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vineetbatra · Sun Nov 15, 2009 8:16 pm

Hello All,

I am really confused and need advice.

I started my preparation sometime in June/July this year and have been regularly studying since then, I started with a score of 570 in Gprep and reached 680 in MGMAT over a period of 3-4 months. Then I re took a Gprep and scored 620, needless to say I panicked. I took a Knewton Test and got 640 and then took another Gprep and scroed 650 (4-5 repeats).

I beleive my fundamentals in SC are not good (even after completing MGMAT SC guide). In CR and RC I am getting better.

In Quant I have been constantly hitting mid 40's for the last 3-4 months, just can't seem to go past that barrier(majority of mistakes in DS)

I think my biggest problem is that I panic during the exam, when I try to solve that same problem after the exam I am usually able to solve it in 2 minutes. Another theroy is I am burning myself, maybe studying too hard and not in a systematic way.

Till now I have only studied from MGMAT guides and OG, should I try MGMAT course or maybe try Knewton that focus on adaptive learning and concentrates on weaknesses.

My test is in 15 days and I am in a state of panick and confusion. I am considering 3 options

1. Should I take the sceduled test (if I do not score well then take a course and then re take after 2-3 months)

2. Reschdeule and join an online course.

3. Just reschedule and revise all that I have done till now and focus on fundamentals.

Any thoughts or advice will be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Vineet

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beatthegmat · Sun Nov 15, 2009 10:58 pm

Hi Vineet,

At this point it doesn't sounds like you lack mastery of the GMAT concepts, nor do you lack practice. The low-hanging fruit in my opinion is controlling your panic during the exam. If you can control your stress during test taking, that should do more for your practice than anything else.

I don't think you need more classes. In the next week I suggest that you focus on finding resources to control stress and panic, and then take a practice test in realistic conditions to see how your new techniques help you. If you think you have a handle on your test taking stress, then go for it!

Good luck, please let us know what you decide.

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vineetbatra · Sun Nov 15, 2009 11:22 pm

Thanks Eric,

Appreciate the response. I have been working hard, but have not been able to complete everything I want to and revise it.

Will try another mock test later this week and see where it goes.

Vineet

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beatthegmat · Sun Nov 15, 2009 11:24 pm

Please please take some time to study stress management too. There have been some great articles published on this subject on Beat The GMAT too:

http://www.beatthegmat.com/a/stress-management

Good luck!

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vineetbatra · Mon Nov 16, 2009 6:22 am

Thanks Eric.

Vineet

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DanaJ · Mon Nov 16, 2009 7:09 am

Received a PM.

As Eric said, it's not that you lack the concepts needed to do good in the GMAT; there are only a few things that you need to have down properly.

First off, you say you're not 100% sure on SC, even after going through the MGMAT guide. This means one of two things:
- you did not properly review the book. Remember: for a non native English speaker, the guide presents a myriad of new rules, examples and tips. You need to take your time with this book, it's not something that you can just browse through: you have to have a pen and paper at hand to take notes and such and to give yourself enough time to digest the material. I say that if you feel you did not pay due attention to getting down every concept, try reviewing the book to make sure everything sticks.
- English in general is still a weakness for you. In this case, you should consider investing in a good grammar book (like Longman or Oxford guides) and read as much as you can!

Secondly, you say DS is still a problem for you. This is not uncommon you know, because for most people this type of question is something they have not seen before. Do you know the AD-BCE split? If not, I'll try to briefly explain it to you in a future post. You should also remember that practice makes perfect in this area, so maybe you could buy the OG quant supplement for some extra official DS questions - I think it's got over 120.

Thirdly, managing stress and time issues is basically dealing with the same problem. If you're running out of time, stress mode kicks in. To avoid this, try the following:
- always ALWAYS time your practice, whether you do a set of 5 questions or a full test. You need to be aware of time constraints from the getgo! You should not leave this to the CATs!
- try to memorize a few useful things, such as squares up to 15, cubes up to 5, general rules for right triangles... These are all things that will most likely save you a lot of time on D-day.
- use mental math & do not write everything down. If you frantically scribble on your paper, you won't be able to decipher anything in the end. Try to avoid taking lengthy notes and if you do, do it in an orderly fashion.

As to whether you should reschedule or not... Well, that depends on your target score! As far as I recall, you did not mention one. If your target score is 750, I think it's safe to say you should indeed reconsider the test date. If your aiming for something like 700, I think it's a reasonable goal given your current status (which I'm assuming is somewhere like 650).

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vineetbatra · Mon Nov 16, 2009 8:14 am

Thanks Danaj,

My target score is 710+.

As far as DS split is concerned, its running in my blood stream now, my problem with DS is that I do not solve the equations completely and jump to the conclusion too soon. I think I need to slow that down. I have done questions from OG 10 and OG 12.

My initial accuracy of SC questions is 67% for OG 12 and Verbal guide, I have started re doing OG 12 and verbal guide and going through MGMAT SC guide, the second revision is making my concepts more clear but not necessarily increasing my accuracy.

Till about a month ago I was timing each and every question, but lately I am not timing my questions deliberately so that I can focus on the concepts properly rather than trying to find the answer in 2 minutes. I am not sure if this right way of practicing.

As far as Quant is concerned I am able to solve most of the questions in which the answer choices are values, I usually get stuck with questions where variables and inequalities are used; I just take too much time to get started on these questions thereby wasting valuable time.

Hope this gives more insight about my preparation.

Cheers,

Vineet

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DanaJ · Tue Nov 17, 2009 7:31 am

Well, if you say you're having trouble with inequalities, maybe it's a good idea to buy a book that specifically targets this section. I think Manhattan has some sort of guide for this.

I say time your practice even if it's concept practice: even if you don't go for the 2 minutes, you should try to see how much it takes for you to get the right answer and gradually be less lenient on yourself as test day comes.

The accuracy issue in SC means that you're either not doing all the steps right or the concepts are not as clear. You may know all the relevant information for solving a question, but this may not be enough for the simple reason that you can't apply it. Try to force yourself to use everything you've got, don't just keep information stacked up somewhere!

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