GMAT Strategy

Hello friends,

This post is asks about absorbing, understanding, and finally applying content learned.

Background:
-writing GMAT in April (eek!)
-studying before work, lunch break, after work
-CAT 1 540 Q31 V34
-goal score 600-ish

Learning tools include:
-MGMAT study guides (all nine, including online question banks)
-OG 2016 (all three books, including online access)
-flashcards (my own+downloaded from BTG)
-error log

My issue is that while going though the MGMAT guides, the materials make sense and I'm able to complete the questions written by MGMAT. However, when it comes time to apply that knowledge to OG questions, I'm dumbfounded.

The MGMAT guides have quizzes using OG questions in three levels: easy, medium, and hard. I am able to get through the easy questions most of the time but really struggle with the medium level questions while the hard level questions feel as though written in a foreign language.

When I review all the OG questions I got wrong, the right answer makes sense but when I attempt another similar/harder question I'm lost again.

Is there an intermediate step I'm missing in between understanding and applying? What should I be doing to progress from easy to medium/hard level questions? Am I simply doomed?????

I don't want to 'waste' too many OG questions; my fear is that being able to complete OG questions after multiple redo's won't translate well enough on Test Day. Are there good study tips/learning strategies I could use to help my case?

Thanks in advance for your input!


-L

Hi Rich,

Thank you for your reply. Rewriting the steps makes sense, great tip!

The April test is my second attempt, actually. I initially wrote it in November 2015. I studied approximately two months and a bit using ONLY Kaplan's Premier Textbook and online self-guided study modules. My Kaplan mock tests then were around 500 to 620 range. My actual test score was 4 something. I was so mortified after seeing the '4' that I immediately cancelled my score, without even looking at the whole number. I now know I was ill prepared for my first attempt.

I decided to get back on the horse sometime in December. Got myself the OG and MGMAT books, signed up for this forum, and have been chipping away at it for about two weeks now. I am planning on attending B-school fall this year. The schools I'm looking at have May, June and July deadlines. As for my target score, I want 640 but will be happy to just get past 600! I've read elsewhere that 100+ point improvement is rare.

-L

Hi lfa713.

You are definitely not "doomed". You just have more work to do.

First of all, you need to be clear that the GMAT is not a typical math test or some kind of grammar test.

Those tests typically test your level of knowledge of a topic. So generally when taking one of those types of tests, if you have seen how to, for instance, perform a certain type of calculation, you will know how to answer a question that will show up on the test, because that question will look almost exactly like one you worked on when preparing for the test.

The GMAT is not like that. The idea is not to see how many explanations you have read. The GMAT is more of a reasoning game that you play for points, and the practice questions you see are examples of the types of things you may see rather than basically what you will see.

As a matter of fact, even for the pros on this site, a GMAT question that they have not seen before can look pretty freaky at first. When I am working with someone, often we both have the same initial reaction to a new question, something along the lines of "How on earth am I going to get the answer to that??"

The difference between scoring relatively high and scoring relatively low comes down to what one does AFTER that initial reaction, and much of what it takes to get a high score involves learning how to hack one's way to answers.

So somehow you have to develop that hacking skill. It may be that you have more of that skill than you realize you do. Just you aren't really using it.

In any case, here's an idea. Next time you see a question that you have no idea how to answer, don't look at the explanation to that question. Instead, do whatever it takes to work your way to the answer. If necessary, go back to the relevant Manhattan guide and go to other resources that explain how to answer questions something like the one you are working on. You can review the concepts related to that question, look at explanations to other similar questions, and learn anything else you need to learn, and without looking at the explanation to that particular question figure out how to get to the answer, even if doing so takes you an hour.

By doing that you will be essentially replicating the process that one uses when one is taking the GMAT, except that by the time you get to the test, you won't need to go back to a guide because you will have gotten to a point such that you know enough to answer questions.

Get it?

The step you have been leaving out is the step of practicing figuring, hacking and doing whatever else it takes to get to answers. You can read 1000 explanations and that won't give you the skill you need. You need to develop that hacking skill, and that skill is not just mental. It even has emotional components, including handling those emotions experienced when you first see a bewildering question and those you might experience when you have been working on a question for a while and still have not gotten to the answer. So to develop that skill you need to go through the question hacking process repeatedly until you become accustomed to that experience and working your way to answers to questions becomes as natural as figuring out how to get around in a city you are in for the first time.

