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Gmat Practice 700. Question on how to improve.

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by MartyMurray » Thu Feb 05, 2015 4:04 am
Brulee wrote:Hey guys,

I did a practice test and got 700.

48 on quantitative (78th percentile)
38 on verbal (84th percentile)

What should I focus on for the next 2 weeks to increase my score as much as possible?

Thanks
That depends on what went on. So to figure out the answer to your question, go back over the test and see where your challenges were. Which questions did you get wrong? What types of questions did you have trouble with? Which questions took forever to do?

If you had time issues on either section, figure out what you could do to speed up. Part of that comes with being better at answering questions. Part of that comes from being more aware of the time. Part of that can come from knowing when to ditch a question and just guess.

If I had a little more information, I could give you a more in depth answer. One thing I am wondering is what kind of CAT you used, a test prep company CAT? an official CAT? Did you take it all the way through?

Also, what resources do you have and what have you already done to prepare?

A breakdown of how you did on DS, PS, SC, CR and RC could be helpful too, and if you want ideas on how to deal with any specific challenges then let us know what they are.
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Thu Feb 05, 2015 7:44 am
Brulee wrote:Hey guys,

I did a practice test and got 700.

48 on quantitative (78th percentile)
38 on verbal (84th percentile)

What should I focus on for the next 2 weeks to increase my score as much as possible?

Thanks
Each time you take a practice test, be sure to carefully analyze the results afterwards. This will help you identify any remaining area(s) of weakness.

While analyzing your practice tests, there are four main types of weakness to watch out for:
1. specific Quant skills/concepts (e.g., algebra, standard deviation, etc.)
2. specific Verbal skills/concepts (e.g., verb tenses, assumption CR questions, etc.)
3. test-taking skills (time management, endurance, anxiety etc.)
4. silly mistakes

For the first two weaknesses, the fix is pretty straightforward. Learn the concept/skill and find some practice questions to strengthen that weakness. To focus on one topic at a time, you can use BTG's tagging feature to isolate one concept. For example, here are all of the questions tagged as statistics questions: https://www.beatthegmat.com/forums/tags/ ... statistics
See the left side of that linked page for more tag options.

If your test-taking skills are holding you back, then you need to work on these. For example, we have a free GMAT time management video at https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gener ... es?id=1244.

Finally, if silly mistakes are hurting your score, then it's important that you identify and categorize these mistakes so that, during tests, you can easily spot situations in which you're prone to making errors. I write about this and other strategies in the following article: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/articles/avo ... teaks-gmat

Cheers,
Brent
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by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Thu Feb 05, 2015 7:47 am
Here's some general advice I give to my students for the last two weeks:

1) Make sure that your last few practice exams simulate testing conditions. That means you want to, if possible, take these exams at the same time of day that you'll be taking the real thing. You'll do both the essay and IR. You'll eat what you plan on eating during the 8-minute breaks, etc.

2) Focus more on pattern recognition than question drilling. Click through your old practice exams, but rather than resolving all of the questions, spend time flipping through your mental rolodex of how you'd approach each one and why. "Okay, the algebra here is hairy, so I'd probably backsolve; Here I'd make a table; Here I'd use a number line, etc."

3) Consider doing some mindfulness meditation. There isn't much you're going to learn over a two-week period that will significantly influence your score, but there is research indicating that your mindset can have a profound impact on performance. Here's a link to an article about an interesting study on the topic: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archi ... on/275564/
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by [email protected] » Thu Feb 05, 2015 11:27 am
Hi Brulee,

I'd like to know a bit more about this CAT result:

1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT (including the Essay and IR sections)?
2) Was this a "new" CAT or one that you had previously taken?
3) When you reviewed this CAT, how often did you get a question wrong because of a silly/little mistake? How often did you get a question wrong because it was too hard? In the Verbal section, how often did you 'narrow it down to 2 choices and then "guess" wrong'?

At this scoring level, the GMAT becomes really "sensitive" to little mistakes, so I'd suggest working on eliminating whatever little mistakes occur (this usually involves taking more notes while you're working).

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by VivianKerr » Thu Feb 05, 2015 9:47 pm
Assuming you've completed the GMATPrep's, I'd go through these PDF files that have combined all the questions from those official CATs by Q-type. (The other ones are available too if you do a quick Google-search). That way, you can gauge:

1) whether you're getting repeat official Q's wrong (and why)
2) what you're missing content-wise in incorrect Q's

You can also do groups of them as pacing drills as well!
Attachments
COMPREHENSIVE RC - Questions.pdf
(1.1 MiB) Downloaded 105 times
COMPREHENSIVE RC - Answers.pdf
(799.24 KiB) Downloaded 103 times
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