TArget 750+

[sam198518]

Hi Stacey,

I took 1st GmatPrep test and score is 710(50Q & 36V).

Of the 5 wrong in CR, 2 were absolutely silly mistakes and one was not so difficult; also, of the 3 wrong in SC, 2 were very simple. Amazingly, just one mistake in RC, moreover this one question was pretty complicated.


Now, I'm a little confused; which section should I focus on?

Point to note here is I've been studying RC continiously for last 2weeks and have been studying SC in parallel sometimes; I was preping CR too but quite less as compared to RC or SC. What I'm trying to say is I see there is a corelation between amount of time I have spent in RC, SC and CR in last 2weeks to the number of questions I have gotten correct in respective sections today.


Should i practice more on all three sections & then take test? Also, my understanding is that CR is a very conceptual section, so scores shouldn't have gone down because of less practice?


Another thought is, I shouldn't waste a lot of time in the difficult questions that I have been solving lately, just solving those silly/moderate questions correctly will do my job - I mean if I could get those 2 CR-silly & 2SC-simple correct then my score can reach 740-750(40/41V, 51Q)

[StaceyKoprince]

Exactly - minimize careless mistakes before you even begin to worry about tackling harder questions! To get a 750+, you can afford maybe one careless mistake in the entire section.

So, let's talk about those careless mistakes. Why, exactly, did you make each one? Careless mistakes aren't usually completely random - sure, there are some external factors (rushing, distracted, getting tired / mentally fatigued), but then where you make the actual mistake and why tends to have to do with some weakness that we can identify and overcome.

So what happened? Did you, for example, identify the wrong conclusion on a CR question? Did you mis-read something in the argument or something in the answers? Did you note something down in a somewhat confusing way, and then that messed you up when you tried to answer the question? What happened?

Also, why, precisely, did you choose the wrong answer, and why, precisely, did you eliminate the right answer? Those are the heart of the two traps you fell into, so if you can figure out why, then you're a lot better prepared not to fall into those traps again next time!

That kind of thing, in general, should be a major focus. Still practice everything and try to push yourself further, of course, but you're getting close!

[sam198518]

Exactly - minimize careless mistakes before you even begin to worry about tackling harder questions! To get a 750+, you can afford maybe one careless mistake in the entire section.

So, let's talk about those careless mistakes. Why, exactly, did you make each one? Careless mistakes aren't usually completely random - sure, there are some external factors (rushing, distracted, getting tired / mentally fatigued), but then where you make the actual mistake and why tends to have to do with some weakness that we can identify and overcome.

So what happened? Did you, for example, identify the wrong conclusion on a CR question? Did you mis-read something in the argument or something in the answers? Did you note something down in a somewhat confusing way, and then that messed you up when you tried to answer the question? What happened?

Also, why, precisely, did you choose the wrong answer, and why, precisely, did you eliminate the right answer? Those are the heart of the two traps you fell into, so if you can figure out why, then you're a lot better prepared not to fall into those traps again next time!

That kind of thing, in general, should be a major focus. Still practice everything and try to push yourself further, of course, but you're getting close!

Stacey,

I see you are trying to be more and more specific. Let me jot down a little as to why I chose what I chose.

SC1 they vs. their; I knew that "they" is anyday better/safer than "their", still went with later. I think I didn't really considered "they" option, perhaps I was in hurry or internal time pressure.

SC2 should have checked the meaning(although option that I chose is grammatically correct but the sentence doesn't makse sense)

CR1: felt that I have seen the question before and I know the answer - I know this is the stupidest thing.

CR2/CR3: these two CRs were of moderate length; one of those questions in which passage talks about topics 'A', 'B' and then says that 'C' causes 'D'; now my focus should be on C-->D but probably because of low concentration I chose option that talks about A.

Low focus could be because of:
> Internal time pressure
> Timing of test(my study time is night(5-8PM) and I took the test at 9:00AM cause my test is at 8:00AM)
> Or it may be the coffee; I take cappuccino everyday at office but do not take anything on weekends(my test day). cappuccino really wakes me up.


