Study strategy for long gap until test day.

[jackson.b.allan]

I was really hoping to take the text in the first week of May. However, all of the test centres in my area have booked out until mid-June. So now I have 2 months until test date. It is a bit frustrating, because I looked a month back but was not confident that I would get the score I would want as at that point I had only scored 640, so I put off the test.

At the beginning of my study period I really had to review math. I scraped through basic math in high school with a C. More due a lack of enthusiasm for schooling than an inability to do the math. As such, reading the MGMAT guide and taking its recommendations, I did a month of catch up on FoM before the week 1 Cat you see below.

Week 1: MGMAT Cat 1 (Q:32, V:37) 580
Week 7: MGMAT Cat 2 (Q:36, V:39) 640
Week 11: MGMAT Cat 3 (Q:37, V:36) 600
Week 13: MGMAT Cat 4 (Q:41, V:36) 640
Week 16: GMAT PREP 1 (Q:44, V:40) 690

I have constantly been working on quant, and you can see that paying off. I would like to get the quant up to 47, and at least sustain the verbal at 40, to crack the 700 mark with a somewhat balanced score. I skipped verbal study from week 11 to 13 and paid for it on those verbal scores - however a focus on timing and my weaknesses has seen that come back up. I am still spending too much time on the RC passages, which is taking away time from CR. In my last CAT I missed 2-3 CR questions because I was running about 3 minutes behind time, got scared, and rushed them - getting them wrong. On review they are well within my grasp, so I think if I can nail timing in the verbal, and improve my stamina then I could hit 41 or 42 on V.

My concern now though, is that my study period is really dragging out. With 8 weeks to go I am concerned that I will start to forget things and see a diminishing return on my studies and possibly a drop in my performance. I have a 13 day holiday to Japan/Singapore in 2 weeks time - I am not taking any books with me, just my flash card set, and I will run a few practice questions while I am there, just to keep my mind fresh. Personally, I think this will also be a good chance for me to recharge the motivation batteries so long as I don't kill too many brain cells with sake. When I get back I will have 4 weeks exactly to study before the exam.

So a week and a half until I go, and 4 weeks holidays until I get back. Are there any strategies you would advise, or study processes you would recommend to just keep reinforcing those fundamentals?

I have gone through all the OG12/13/Quant 2 and about 50% of the Verbal in the corresponding sections so also running low on fresh practice material.

These are my thoughts on a study plan for the final 8 weeks;

Week 8 - Strategic Guessing / IR-AWA review
Week 7 - Sit MGMAT CAT 5 - assess weak points and put together flash cards to focus on while on holidays, and study plan for when I arrive back.
Week 6 - HOLIDAY
Week 5 - HOLIDAY
Week 4 - Review areas per CAT 5
Week 3 - Review areas per CAT 5 - IR/AWA
Week 2 - Review areas per CAT 5 / Sit GMAT PREP 2
Week 1 - FINAL polish / RESIT GMAT PREP 1 for practice/stamina.
SIT TEST

If score >700 then beer, else go to week 4 and sit a second time.

Any feedback/advice would be appreciated. MGMAT has been a great resource thus far btw!

[StaceyKoprince]

You've made some good improvement - nice work.

I agree that you have to be careful not to get bored / lose momentum. I'm glad that you have the trip coming up - I agree that if you give yourself permission for that to be a break, it'll help keep you motivated during the other weeks.

I like your plan in general, although assume that your final 2 weeks will be review. At that point, you're not going to make major changes to weaknesses, and you want to make sure that you don't miss stuff that you know (or used to know) because you haven't looked at it in 2 months.

Oh, and I'd go have a beer either way - the issue will just be whether it's celebratory or commiseratory (I think I just made up that word).

For verbal, remember that, even though it's your strength, they can still give you stuff that's too hard or will take too long and you should bail on those questions. Stop trying to get crazy hard RC questions when that comes at the expense of other questions you could do more easily. Assume the test aced you on that one and there's really nothing to do but shrug and get ready for the next point.

