GMAT Strategy

Hi All,

I have a question on veritasPrep CATS. During my last(the one I took before my latest test) test I got 23 out of 41 correct on the verbal and scored a 35(percentile) and in the latest one I got 28/41 and still scored a 30. Is it ok?

I mean I did compare how many I got wrong in the initial 10 questions - On both the test I got 3 incorrect in first 10 and 4 incorrect in the next 10. Only difference is I got 3 wrong in a row(15,16,17) in my latest test(this may have caused the score to go down?).

Any help on this is highly appreciated.

Thanks

Probably that makes sense.

When you got those three wrong in a row, you drove the level down. Then if you maybe went back up a little and after that mixed right and wrong answers, you could have stabilized at the 30 level.

Thanks Marty for such a quick response.

after the 15,16,17 I got questions from 18 to 27 all correct, and between 18 to 41 I got only 6 wrong and that too not in a row(atmost 2 incorrect in a row). Does this mean in case this happens on the actual GMAT exam there is absolutely no come back?


Thanks

You can definitely come back from getting three wrong in a row. Somehow whatever pattern you generated after that did not drive your score much higher.

One key thing to scoring high on the GMAT is getting easy questions right. Probably somewhere in your patterns you missed some easy ones and that drove and kept your level down.

Now, to score higher next time, go back over the ones you didn't get and for each of them figure out how you could have gotten it right by noticing some key thing or by handling the question somehow differently. While there may be some, possibly SC questions, that you were not really equipped to get right, I believe that you you will find that the vast majority of the questions you didn't get you could have gotten right merely by thinking about them differently or noticing something that you didn't.

Thanks a lot for Such a valuable advice. These have been my scores on veritas

December 15 650 / 78 45 / 68 35 / 74 Review >
October 1 590 / 59 43 / 61 29 / 54 Review >
October 13 610 / 66 44 / 63 30 / 56 Review >
October 19 640 / 73 43 / 61 35 / 74 Review >
November 5 590 / 59 42 / 57 30 / 56 Review >

I have been analyzing my tests and trying to find what change will get me to score beyond 650. Content wise I have done what every I could but its the application part that I am lacking. For example a type of problem that I have been able to solve (say from probability), if i get a similar problem on a test I am able to solve but a problem from the same topic but slightly twisted I fail to solve.


and you are right there are some easier questions that I get wrong and I am trying my best to avoid such mistakes. for example there is one mistake that I keep repeating, in a questions like this
Is x2+y2>3z?

stmt 1 - (x+y)2=9z, and (x−y)2=z
stmt 2 - z=0

evaluating 1st statement i got till a point in which i got x^2+y^2=5z so i thought this statement is definitely sufficient to conclude x^2+y^2> 3z

i failed to evaluate z =0

and stmt 2 was alone definitely not sufficient so i marked a and obviously it was wrong option.

do you have any tips on how I can avoid such mistakes?

and Do you think I can score beyond 650 on the GMAT?

Thanks

Much of avoiding such mistakes can come with practice. It's rather easy to not realize that 0 is a possible value of a variable, but after you have gotten smoked that way three times, you will likely remember to check the next time.

Also, to get good at getting right answers, it helps to start off doing questions slowly, and very carefully, considering all kinds of angles and shooting for a very high hit rate. Then once you can achieve a high hit rate doing them slowly, seek to speed up.

One great source of practice quant questions is the question bank in the GMAT section here, https://bellcurves.com. You can access the question bank by signing up for a practice account.

Regarding your second question, clearly you can train to score at any level on the GMAT, up to and including 800.

Thanks Marty!

I will follow your advice.

Thanks