Similarities between GMAT PREP and the real thing : quant

[alexyou7]

Hi All,
I took the gmat yesterday. And to be concise(as the sentence correction commands...), my experience well below what I expected.
I scored a miserable 36 in quant and a no more enviable 25 in verbal.
Contrary to these poor scores, my prep scores were consistently above 660 in GMAT prep.
I may be wrong in thinking that the GMAT is the repetioon of patterns already well mastered and their application to a couple of new situations. If so, I'm completly out of the mark. Nonetheless, I think that it virtually impossible to score above 40 with the current prep material (OG 10, 11, MBA prep) for GMAC must have completely renewed the pool of questions.
My question is the following: is it possible to reach a 49 on the real thing with the current prep material?If anything, I should thank MGMAT for it allowed me to litterally have a "bottle opener" for each MBA prep question.

The verbal is still a mystery for me... (as far as my score on the GMAT is concerned) :).
I consistently repeated patterns with MGMAT SC guide, POWERSCORE CR bible and was at hit rate of near 80% for most high scoring questions. My last verbal score was 38 on MBA Prep, 3 days before the test.
I kept the same type guidance throughout of the test. And I was not tired during the real thing.

This was my 3rd attempt to a mountain called "GMAT".
I know I have the potential to reach the 700 barrier. I may need either in-depth coaching or more fresh prep materials.

Sorry for this long post, but I needed to give as many details as possible.
I precise I'm not a native.

Thanks a lot for answering!

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry that you had a disappointing experience on the real test.

Can you tell me the full scores (overall, quant, and verbal) for your last couple of practice tests as well as the full scores (overall, quant, and verbal) for your official test?

When you took your practice tests, did you take them under full official conditions, including the essays? (all in one sitting, 10 min breaks between sections) Did you take them at the same general time of day as you took the real test?

How was your timing on your practice tests? Did your timing data on your MGMAT tests show that you moved steadily through the test, not getting hung up on some questions and then having to speed up on others in order to finish on time? How did you feel your timing went on the real thing?

You are right that standardized tests (including the GMAT) are mostly about pattern recognition. You will never see the questions you studied on the official test, but you will see questions that test the same concepts in similar ways - the key is to recognize and categorize correctly. (You may also see a few questions that are "new" - the published materials always lag a little bit.)

You asked whether it's possible to receive a 49 using the currently published materials. I assume you mean 49 on quant (the verbal mostly tops out around 45-47)? Yes, it is possible to get a 49 on quant using the currently published materials. Most people won't, of course, because by definition only a small percentage of people can score at that high a level. I would add GMAT Focus to the list of materials for quant, though, as it includes the most recently released quant problems (as well as OG12).

[alexyou7]

REAL TESTS
1st : 470 Q:29 V:26
2nd: 550 Q:41 V:25
3rd : 510 Q:36 V:25

Prep tests:
1st mgmat 630 Q:41 V:36 /in the afternoon
2nd mgmat 530 Q : 36 V 25/ in the morning
1st MBA PREP 660 Q:47 V34/ in the afternoon
2nd MBA PREP 670 Q:48 V34/in the afternoon
3RD MBA PREP 710 Q:49 V38/at evening

All MBA prep tests were taken under real conditions;
I was getting hung on certain questions and rushed to finish the test;
Nonetheless, noticed that the first questions (on MBA PREP) are the most important;
And I consistently scored above 46 in the quant with the first couple of questions got right in a row. I could get even a 49 with more than 14 questions wrong, but located for most of them after the 15th or 16th question and for about 80% after the 25th question. I inferred then that I should focus on the 1st couple of question and try to get them right. After the 15th, I have generally betweeen 40 and 45 min left. Then, I gear up to reach the 25 th question and then "manage" the test till the end.
I tried to mimic this on the real thing.
The verbal remains the most mystical part. I need help there too.
Thanks for your help!

[StaceyKoprince]

Okay, so your math score fluctuated but your verbal score stayed about the same on the real thing.

Your second practice test was most like your real tests and that one was in the morning. At what time(s) of day did you take your real tests?

It is a myth that the earlier questions are worth more than the later questions. What you observed on your test was not the reason why you got the scores you did.

