Test 2-weeks away... am I prepared?

[terence.battle1]

My test is two weeks from yesterday (June 24th). I've been preparing now for about three months and will continue preparing diligently over the next two weeks. My question is this... my goal score is 700+ as I plan to apply to Tuck, Kellogg, and most likely Columbia (undergrad GPA 3.93). My practice tests are as followed:

MGMAT Cat 1 - 620 (nearly three months ago)
MGMAT Cat 2 - 660 (about 2 months ago)
GMAT Prep1 - 660 (7 weeks ago)
MGMAT Cat 2 - 660 (a month ago)
GMAT Prep1 - 710 (month ago)
MGMAT Cat 3 - 660 (three weeks ago)
GMAT Prep1 - 700 (three weeks ago)
MGMAT Cat 4 - 700 (two weeks ago)
MGMAT Cat 5 - 690 (today)

My breakout over the last three has been about 47-49 on quant and 36-40 on verbal. Ideally I'd like to perform about 48-49 on quant and 40-42 on verbal.

I plan to focus on the areas that I performed the weakest in based on my assessment from MGMAT's CAT review. With a target score of 700+ and the above details, am I sufficiently prepared for a 700+ on the real deal? I plan to take GMATPrep 2 next Saturday which will be my final practice test before the exam. I've been purposely postponing that practice test since I believe it will be the closest depiction to the actual test and I won't see any duplicate questions like in GMATPrep 1. Any words of advise or should I sit back and just keep plugging away? Thanks much!

[StaceyKoprince]

Good stuff! Some questions:
- have you been taking these tests under 100% official conditions (including essays, length of breaks, etc.)?
- you have "GMATPrep1" listed twice. Did you see repeated questions on that second one? If so, what did you do when you saw questions that you recognized? Did you answer them more quickly than you might have otherwise? Did you answer them correctly no matter what (even if you'd gotten them wrong the first time)?

If you've been taking your tests under 100% official conditions, then you're right on the cusp of what you want - you're getting about 700. That means you do have a shot, yes, but of course, there are no guarantees. The real test affects different people in different ways. Think about the SATs or other tests like this in the past - did you generally perform as you were expecting, or did the stress of the test day get to you and cause your score to drop a bit?

If you have not been taking tests under 100% official conditions, then it is possible that your test score is inflated. (For instance, lots of people skip the essays - and lots of people see a score jump on the multiple choice as a result, because they didn't have to spend an hour writing before they could get to the "real" test.)

Next, in terms of your plans for the last two weeks, take a look at the below two articles. As a general rule, the closer you get to the real test, the LESS you should focus on your big weaknesses. At that point, you just need to acknowledge that they are what they are, and make sure you're doing a thorough review and solidifying what you do know.

http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/08/ ... -game-plan
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/08/ ... -to-review

[terence.battle1]

Hey Stacey. In response to the official conditions, yes I've written the essays on 3 of the last 4 tests and in response to the issue with gmatprep 1, the few questions that I recognized on quant I recalculated the problem as if I was doing it again. While I recognized the answer to 2 of the questions right away I tried to at least factor the timing component in which is why I recalculated them. Thanks for the tip. I did the guided self-study program and just finished all the OG benchmark problems. I have to say I'm pleased to be 90+% in all topics in PS, DS, SC, and RC. In CR... somehow, I've been 100% on the benchmarks which was nice.

Thanks for the pointers. I'll try to focus on maintaining and honing my CR skills and definitely work on keeping my math strong. My strat for tomorrow (thursday) through next wednesday with the exception of saturday for my last practice test is to do 15 problem solving, 15 data suff, 10 cr, 10 sc, 1 long rc, 1 short rc a day under timing constraints. Thoughts?

[terence.battle1]

Also, I have only been using about 15 minutes per essay. I've been keeping it to roughly 20-22 sentences per essay as my target there is really only a 4 on each.

[terence.battle1]

Well, I'm in the home stretch as far as time is concerned. Took last practice test, GMAT Prep 2, yesterday and scored 710 (49/38). I did write both essays as well and took under normal conditions with breaks in between the three rounds. I guess from here on out it's just continuing to work on practice problems daily and maintain focus on test day. Will let you know outcome. Thanks.

[StaceyKoprince]

Good - you made sure to take the practice tests under as close to official conditions as possible.

Last practice test looks great, looks like things are going just as you want them to go.

Remember that the closer you get to the real thing, the less you do. The day before, 2 hours max - and not practice problems, but a general review of rules, strategies, timing / pacing plans, etc. Rent a movie or do something the night before that will occupy your mind in a non-test-focused way. Get good sleep for the several days before the test - common sense stuff.

You look like you're in good shape! Good luck!

[terence.battle1]

I guess last saturday was pretty accurate. Test taken today (49Q/38V) 710. I finished quant with 8 minutes left and verbal with 17 minutes left... while that is a little annoying the anxiety on verbal kicked in so I'm happy that I still pulled a 38 out of it.

Preparation:

12 weeks using Manhattan GMAT Guided Self-Study.

[shalabhms]

Hi,

I have the same question:

My scores in MGMAT are:

MGMAT 1 (47Q,35V,680)
MGMAT 2 (46Q,28V,600)
MGMAT 3 (46Q,34V,660)
MGMAT 4 (48Q,37V,700)
MGMAT 5 (48Q,33V,670)
MGMAT 6 (48Q,37V,700)

and observed the similarity of scores got by terence. I gave the tests close to the official conditions. SC hit rate is ~100% but I am lacking in CR :-( , I always got stuck in 2 choices and marked the wrong one. (May be I should choose the other one :-))

Exam date is : 28th July , I am targetting 710+ , looks like I need to improve a lot in CR.

I have gone through all the tactics/strategy mentioned in the forum but no luck :-( .

Please guide me and suggest some readings reagarding CR.

Thanks,
Shalabh

[terence.battle1]

My CR was actually my strongest area in verbal. On practice I had a roughly 95-100% hit rate. I didn't really get solid on CR until about 3 weeks before my exam. It's like a lightbulb went off and it all started making sense. My approach simply became to look at what's being asked... put it in my own words. IE. Strength GM Argument? Then I would jot down the statements and think of what the holes are, then select my response. I usually do CR's in about 75 seconds or so. Using the a, b, c, d, e chart might help you until you get your approach worked out.

[shalabhms]

Hey,
Thanks for the reply. But I did not get this part :
"Using the a, b, c, d, e chart might help you " , Can you please tell me what is this approach?

Thanks again,
Shalabh

[terence.battle1]

Put a grid on your scrap paper or workbook if you are using the GMAT practice pad (yellow laminated paper book).

Simply Put something like this

Q# A B C D E
1
2
3
4
5
etc

Then as you are doing your problems... simply mark off answers as you go that are not correct. This way you are essentially evaluating each answer independent of the other four. This will also assist in not rereading or reevaluating answers you already have reviewed. By doing this you will get yourself in the habit of looking at an answer, determing if it meets the criteria or not, then moving on.

[StaceyKoprince]

Terence, that's great! Congratulations!

shalabhms, can you start your own thread? I like to keep each person's "case" separate so that I don't mix up data, strengths and weaknesses, etc.

You mention struggling with CR. Here are some things to get you started; it would also be good if you give me more detail in your new post about the types of CR questions that give you the most trouble, etc.

It's crucial to be able to recognize the CR question type, so before I start reading the argument, I already know:
(1) the kind of information I need to find
(2) the kind of analysis I need to do on that information
(3) characteristics of a correct answer for that type
(4) characteristics of wrong answers for that type

If the type is Draw a Conclusion, then I should identify any facts or opinions they give (but I should NOT expect to find a conclusion in the argument), and I should understand exactly what the argument has told me versus what it might only imply. The correct answer will be something that must be true according to the information given, without bringing in any outside knowledge or assumptions. Incorrect answers will often go "too far" by assuming additional information that we don't actually know.

http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/C ... n-type.cfm

http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2009/10/ ... -questions

http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/01/ ... cr-problem

http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/CR-assumption.cfm

http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/04/ ... en-problem

Start with those; when you feel you're ready to move on to some of the more minor types, let me know.

Also, it's really important to study:
1) why was the wrong answer so tempting? why did it look like it might be right? (be as explicit as possible; also, now you know this is not a good reason to pick an answer)
2) why was it actually wrong? what specific words indicate that it is wrong and how did I overlook those clues the first time?
3) why did the right answer seem wrong? what made it so tempting to cross off the right answer? why were those things actually okay; what was my error in thinking that they were wrong? (also, now you know that this is not a good reason to eliminate an answer)
4) why was it actually right?

#1 and #3 are really important for you, because you mention narrowing down to 2 (the right one and a wrong one) and then picking the wrong one. So you're falling into traps related to #1 and #3 above.