Study Plan for retaking GMAT (Need Help)

[CHLOEX548]

Hi Stacey,

Need your help to improve my score. I am a non-native English speaker and have prepared for the GMAT for more than one year and study it by myself in partime. However, I took a GMAT exam last month with only 580. I feel very disappointed and didn’t know what I should do for next step. Because I know the score is actually too low for me to apply any top school. 2 weeks later, I purchased GMAT prep and one Manhattan CAT prep do GMAT MOCK once one week. After two Mock, I think I may deserved this low score in the exam. As I have already invested much time on GMAT, I don’t know what I should do then for retaking GMAT. Hope get your advice and help me out.

1. GMAT Q:46, V:25 TOTAL SCORE :580
2. GMAT PREP Q:49, V:22 TOTAL SCORE: 590
3. MGMAT PREP Q44 V:24 TOTAL SCORE:570 (the quantity score is higher than I think, because it is hard for me when I do the Quantity. It looks more difficult than GMAT prep.)

I invested much time on reading comprehension and sentence correction. I read through Manhattan GMAT sentence correction, critical reasoning and reading comprehension more than twice, took notes on the second time, and practice following the guide.
For reading comprehension, I spent 2 months on reading articles from Scientific American, the university of Chicago magazine. And I found the percentage of correction in reading comprehension was increasing and it is normally around 80%, even though I just got 50% in this MGAMT MOCK. I will check them later to figure out the reason (not understand the passage, or not understand the questions and choices or other reason)
For sentence correction, the correction percentage keeps around 60-70%. However, I found the index the average difficult wrong/right answer are only 590. Does it a big impact on my verbal score?
As to critical reason, the correct percentage is unstable. Sometimes it is only 20-30%, sometimes it is around 80-90%. As I use GMAT prep, I’m not sure about the difficulty of all questions.
Finial, I think my verbal score may not reach very high, I still hope my math score could be 50. Till now, my math score is not stable too and sometimes I can get 50, but sometimes I only get around 45..

My target score is 700-730. So hope you help me to figure out what my problems are and what I could do then. i would attach a chart of my report of MGAMT prep, but the format is wrong. can i also guide me how to share my report for your analysis.

Thank you in advance!

XU

[StaceyKoprince]

On any adaptive test, you will only answer about 50-60% of all of the questions correctly; the test is designed to force this to happen. Therefore, expect that your percentage correct will cluster around that level.

Because the difficulty levels can vary, your performance on the individual question types can also vary. On one test, your CR questions may be harder and on another test, CR may be easier (and something else is harder), so that would impact your percentage correct.

As you get better, you will still answer the same percentage of questions correctly. The difficulty levels will change: you will answer harder questions correctly and your average difficulty will increase. (So, yes, the difficulty level is an important indicator of how you are doing on the test.)

Let's dig more into your practice test data. First, read these two articles:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... lly-tests/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -the-gmat/

Think about how what you've been doing does and doesn't match up with that and how you may need to change your approach accordingly.

Then, use the below to analyze your most recent MGMAT CATs (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 any ideas you have for 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!)

[CHLOEX548]

Hi Stacey,

Thank you for the response!
After reading through your response and two passages recommended, I have a new idea about GMAT. I calculated the percentage of incorrect question each time before, and asked myself to improve the percentage right of SC to 80%, CR to 70%, RC to 75% at the same time. And I didn’t think about or pay attention on difficulty and I haven’t very clear idea about true weakness and strength and no priority. in final, the percentage is still very unstable and very low.

Now I follow the instruction that 4 steps to analyze 1st MGMAT CAT. I found I have a large time problem. 8 Q questions and 9 verbal questions are in the ‘way too slow’. The time of some questions even double the target time…and 6 quantity questions are in the ‘too fast’. However I thought I knew how to solve those questions, maybe not calculate the final answer. I didn’t just guess and solve those questions.

Then I start analyze the Assessment Summary report
Quantity:
I think I am better at DS than PS. 1. The percentage correct is higher for DS. And the average time on right of DS is around 2 mins less than the one of PS. And the difficulty right answer of DS is 670 same as the PS. And the difficulty wrong answer of DS is 750 higher than PS (690). The percentage correct of PS is 45% lower than 50%，and the average time right is 2:08, wrong is 1:57. Hence, PS is harder than DS for me. It is not easy to guess or at least rule out some choice sometimes.

Content:
-Geometry
The average time right answer is more than 4 mins. There has a big problem on time management of Geometry. As the difficulty right answer of Geometry is 750. I think difficulty probably is the reason. I spent much time on this. But the average difficulty wrong answer of Geometry is 680 lower than the right ones. However the percentage correct is 40%.
-Number Properties
Even the percentage of number properties is also around 40%. The difficulty for Right and wrong answer is close, 720 and 730. And the average time right is 2:33, and wrong is almost 2 mins.
-Algebra
The lowest percentage right is Algebra. The average difficulty of 5 wrong answer is 730. and the average time of wrong answer is 1:47. Meanwhile, the difficulty of right answer is only 620. so I think the difficulty is main reason for low percentage right. The gap of difficulty is more than 100 points.
-Word Problems
The average difficulty of wrong is 710, right is 690. I consumed 2 mins for right, 1:45 for wrong. However the percentage of correct is 50%.
-Fractions, Decimals, & Percent’s
The percentage right of Fractions, Decimals, & Percent’s is 86% . However I spent more than 3:30 mins on wrong questions….also, the difficulty right is only 630, and wrong is 650..Then it is still not a strengths in math.

Summary: I think my strength on math is Number Properties and word problems. I just need refresh the knowledge of these two parts in my second level learning. And need to focus on Geometry, Fractions, Decimals, & Percent’s and Algebra. And for all contents, with the increase of difficulty, the correct percentage goes down. I spent extra time when I face the question in 700-800 level.
Next step:
Review the questions in CATs one by one, find the details. Go through the knowledge of weakness. And do more questions.
Question:
- Is any problem on my analysis above?
- If I didn’t improve my percentage of correct in high level, can I still improve my quantity score? Do i need do more difficulty questions or just make sure high percentage of right question in 600-700 level?

Verbal
-Critical Reasoning
The lowest percentage right is for CR. And most questions are in 500-600…the average time of wrong answer is 1:22 in level 500-600, but around 3 mins in 600-700, and more than 3 mis in 700-800. Rush to do some CR questions led to a high percentage wrong of low level questions. So first, I step back and review the knowledge of CR. But is there actually knowledge for Critical reasoning?
-Reading Comprehensive
Question with incorrect question cost much more time than correct question, but one correct 700-800 level question cost 6 mins. It is abnormal. Also, when I checked the analysis by content area & topic report, I have a large problem on specific detail question. The average time on wrong answer is more than 3 mins, and the average difficulty for wrong answers is only 480…as to inference question, I have time problem on this type of question..Generally, I have confidence in main idea or structure question type. But if the question is about special details, I have to spend time to find the location in passage, and cross check the answers. Then use extra time.
-Sentence Correction
As the questions are easy, the percentage of right is high. No problem on time management. And difficulty of most SC in 500-600, some are 600-700 questions. Only 1 question is in range 700 -800.

Summary: apparently, I have a large problem on critical reasoning, and the details question in reading comprehensive and low level difficulty in SC.

Next step:
Review the questions in CATs one by one. Find the way to improve CR and SC..

Question:
- My question about critical reasoning is whether any tactic to solve the question timely? In most cases, I didn’t find the one which I thought the right answer should be. I think I have the feeling of right answers. I also follow such four steps for each CR. First step, I read the question and keep in mind that the question is weaken/support/find assumption etc. then I read the passage, and find out the conclusion. I read through choices and check which one can weak the conclusion, and choose it. Then I faced problem. I spent much time and the percentage right is still unstable depend on the difficulty and feeling. If I can’t understand passage or choices, I would spend extra time and stuck on this problem.
- Sentence Correction: How can I solve high level difficulty question in test not in low level?

Thank you with Best Regards!
XU

[StaceyKoprince]

You won't be increasing your overall percentage correct, no. That will stay about the same - it's the same for everyone. Rather, your goal is to be able to answer some harder questions correctly - not the hardest ones, but the ones that are just outside of your range now. That's your focus.

Your analysis is good. It might be the case that the lower difficulty level on FDPs doesn't indicate that FDPs was a weaker area. It might have been caused by errors you were making in other areas (that is, you didn't get harder FDP questions because you got other questions wrong that pulled your level down). You'll just have to see as you study that topic.

For any questions that took you to long but you did answer correctly: can you learn to do those questions in the normal time? Or would it be smarter just to guess faster and spend your time on problems that aren't so hard for you to get right?

I would start with Algebra, then FDPs, then Geo.

For CR, you rushed on easier ones to spend more time on harder ones. In the future, do the opposite. Never rush on things that you might answer correctly in order to spend more time on things that you don't actually know how to do!

There are many strategies that can help with CR. How have you been studying it so far? I think you said in your first post that you have our CR guide; is that right?

If so, then you know you've learned what you need to learn when you can articulate what you should expect at each step of the 4-step process for each separate question type.

For example: how do you identify Find the Assumption questions? What do you expect to see in the argument and which pieces are most important to understand / articulate to yourself? What kind of characteristics does the correct answer have to have? What kind of traps do they set for you? (All of those questions are specifically for Find the Assumption. Repeat for all of the other question types.)

In your notes, you said that you read the argument and find the conclusion...but some question types don't have conclusions. Do you know which types? What are you supposed to do on those ones instead?

Also, I'll go back to what I said about quant: stop spending extra time when you're NOT sure what's going on. Guess more quickly on those and move on. Afterwards, you can try to study to get better of course, but while the clock is ticking - move on!

This article explains how to analyze problems after you've done them:
http://tinyurl.com/2ndlevelofgmat

I would recommend using this process on CR questions so that you can learn how to learn - how to spot traps, what kinds of characteristics the right answers do have to have, and so on.

For RC, it may be that you need to make a couple of guesses on the 1-2 hardest specific detail questions that you see in order to be able to spend more time on the rest of the questions.

If you're mostly finding SC easy and not having any trouble, then you could probably be answering harder ones correctly but you're not being offered those harder ones because your CR and RC performance is pulling down your score. That means your focus, for now, needs to be on CR and RC. Once CR and RC get better, you'll be offered more hard SCs and then you can learn how to do them.