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Fluctuating Mock CAT scores - Need help

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Fluctuating Mock CAT scores - Need help

by sumit.sinha » Sun Aug 22, 2010 12:28 am
Hi Guys,

How are you all doing?

I started studying for GMAT around 2 months ago. At that time one of my dear friend suggested me this forum. I ignored him thinking that the "Princeton Manual for GMAT" + "OGs" would be enough to take me through this thing called GMAT. But i assume i was wrong and here i am. :oops: and I need some help.

The issue is with drastic score fluctuation between 1st and 2nd time on giving the same exam. Though not all the questions were repeated, but yes a total of 5-6 questions were. It seems like when i have more time (because the repeated questions are done in under 5 secs) i do well (specially on verbal), and when the timer is on, i make silly mistakes in verbal which during review i find i could have done correctly ( though i find i could have all the wrong ones correctly if i would have used a little more brain :lol: ). Also, my weakest area is RC. On an average in every exam if i get 7-8 verbal questions wrong, 4 are from RC.


I have given the below mock CAT tests:
1. Princeton CAT 1 - 1st time score - 660 (all new questions) - 17th Aug
2nd time score - 720 Q51 V39 (some Q repeated) - 18th Aug
2. Princeton CAT 2 - 1st time score - 720 Q51 V39 (some of them repeated from CAT1) - 19th Aug
3. GMATPrep1 - 1st time score - 630 Q46 V30 ( all new questions) - 20th Aug
2nd time score- 730 Q51 V37 (some repeated) - 21st Aug

So i am really confused because of the big fluctuation in the scores. :?

I had initially planned my test date to be this Friday, but seems like i have to postpone it.


My target before i feel confident about giving the exam:
1. Ideally get 720-750 in all the mock CATs
2. Get the Verbal score up to at least 40+. with a Quant of 49+. ( in the mock CATs)
3. Improve in RC. get the error average down to at most 2 from the current 4.

Please suggest me on where i am going wrong?
How to achieve this target?
Which other materials should i go though with?
and finally where to get the full-length practice tests from, free and paid? ( i have got 5 from Princeton and 2 from GMATPrep).

Eagerly awaiting your responses.

With Regards,
Sumit Sinha
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by sumit.sinha » Sun Aug 22, 2010 6:23 am
Just to add to the above:

I went through the "success stories" published on this forum and have decided to give some more time to preparation.

I have made the following list of books to go through ( thanks to the resource section):

General:
Cracking the GMAT, 2010 Edition - Completed
Kaplan GMAT 2010 Premier Live Online
The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 12th Edition - Already Completed but would love to repeat

Math:
Manhattan GMAT Sentence Correction GMAT Preparation Guide, 4th Edition
The PowerScore GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible
Manhattan GMAT Reading Comprehension Strategy Guide
Kaplan GMAT Verbal Workbook
The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review, 2nd Edition

Verbal:
Kaplan GMAT Math Workbook
Veritas Prep Combinatorics and Probability
The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review, 2nd Edition

Will these be enough?
or Can i remove some of them which will give overlapping concepts and questions
or do i need to include more books e.g. all the 8 strategy guides of Manhattan?
Please suggest.

With Regards,
Sumit Sinha
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by The Duke » Sun Aug 22, 2010 6:38 am
When re-doing GMAT Prep test:

If you see a question you recognize (and you know the answer as soon as you read it), wait there for 2mins before selecting the answer (if you know how to do the question confidently)... hence your not artificially inflating your score with additional time

(This is the really hard part)
If you see a question you recognize (and you know the answer as soon as you read it).... but its a hard question (a question you initially got wrong)

1) wait there 2mins ... then select the right answer (if your sure you know the correct methodology this time around, since you've studied the material and understand it)
2) wait there 2mins - then select the wrong answer (since you know that you'd likely try to solve this question under test conditions, but ultimately would get it wrong still)
3) recognize that the question is too hard for you (even if u know the answer immediately)... you waste little time and select a wrong answer wthin 25seconds

Following these rules are counter intuative obviously but is very necessary. I suspect some of your re-take test scores are artificially inflated due to extra time and/or extra correct answers.

I used these rules when I re-did one of my GMAT Prep exams ... I took the GMAT Prep about 4 days before the actual GMAT exam using these above conditions... and score the exact score on the actual as the Prep.

Also dont take more then 1 prep exam on 1 day...
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by sumit.sinha » Sun Aug 22, 2010 7:12 am
Thanks Duke for sharing your strategy and your valuable advice.

Any any insight on which books to follow next so as to know that i am on the right track?
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by The Duke » Sun Aug 22, 2010 7:52 am
Well I cannot attest to Princeton books or Kaplan test.
When I studied, it was kinda of speed study since I was on the clock to get it done with a good score, for admissions to accept me (they did about 2 days after my actual test).

I cant recommend Quant books except for the Kaplan Review, since its the only book I used. I was good in quants from the start and only studied Quants for about 1.5 weeks (out of the 10 total).

OG12 - great for practice, and great for understanding the methodology for Critical Reasoning.
Powerscore for Critical Reasoning - is good, but i found that if your not scoring in the 700s, there may not be enough practice for test takers in the 600-700 range. Thats what I thought initially.

I definitely think that getting any Manhattan GMAT book is huge value, since it comes with 6 CAT exams. The CAT exams come with solutions and hints. These CAT helped me improve on my SC, as they noted in there solutions the correct forms. I think made a list of correct forms, and essentially tried to memorize them, so when I was faced with a SC question, I would immediately think of the "correct form" type, without even reading the whole question. This allowed me to quicker scan for "non GMAT correct answer" types.

The book I choose was Manhattan SC.

Also in my above post... if its a SC question.. the 2mins could be changed to 90seconds of waiting. And not applicable for Reading Comprehension
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by The Duke » Sun Aug 22, 2010 7:54 am
You may find this thread I started previously helpful also, regarding differences between approaches for Preps and Actuals.

https://www.beatthegmat.com/how-to-appro ... 63502.html
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by The Duke » Sun Aug 22, 2010 8:00 am
Lastly... just copying and pasting.

Quants-

Manhattan - hardest and different stylistic (tho good to practice for speed)
GMAT Prep - medium
GMAT - "medium" or "easiest" - if you employ good strategy.

Verbal-

Manhattan - medium
GMAT Prep - hardest
GMAT - "easiest" of the 3 (I found)

RC - shorter on actual GMAT (then prep) ... I saw at least 2 RC passages with 4 questions on the actual. Mahattan RC is strickly 3 questions per passage tho.
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