Here are a couple of articles on what to do for the last two weeks:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... an-part-1/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ew-part-2/

The only other thing I'll add: put yourself in the mindset that this is a game or sport and you're getting ready to play someone whom you like but with whom you've always been a bit competitive - sibling, co-worker, friend. Pick a specific person. You want to do better than that person - you're going to win! That'll help keep you motivated. :)

[jackson.b.allan]

So I didn't touch the books for the 2 weeks I was on holidays. I had been in an interview process for a very good job, and then a call came in from within my company for a promotion and a move internationally. I had worked really hard not to let the first interview process affect my motivation for the GMAT, but the promotion really killed that. I visited Insead while I was in Singapore and had a really good discussion with them. It looks like a full time MBA for me now is probably not the best option, and so I am looking down the track at an EMBA in 3-4 years. For those programs I could get by on a score in the upper 600s.

When I came back 2 weeks ago I did an MGMAT test to try and find my week areas and do a final couple of weeks review. I got a 580. In fairness, I was probably still suffering the long flights and an extended sake hangover. Regardless, I was having trouble recalling basic memories, like the est. values of sqrt2, sqrt3, etc. My score was Q:37 V:32 - was really surprised, as that is the lowest verbal score I have received so far.

I also did the GMAT Write the other day to see if it really needed any time, and I scored a 5.5. Which I think I am happy enough with to just leave, maybe I'll do 1 or 2 practice runs on that before next week.

I sat another GMAT Prep today after reviewing everything and getting it fresh in my head and scored 710. Big difference, both were exam conditions. I have not scored above 640 on the MGMAT Prep, but my GMAT Preps were 690 and 710. Regardless, if I score above 670 next week I will be happy enough. If I score sub 650 I'll probably re-sit. If I get over 700, I'll be stoked.

This last week I am just going to get ready for game day, drill all the things I need to memorise, get plenty of sleep etc. Will post back my debrief.

[jackson.b.allan]

Okay so official;

650
IR:7
Q:38
V:41

As mentioned before, if I scored sub 650 then I would resit, and I am definitely not satisfied with that quant under 40, I can do better, and I haven't put in 6 months and some 300+ hours study not to. So that is now on the cards, just have to work out a strategy and a resit date.

As for the debrief. Well, the AWA and IR I felt I did really well in both. If the AWA comes back under 4.5 I will be surprised - I wrote more than in both GMAT Write submissions where I received a 5. IR felt really good, and a 7 isn't too bad. I went into Quant feeling very positive.

Analysing it, I rushed the Quant section, which was why the 38. To be honest, it felt really easy... too easy. I recall heaps of pos/neg questions. I was already at question 20 by 45 minutes, and so I consciously thought to slow down. However, every question I got, I just felt it was easy and that I had the correct answer - perhaps I just got nailed by the GMAT's trap answers and made a few silly mistakes. In the end I had 2-3 questions left with some 12 minutes to go, and that really shook me - I didn't think I had been churning through the questions that quickly. I really only recall guessing/struggling with 7-8 questions that I felt were out of my league. It certainly didn't seem any harder than the GMAT Prep I did last week where I got Q:46.

I don't think it was nerves as such, maybe over-enthusiasm. I didn't really get nervous or anxious. I really felt I brought all my faculties to bear on the 4 hours today - I had more clarity and was more in the zone than I had ever felt doing a practice test, it almost felt surreal. Not that it matters, the time that I had left at the end of quant, and my result show that I left points on the table.

I finished Verbal with about 5 minutes to spare, I was at about 15 minutes to go with 4 questions left, there were 2 or 3 really tough CR questions in the last 4 and I really spent the time to nail them. Still, there could be 1 or 2 extra points in there if I can manage my time more effectively for some of those ultra-tough RC passages. My score is going to benefit most though, by improving that Quant.

