Crushed by GMAT, twice. Should I just let go of my dream?

theK: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 25; Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2008 4:50 am; Thanked: 1 times; GMAT Score:700

by theK » Sun Nov 01, 2009 7:48 am

Updated w/ latest AWA score. 4 Nov
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Hi All,

First of all, allow me to thank the major contributors, especially Eric, Stacey, and Ron for the numerous helpful posts. This is a great forum. Can't imagine preparing for the GMAT back in the pre-internet days.

Having said the above, I'd like to ask for tips/suggestions on how I should plan for my next move.

Profile background
Male, Aussie (but English is my 2nd language), 5 years of work experience in management consulting, with academic background in Computer Engineering & Commerce. I use a lot of logic in solving clients' problems. Tools I regularly use include MS powerpoint and excel at work. However, I am very rusty in Maths as I haven't touched it since the 3rd year of uni. Moreover, I have no experience with standardised tests.
Targeting a GMAT score of 700+. Wants to get into one of the Top 10 schools in the States.

GMAT Experience
<Study Period 1: 1 Apr - 15 Jul, 3.5 mths>
GMATPrep1 ---> 550 Q?? V??, 5 May '09 (No AWA. Initial check)
GMATPrep2 ---> 530 Q?? V??, 17 May '09 (No AWA)
MGMAT 1 ------> 600 Q42 V32, 24 May '09 (No AWA)
MGMAT 2 ------> 640 Q44 V33, 1 Jun '09 (No AWA)
Actual GMAT -> 590 Q36 V35, AWA4.5, 16 Jul '09

<Study Period 2: 1 Aug - 27 Oct, 3 mths>
GMATPrep1 ---> 640 Q43 V35, 6 Oct '09 (No AWA)
GMATPrep1 ---> 700 Q44 V40, 11 Oct '09 (No AWA)
GMATPrep2 ---> 640 Q44 V34, 18 Oct '09 (No AWA)
GMATPrep2 ---> 640 Q43 V35, 26 Oct '09 (No AWA)
GMATPrep1 ---> 730 Q48 V42, 26 Oct '09 (No AWA)
Actual GMAT -> 600 Q42 V31, AWA5.5, 28 Oct '09

GMAT Resources
- OG 11, OGV and OGQ
- Manhattan SC (2007 ed)
- All 3rd ed Manhattan strategy guides (Didn't have time for CR & RC)
- PowerScore CR Bible
- GMATPrep
- 6 Manhattan GMATs
- GMAT Answers to Real Essay Questions (3rd ed)
- Kaplan 800 2007-2008 ed (Based on quick browse, and opinions of forumites, I prefer allocating my time to Manhattan books)
- Kaplan Premier 2007-2008 ed (Based on quick browse, and opinions of forumites, I prefer allocating my time to Manhattan books)
- Manhattan Flash cards
- Notebooks containing summary of Manhattan guides (except for CR & RC)
- Notebooks containing calculations and process of eliminations for OG11, OGQ and OGV questions(first attempt, and googled explanations if got wrong or slow)

Precursor to Study Period 1
Prior to my first official study period, I've actually done the Diagnostics Test in OG11, and finished reading 2007 edition of Manhattan SC. Early indication pointed to rustiness in all areas. I was particularly worried with the complex Quant problems, especially DS.

Study Period 1: 1 Apr - 15 Jul, 3.5 mths
Between Apr-May, I started to go through about 7-10 questions of each area daily (10 PS, 10 DS, 7 RC, 7 CR, 7 SC) out of the OG Q and V. I decided to start on the physically-lighter OG Q and V first since I fly in and out every week to a client site.
Because I was so rusty in the basics, I focused not so much on the timing, but on understanding why I got a question right/wrong, and why the other answers are wrong. I use A4-size notebooks. I draw a vertical line in the middle of every page, with the left hand side for notes/calculation on my first attempt, and the right hand side for the notes on a quicker way even if I got the wrong answer, or for the notes on the right way to solve it if I couldn't solve it correctly. If the explanation in the OG books are vague, I'd google for how others solve the problem (usually ends up finding the detailed explanations in the BTG or the Manhattan forums

).

Took GMATPrep1 and 2, and MGMAT1 in May, and scored 550, 530, and 600 respectively. I realised that I needed books that give me the basics in Quant and Verbal as the answer explanations in the GMAC's books are sometimes vague.

I generally felt that my major weakneses are in DS, Inequalities, Number Properties, and SC.
Decided on the Manhattan strategy guides due to overwhelming positive experiences by people who've used them, especially the SC and Number Properties. Ordered them from Amazon. Took a while for the package to cross the Atlantic.

