GMAT Strategy

[email protected] wrote:Hi realkaka08,

I have a few questions about your practice CAT scores and your Official GMAT score:

1) What were your Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores on your Official GMAT?
2) Is this the first time you've taken these practice CATs (or have you taken any of them more than once)?
3) Did you take the ENTIRE practice CAT each time (or did you ever skip the Essay and/or IR sections)?
4) Do you have a pacing problem in the Verbal section (do you have to guess on a bunch of questions just to finish the section)?

While getting 3-4 questions wrong in a row would certainly hurt your score, the effect isn't quite as drastic as you think it probably is. So while this is certainly an issue that you have to correct, it's not the only problem you have in the Verbal section. You also need to consider how much time you're spending on SC and CR questions, how often you're "narrowing the answers down to 2 choices and then 'guessing'" but still getting the question wrong, how often you take notes vs. just running to the answers, etc.

To reduce the mistakes you're talking about, trying thinking about the following:
1) How do you handle 'wordy' questions in Quant?
2) How do you handle regular-sized RC passages?

As to buying a "pack" of practice CATs, that's fine - but taking lots of practice CATs in 2 weeks is NOT the solution to your problem. If you were to take so many CATs in such a short period of time, then you would be far more likely to score at the same level over-and-over and possibly "burn out" a bit before your Official GMAT. You should be focused on practice - precision, organization, accuracy - repeating steps that help you get questions correct regardless of the length of the prompt. THEN you take a CAT once a week (or so) to measure your progress.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

[email protected] wrote:Hi realkaka08,

I think it's important to get a measure of your current ability on a brand new CAT (one that you've never taken before). For this CAT, you should try to make the details match Test Day as much as is realistically possible (so don't take the CAT at home; travel for the same amount of time that you would to get to the Testing Center, take the CAT at the same time of day as your Official GMAT, etc.).

Note-taking (when done correctly) saves time, improves accuracy and raises scores, so I do think that you should take more notes. Unfortunately, it's not practical for me to review your practice CATs, but I think you already know what you need to work on.

Once you've taken another practice CAT, you should report back here with the score results.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

[email protected] wrote:Hi realkaka08,

Have you taken any of the 4 practice CATs from www.mba.com? Those are the Official CATs and arguably the most accurate. I'd like to know how you perform on one of those Tests.

Your problems with RC are still likely due to a lack of note-taking. You do NOT need to understand the entire text of an RC passage to get RC questions correct, so full comprehension is NOT what you should be focusing on. You DO have to be active when you do deal with an RC passage though and find the author's points that matter.

The problem that you described in SC (knowing the rules but not being able to properly draw on that knowledge) is likely a fatigue issue. You should take a good look at how you handle the physical aspects of your test-taking (food, drink, sleep, posture, breathing, etc.) and determine what you can improve.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich