650 (Q45,V34) - please suggest approach for 2nd attempt

aham

Well what can I say…disappointed but not surprised. I was scoring in the 650-700 range all throughout my prep.

My test scores:
650 (Q41,V38) - Kaplan diagnostic
640 (Q47,V31) - Princeton online
640 (Q49,V29) - Powerprep 1
600 (Q47,V27) - Powerprep 2
670 (Q48,V34) - 800score
560 (Q45, V13) - Crack GMAT
660 (Q45,V35) - MGMAT 1
690 (Q45,V39) - GMATPREP 1
700 (Q47,V38) - MGAT 2
720 (Q48,V40) - MGMAT 3
660 (Q46,V35) - GMATPREP 2
660 (Q48,V33) - GMATPREP 3
720 (Q49,V39) - GMATPREP 4
570 - Kaplan 1
580 - Kaplan 2

Test experience:

On the whole, questions were pretty straightforward. I was quite confident about Quants. Had to guess on the last 3 questions (definitely solvable) for lack of time. In all, I think I guessed about 5 or 6 questions in Math. As it turned out, the straightforward questions weren’t that straightforward. Think I fell into my traps.

I also double checked many answers in Math and may have lost valuable time in the process…Zero on Probability. One on combinations. A couple of modulus. One on Geometry.

Verbal was always my weak area. RCs were straightforward. Got one on literature, one on organizational structure and another one on history. I was never too confident about my verbal answers and had to guess on many questions when it came to the final 2 choices.
No boldfaces (as is expected for my score). Did not feel too tired during the entire exam. However, for some reason, I couldn’t concentrate during Verbal. I kept thinking about the scores during the later half of the Verbal section. I also read and reread several questions to understand the gist and lost valuable time.

The overall difficulty level was nowhere close to what I have seen in many of the other tests (MGMAT, Kaplan Verbal). However, I may have only been tested on the medium bin level because I could have bombed the crucial ones leading to hard bin questions.

A bare naked observation on my preparations:

Materials used: OG11, Princeton Review (for Verbal tips), Scoretop VIP membership, Verbal Sets 21-31, 800 score Math, started with 1000 series (but did not find enough time), Manhattan SC, Manhattan Full Tests (by far the best material for the sheer class of its explanations).

What I think I did wrong:

* Focused a lot on Quantity and not on Quality
* Did not really try to drill down on my weak areas.
* Committed a lot of silly mistakes in Math but did not take any steps to rectify it (I don’t know how you could do it, but I thought practice was one way)
* RC – did not give as much importance as I gave for CR or SC
* RC – only practiced questions on full tests and not from any other source
* RC – although I focused a lot on understanding the content, I never really did try to get a feel for the structure of a passage.
* CR – went mostly with intuition and did not buy into the idea of sorting out assumption, evidence and conclusion (as I felt it was time consuming)
* SC – could have focused a little more on idioms (although it may not have made a huge impact)
* DS – got stumped a lot here. In many cases, I could solve the problem again after revisiting it only to find that I committed a silly mistake. One such mistake was carrying over info from stmt 1 to stmt 2 and choosing stmt 2 as the ans. However, I did not make a concerted effort to rectify this type of mistake.
* Quant – could have gone over the 150 GMATPREP questions pool.
* Kept track of all tests in an excel file. Did not really use it for further analysis.
* Time Management – did not focus on allocating time buckets for a section.Ex: 25 min for the 1st 13, 25 min for next 13 and 25 min for the last 15

What I think I did right:

* Made flashcards for every new concept and for every concept that I erred in.
* Manhattan SC – I did improve my SC hit rate. I was getting about 11/15 correct in most tests, although I never could manage to spring to the next level.
* Put in enough hours every day (about 4-5 on weekdays and 8-10 on weekends for 2.5 months) [although it goes to show that amount of time is not as important as quality of time].

What I think I should do for my next attempt:

* Review all my tests to completely understand my weak areas (similar to Manhattan Assessment Report)
* Keep tabs on my weak areas and follow up on it once in a while to see improvement trend.
* Focus on Accuracy and let Speed pick up naturally.
* Consistently practice every problem type (CR,RC,SC,DS,PS)
* SC - may have to get a little orientation on grammar fundamentals
* Verbal - improve my concentration levels to understand the question the very 1st time
* Time Management – got to be in better control
* Read articles on NYTimes, Wall Street for passage structure and overall gist
* Become more religious and pray to get lucky next time!

Materials I could use this time:

* Sets 1-20, Sets 21-31 for Math
* 1000 series
* Powerscore for CR – I heard it’s the bible for CR
* Kaplan 2 tests
* Really don’t have anything else left out. Please post your suggestions.

In conclusion, I would like you guys to share your opinion on what I need to do differently this time. “One cannot keep doing the same things over and over and keep expecting different results” – words of my former boss are ringing loud and clear!! This is the scary part too, for I am not sure about the path to tread on. Your views will very much help me in seeing (or is it "to see") light at the end of the tunnel. Will give it another go and see what happens….down but definitely not out!

rgds,
aham

mayonnai5e · Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2007 5:53 pm Post subject:

Excellent post on strengths and weaknesses!

Guest · Test Date: March

Wow, this is a really great debrief. I think your section on what to do next time is spot on.

The important thing is that you seem to be approaching your test prep systematically. I'm confident you'll hone into your weaknesses and do even better next time.

Guest · Test Date: March

Thats a great analysis aham.

i myself took gmat on oct 10 and scored a dismal 590(qa 45, va 27). i did find a lot of weak areas you addressed in your post as the weaknesses in my preparation. i also struggled a lot on time aspect. i had to do some random marking in QA and VA due to time crunch. i plan to retake test in december. i will make use of ur analysis in my preparation.

achandwa · Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 7:22 am Post subject:

Great analysis Aham! It will help everyone (including me) who is preparing to take the test. I wish you good luck on your next attempt. BTW I have couple of questions:
1. What is GMATPrep#3 and GMATPrep#4? I thought GMAC only provided two sample tests?
2. Where did you find powerprep tests? If you have a link can you please post here?
Thanks, Ashish

beatthegmat · Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 9:42 am Post subject: