Back to basics - how to tell GMAT I'm not stupid?

[Wanbro]

Yesterday I found myself on the sorry end of an appalling display in quant. Not entirely sure what happened - i'm no maths genius, but I was scoring solidly in the mid-40s in the practice tests, which, when coupled with a normally very decent display in verbal would have been enough to bag a solid score.

But it didn't happen like that.

Question 1 - I had absolutely no idea how to answer. Panic, calm down, guess, move on. Question 2. Likewise. Rack brains for a while, realise it's going nowhere, guess, move on.

Problem is, as soon as my score started to go down, the exam started asking me all these questions that it assumed I knew about statistics, standard deviation, and all other bits and pieces that I had NEVER come across in any of my prep material (Kaplan, OG Quant, MGMAT).

As soon as I started getting these easy questions wrong, it was curtains. Where were my opportunities to display my fearsome grasp of geometry? Where was my chance to calculate the new concentration of acid / time it takes for three people to paint 90 houses / average time it takes a train to travel to Chicago? Just didn't happen. I came up against a whole range of questions I'd never seen anything like, and found myself completely incapable of answering many of them.

So, where to go from here? I know that my quant score does not reflect what I can do, but I'm in the bizarre position of being able to do most of the really hard questions - but being stumped by the ones that I should be able to do without even thinking.

It's clear that I need to go right back to the beginning and plug all the holes in my quant knowledge - but I'm not entirely sure how to go about this. How do I start? Help!!

[mayonnai5e]

That was one of my initial worries when I started studying - that I would study the hard problems so much that I wouldn't be able to answer the "easy" and "medium" questions that you must get right to get to the hard questions. Go back to the OG11 beginning sections and go through the easy questions again. Sometimes, you get so caught up in doing hard combination, permutation, probability, etc etc questions that you can't even remember how to solve the easy questions that are completely unrelated.

[wongee]

This is very important. The last time I took a Kaplan course and really drove myself crazy in doign well on their tests and now looking back. I did! My highest being 670 in a Kaplan test, at that time I did not know that the tests were skewed to be slightly more difficult that the actual Gmat. I also worked on the 800 book. Anyways lon story short, i think all this focus and dedication to so called 'tough' problems really plays with u so much that when u see a simpler one u are left in a daze.

So this time around, I plan on tackling the easy problems and balancing the STUDY time as well with both tough and easy problems so that your mind is ready for both.

[Wanbro]

Good plan. It's funny how the so-called 'easy' ones can completely floor you. I got three questions in a row on standard deviation/means/medians (and not the nice ones that ask you which of the choices is more than 2 SDs away etc.) and another three on coordinate points intended to get me back in my stride.

By then, of course, the mist had come down and panic had set in.

Back to adding fractions tonight then...

[Riggz]

this is exactly what happened to me!!! I didnt answer the first question right, than I got all these number property questions, that I thought I knew how to do, and was similarly looking for the hard ratio, work, percentage..etc problems!!

What was your plan of action the second time around?

[Wanbro]

My plan of action the second time round...

...has so far been not to touch GMAT books for about 3 months now. Whilst this has mostly been because of a crazy work schedule since September, it means that I've forgotten how to do so many of these damn quant questions. Now I'm back on the case and keen for a second bite of that GMAT cherry in the next month or so but- through necessity - having to start right at the beginning again.

So here we go again - who needs a social life anyway?

[beatthegmat]

My plan of action the second time round...

...has so far been not to touch GMAT books for about 3 months now. Whilst this has mostly been because of a crazy work schedule since September, it means that I've forgotten how to do so many of these damn quant questions. Now I'm back on the case and keen for a second bite of that GMAT cherry in the next month or so but- through necessity - having to start right at the beginning again.

So here we go again - who needs a social life anyway?

Well, don't completely write off your social life during your prep--it will keep you sane.