The worst thing that you can have is a string of questions wrong in a row (5+ is really bad for your score). If you have one long string or a couple of 4-5 strings, it will really hurt your score - and that's what tends to happen when you spend too much time early in the test because you run out of time later in the test.

For the most part, the things we practice tend to get magnified somewhat during the stress of the test, so someone who plans to spend a little bit of extra time at the beginning actually ends up spending too much time at the beginning and really has to rush through the later portions of the test. And this kills the person's score. This might be what's happening to you.

The GMATPrep tests don't give you per-question timing but the MGMAT tests do. Go take a look through and see how you spent your time on the individual questions. In particular, take a look at the questions on which you spent more than 30 seconds above the time you are supposed to average for that type of question. How did you do on those? (For most people, their percentages are worse when they go that far over.) Also look for questions that you answered quickly (less than 45s on SC or less than 1m15sec for everything else). How did you do there? Did you miss any that were below the level that you wanted to score? Why?

The only good reason to miss a question quickly is because you knew you didn't know how to do it, so you just made a guess and moved on. If you get a question wrong that you thought you knew how to do (especially a lower-ranked question) and you spend significantly less time than you should have on the question - that is a very bad reason to get a question wrong. It hurts your score more to get easier questions wrong than harder ones.

So look at your last couple of MGMAT tests and tell me what the above timing data shows.

[alexyou7]

Hi Stacey,
The 1st two real tests were taken in the morning.
The 3rd one was taken in the afternoon.
1st prep test:
The thing is that for most the questions on which I spent more time than I should, I got these them wrong. The avg time of wrong answers is generally superior to the avg time of right answers except for the number properties questions.

For about 3/4 of the questions answered in less than 90 seconds were right either for the quant' or the verbal .

2nd prep test:the same pattern repeated itself.

Nonetheless, half of the questions answered in less than 90 seconds were right either for the quant' or for the verbal.

Thanks.

[StaceyKoprince]

You generally seem to perform better in the afternoon than the morning, so that's something to keep in mind moving forward.

It's completely not surprising that you tend to get stuff wrong when you go over on time. That's true for nearly everyone. The point is: spending that extra time is not helping you - you're not getting more right! - and it's also actively hurting you, because you're getting a lot wrong when you move quickly.

If you answer something in less than 90 seconds (or less than about 50 sec on SC), then we have one of two scenarios:
(1) you think that you totally know how to do that problem, in which case you should not get ANY wrong, or
(2) you think that you totally do NOT know how to do that problem and you're just guessing and moving on, in which case it's fine to get it wrong

So how many did you get wrong in that timeframe that you thought you knew how to do? Every one of those is a penalty for the extra time you spent on those other questions that you didn't know how to do and got wrong anyway. And this is where going over on hard questions really hurts us - because the penalty for getting an easier question wrong is steeper than the penalty for getting a harder question wrong.

So balance that time better. Let the hard ones go - you're getting them wrong anyway! And spend that saved time on the ones that you should be getting right - make sure you're not making too many careless mistakes. (As a general rule, on quant, if I finish the question in less than a minute, I do it again to make sure I didn't make a mistake.)

[alexyou7]

Stacey,
thanks for your help. I think this will help for the quant'
Yet, as already explained, the verbal remains a mystery.
I think I'm quite confident on virtually any question type(SC, CR,RC).
I am able to categorize and sub-categorize nearly 80% of verbal questions.
I can maintain near 80% of accuracy fo OG11. I understand better the stimulus and infer the embedded tricks, yet my score doesn't reflect the progress I've made.
And I have to confess that I'm almost lost . I don't know which strategy to use.
Your expertise is most waited for!

[StaceyKoprince]

The one thing I noticed is that your verbal score was also 25 when you took your one morning practice test. Are you a morning person? If not, you may have been so exhausted by that point that you couldn't think straight / perform as well as you normally do. I know it's been a while since you took that test, but see what you can remember - go back to the test itself and take a look at how you did throughout the section. How was your timing? Did you have a string of questions wrong somewhere, more than you usually did? Was your mental energy flagging towards the end?

Whatever happened on that test is likely what happened on the real test too (so maybe part of the answer is to make sure that you take the test in the afternoon next time).

Also, I don't think I asked you before - did you do the essays on your practice tests? If not, that could be another reason why your performance dropped during the verbal section - mental fatigue because the test took an hour longer than you were used to spending.