Besides trying to avoid the silly mistakes I'd
a) continue with SC mgmat revision - I feel like it will help
b) continue with RC practice; will practice to create better mental map to save search time
c) focus on central topic for CR and practice with a little longer passage.

Let me know what you think.

[StaceyKoprince]

Your plan in general sounds good. If you're having timing problems, you'll continue to feel that timing pressure, which will continue to lead to careless mistakes... so you may have to work on timing problems as well.

How much have you been studying meaning for SC? That's becoming more common / more important now, so be prepared to see more questions with this focus on the real test. Many of the OG questions can be answered purely on grammar (even though there are also meaning issues, you can often get away with just using grammar), so you may have to set yourself the task of, for example, examining a question first based on meaning and only then on grammar, so that you're practicing meaning as well.

Did I give you these links on meaning already?

http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... orrection/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... on-part-2/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... h-meaning/

Are you more an afternoon / evening person? Can you take the test later in the day next time? Also, if you're used to drinking coffee, then drink coffee on test day, too. Don't change your routine.

[sam198518]

Your plan in general sounds good. If you're having timing problems, you'll continue to feel that timing pressure, which will continue to lead to careless mistakes... so you may have to work on timing problems as well..

I agree with you. With my present speed I just finish test on time or a minute early. If I could keep 5min buffer time it will remove all tmie pressure.

How much have you been studying meaning for SC? That's becoming more common / more important now, so be prepared to see more questions with this focus on the real test. Many of the OG questions can be answered purely on grammar (even though there are also meaning issues, you can often get away with just using grammar), so you may have to set yourself the task of, for example, examining a question first based on meaning and only then on grammar, so that you're practicing meaning as well.

Did I give you these links on meaning already?

http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... orrection/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... on-part-2/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... h-meaning/
.

Not much, I consider meaning issue only if I intuitively feel that meaning is changing; so, sometimes I consider meaning other times I do not - this could be dangerous, so I'll go through the list of OG problems that yo ushared.

Are you more an afternoon / evening person? Can you take the test later in the day next time? Also, if you're used to drinking coffee, then drink coffee on test day, too. Don't change your routine.

Yes, I'm a evening/night person. I usually study after finshing my office hours so my study hours is 5-8PM. I can take the test between 5-8PM but would you recommend doing so considering that my final test is at 8AM?

The next time I'll definitely have coffee; hoping that it'll give me my remaining 30-40marks :)

[sam198518]

Again a 710(49Q V37).

I wanted to take this test as original as possible, so went to Office to take the test.

Started with Quant and things were going very smoothly until i realised that I have finished 10questions in 15minute so I slowed down. The next time I checked time I needed to answer 8 questions in 15minutes - was a little surprised, this resulted in 4 of last 8 wrong. My Quant score came down to 49.

1 question on histogram that for symmetrical graphs mean= median.
1 question on median -misunderstood ques.
the other two question were very easy - I just didn't had time to complete.

Despite starting so well and because of realizing that I'm moving faster than I need to, I lost those 4 questions. I'M STUPID. Slowing down was not a good idea, natural speed is good.


I wanted to be very sincere for verbal coz Quant didn't went so well.

When I reached at the 9th problem(RC), a colleague of mine came in and so I stopped and hid the browser. As per the test records, I invested 5:27min on this question; since this was second question of RC I think that I lost 4min here.

After loosing so much time and realising that I'm way too slow; I blindly guessed two of the difficult CR questions and still I needed to answer 21 questions in 33minute - I finished in 30minutes :)

Good thing: 21 questions in 30min with only 2 wrong. I never expected to be able to do so; at one point I just wanted to close the test.
Bad thing: My score is stuck at 710. I need at least 40 in V and I'm very hopeful that in next 3weeks I'll pull my Quant to 51.

Stacey,
1 wrong in SC, which is grammatically correct but has a subtle meaning issue; you were absolutely right that I need to check meaning too.

