Second attempt at GMAT - structured approach.. need guidance

[prabhat]

Stacey... as suggested, I have started a new thread.. and I take your point on the analysis... I should have done it and presented here so that you could use your expertise to let me arrive at the right conclusion.. my apologies :)

Below is my original post from another thread... I';; post my analysis in a short while

I wanted to get an opinion on my present progress. Before I jump to that, below is a brief sketch of my activity w.r.t GMAT:

I took official GMAT in April 2010 and scored 620 (48 Q and 28 V AWA 5)

I applied to some colleges and for obvious reasons (I mean look at the score!!) I could not make it to any college. I started preparing for GMAt again.. But this time, I had a better structured approach. I tracked my areas of improvement and worked on them. I used OG 12, OG verbal, Manhattan SC, Kaplan GMAT and some online resources. I took a few free practice tests. Below are the results in sequence:(without AWA

Princeton free test : 630 (48Q, 35 V) - I am not sure of the figures on Q/V scores as its been a long time
MGMAt free test : 710 (48Q, 38 V)
mba.com free download test 1: 740 (50Q, 42V)
mba.com free download test 2: 730 (48Q, 40V)

Then I purchased 5 tests from MGMAT. I took 2 of these:
MGMAT CAT 2: 680 (48Q, 35V) with AWA - this was after a short gap in prep
MGMAt CAT 3: 700 (48Q, 37V) with AWA
I took the free princeton test again (just to see if I progressed)
Princeton free test : 700 (45 Q, 40V) with AWA

Could you please give your advice on how I should progress on prep? I plan to take GMAT on 22nd July. (not fixed the date yet)

You may access my profile information for further analysis and of course share with the forum if you think it would help others.


Thanks and regards,
Vijay Shankar

[prabhat]

Overview of my CAT 3 analysis:
I took the test with the AWA essays and the stipulated time as per the official GMAT (30 mins per essay and no break between the essays)
I stuck to the official GMAT timings - 75 mins for each section (Quant and Verbal)
Following is my score overview:
TYPE SCORE ESTIMATED PERCENTILE RANK
Quantitative 48 86%
Verbal 37 83%
Total 700 93%

Quant Section Analysis:
I did not have strings of more than 2 continuous wrong answers. There were in all 15 wrong answers. The 15 consist of 4 sets of 2 continuous wrong answers. 2 out of the 15 wrong answers are from the 600-700 set while the remaining 13 are from the 700-800 set.
Below is a chart depicting the wrong answers and the time taken for each one of these:

The 3 wrong answers with high time consumption were from the 700-800 bracket and were related to statistics, sets and inequalities respectively.
Below is the topic wise distribution of wrong answers:

One major observation is that I had to guess the last 2 questions as I was left with only half a minute for the two combined. My pacing was not up to the mark. Guess GMAT is smart enough to catch that and this could be a reason for the low Quant score.
I took more than 3 minutes to answer 7 questions in the quant section and out of the 7, 3 answers were wrong.4 out of the 7 were from geometry.
I took less than a minute to answer 5 questions. 2 out of this 5 were the last 2 questions which I simply guessed as I had not time. I got the other 3 right. This is the first time that I ran out of time in GMAT CAT. This could be because I was returning of a 2 week long break from books.
Verbal Section Analysis:
There were no strings longer than 4 questions of wrong answers. In all I got 16 answers wrong. The 16 consist of 5 sets of 2 wrong answers. 6 out of the 16 wrong answers were in the 600-700 range while the rest were in the 700-800 range.
Below is a chart depicting the wrong answers and the time taken for each one of these:


The only question that exceeded the 2 minute mark was the first RC question and hence I would not count it.
Below is the topic wise distribution of wrong answers:

I took less than a minute to answer 19 questions. 5 out of these 9 answers were wrong. 4 out of these wrong answers were on SC.

[prabhat]

oops the graphs did not get pasted... pl suggest how i can do that :)

[StaceyKoprince]

That's okay - I don't need graphs. (And I'm not sure how to add them anyway!).

real score: 620 (48 Q and 28 V)

practice test scores show verbal has jumped quite a bit; practice score now 680 to 700 (with AWA).

Some timing issues on quant - need to get all times below 3m. For the one that you got wrong, get them wrong faster next time! For the ones that you got right, why did it take so long? Can you learn how to do these faster? How? How will you remember / recognize next time?

Read this article:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... anagement/

On verbal, it sounds like you may have been a bit too fast, if anything. How much time was left on the clock when you finished?

For the 5 wrong-less-than-a-minute questions, how many were questions that you thought you were answering correctly? Were there any for which you realized you made a careless mistake / you felt you should have gotten the question right when you reviewed it?

You don't mention your goal score, but most people have goal scores in the 700 range. You're right in that range now. I would want you to fix these timing problems we've been discussing (and address any other weaknesses in general that you uncover), and then you'll be ready for the real thing!

Go read that timing article and start to do what it says. On quant, your timing problems are not totally terrible, but you do want to fix them. On verbal, I'd like to know how much time you had left over at the end of the section.

[prabhat]

Stacey... thank you for the insight... my target score is 700 indeed...

I checked my last CAT for time I was left with at the end of verbal section... I was left with approx 20 mins... thats an awful lot of time... i guess I'll read the article you sent the link for and try implementing the ideas in next CAT. I'll post my next CAT details shortly...

Thanks again for the inputs

[StaceyKoprince]

Okay - finishing that early is just as much of a problem as going too slowly. Working quickly = more careless mistakes. You've got to develop more systematic processes to ensure that you're minimizing careless mistakes.

You may want to read this article:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/error-log.cfm

In particular, think about how you use your scrap paper. Do you track every verbal answer choice, noting what you think about each one? On RC, do you actually make sure to go back and find the proof in the passage for any specific questions? Etc.

[prabhat]

Dear stacey,
thank you very much for the support. I took gmat today and scored 690. I'm a bit disappointed because i scored 730 on last 2 mgmats and what targeting 700. I think i could not control my nerves at the actual test. I'm not sure i can apply to any of the top 25 bschools. I'll post my resume in further detail later would it be possible for you to give an opinion pl? (pl excuse the brevity.. I'm posting from my mobile)

[jnelson0612]

Hi there,
First of all, congratulations! 690 is a wonderful score; I have students who would do anything for that score!

Giving advice on admissions is outside the scope of this forum (and outside of our expertise), but we have a wonderful partner company, mbaMission, that advises in this area. Their website is www.mbamission.com and they offer a free 30 minute consultation.

If you decide to take the test again and think that anxiety was an issue for you, there are certainly therapies you can do that can greatly reduce the impact of anxiety. I have recently had students undergo brief cognitive-behavioral therapy and hypnotherapy for test anxiety; both had scored in the low-mid 600s but then scored in the 700s.

Best wishes,
Jamie Nelson