Strategy to next GMAT (Latest: 680, 44Q/38V)

[gtckim]

Hi Stacey,

I posted this question under a different log-in but using my Student ID to get priority - sorry about the confusion.

I am intending on taking my third GMAT exam in 5-6 weeks, and I'd greatly appreciate your input/advice on my test prep until then. I scored a 680 on my last official test (this was a 30 point improvement on my first GMAT), and I am aiming for a score of 720-730.

I've been making steady progress with my studying, and conceptually I do not find that I have difficulty understanding or solving any Quant/Verbal questions. However during the official test I succumbed to the timing pressure and pretty much hit a mental wall due to the panic that ensued shortly after.

This experience leads me to believe I need to ramp up my test-taking ability by doing more practice exams. So my strategy for the next 5-6 weeks is as follows:

1. Take more practice tests (5-6). I am planning on doing these at the on-site "test simulation" rooms in Manhattan's office to practice in a more "realistic" setting. I find that at home I may have been too relaxed with my practice tests and liberal with my breaks to really test my mental endurance.

2. Review CR concepts (particularly assumptions and strengthen/weaken questions) and solve OG problems for practice. I have been primarily focusing on SC and find CR is my biggest Verbal weakness.

3. Continue to review my weaker quant topics, and assess my performance after each CAT exam.

Does the above sound like a reasonable approach to you?

Best,
Chris

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry it has taken us so long to get back to you (and everyone else who has been waiting) - it's been a little crazy here the past couple of weeks.

Nice job on the 680! Can you give me the Q/V breakdown?

However during the official test I succumbed to the timing pressure and pretty much hit a mental wall due to the panic that ensued shortly after.

Okay, so we need to deal with timing, which is generally a consequence of mindset issues, and the anxiety stuff.

Let's start with this:
http://tinyurl.com/executivereasoning

Read that every day for the next two weeks. (I'm not kidding!) Then keep reading it once a week after that. Timing issues are basically a direct consequence of thinking "I have to get this right!" and that's an Old-School mindset. You need to get yourself into the Business Mindset: I have limited resources and my task is to figure out the best way to spend them, which includes bailing / cutting off some opportunities because they're not good enough opportunities.

Next, read this:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -to-do-it/

And if you need a little more of a push on the mindset:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... to-win-it/

I like to pretend that each new question is someone knocking on my office door, saying, "Hey, Stacey, can you do this for me?"

Sometimes I say yes. Sometimes I say, maybe, let me take a look. And sometimes I say, nope, too busy! (For that last one, I'm usually thinking, "Why are you even asking me to do this? Waste of time!! Get out of my office!")

The point here is that:
(a) I don't feel like I have to do everything you put in front of me just because you put it in front of me
(b) When I say "No," I don't feel bad. There's nothing wrong with me - it's not because I'm a bad worker (student) or something. It's just that, given everything else I have to do, this particular thing is not worth my time.

So I also recommend that you think of that one co-worker (everyone has one) who inevitably manages to come up with things to do that are a waste of time. And when you see a question on the test that is too hard or is going to take too long, think of this person, roll your eyes, pick your favorite letter, and move on, blissfully knowing that you have made the right decision.

Here's some more nitty-gritty advice for time management:
http://tinyurl.com/GMATTimeManagement

In particular, pay attention to section 4.

And for the anxiety, try meditation! It's actually been shown to work very well for people taking standardized tests!
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... mat-score/

Don't do more than 1 CAT a week (that sounds like about what you were planning, so that's fine). But note that everything I typed above was not about just doing more tests - there are other things to fix that will then help you not to get into those bad timing situations in the first place.

Your study plans sound good, but I want to make sure that you're getting the most out of the problems that you do. Have you read this:
http://tinyurl.com/2ndlevelofgmat

If not, start doing what it says when reviewing OG (or any GMAT-like) problems. You can use this review process for your CATs too.

And here's how to analyze your CATs:
http://tinyurl.com/analyzeyourcats

[gtckim]

Hi Stacey,

Thank you for your response (and the co-worker analogy - that really puts things in perspective )! I will certainly check those resources out.