These are questions that I wronged
CR Assumptions - guessed
CR Determining relevant information - guessed
CR Inferences - easy
RC Detail-based inferences - moderate(last 2 options)
RC Inferring new details - moderate
RC Main Idea - moderate
SC meaning - easy/moderate
if I could get those 2-3 from easy/moderate; I'll reach there.

My to do list:
Revise mgmat SC - in progress
Meaning SC * - yet to go through OG 12 problems
Big passage CR - in progress
Mix things up(CR & RC) - in progress
Create better mental map for RC - haven't really stressed on map yet
Keep 5min buffer time in tests - didn't do this time
Skip the most difficult question - guessed 2 big CR problems
coffee - had cappaccuino and it helped for sure

[StaceyKoprince]

If I could keep 5min buffer time it will remove all tmie pressure.

Good luck with that. Even I can't keep a 5 min buffer time on quant. :) I can on verbal, but on quant, I'm battling the time all the way!

No, I meant can you take the actual test later in the day, not at 8a? A lot of times, the test centers will release all of the 8a times first, and only when those fill up will they release later times. So if you have a deadline, sign up for an 8a slot just to guarantee that you have something, but keep checking back as you get closer to test day and see whether you can switch to later in the day. About a year ago, I snagged a last minute GRE appointment at 3:30p!

8 Q in 15 min is almost exactly the right amount of time though - almost 2m per question. Bail on the hardest one you see next and you're totally comfortable. Don't get too psyched out just because the clock is winding down!

And, no, I'm glad you slowed down after you realized you did 10 Qs in 15m at the beginning. Too much speed = careless mistakes, so just be careful (within the given time)!

Other than that, I like everything you said. :)

[sam198518]

No, I meant can you take the actual test later in the day, not at 8a? A lot of times, the test centers will release all of the 8a times first, and only when those fill up will they release later times. So if you have a deadline, sign up for an 8a slot just to guarantee that you have something, but keep checking back as you get closer to test day and see whether you can switch to later in the day. About a year ago, I snagged a last minute GRE appointment at 3:30p!

8 Q in 15 min is almost exactly the right amount of time though - almost 2m per question. Bail on the hardest one you see next and you're totally comfortable. Don't get too psyched out just because the clock is winding down!

And, no, I'm glad you slowed down after you realized you did 10 Qs in 15m at the beginning. Too much speed = careless mistakes, so just be careful (within the given time)!

Other than that, I like everything you said. :)

Awesome Idea! I took this date(28th) because I was going back home, India, on 30th for 2/3 weeks but then the plan has been cancelled and it makes a lot of sense now to reschedule test date to evening test. Also, I actually have avaiable afternoon test time for January 1st week - A week delay won't hurt either.

Yes, I think the realization that I do not have as much time as I expected really surprized me, though it was just sufficient.

Just the assurance from you that everything is good makes me feel a lot better :)

[sam198518]

Okay, This week the score on PowerPrep is 760(Q51, V40).

Good: Very happy that given relatively weak questions; I can move up.

Bad: I had seen 4-5 CR questions before but none for SC or RC.


SC - 3mistakes
one was not only on....but also on; I looked for not only....but also.
the second was moderate; feels that if I had given time properly then would have chosen correct answer.


RC - 3 mistakes
1st - didn't knew meaning of ubiquitous(found everywhere)
2nd - Main idea question. I think I was a little under pressure for time because the first 3RCs come in the first 35min; I had to answer 21question in 35min, which doesn't sound that bad now.

Quant - 0 mistake
CR - 0 mistake(although I had seen 4-5 questions before)

RC - I do not have a complete idea of why I'm still going wrong in RCs. I mean sometimes I'm going wrong on main idea ques the other times on detail question; I feel that I'm not making good mental map and proper story in mind.

SC - A friend of mine, who scored 740 recently, suggested that I should take less than 1min per question coz I'd need more time for better comprehension in CR & RC as compared to a native speaker. I generaly spent 70sec per question on an average but was trying to move faster in this test. I think this might have contributed to at least 1 minstake.

