GMAT Strategy

Hey Guys,

I have taken GMAT few times, and have always scored around 44-45Q on the quant section. I am trying to increase my raw score by 2 points, but not sure what materials should I be using. I know all the basics, so the guides are pretty useless for me. Anyone has a good advice? I will be very happy with a 47 in Q.

Regards.

Hi fuquahopeful,
I see you riding in the same boat that I had been couple of months back. Until I visited a page from another forum.
The fact that you are consistently scoring Q44-45 does not need you to look out for some new prep materials. Furthermore, you need to just work on the OG ques only as that has worked for me (I took only official materials such as OG13, Quant Rev, and GMATPrep Ques bank). I would like to list out couple of points that certainly helped me on moving from 44 to 48.

Assumption:
If you are constantly performing at the 44-46 quant range (previous tests , trusted prep material) that means:
- Mastered most of the required skilled
- Understand the structure and requirements of gmat math questions

Weaknesses:
- "Silly mistakes"
- Get yourself into unnecessary complications in solving questions that can be solved much faster
- Timing issues.
- Mistakes that are a result of a subtlety of concepts that you were not sure about (which made you both spend time, eventually guessing or answering without confidence, sometime getting it wrong)

Sincerely, I was all about these above points. But I worked on it and breakthrough the bar. Focus on it, as how it relates to you and follow this thread -
https://gmatclub.com/forum/how-to-improv ... l#p1138322

Hope that helps.
I hope I find something similar to break my low verbal
Regards!!

No need to worry.
You are getting good enough points to show that your concepts are good.

The strategy should be strictly to do more and more 'timed' quant practice questions.
Try to resolve about 40 questions in one sitting in around 70 mins.
Once done with this, keep the month before actual GMAT exam STRICTLY FOR FULL TIME TESTS.
This will increase your speed, allow you to have more time for some complex questions and also give you a chance to figure out the issues when you get an answer incorrect.

fuquahopeful wrote:Hey Guys,

I have taken GMAT few times, and have always scored around 44-45Q on the quant section. I am trying to increase my raw score by 2 points, but not sure what materials should I be using. I know all the basics, so the guides are pretty useless for me. Anyone has a good advice? I will be very happy with a 47 in Q.

Regards.

fuquahopeful wrote:Hey Guys,

I have taken GMAT few times, and have always scored around 44-45Q on the quant section. I am trying to increase my raw score by 2 points, but not sure what materials should I be using. I know all the basics, so the guides are pretty useless for me. Anyone has a good advice? I will be very happy with a 47 in Q.

Regards.

You are in the same boat as me, and we are hoping to get in to the same MBA program ... I have been spending quite a bit of time analyzing the reason why i am consistantly scoring 43-45 and not going past the 45 barrier. The post mortem analysis is as follows (i am a forensic pathologist by proffesion )

* I have learned all of the concepts tested on the GMAT (quant), I know all the formulas, the basics etc but do not know the CORRECT strategy for solving the questions. 99.9% of the GMAT quant problems can be solved through multiple methods and usually out of the bunch only one or two are the optimum methods of attacking the problem. Others might be too lengthy, may involve to many calculations ( any one of which could trip us)etc..Generally we are taught in school and college to follow the most fluent, and elegant way of solving problems that we are presented with...The GMAT is a Multiple choice exam, and as such the CAT does not care about how we arrive to the answer (as long as we get the correct answer).. I am consistently seeing an improvement on my score by looking at the OG solutions to some of the more difficult problems (even the ones i got correct).. There are also great instructions from Ron (thursdays with ron) on how to tackle typical DS problems ( Plugging in, Extreme values, Co-ordinate geometry (Visual approach vs Alg. approach)etc..Those have helped me nicely, and on every question, i spend the first 10-15 seconds charting out the best strategy/approach to solving the question..With practice i can predict with reasonable accuracy whether the problem would be better solved by plugging in, by algebra, by manipulations, or any other relevant method. This has improved my accuracy under timed conditions considerably.