As for my 680, the breakdown was as follows:

Quant: 44 (58%)
Verbal: 38 (85%)

I took a MGMAT practice test this past weekend with a "timing first" mentality and really did my best to let go of problems to stay "neutral" in my timing (I had read some of your timing articles prior). I ended up scoring a 730 on the last CAT, which is 50-60 points higher than my usual MGMAT scores (I have found the Manhattan tests to be more difficult in the past). I think this reinforced my assumption that timing may be my biggest enemy at this point!

[StaceyKoprince]

Nice!

Okay, so if you want to get to 720/730, I'm assuming that's because you want to apply to top-10 schools, right? So it's important to get your quant up to 45 and ideally 46-47. Beyond that, the improvement can come from either side, so don't neglect that verbal - that can be part of what lifts you, too.

I'll also just mention: at this stage of the game, your best bet is not your biggest weaknesses. Your best bet is what we call the "low-hanging fruit": the stuff you're almost getting, but you're sometimes making careless mistakes, etc. That's the easiest to improve and when you just have a little ways to go, that's the best way to do it!

[gtckim]

Yup my goal is to attend a Top 10/15 MBA program.

Aside from timing I will also work on the "low hanging fruit". I've been advised by various sources (MGMAT instructors included) that mastery of the 600-700 level questions should be my primary focus, rather than trying to get every 700-800 level question correct.

This makes sense to me, but to achieve a 45/46 quant score, how much of my focus should be allocated to studying "advanced" quant strategies? I am not sure what the "score threshold" is (e.g., 700? 720? 750?) at which I should be really worrying about getting 700-800 questions consistently correct.

[StaceyKoprince]

For Quant, still focus on sub-700 level, yes - you don't need the super advanced stuff to hit 45-47. For verbal, though, you're trying to get up into the highest levels, so there you do want to pay attention to the more advanced concepts in later SC chapters as well as the more minor question types and the trickier wrong answers on CR and RC. The article I linked in my earlier post (the one about the 2nd level of study) will particularly help you re: lifting verbal even higher!

[gtckim]

Sounds good - thank you again!

[StaceyKoprince]

you're welcome!

[gtckim]

Hi Stacey,

I just took my GMAT again and unfortunately it seems my journey to break 700+ will continue. First the good news - I got a 46 on my quant which was a considerable improvement over my previous score. I applied timing strategies you suggested and kept the pace more-or-less "neutral" through the exam. Now for the bad, I scored pretty low (~34, ~69%) on my verbal section, which is actually the worst I've ever done (in any of my GMAT exams, practice ones included).

I understand there is variability to the test, but as you could imagine I am pretty disappointed with my verbal performance. Because the score was outside of my normal verbal range (I usually score around 38-42 in my practice exams), I'd like to chalk today's experience up to bad luck, but it's clear I will need to improve my verbal strategy to minimize such variability in the future.

I'm planning on tackling some of the advanced concepts (as you suggested above) while continuing to improve on my weaknesses to improve my verbal score. However I am realizing I am not nearly as comfortable with my timing strategy in verbal as I am now with quant. For example, I understand in quant, skipping problems should be actively employed to stay within the timing limits, but I rarely find myself doing so on verbal (probably just bad habits). In general should the same timing strategies be applied to verbal (e.g., skipping questions)? I'm assuming the scoring works the same way in verbal as it does in quant.

Edit:

Also - I have done all of the MGMAT exams and the official GMAC exams as well. I think I can "recycle" some of the earlier MGMAT verbal practice tests, but in your opinion, how should I approach the next 3-4 weeks in terms of study strategy? For the last "batch" of studying I focused a lot of timing strategy for math, so the CAT exams certainly came in handy. With verbal, I feel that my approach needs to be 60% improvement of advanced subjects and 40% improvement of timing (please let me know if you disagree) - with this in mind, should I primarily focus on timed sets and thorough review over CATs?

[KakakkdeK400]

It’s really great posts.

[gtckim]

Hi Stacey,

I did a bit more reflecting on my recent verbal decrease in score, and I may have found the answer as to why my score has decreased in one of your other posts on this forum (https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... e980c7ed21). In the linked thread, you suspected the poster may have decreased his/her score by trying to reinvent the process that worked well in the past for him/her.

