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Cinji18 · Sun Feb 21, 2010 10:22 pm

I just finished the free Kaplan online practice test. I've only studied for about two weeks, and this is my first practice test. Since I've read a few posting regarding score inconsistancies, I'm not sure how to interpret the results.

Results:
Composite Scaled Score: 560
Quant Score: 36
Verbal Score: 34

The results show me how much time I spent on each question. I looked for the shortest and longest times, and calculated some stats:

Quant Section
Shortest Time: 0:22 (correct)
Longest Time: 5:25 (correct)
Under 1 Min: 7
1 to 2 Min: 13
2 to 3 Min: 10
3 to 4 Min: 3
4 to 5 Min: 2
Over 5 Min: 1
Average Time: 2:01

Verbal Section
Shortest Time: 0:17 (incorrect)
Longest Time: 4:44 (incorrect)
Under 1 Min: 10
1 to 2 Min: 15
2 to 3 Min: 13
3 to 4 Min: 2
4 to 5 Min: 2
Over 5 Min: 0
Average Time: 1:48

I think I know what people mean with the 2 minute limit; if I'm not going to get it in 2 minutes, I probably won't get it in 5, so why waste the time.

Another thing about me is I've always been a slow reader. I spent a lot of time just reading and understanding the questions and answers. That doesn't count the time to select the answer. Any advice?

I suppose the next thing for me to do is study the answer key. Any advice about what I need to do next would be great.

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kelsi111 · Mon Feb 22, 2010 10:09 am

I like your stats. But there is one that I wish that you had...what types of questions did you miss? If you mostly missed one type then I'd suggest that you go forth and shore that area up. If you were pretty even then I'd pick one at a time and try to get your strength built up. The GMAT prefers a generalist, so it's great that your two scores are even-ish, which means that you are probably decent in both types.

I'd grab the OC 12th edition and just work your way through it. Do ten questions then check the answers then to ten more and check those answers. Do three or four sets of ten in two different sections every day. The problems get harder so you'll be able to take the lessons that you learn on the easy problems and then apply it to the harder ones.

Best of luck!

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Cinji18 · Mon Feb 22, 2010 10:44 am

Thanks, kelsi111!

I'm about to go through the test today to see what I missed, so I should know by tonight what kind of questions I need to work on.

I like the suggest you gave. I'll do that when I get OG 12.

Also, I know that repetition is perfection most of the time, so I'm thinking of redoing the same questions over and over until I understand the problems and certain that I can do them should they appear again. Good idea?

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kelsi111 · Mon Feb 22, 2010 1:05 pm

I've been flagging the ones I missed and then circling back a few days later (long enough to forget the problem). I do think that you should practice the problems that you missed so that you can verify that you did learn the lesson. Or at least I think it's been helping me. Good luck with the studying Smile

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Cinji18 · Wed Feb 24, 2010 1:45 am

So, I have a copy of the free Kaplan online practice test and answer key with
explanation. I went through it, and realize that most of the problems I missed
were algebra problems, which is odd because that's usually my strength when I do
the exercises. I also missed the most on sentence correction on the verbal side,
which is also odd for the same reason.

I then redid the problems on my own. I only skimmed through the answer key when I
checked my results from the test, so I didn't really know what the correct answers
are. I also don't know what I answer choice I chose on the test since the results
don't tell me. This time around, I timed each problem individually with a
stopwatch so that I can compare my timing to the first time I did the questions.

The results are below:

Quant Section
Answered correctly the 1st time and still correct: 23 of 23
(of those, 18 completed in shorter time)

Answered incorrectly the 1st time, but correct this time: 8 of 14
(of those, 3 completed in shorter time)

Answered incorrectly the 1st time, and still correct: 6 of 14
(of those, 2 I still don't understand the explanation in the answer key)

Verbal Section
Answered correctly the 1st time and still correct: 21 of 24
(of those, 10 completed in shorter time)

Answered incorrectly the 1st time, but correct this time: 7 of 17
(of those, 3 completed in shorter time)

Answered incorrectly the 1st time, and still correct: 10 of 17
(of those, 7 I still don't understand the explanation in the answer key)

From this analysis, I could have definitely score higher than the 560 I got the
first time. I could have gotten the some answers, especially in the quant section,
correct if I spent more time like I did the second time. The fact that I got so
many more problems correct in shorter time probably means I probably blanked-out
for a second or nervous or something. There are still problems in which I don't
understand why the answers are correct even after reading the explanations, so I
suppose the first thing is to get these straighten out. Other than that, I'm not
sure. More practice maybe.

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