* Even though a score of 44 may suggest that we are familiar with most if not all the topics, in my case i found a general weakness in certain key areas - Statistics and Co-ordinate geometry...While my accuracy in these topics was not significantly worst then in other topics, i was spending twice the time in solving questions from these topics when compared to the other topics. This was not only slowing me down, but was adversely affecting my performance in the areas where i was stronger (Less time for strengths, means more room for silly mistakes)...

* While i emphasized on CONTENT, the content of the GMAT quant is not ROCKET SCIENCE, infact all but 5% of it is basic high school math ... The difficulty comes from the test makers spicing up the questions inorder to test your various analytic and conceptual skills (Key for a management career)... We must not fall into the TRAPS ...and with practice i am getting better at ID'ing these traps and spotting out the COMMON TRICKS the Official questions have.... The article regarding HANDRAILS , written by David @ Veritas Prep, was what made all the difference for me - and i would recomend it for everyone (regardless of what they are scoring) ...

Key takeways :

- Introspecting on one's current level of knowledge, and looking at the way one approaches solving each problem might work better at getting you the 2-4 point improvement you are seeking as compared to Re-doing the coursework and or attempting a few hundred questions ..

Thanks guys for the help.

The frustrating part for me is that I have constantly scored 44-45 on the MGMAT CATS, and 46 on the GMATPrep, but my real GMAT scores have been 44 or 45. I think one of the reasons is that, on the real exam, my start usually is pretty good, but I guess quite of few questions towards the end of the exam (b/w 35-41). I think from now on, I should guess couple from 21-27, so I am able to solve the last fews ones since the finishing is very important. I also think my weakest spots are co-ordinate geometry and statistics, and even though I can solve these questions when taking exams at home, I always guess on them on the real thing (probably due to lack of confidence/anxiety). I have a pretty strong quant background, so no reason for me to score low on the quant. Plus, I have always been pretty good in Math, so it's frustrating seeing myself struggle on the real exam. Well, I am taking it again in 4 weeks, and hoping to hit the 47 mark. Prayers needed.

Regards.

but I guess quite of few questions towards the end of the exam (b/w 35-41).

Is it because you find the questions generally more challenging ( do not have a clue ) therefore GUESS, or is it because you are short on time? If it is the former, then you may want to emphasize on the 700 level concepts and strategy. If it is the latter, then maybe you need to spread the Guessing around the entire section rather than having it clustered to the last 1/3 of the section. MGMAT Advanced-Quant, has a section dedicated towards Strategic guessing..I think it is a great chapter and very important as from what i have heard even the 95th percentile scorers in quant do guess on a few questions, and if you can improve your odds, then why not ..

I think from now on, I should guess couple from 21-27, so I am able to solve the last fews ones since the finishing is very important.

From what i have heard, each question on the GMAT is equally important, however towards the end of the section the computer SHOULD have a pretty good idea of what your level is, so if you get a question wrong, i think the score should shift less as compared to if you get a question wrong towards the beginning (this is not official, just my opinion)...It doesnt matter however where you are in the section (question 10, 25 or 35) having a bunch of wrong answers clustered together is not a good thing, therefore if you always struggle for time try to spread the guesses around..Folks that consider say Probability their weakest area usually make it a point to read the question , spend 10 seconds trying to figure it out, and then if they are not confident randomly guess the answer..Even if they take 30 seconds on a question, and get two probability questions, they have strategically guessed on two questions and saved 2 minutes in time that they can use on questions that require more time (Word problems, Geometry etc)...You should develop a strategy and taking CAT's with multiple strategies should be your next move..

I have a pretty strong quant background, so no reason for me to score low on the quant. Plus, I have always been pretty good in Math, so it's frustrating seeing myself struggle on the real exam. Well, I am taking it again in 4 weeks, and hoping to hit the 47 mark. Prayers needed.

I would recomend that you work with strategy (since you have a strong fundamental background)..Perhaps sharpen up your DS strategy, or learn specific strategy to tackle specific questions ( Geometry, Inequalities, Remainders, etc etc)...Since you are used to MGMAT material , i strongly recomend reading the strategy chapters in their Advanced quant book, not so much for questions (although they are great practice questions - some are brutal) but for the general strategy ( Strategic Guessing, Spotting patterns etc etc)...

Good luck with the GMAT, i am sure you will do well..