[StaceyKoprince]

RC - I do not have a complete idea of why I'm still going wrong in RCs. I mean sometimes I'm going wrong on main idea ques the other times on detail question; I feel that I'm not making good mental map and proper story in mind.

Are you able to figure out / understand afterwards, when you're reviewing? If so, then you can start to ask yourself, "Okay, NOW I understand that it means XYZ and that's why B is the right answer. But why didn't I get that in the moment?" Did you overlook something, maybe because you were reading too quickly? Did you misread it so that you actually thought it said something else? What happened? If you figure out why, then you can figure out what to do about it (or you can ask us here!).

SC - A friend of mine, who scored 740 recently, suggested that I should take less than 1min per question coz I'd need more time for better comprehension in CR & RC as compared to a native speaker.

Sure - as long as it doesn't cost you questions you would've gotten right, as you discovered. :) In general, it's a bad idea to force yourself to go faster on questions that you CAN get right in order to have more time to spend on hard questions that you're not as sure that you can get right. What you're doing there is trading potential careless mistakes on points you would've gotten for more time to spend on something that you might not get with more time anyway. Not a good tradeoff.

Do read this article though - maybe you aren't being as efficient as you could on SC (without sacrificing accuracy), and so maybe you can learn to shave a little more time there. Check it out.
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... n-problem/

But if you're already being appropriately efficient, then don't speed up more. Rather, learn to pick out a few really hard Qs that you're probably going to get wrong anyway - get your extra time from those Qs by cutting yourself off faster. (Again, remember, you are NOT trying to get everything right!)

On those repeated CRs, did you get them all right this time around? Next time, consider getting a couple wrong - in particular, any that you also got wrong the first time around. Just to make sure that you're not artificially inflating your score too much!

[sam198518]

RC - I do not have a complete idea of why I'm still going wrong in RCs. I mean sometimes I'm going wrong on main idea ques the other times on detail question; I feel that I'm not making good mental map and proper story in mind.

Are you able to figure out / understand afterwards, when you're reviewing? If so, then you can start to ask yourself, "Okay, NOW I understand that it means XYZ and that's why B is the right answer. But why didn't I get that in the moment?" Did you overlook something, maybe because you were reading too quickly? Did you misread it so that you actually thought it said something else? What happened? If you figure out why, then you can figure out what to do about it (or you can ask us here!).

SC - A friend of mine, who scored 740 recently, suggested that I should take less than 1min per question coz I'd need more time for better comprehension in CR & RC as compared to a native speaker.

Sure - as long as it doesn't cost you questions you would've gotten right, as you discovered. :) In general, it's a bad idea to force yourself to go faster on questions that you CAN get right in order to have more time to spend on hard questions that you're not as sure that you can get right. What you're doing there is trading potential careless mistakes on points you would've gotten for more time to spend on something that you might not get with more time anyway. Not a good tradeoff.

Do read this article though - maybe you aren't being as efficient as you could on SC (without sacrificing accuracy), and so maybe you can learn to shave a little more time there. Check it out.
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... n-problem/

But if you're already being appropriately efficient, then don't speed up more. Rather, learn to pick out a few really hard Qs that you're probably going to get wrong anyway - get your extra time from those Qs by cutting yourself off faster. (Again, remember, you are NOT trying to get everything right!)

On those repeated CRs, did you get them all right this time around? Next time, consider getting a couple wrong - in particular, any that you also got wrong the first time around. Just to make sure that you're not artificially inflating your score too much!

For RC:
I think, I overlook a lot of times - Because I try to finish reading in 3min and sometimes not totally connecting the understanding(detailed point) with bigger picture. I find "which of the following statements author will not agree with?" types of question difficult - most of the times I'd come down to 2 options and then would end up guessing because I couldn't elimiate any of the last two options and because time is running.


For SC:
I'm going to run at my own speed(15 questions in 17min), which is not all that bad.