I suspect this was happening to me as well. I have always felt much more comfortable in verbal, but lately I have been focusing on CR as well and frankly spending too much time on the test trying to apply the strategies (e.g., taking notes) that the MGMAT guides have recommended. I know that this process could probably be refined, but I think my attempts at "over applying" these strategies may have contributed (at least partially) to my score decrease.

Looking back and assessing most recent MGMAT CAT exams (in which I did not actively apply the new CR strategies), I see the following data that may support my hypothesis above:

Critical Reasoning
- % Correct: 61%
- Average Time Right Answers: 1:59
- Average Time Wrong Answers: 2:00
- Average Diff. Right Answers: 720
- Average Diff. Wrong Answers: 730

Reading Comprehension
- % Correct: 75%
- Average Time Right Answers: 1:56
- Average Time Wrong Answers: 1:34
- Average Diff. Right Answers: 680
- Average Diff. Wrong Answers: 730

Sentence Correction
- % Correct: 73%
- Average Time Right Answers: 1:59
- Average Time Wrong Answers: 2:00
- Average Diff. Right Answers: 700
- Average Diff. Wrong Answers: 690

Generally, I feel that the MGMAT verbal questions tend to be easier, but I think the data supports my theory that I probably did not need to reinvent the wheel and apply rigid CR strategies (please correct me if I am wrong). I have recently improved a bit in SC, but it still seems like I have some work to do on that end (judging by the "Avg. Diff. Wrong Answers" value). That being said, do you believe my CR/RC performance is adequate to get a 40+ in verbal? (When I run an assessment report on individual tests in which I received a 80-85% verbal scores, I see similar data as shown above... This leads me to believe that I still need to improve verbal across the board than just SC).

Also, for simplicity's sake, here is the list of questions from my two recent posts. I posted a lot of text, so I apologize for that!

1. Questions in this post: "That being said, do you believe my CR/RC performance is adequate to get a 40+ in verbal?"
2. Question in previous post: "In general should the same timing strategies be applied to verbal (e.g., skipping questions)?"
3. Question in previous post: "With verbal... with this in mind, should I primarily focus on timed sets and thorough review over CATs?"

Thank you!

[StaceyKoprince]

First, nice job on the quant! It's good to know that you have been able to bring your score up there.

I think you're likely right that you partially hurt your verbal by second-guessing / "overtraining" / breaking what had worked for you in the past. My guess is that something else was going on too, though: you probably used a lot of mental energy to get that great quant score, and that would've left less mental energy in the tank for verbal.

In general, yes, there are going to be some too-hard/long questions on verbal, too, not just quant. Someone might not skip as many in their stronger area if that area is super strong (which you are in verbal), but that doesn't mean there won't be times to bail and move on. For a high verbal scorer, it's more likely that you'll be able to eliminate at least some answer choices and then have to guess randomly from among 2 or 3 choices.

I think I can "recycle" some of the earlier MGMAT verbal practice tests

FYI: there's no such thing as an objective "earlier MGMAT test." There's a single database with lots of questions and each test pulls from that database. Within a set of 6 tests, the database is not allowed to pull questions you've seen before. Once you've finished your first set of 6 tests, this "re-sets." Within the second set of 6 tests (now labeled tests 1A, 2A, 3A, and so on), you can see questions that you've seen in any one of the first 6 tests. (But you won't see any repeats within the new set of 6 - ie, test 2A will not repeat any questions from test 1A and so on.)

Okay, so where to go from here? First, this was a real GMAT that you took? Did you order the enhanced score report? The data isn't super-extensive, but it would be useful to know what did actually break down on verbal - did everything drop or just certain question types? That kind of thing.

Next, figure out what was already working for you on verbal and stick with those things. If there are certain weaker areas, fine, you can learn our strategies (or others) for those things - but don't break the processes that were already working for you. If you get back to your prior performance of 38-40 and maintain your Q46, then you're looking at a 690-700 score. If you can get verbal up to 42, you'll be around 710-720.

