do calculations with the rules? Because you struggle to apply the rules / do the calculations when the problems are in GMAT format? Or maybe you can do them but they take you too long? Or maybe you know everything but are making careless mistakes? What's actually going on in this area?

The answers to those questions will help you know what to do next. If you're struggling with the fundamental skills (knowing the rules and manipulating / using them), then go to our Foundations of Math book (or equivalent) and do some work on your skills.

If you know the rules but don't always know when and how to apply them to GMAT-format problems, start looking for solution explanations that teach you not just what to do but how to know what to do (eg, you can try our GMAT Navigator program for OG13 / OG2015 quant; alternatively, you can search online). Ditto if you are looking for more efficient solution methods.

If you are making careless mistakes, read this:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -the-gmat/

And so on. Okay, so dig back into your analysis and tell me, in much more depth, what's going on with your weaknesses!