GMAT Verbal & Essays

Hi,

I took my GPREP today - i got 17 wrong in Quants - Not many in the first 10. Last 8 were wrong.
I still got 48. But for Verbal - I got only 14 wrong - My score is only 30. I got 3 consecutive
wrongs in many places in verbal. I got 4 wrongs in the first 8.

Is there any strategy - like - first 10 matters or first 20?
Please help

The GMAT is not a strictly point based exam - each question helps to figure out what your average scoring level is. Missing several questions in a row generally hurts a person's score overall but you have to remember that there are also experimental questions that are not counted towards the calculation of the score. Therefore analyzing percents or numbers incorrect is not the most helpful way to predict a score. The percentiles are different in verbal than in math as well so that may be what is happening.

In order to improve on the exam you will need to consistenly master the material presented and minimize avoidable mistakes. When you do this the questions will begin to get harder so you may still miss similar amounts but then get a higher score.

Thanks becks. I got 3 consecutive questions wrong 3 times in the exam.
I presumed that the aim of the test is to complete the test - skipping problems
that is taking more than 3 mins to solve.

I got 3 RCs wrong in the 0 - 10 questions. 2 RCs wrong in 25- 35.

Please help in proceeding further with the verbal section - TIMING/ACCURACY strategy.

It indicates that one has to perform well in verbal to get good overall score.

jaguar123 wrote:Hi,

I took my GPREP today - i got 17 wrong in Quants - Not many in the first 10. Last 8 were wrong.
I still got 48. But for Verbal - I got only 14 wrong - My score is only 30. I got 3 consecutive
wrongs in many places in verbal. I got 4 wrongs in the first 8.

Is there any strategy - like - first 10 matters or first 20?
Please help

Becky,

These are just theoretical background.

tpr-becky wrote:The GMAT is not a strictly point based exam - each question helps to figure out what your average scoring level is. Missing several questions in a row generally hurts a person's score overall but you have to remember that there are also experimental questions that are not counted towards the calculation of the score. Therefore analyzing percents or numbers incorrect is not the most helpful way to predict a score. The percentiles are different in verbal than in math as well so that may be what is happening.

In order to improve on the exam you will need to consistenly master the material presented and minimize avoidable mistakes. When you do this the questions will begin to get harder so you may still miss similar amounts but then get a higher score.

Please advice on which of the below two is better.

1. Complete the verbal section spending 2 mins per question - and guessing on difficult questions.
2. Completing the first 20 to 25 questions with good accuracy , spending extra time, and guessing
on the last 14 questions.

Which would be better as per the GMAT alogorithm.

jaguar123 wrote:Please advice on which of the below two is better.

1. Complete the verbal section spending 2 mins per question - and guessing on difficult questions.
2. Completing the first 20 to 25 questions with good accuracy , spending extra time, and guessing
on the last 14 questions.

Which would be better as per the GMAT alogorithm.

Both are very bad options. Improve your speed in SC/CR. Practice more.
1 - 1 min 15 sec for SC.
1 30 sec for CR.

In verbal you may never know which is difficult or which is easy problem. If you are spending two mins on every pblm then probably its a difficult question. Improve your timing. If you are taking 2 mins to solve a question then you are not good at basics. Work on concepts, how to apply them in problems, practice, review a lot, improve speed.

Guessing on the last 14 questions will take you back to where you started as it is adaptive algorithm, the scores goes down with more mistakes and drastically with continuous mistakes. Use some timing strategy to guess intermittently.