Is this always true that "There is always a split at the beginning of the underline and there is always a split at the end of the underline." on option B,C,D, E as compared to Option A?


For CR:
I'll try to chose a wrong option next time I take PowerPrep.

[StaceyKoprince]

So for RC, it sounds like you do understand when you go back afterwards, but you overlook something in the moment. Also, if you're struggling with "with which of the following would the author disagree" - that tends to be a fairly high-level kind of question. So you might be missing contrasts or change points in the article.

When you're reading, it is true that you're not reading and trying to learn everything on that first read-through. You do want to get all of the big ideas as well as all of the changes of direction or contrasts. The details then hang on those big ideas and changes of direction, so that makes it easier to find the details again and go back to learn what you need to learn.

If you're agonizing between two answers, just pick one and move on. Afterwards, go back and try to figure out: exactly how did they make the wrong answer so tempting that you couldn't eliminate it? And how did they make the right answer so wishy-washy or otherwise annoying that it seemed like it might not be right? If you can understand how they did that, then you'll start to understand what traps they're setting for you... and you can learn how to avoid them.

For SC, yes, there is always at least one difference somewhere in B, C, D, OR E at the beginning of the underline and at the end (compared to A). (But not every answer will be different from A in those places.) Note that the difference could be something as small as a punctuation mark: eg, <cat> vs. <cat,>.

[sam198518]

So for RC, it sounds like you do understand when you go back afterwards, but you overlook something in the moment. Also, if you're struggling with "with which of the following would the author disagree" - that tends to be a fairly high-level kind of question. So you might be missing contrasts or change points in the article.

When you're reading, it is true that you're not reading and trying to learn everything on that first read-through. You do want to get all of the big ideas as well as all of the changes of direction or contrasts. The details then hang on those big ideas and changes of direction, so that makes it easier to find the details again and go back to learn what you need to learn.

If you're agonizing between two answers, just pick one and move on. Afterwards, go back and try to figure out: exactly how did they make the wrong answer so tempting that you couldn't eliminate it? And how did they make the right answer so wishy-washy or otherwise annoying that it seemed like it might not be right? If you can understand how they did that, then you'll start to understand what traps they're setting for you... and you can learn how to avoid them.

For SC, yes, there is always at least one difference somewhere in B, C, D, OR E at the beginning of the underline and at the end (compared to A). (But not every answer will be different from A in those places.) Note that the difference could be something as small as a punctuation mark: eg, <cat> vs. <cat,>.

Stacey,

Here goes my last few questions - hope to hear before my test on 4th Jan :) although quite understandably you may not be able to answer.

My recent scores:
PowerPrep-2 - 730
mgmat-5 - 760
gmatprep-2 770(today)

1) Since, I usually finish Quant in an hour, can i take extended break of 15min + 8min? If I select answer to the last Quant question(37th), would it be submitted?

2) Am I allowed to drink coffee etc during break time? I think so, but wanted to confirm. Drinking coffee is really important for me; if it's allowed, does cold coffee works as good as hot - not sure you would know such things, but no harm in asking.

Happy new year!

[sam198518]

Just wanted to add that my mgmat-6 score was 750 today and I'm pretty confident that I'd score 730+ on my actual test on 4th. Thanks a lot Stacey!

[StaceyKoprince]

Whoops - we didn't get to this before the 4th. I hope things went well! Come back and let us know. (And nice job on that last practice test!!)

For future reference or for anyone else reading this:

If you finish a section early, your break starts immediately and it still lasts only 8 minutes. You can, however, just sit in the room with the last question still on the screen and take a "break" before you finish the test - just let the clock keep running down.

If you put an answer in and then the timer runs out, the computer will accept whatever answer you had in.

You can eat or drink anything you want on the break, but you obviously have to have it in your locker, since you only have 8 minutes. I'm not sure whether there are differences in how quickly the caffeine gets delivered to your body if the coffee is hot vs. cold, but you could always buy an insulated thermos if you prefer your coffee hot. :)