In order to hit 40+, you're going to need to have good mental stamina still heading into the verbal portion (which means not blowing too much mental energy earlier - more on this below) and you'll need to have very systematic processes for how you're going to handle every type of question - no skipping steps, getting lazy, making careless mistakes. You can make a couple of careless mistakes at 40+ but too many and your score will drop below that threshold.

So, yes, your focus should be on mixed, timed sets of questions in which you are practicing making all of these decisions and following all of these processes that you decide you're going to use. I would actually do these later in the data, after you've studied some quant, so that you are setting yourself up for the real testing situation (already getting a little tired / sick of this...

Next, there is more quant work to do: your goal is to maintain that score but not need quite as much mental energy to do so. Then, you'll be a bit fresher for verbal and that score will be less likely to drop. So you're going to keep doing what you've been doing on quant with a focus on streamlining - making it easier to do what you already know how to do. (Sure, if there are still things you can learn, go for it - but don't spend so much mental energy trying to improve weaknesses here that you just repeat the same pattern on the next test.)

Put those two things together, and you've got a good shot at breaking that 700 barrier!

[gtckim]

Hi Stacey,

Thanks as always for your advice and insight.

As for your question regarding the "Enhanced Score Report", yes this was a real GMAT, and no, I did not request an ESR because I cancelled my score out of frustration (since the score was not an improvement on my last real GMAT attempt). I know I can reinstate my score to request an ESR, and I understand it will not be the end of the world if I do so, but I would really prefer not to because I'd rather show a steadily progression towards 700+ without a step backwards. Please let me know if you feel that I am really hurting myself significantly by doing this. Otherwise, I will continue to use the MGMAT assessment reports (combined with some "gut feeling") to target and improve my weaknesses.

Judging from the assessment reports, it's clear SC is my weakest in verbal, with the lowest average difficulty for incorrect problems. However, my CR/RC performance (avg difficulty incorrect being 720/730) is not necessarily 99% material either. How should I be dividing my focus? Would you say my CR/RC performance adequate, and I should focus more on perfecting SC in the meantime?

[gtckim]

Hi Stacey - one more question to add. When studying weaknesses, about how many topics should I focus at once? Should I just select 1-3 weaknesses and devote a week or so into mastering (or at least minimizing) the weaknesses? Within those weaknesses, I have been looking at OG problems, and studying the strategy guides when needing a quick review on the topic.

I'm imagining this is the best approach so I don't lose focus. Please let me know of your thoughts!

[StaceyKoprince]

You can order the ESR even if you have canceled the score! (You still have to decide whether you want to pay the $25, but you can get it if you want.) You could also order it from your earlier one on which you scored higher in verbal so that we can compare the data to see what dropped. And to see the timing data - that might provide some insight too.

In general, though, if you did it before, you can do it again. We just have to get to the point where you can put it together on Q and V at the same time. What you did for verbal on the prior test worked, so go back to doing that same kind of study and analysis. What you did for quant worked on the most recent test, so do that again for this time around. Pay attention, on the quant side, to ways in which you can maintain that score while reducing the amount of mental energy you're using. That will leave you fresher for verbal, and therefore more likely to be able to get back up to your previous score levels.

Re: how to study, learning science consistently shows that mixing up your studies helps you to build better memories. So, first of all, if you're going to study for more than an hour on any particular day, study some quant and some verbal. Second, during one study session, mix up different topics or question types. Do a set of mixed problems, sometimes tossing in specific weaknesses that you're trying to address and sometimes doing a completely randomly-chosen set, then analyze to figure out where / how you could get better. (Make sure to analyze the big picture / the whole set, as well. Where could you make better decisions about how to spend your limited time and mental energy?)

I'd rather show a steadily progression towards 700+ without a step backwards

Just FYI - the schools won't notice / pay attention to this. Here's the general process: you submit your application, where you're asking to report your highest score. The school processes your application, assuming that you are being truthful in your report. Eventually, they decide to let you in. Just before officially admitting you, they verify your GMAT score: did you really get that score that you said you got? If yes, good - they'll still let you in. If no, then you're dinged. Obviously.

In other words, they've made the decision already by the time they actually look at your score record.