Once the Manhattan books arrived, I started studying them religiously every day, while also continuing with the OG questions. Must admit I did not follow the Manhattan's steps of completing a particular chapter's OG questions immediately after reading the chapter. Between the airports and the flights, it was just too hard to complete the OG questions in the order that Manhattan sugggested.
I also summarise key tips and examples of every chapter of the Manhattan books.

Also added to the arsenal is the Powerscore CR Bible. Can't say enough good things about this book.

Note that I only had 1.5mths left before the scheduled test when I started studying the Manhattan books. I found them very useful in bringing me up to speed with Quant. I finished 1 Manhattan book every week (Didn't have time for some Advanced sections in a few books). Note that by test time, I've finished OG Q and V, but have only worked on 1/4 of OG11 questions. Adhering to the schedule was quite tough as there were often times I had to work overtime, and it was almost bed time by the time I got home.

-AWA Prep-
I read several essays in GMAT Answers to Real Essay Questions, and practiced AWA separately twice. Memorised a few templates.

-Final week before Test-
I was still going through the OG11 questions, while also reviewing my summary of the Manhattan books.

-Prior to Test-
Test was scheduled at 1.15pm. Had sufficient breakfast and lunch. Good sleep. I was the only one to sit through the GMAT test, but the room was shared with other people taking shorter IT Courses' tests. I was a bit nervous, but I managed my composure by taking deep breaths and reciting a few positive affirmations.

-During the Test-
Before the test started, I wrote down the timing matrix that I obtained from BTG on the official GMAT notepad's first page.
Question# 5 10 15 20 etc
Q 66 56 46 36 etc
V 67 58 49 40 etc

Note that I found it troublesome to refer to this matrix during the test as I had to flip the notepad back to the first page just to check the timing.

AWA was ok, and I managed to finish them without any rush towards the end. I started typing in the templates before reading the Argument/Issue.
Quant started out tough, and it didn't get any easier.
The Verbal questions didn't seem that hard, except for 2 long RC passages and a few hard CRs.

-Test Result: 590, Q36, V35, AWA4.5-
I was devastated. AWA was ok. I should've included more examples, so I guess I deserved a 4.5. I think I deserve a 36 for Quant, but not sure why I got 35 for Verbal, except for the 2 tough RC passages.

The reason why I wanted to take the GMAT in mid July was to allow sufficient time for my supervisors to write the recommendations. I wanted to follow the plan that I set out at the start of the year, and by booking the test date, I was hoping that it'd force me to study. I was aiming to submit my applications in Round 1.

In hindsight, I think I underestimated the effort required. After the test, I didn't touch the GMAT books for 2 weeks. I just needed a break.

Study Period 2: 1 Aug - 27 Oct, 3 mths
Aiming for R2 submission, I continued to go through the OG11 questions.
On questions that I got wrong or took too long to solve, I made the effort to google for quicker ways to solve them. I made the effort to finish every question in the recommended time for that particular question type, e.g. Quant question in 2 minutes, SC in 60-75 secs, etc.

I kept track of my progress in a spreadsheet, and marked the questions that:
- I got wrong
- I took too long to solve
for later review.

I finished the OG11 questions, and went through the advanced chapters of the Manhattan guides.

-AWA Prep-
I continued to read more essays in GMAT Answers to Real Essay Questions, and practiced AWA separately a few times. Memorised a few templates.

Feeling a bit more comfortable with my progress, I took a few GMATPrep tests in the final month of studying, without AWA. When finished with one test, I always took screenshots of the questions, and googled for the quicker ways to solve the ones I got wrong or took too long to solve.

The results of the practice tests gave me confidence that I was making improvements, although I did see 3-5 repeat questions in every test.

-Final week before Test-
I went through the solutions of some tough OG11 questions, but didn't have enough time to go through all of them. I must admit I took a few GMATPrep practice tests in the final week. In the final 2 days, I reviewed my summary notes of the Manhattan books, and the Manhattan flashcards.

-Prior to Test-
The test was once again scheduled at 1.15pm. Had sufficient breakfast and lunch. Would've liked longer sleep, but it was ok. In the morning, I went through my notebooks containing Manhattan books' summary, and the Manhattan flash cards (also looked at this the night before). Once again, I was the only one to sit through the GMAT, but the room was shared with other people taking other tests. Felt a bit nervous, but did the breathings and the affirmations. I declined the offer to start the test 15min early as I was still calming myself down.