The lead in was:

Week 1: MGMAT Cat 1 (Q:32, V:37) 580
Week 7: MGMAT Cat 2 (Q:36, V:39) 640
Week 11: MGMAT Cat 3 (Q:37, V:36) 600
Week 13: MGMAT Cat 4 (Q:41, V:36) 640
Week 16: GMAT PREP 1 (Q:44, V:40) 690
Week 21: MGMAT Cat 5 ([b]Q:37[/b], V:32) 580
Week 23: GMAT PREP 2 (Q:46, V:42) 710
ACTUAL : (Q:38, V:41) 650

Now I am wondering what to do next in terms of study planning? Is it just a timing issue separating me from a Q38 and a Q46, or do I have some fundamental gaps in my knowledge that are leading to the ups and downs in my quant performance - perhaps that highlighted quant score wasn't an anomaly. It's a shame I have no way of reviewing the Quant section on my GMAT exam. Realistically, I think it is a bit of both - some gaps in my knowledge areas, and the timing issue. On reflection, I really didn't see many tough quant questions come up in areas where I am very strong - combinatorics, overlapping sets, divisibility etc.

Any thoughts on what I should do going forward? I was thinking to do about 6 weeks, go through each GMAT strategy guide again for each of the 5 weeks - firming up the fundamentals and really becoming extremely fluent in them. Perhaps at the same time also running through the advanced quant book.

[StaceyKoprince]

Congrats on the promotion! That'll look great on your b-school app.

Fantastic V and IR. Yes, the Q is a little low compared to those other scores.

You are presumably right that you were falling for traps - obviously you weren't getting everything right, yet you felt that most of the questions were easy. If that happens to you again, check your work! You were ahead on time anyway (and rushing does lead to careless mistakes). A lot of people feel (on PS) that they got an answer in the answer choices, so they must be right - but remember that these guys test us to find out the most common mistakes that people make and then they build those mistakes into the wrong answers!

So, yes, I think you're right that it was a combination of some holes in foundation in places and some timing and careless mistake issues. Start keeping an error log of careless mistakes and traps that get you so that you can see where you tend to make these mistakes. Then, for those things, devise ways of checking your work (or working more methodically in the first place) to minimize those types of errors. This may help:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -the-gmat/

Advanced quant (AQ) is not the way to go - that one is for someone who's around 80th percentile looking to push to the very top (50 or 51). What you need to do is just get your score back around that 45/46 level, and AQ won't help you with that.

Work on the careless error stuff noted above and look for those holes in your foundation and start plugging them. The test definitely rewards "generalists" over "specialists." You might get some harder questions in your areas of strength next time, but that won't help much if you get lower-level questions in your areas of weakness - missing those will pull you down more.

If you know what those holes in foundation are, please share - we may be able to point you towards certain resources or advise you re: how to get better.

[jackson.b.allan]

Cheers. Just received my mark on the AWA - 5.5. Happy enough with that.

Just analysing my last two CATS, weak areas, measured by average difficulty correct:

- Linear equations (550)
- Exponents & Roots (550)
- Inequalities (600)
- Co-ordinate Plane (550)
- Rates and Work (550)
- Statistics (480)
- Fractions (530)
- Percents (550)

Will really have to crack down on those areas, go back to the fundamentals and sharpen them up.

I read a bit about the GMAT algorithm the other day that mentioned the quant score is pulled down further by incorrect answers to easier questions, than incorrect answers to harder questions.

I have a post-exam analysis with a MGMAT contact on Monday night and will have the opportunity to go over it with them also.

Thanks.

[StaceyKoprince]

Of those topics, the most important ones (= most commonly tested) are:
linear equations
exponents and roots
statistics
fractions
percents

And, yes, agree with the part about going back to the fundamentals and building your way up.

Fractions and percents are often story problems, so this may help:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... them-real/

Re: the algorithm, basically think of it this way: if the question you miss is above your current scoring level, then your score won't be pulled down (nor will it go up, of course). If the question you miss is below your current scoring level, however, then your score will be pulled down. So you don't want to rush on questions that you find easier, because you're just giving yourself a chance to make a mistake on a question that could pull your score down if you miss it.