As I indicated, at first it may take literally an hour or more to get an answer to a medium or hard question, but you can be sure that the more you practice the better you will get at working your way to right answers.

To keep from "using up" the OG questions, for quant you can use the question bank here. https://bellcurves.com The question bank can be accessed by going to the GMAT area and setting up a practice account. Don't worry if some of the questions seem freaky. Some of them are. Use your judgement and skip some, but I don't mean skip half of them, maybe one out of ten.

For more quant questions and for verbal questions, you could use the Veritas question bank, here. https://www.veritasprep.com/gmat-question-bank/ Like the questions from any test prep company, not every question in the Veritas bank is exactly like the ones on the actual test, but many of them are close, and the explanations are great.

lfa713 wrote:Hello friends,

This post is asks about absorbing, understanding, and finally applying content learned.

Background:
-writing GMAT in April (eek!)
-studying before work, lunch break, after work
-CAT 1 540 Q31 V34
-goal score 600-ish

Learning tools include:
-MGMAT study guides (all nine, including online question banks)
-OG 2016 (all three books, including online access)
-flashcards (my own+downloaded from BTG)
-error log

My issue is that while going though the MGMAT guides, the materials make sense and I'm able to complete the questions written by MGMAT. However, when it comes time to apply that knowledge to OG questions, I'm dumbfounded.

The MGMAT guides have quizzes using OG questions in three levels: easy, medium, and hard. I am able to get through the easy questions most of the time but really struggle with the medium level questions while the hard level questions feel as though written in a foreign language.

When I review all the OG questions I got wrong, the right answer makes sense but when I attempt another similar/harder question I'm lost again.

Is there an intermediate step I'm missing in between understanding and applying? What should I be doing to progress from easy to medium/hard level questions? Am I simply doomed?????

I don't want to 'waste' too many OG questions; my fear is that being able to complete OG questions after multiple redo's won't translate well enough on Test Day. Are there good study tips/learning strategies I could use to help my case?

Thanks in advance for your input!


-L

There are certain points that I would like to bring in your attention

1) Your score doesn't seem balanced as your Verbal score in much better in comparison to your QUant score (You can very well see it in percentiles). This score clearly tells you that your strength is Verbal and Weakness is Quant. However you must know that the score that you have in Quant is at such a level from where getting it back on around 40+ which which will fetch you an improvement of about 80 marks in total GMAT score will get your goal achieved so I recommend that you give a major push to your Quant Section

2) Doing questions in great quantity or again and again is not a successful way. many get great score just after practicing OG and many fail to achieve that score even after solving every material of GMAT available under the sun. So the basic difference lies in the way the questions are solved. The accuracy in GMAT quant is totally dependent on your understanding of basic principles of Maths and application of right principle a t the right place in given time. Your lower score projects weakness in one of these two parts.
Since Quan is considered just very basic and common sense based so there are more chances that your strategy to solve question is flawed.

Before you try any treatment of any disease it's VERY important that you first get the diagnosis of the disease and find out what is the problem at first. So I suggest that you should get in touch with some expert ad take suggestion on what are your weakness and what is the remedy.

We can help you understand where you are going wrong as we do FREE assessment of students preparedness for GMAT test. You may feel free to get in touch at your convenience.

Prosper!!!

Hi lfa713,

From your second post, it sounds like you may have taken Kaplan's Self-Paced course when you studied leading up to November. I want to let you know that if that is the case, you can use our Higher Score Guarantee to regain access to the course for 6 months with no cost. That would allow you to use the questions in Q Bank and the practice CATs as you continue to study and to review any of the videos. All you need to do is call 1-800-KAPTEST (or 1-212-997-5886 outside of the US) and speak to one of our customer care representatives, and they will be happy to help. Feel free to send me a private message if you have any questions!

Best,
Jennifer

You should also take your best method for learning into consideration; do you learn best by writing/listening etc.
For me it definitely helps to absorb information, and later apply the information, if i write everything down AND read them out loud as i write, as i learn best both ways. Combining these two learning styles makes it super effective. I remember some years ago my studying method was speaking the hardest parts on a recorder and then playing and listening to them, while simultaneously writing down what i heard. Might not work for you the same way, but take this into consideration!

Hey lfa713,

How did your test go?

I feel I'm on your shoes!

Whatever the outcome was, don't give up on your dreams!