Retaking GMAT

[Lakshminarayan]

Hi Stacey I took the gmat yesterday and scored in the 54th percentile.

quant: 44
verbal: 26
IR : 5
TOTAL : 580

I know that I'll score low. I took it so that I would know how the actual test feels like. Now I look forward to retaking the gmat and cross the 700 mark.

Test day experience:

reached the test center an hour before and have gone through the gmat handbook. 30mins later i was admitted into the testing room.
My gmat started at 9 am in the morning. AWA & IR went well. Took a break and had banana and some almonds . Quant was okay but guessed on 5 or 6 difficult questions. Again took the official 8 min break had some snack and started my verbal. First few questions were a breeze then came the brutal RC & CR. As I was progressing through the verbal section my brain started to clog and I cannot even focus and understand what's given on the screen. So I ended up guessing on too many question, leading to a disastrous verbal and overall score.

my weaknesses

1. mental stamina on the test day.
2. timing on the entire verbal section.

So I need your help regarding
how to build stamina and endure for 4 hours ?
how to time myself for RC & CR ?

I have 2 months to fix these problems. Can you suggest me a study plan?

Today GMAT might outrun me but 2 months later I'll beat it.

[StaceyKoprince]

Yeah, the test can be brutal, especially the last section. As you study, you'll build up your mental stamina - just make sure that, 2-3 times a week, you have a couple of 2-hour study sessions in which you really study almost the whole time (with a break halfway) - no checking your email, etc. :)

Take a look here for how to build a study plan:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/2014 ... our-score/

If you would like to check your study plan with me, come back and tell me your strengths and weaknesses as well as what you plan to do about them and I'll tell you what I think!

For RC and CR in particular, you're going to need to identify resources that will help you to know how to read through and answer both effectively and efficiently. One step of the study plan is to identify your resources in general, so let me know what you decide. (We have out own books for RC and CR, of course, so I'm most familiar with our own strategies, but you may decide to use different materials.)

You can get an idea of our approach for CR here:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... reasoning/

And RC:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/2013 ... rehension/

Note that, if you do decide to use our books, the most recent edition is the 6th edition (published in Dec of last year). The CR book didn't change a huge amount, but the RC book changed quite a bit, so make sure to get the 6th edition RC, not 5th edition.

[Lakshminarayan]

Hello stacey thanks for your reply. I just took a break from this GMAT world and analyzed what went wrong with my first official GMAT from the past ten days.

FLAWS IN PREPARATION

1. extending my prep for more than 4+ months

consequence : Had to relearn again and again because our brain forgets anything if not revised everyday

2. Inconsistency in my preparation.

Like jumping from one section to another without even mastering it.
(mainly in verbal section)

it basically looks like this "RCCSCRSCRCSCCRRCRCRCSCSCSCCR"
looks terrible isn't it

3. Took very few full length practice tests under official conditions.

consequence: failed to endure on the test day.

4. No error log and didn't review my mistakes everyday before starting my first study session.

5. Relied heavily on books. I'll just list out what all resources I've used

ALL OFFICIAL GUIDES 13TH EDITION, 2ND EDITION SUPPLEMENTS
MANHATTAN 8 GUIDES 5TH EDITION
POWERSCORE CR GUIDE
LSAT READING COMPREHENSION BIBLE
GMAC QUESTION AND EXAM PACKS
MANHATTAN GMAT CHALLENGE PROBLEMS ONLINE
GMAT CLUB TESTS

seems a whole lot to me. but I now realized memorizing bunch of rules, cramming formulae will not help in anyway.

6. Failure to apply the concept learnt in a precise way to the question posed.

Weaknesses in Quant

Geometry
Word problems

Weaknesses in verbal

The devilish CR

My main problem with CR is under timed conditions I cannot read and understand the given argument. But if given enough time my accuracy will probably hover in the range 80 - 90%.

My biggest weakness on the GMAT is only CR. I really really don't have any idea regarding how to get started to improve my timing on CR. How to practice it whether to start it untimed or time myself for every question set everyday and improve in it.

My basics or fundamentals are solid in every section of the GMAT. now I need to build stamina and improve my verbal ability.

I guess you know why I mentioned ability instead of timing. With ABILITY comes accuracy and timing.

Finally I just really don't know from where to start how to start in the CR section. Need your valuable suggestions so that I can incorporate them in my study and get the most out of it.

[StaceyKoprince]

jumping from one section to another without even mastering it.

Actually, cycling among topics or question types can be quite helpful to your brain. If you spend an entire week studying only CR and then the next week studying only SC, you won't learn as much as if you do CR today, then SC tomorrow, then CR the next day, and so on.

You can even cycle within one study session - an hour on one topic, then an hour on another. There's a limit to how much you can cycle effectively, of course. You don't want to read one page of a CR book, then one page of an SC, and so on.

Took very few full length practice tests under official conditions.

Let's make sure that we have the same definition of "very few." I would call "very few" only 1 or 2 tests. I recommend that most people take between 3 and 6 full-length tests throughout their study.

You don't learn or build much while taking a test - it's like you're running a marathon. You don't get better at running marathons while running the marathon itself. :)

You'll primarily build endurance while studying. Several times a week, plan out what you're going to do over a 2-hour period. Then GO for 1 hour, no stopping, no checking email, no getting up for something to eat, etc. Take a 15 minute break, then GO again for 1 hour. Then take a more substantial break (at least an hour).

