foobarnull wrote:I used the grid method for GMAT Prep CAT 2 today. Still had time left over for V, but only about 3-4 minutes, which I'm comfortable with. Looks like either it helped my accuracy greatly or I prefer the V on the official CAT over the MGMAT stuff. I sometimes feel that the MGMAT questions are awkwardly/ambiguously worded or that the questions themselves use improper English... not sure if that's just me or if anyone else has noticed this too. I'm going back to OG11 for recalibration on Q & V for a coupla days.LSB wrote:A few interesting points:
Even though I am not an authority in Q by any means I would like to comment on your altitude point.
I found GMAT question sto be significantly different than GMAC. They test the same concepts. But the real deal is really heavy on traps and trying to test whether you see the shortcuts. On the other hand, the majority of MGMAT Q's focus on your ability to hammer the problem throuhg by using heavy arithmetic. I found that this conditioned me the wrong way. During my last 4 days I only did GMAT Prep math sections ... and MGMAT verbal sections (I found that GMATPrep did not have many Q's for verbal and I was seeing the same paragraphs over and over again.
As far as altitude and verbal is concerned, my biggest focus were MGMAT CATs (I wouldn't say they are more difficult than the real deal ... but they are just right to push you). I found the explanations on SC Q's invaluable (often read the explanations for wrong choices as well to get a better appreciation for the rules that were involved) and the long RC passages really helped me condition myself to read faster.
You also have an interesting point on the fact that you finish so early on V section. I would highly recommend slowing down to increase accuracy. If you have the time read all answer choices that's amazing. In SC some of the weirdest choices turn out to be correct at the 7-800 levels. The right answer is not always the intuitive one. I only skipped SC options if I knew 100% that the choice must be wrong based on a rule I knew (say verb noun matching). And if you have extra time: It really helped me to step away from the computer for 30 secs. Just look at something else and empty your brain.
Finally, on the grid: I'm not talking about a fancy grid where you have the 41 questions lined up with numbers and a full-fledged grid. All I did was write " abcde" 20 times on the each of the first two pages of my notepad (took 60 seconds during the instruction phase, which is not deducted from your 75 mins). I could then just pick any abcde combination to start eliminating as I read through the choices. I would read choice 1, if wrong I would cross it out - if potentially right, I would underline and come back to it after I finish reading the other choices. Some of the choices in CR and RC are long reads. Once you have eliminated them you don't want to go back and reread them.
If you're gonna do this make sure you do it in your practice tests before the weekend. Otherwise you'll just confuse yourself during test day.
Anyway - I gotta get back to work nowGood Luck Buddy
Scary thing is, 50% of my Q mistakes were careless errors on things I knew & saw while taking the test! Really need to watch out for those traps.Any notable ones from your test?
Oh, and thanks for all your input... you'll be getting a HUGE shout out on my debrief this weekend!
I don't particularly remember any specific traps from the test. My comment was a general one where for some math questions there are two approaches:
1) you don't have to lift a pen and can see the result right away
2) you can go nuts on the question and start long dividing and multiplicating for 5 mins non-stop
Both approaches will likely lead to the same result. But the first approach is definitely more advantageous.
