Ask Stacy Blackman

Hi Stacy Blackman team,

Please can I get your advice on the following issue. For the past few practise CATs, which I take every 2 weeks, I have been scoring roughly 620. The good news is that Verbal continues to rise. However, my Quant score consistently remains low (average scaled score of 38).

When I work on Quant with the OG guide and other resources, I get a high proportion of the questions correct whilst doing the questions under timed conditions. I am doing Kaplan CATs and will shortly start on MGMAT CATs.

I can't figure out where my problem in Quant lies... I think it's related to the actual taking of the test or the computer adaptive nature of the test. When I take a CAT, I usually finish the Quant section in very good time indicating I am skipping questions at the right stage. However, I have found that I usually do a lot better on Quant when I run out of time at the end!!! Should I spend more time on questions and relax a bit?

Please can you advise me on how I can track down the root issue? I think that some of the root causes of my low score could be due to:

• - panicking on the Quant section
  - not spending enough time on the hard questions (simply skipping them when I know that I can do them in roughly 3 mins)
  - getting stuck on easy questions as they seem "too good to be true"
  - compared to Verbal, it seems harder to get a good percentile on Quant
  - Kaplan Quant questions are different to OG Quant questions

I hope someone can help me out - any advice you give would be hugely appreciated.