-During the Test-
Once in the test room, I wrote down the timing matrix on the official notebook. I decided to write it on my hand as well as I recalled the difficulty of flipping back to the 1st page of the official notebook during my first GMAT experience when I wanted to check the timing matrix.
AWA was good. Didn't have any problem with them, and I managed to finish what I wanted to write during the allocated time. I actually ran out of time after the Issue section before I could click Next. Wasn't too worried as I've read on the forum that the essay would still go through. I think it was confirmed by Stacey Koprince.
Once again, I started typing in the templates before reading the Argument/Issue.

Quant started out reasonable, but I did spend too much time on q3-7, which forced me to rush on q8-20. By the 30th question, I was 4min behind according to the timing matrix. I had to make educated guesses on 4-6 questions. Had a difficult Probability question which I couldn't solve either.
The Verbal questions didn't seem that hard, except for 2 long RC passages. But I noticed that there were a lot more CRs than I'm used to in the GMATPrep tests, and they were quite tough. I finished the Verbal section on time, but I did waste a bit of time rereading the long RC passages. One long RC passage appeared about 1/3rd way into the section, and the other one about 2/3rd way.

-Test Result: 600, Q42, V31, AWA Not Released Yet-
I covered the screen with the notebook and slowly slided the notebook to the right to reveal the scores. Once again, I was devastated. I realise that I've improved my Quant score, but somehow my Verbal score went backward (from 35 to 31!!!). My overall score only improved by 10 (from 590 to 600), which is insignificant. If only my Verbal score was about 41-42, I would've gotten a 690/700.

Analysis of My Overall Performance
I'm disappointed, but have not given up yet, thanks to the numerous turnaround stories in this forum. I may have lost two battles, but the jury is still out on the war. I'll postpone my application by a year, so I have plenty of time to prepare for another shot at the GMAT.

1. AWA
I think I've underestimated the impact of AWA towards my stamina. Didn't spend time practicing the complete GMAT exam. Will need to include AWA in my next GMAT practice tests.

2. Quant
I'd like to boost my Quant score to the high 40s. I think it's possible. In order to do this, I will need access to Tough Quant questions, with thorough explanations on how to relate tough questions to the basics (I think Manhattan calls this 'recognising the triggers').
I've been browsing BTG forum in the past couple of days, and lots of discussions point towards the Jeff Sackman's GMATHacks 1800 Math Problems.
I am also considering the following:
- GMATHacks Math Bible
- GMATHacks OG Companion
- GMATFix OG Companion
- Enrolling in Manhattan Live Online course

Questions:
a. Is '1800 Math Problem's a good source to practice the application of GMAT Quant basics? I find the OG11 and OG Q not sufficient.
b. Has anyone gone through both Manhattan Math strategy guides, and the GMATHacks Math Bible? If so, did you find anything additional?
c. How useful would the GMATHacks/GMATFix OG Companions be for someone who've finished analysing the OG11, OGQ and OGV questions?
d. Any comment on the Manhattan Live Online course, especially on how helpful it would be for someone who's gone through all of the Manhattan guides? I saw the sample recorded course, and it was quite good.
e. Any other recommendation besides the above?

3. Verbal
I noticed that the questions in the actual GMAT Verbal section are harder than those in the OGs, especially the RC and CR questions. I've also now realised how critical the Verbal section is towards your overall GMAT score. It seems as if we get penalised a lot more for a wrong answer in Verbal rather than in Quant. I started noticing this in GMATPrep. I could make 12-14 mistakes in Quant, and still get 42, but could only afford 4-6 mistakes in Verbal to get 41-42.

My findings are echoed in several past postings in BTG.

I'd like to increase my exposure to tough RC passages and CR questions, and fill the gaps in SC. BTG postings point to the following resources:
- 10 Actual, Official LSAT exams
- 10 More Actual, Official LSAT PrepTests
- Next 10 Actual, Official LSAT PrepTest
- LSAT SuperPrep
- PowerScore LSAT Reading Comprehension Bible
- PowerScore LSAT Logical Reasoning Bible
- Doing Grammar, by Max Morenberg (for SC)

Questions:
a. I think those 4 LSAT Prep books are a lot to go through. Should I just focus on 1-2?
Any other recommendation on resources for long RC and tough CRs? I'm trying to stay away from unofficial sources such as 1000CRs.

b. Thoughts on PowerScore LSAT Reading Comprehension Bible?

c. Is it worth it to buy the PowerScore LSAT Logical Reasoning Bible, having gone through the CR Bible? I read somewhere that they overlap a lot, and that the LSAT's one has additional content specific to LSAT.

d. Any other recommendation for Verbal?