(Note: I'm specifically NOT recommending that you do what I just described for 3-4 hours. It's actually *more* mentally taxing to study than to take a test, because when you're studying, you're trying to create new memories, not just access old ones. So a 2-hour cycle like this will build mental stamina without tiring you out so much that you start making bad memories.)

didn't review my mistakes

Yes. This is how you learn the most! Read this:
http://tinyurl.com/2ndlevelofgmat

Regarding CR: first, how's your timing on SC and RC? If you are naturally faster at those (while still maintaining accuracy), then you can afford to spend a little more time on CR.

Do NOT, however, sacrifice either SC or RC (your stronger areas) in order to spend more time on CR (your weaker area). First earn the points that you know how to earn. Then see whether you have any flexibility to add some time to CR.

Alternatively, maybe you decide that there are certain types of CRs on which you will guess immediately, within 10 seconds. You'll then take the time you save and spread it over the remaining CRs.

So let's start with you telling me your timing analysis for SC, RC, and CR. Also tell me your biggest weaknesses within CR - certain question types or characteristics. (eg, boldface questions, or really long arguments, or arguments that bring up science topics or include numbers - whatever it is.)

Then we'll start to work out a strategy from there!

[Lakshminarayan]

Hello stacey thanks for the reply

SC : min 1:15 max 1:50

Now on CR I'm building sets of 5 questions, 3 sets per day and now I can see myself improving on timing previously solving any CR would take me 3mins now it is 2mins or the benchmark max time you've mentioned 2:30( but I'm doing it in 2:24)

Weaknesses on CR are bold face and inference questions.

Can I take notes on inference questions ?

Also would you want me to get familiar with the terms used in boldface answer choices because they are always confusing to me and that's the main reason as to why I falter on these questions.

RC short passage 6 to 7 min
long passage 8 to 9.5 min

And this is my most important query

Stacey how does a takeaway looks like for CR problems ?
can you give an example I mean what a takeaway for CR question should include ?

The way how I learn is I understand the logic behind the author's reasoning.

And regarding the quant section currently I'm stuck at Q44.

Covered all 5th edition MGMAT guides. basics are fine.

weak areas are geometry and word problems.

Multiple figure problems in geometry in particular are a bit baffling.

Stacey to my surprise on the test day I saw a problem which asked about "BOATS AND STREAMS" ( those upstream and downstream kind of stuff). I never expected that these problems would show up on test day. Does it come Rates & distances topic ? But I guess it is a separate topic ( streams and boats).

Whatever I paid the penalty on the test day. So what I can do to improve my quant score to 48 or 49 ?

Thank you

[StaceyKoprince]

Okay, your time range on SC is okay, but if the minimum is 1:15 and the max is 1:50, then the average is probably about in the middle, which is high. (SC average should be about 1:20.)

You can spend a little longer on one question type if you can make it up by being more efficient on another...but you aren't doing that. So we need to figure out what to do.

Try developing this process for SC:
http://tinyurl.com/scprocess

And here are some other resources to help SC:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/2013 ... st-glance/
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... ce-part-1/

For CR boldface, yes, that's a good idea! Everyone struggles with the language of these - it's not just you! - but spending some time to make sure that you know the terminology they tend to use repeatedly is a great idea.

You can take notes for any kind of CR question, including inference. In fact, I'd say for inference, it's super important to make sure that you understand exactly what parameters they gave you, because those boundaries are going to determine the correct answer.

CR takeaways could be things like:
- I misidentified the question type; I thought it was inference but it was actually strengthen. Next time I will know that BLAH BLAH means strenthen, not inference.

- I didn't have a clear enough grasp of what characteristics the correct answer should have for inference questions. Next time I will know that correct inference answers should __________. (Can you answer this?)

- I mis-read / misunderstood something in the argument or answers. (Then you have to ask yourself why. A vocab word you didn't know? Reading too quickly / getting tired? Etc.) Next time...(depends on why you mis-read it)

- I mis-identified the conclusion. I thought it was Y when it was actually Z. I made this mistake because the argument was written XZY, but the logical chronological sequence of events is X --> Y --> Z. I didn't notice that logical / chronological order should have put Z last. I just assumed that the last thing written in the paragraph, Y, was the last chronological event in the argument. Next time, I have to make sure I'm actually thinking about (maybe even re-writing) the sequence of events.

- I fell for a trap answer. There are all kinds of different traps:
-- Reversal Trap: eg, I picked a Strengthen answer when they asked me to Weaken. Next time, I will write down W when they ask me to weaken (or S when they ask me to strengthen).
-- Irrelevant Distinction or Comparison: eg, I picked an answer that distinguished between tall women and medium-height women, but the argument made a distinction between tall AND medium-height women (1 category) vs. short women (the other category). Next time, I will make sure that I have any categories straight in my head / on my scrap paper before I go to the answers.
- etc. There are a bunch of these; they're in our book.

RC passage reading should take about 2 to 3 minutes, depending on length. That's fast, but the point is that you're actually not supposed to be reading everything super carefully. You should be speeding up when you see something technical / hard - just tell yourself, "I don't need to know that detail right now; ignore it."

I don't know what the math question you referenced was about - I could imagine that that could be a rates and work question but it could be other things too. I'd need to see the details of the question. But don't post that here!! It's illegal to share the details of specific questions from the real test.

I need some more analysis from you in order to figure out what will help you with quant. Use this to analyze your most recent MGMAT CAT:
http://tinyurl.com/analyzeyourcats

(You can analyze the verbal too, if you like.) Tell me what you discover. Almost everyone has timing issues in both sections, so don't forget to analyze that part of it too!