4. Other Issues
Do you guys see any other issue with my performance? Perhaps timing issue? I read a posting by Stacy that even best performer have to learn to let go on trying to solve all problems. I think she said we have to make educated guesses on 4-7 questions.
Does anyone know if this figure is per section, or for both Quant and Verbal combined?
Does anyone have any tips on how to decide which question to guess? One way that I came across is to consider the payoff number for each question type (one of Manhattan articles).

I'm also considering getting a tutor. One major problem besides cost is that there is no GMAT tutor in Melbourne, Australia. Even if there is one, it'd be hard as I'll be in another city during weekdays. Does anyone know if tutors with great reputation such as Ian Stewart would be willing to tutor someone in a different timezone? I believe he's based in the UK, according to gmatix.com.

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Apologies for the lenghty post. I'm really keen to have another go at the GMAT with really solid preparation this time.
All the above feels a bit daunting. Should I just let go of my dream?

Last edited by theK on Wed Nov 04, 2009 1:48 am, edited 1 time in total.

Quote

Received a PM asking me to respond (sorry for the late response - getting lots of requests!).

In order of the info presented in your post:

It seems you have already figured this out, but just to make sure: take all practice tests under full official conditions. That includes the essays, the timing, the breaks, everything. Don't get up from your chair except during a break. Don't eat except during a break. Etc. Just pretend it's the real thing.

Because you didn't do the AWA on practice tests, you weren't fully prepared for the mental stamina necessary to perform at your highest level throughout the test. Your score was also possibly inflated via repeated questions on GMATPrep. How did you handle repeated questions? Did you still make yourself sit there for the usual length of time, or did you work more quickly than you would've been able to if it had been a new question? Did you get it wrong if you'd gotten it wrong before (even if you remembered the answer)?

It's important to know whether your score was inflated because that changes your strategy. It looks like the 700 and 730 are outlier scores - they were both repeated tests (and, of course, without AWA), so your scores were likely artificially inflated there. If we take those out, then you were in the mid-600 range on practice tests, but that was still somewhat inflated due to no AWA. That means that your official test score was likely about the range you could have expected, so the issue is not that your score is dropping due to test anxiety or something like that. There's going to be some hard work to do to lift your scoring level.

(It's great, by the way, that you got a 5.5 on the second AWA. Now you know that you can do that, so you don't really need to worry about it. You just need to make sure you're prepared to maintain your mental performance for the full length of the test, including that first hour of writing.)

How has your timing been on the tests? To begin, are you finishing each section roughly on time? Are you rushing at the end / running out of time? What about overall balance throughout a section - are you pretty steady across all questions, or is your timing very up and down? (GMATPrep won't give you that data, but MGMAT tests will.) Take a look through the problem lists, question by question, to see how well you're balancing your timing. In general, it's not so great to be more than 30 seconds off (in either direction!) of whatever you're supposed to spend on a problem. Eg, on quant, we're supposed to average 2 minutes, so most problems should be in the 1.5 to 2.5 min range. If you have more than 1 or 2 questions above 2.5m (or even 1 question above 3m), then you're spending too long and that time is costing you elsewhere. Likewise, if you have more than a couple of questions below 1.5m on questions that you knew how to do, then you're increasing the chances that you'll make a careless mistake - and it's always bad to make a careless mistake when you actually know how to do something! (It is okay, though, to have questions below 1.5m if you decided that you had no idea what to do so you made a quick guess.)

You did have a problem with the quant timing on the official test, so use your most recent practice tests to try to diagnose this more specifically. Take a look at this article for more detail on how to analyze your practice tests:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/a/2009/09/23 ... tice-tests

If you are messing up the timing, you need to know, because hammering on the content won't help as much if you don't address any timing issues.

Because I was so rusty in the basics, I focused not so much on the timing, but on understanding why I got a question right/wrong, and why the other answers are wrong.

That's great - exactly what you should do at the beginning. The timing is such a major factor, though, that I tell my students not to worry about timing when doing the questions in MGMAT's books (the ones at the end of each chapter), but to time themselves right from the beginning on any OG questions. Basically, the exercises at the end of each chapter help you to know whether you mastered the material (content and techniques) in that chapter. That is a necessary step, before doing OG questions, in order to maximize your learning and ultimate performance on official questions. I'm not sure from your notes whether you did this.

In terms of not doing the OG questions immediately after, I agree that it's not a good idea to do all of them - in fact, I tell my students to save some for later. But I do think it's important to do some after every chapter in order to test yourself - to make sure that you really learned what you needed to learn and that you're building the ability to apply the concepts to OG-format questions.

I kept track of my progress in a spreadsheet, and marked the questions that:
- I got wrong
- I took too long to solve
for later review.

What would the "later review" actually involve? Specifically, how did you review questions?

Most of our learning actually comes from the review and analysis we do of any problem - it doesn't come from the act of trying the problem in the first place. It's important to review every single problem, even the ones you got right - there are a lot of things to learn from any problem. Take a look at this article for the questions to ask yourself and the things to think about as you review problems:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/a/2009/10/09 ... ce-problem

I went through the solutions of some tough OG11 questions, but didn't have enough time to go through all of them. I must admit I took a few GMATPrep practice tests in the final week.

These two things were not such a great idea. First, "tough" questions. The tough questions aren't the ones that will prevent you from getting your score. The mid-level questions - the ones that are right in your range right now - are the ones that will prevent you from getting your score. If you want a 650, and think you're prepared to get a 650, and you get some 600 level questions wrong... now you might not get a 650. But if you get some 700 level questions wrong, that won't prevent you from getting the 650. A lot of people make this mistake - focusing on the toughest (for them) questions.

Re: practice tests, I tell my students they can't take a practice test within 5 days of the real test. (MGMAT's official position on this is 3 days, but I'm more conservative.) You're tiring your brain out, and you're not getting much value out of it (remember, most of the learning comes from the review and analysis, not the taking - so taking multiple tests in a week doesn't help you learn, and it does tire you out). In this sense, think of what professional athletes do. When they're in a tournament or gearing up for the big game, they don't play entire practice games / matches in the few days before. They do practice, but not enough to tire themselves out. Just enough to keep their skills sharp so that they can try to "peak" on game day. That's what you're trying to do too.

I'd like to boost my Quant score to the high 40s. I think it's possible. In order to do this, I will need access to Tough Quant questions, with thorough explanations on how to relate tough questions to the basics (I think Manhattan calls this 'recognising the triggers').

Please don't make the same mistake of focusing only, or mostly, on the tough ones. Your quant score this time around was 42, or 62nd percentile, which means that you still need to figure out how to lift yourself to the tougher ones. If, for example, you focus on 90th percentile questions, your time will be mostly wasted because you actually have to lift yourself there in order to be offered those questions in the first place. You also described a pretty significant timing problem on the real test (and you'll probably see the same on practice tests) - that needs to be fixed or it's going to be tough to get a high 40s quant score, even when you develop the skills for questions of that level.

I could make 12-14 mistakes in Quant, and still get 42, but could only afford 4-6 mistakes in Verbal to get 41-42.

The reason for this is that those two scores are not actually equal. A 42 in quant is about the 62nd percentile. A 42 on verbal is the 95th percentile. Given that, it's not surprising that you couldn't get many questions wrong and still score in the 95th percentile.

Ignore the "score" part and focus on the percentile; the two scores are not actually equivalent / comparable.

Re: using LSAT materials, I have found that the RC materials are fairly similar. There are more differences in CR - in some cases minor, in some cases major (eg, I tried doing some LC arguments using GMAT logic / techniques, and in some cases that actually led me to the wrong answer). So I'd be a bit more wary about using arguments from LC.

I agree with your desire to use official materials as much as possible. I'd go back to older GMAT OG problems before I'd start using anything unofficial and also before I'd start using stuff from the LSAT or GRE. (The people who write the GMAT are not the same people who write the LSAT and GRE.)

OG is up to the 12th edition (pub. March of 2009), and about 300 of the questions did not appear in OG11. The Quant and Verbal supplements are up to the 2nd edition (pub. Sep and Aug of 2009), and about 75 questions in each book did not appear in the 1st edition.

Before you jump to new material, though, you've got a very important task to accomplish: you actually have to get better at the material. You might as well use "already seen" OG questions to get better (by studying from prep books and by analyzing questions as discussed in that article linked above), and only then test yourself on new OG questions (to see if you really did get better). Don't just do a bunch of new questions thinking that that's how you'll get better.

The guessing thing is per section - most people have to make 4-7 guesses per section. I do NOT count in that the times when you have narrowed the answers to 2 and you make a 50/50 guess. I'm talking about questions where you either cannot make an educated guess or you cannot narrow the answers down beyond 3 choices.

In terms of how to decide when to guess: if you're halfway through the time you're supposed to have spent on that type of problem, and you don't know what you're doing, then you switch to trying to make an educated guess. Then, by the time the second half of the time you're supposed to spend has passed, you pick something. That may be a random guess, that may be an educated guess, that may be a 50/50 (which is far enough that I don't really count it as a guess), or you may have used your alternate method to find one answer (which is also not a guess).

In terms of working with a tutor, we do work with students all over the world via our web conferencing platform. I'm sure there are other companies with similar solutions - you'll just need to do a bit of research in order to make the choice (if you do decide to go this route).