580 Q39/V31 How to improve 70-90 points?

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JasLamba: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 129; Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 6:04 amFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 15 times; GMAT Score:200

by JasLamba » Sun Feb 21, 2010 9:53 pm

Hi,

I took the GMAT last week and pulled a rough 580( Q 39, V 31) Very disappointing Q score - all my weak areas were exploited. Nonetheless, I do plan on retaliating within the next month. I was wondering if you could throw me some tips to improve 70-90 points if possible. I am not the brightest at taking standardized tests but I am willing to put the work. Do you have any ideas/thoughts regarding the matter? Can you suggest a way forward?

I am thankful for your advice.

All the best,
Jas

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thephoenix: Legendary Member; Posts: 1560; Joined: Tue Nov 17, 2009 2:38 amFollowed by: 5 members; Thanked: 137 times

by thephoenix » Sun Feb 21, 2010 11:40 pm

JasLamba wrote:Hi,

I took the GMAT last week and pulled a rough 580( Q 39, V 31) Very disappointing Q score - all my weak areas were exploited. Nonetheless, I do plan on retaliating within the next month. I was wondering if you could throw me some tips to improve 70-90 points if possible. I am not the brightest at taking standardized tests but I am willing to put the work. Do you have any ideas/thoughts regarding the matter? Can you suggest a way forward?

I am thankful for your advice.

All the best,
Jas

hi jaslamba

it was sad to hear that ; usually how do u score in practice , do u belive u are weak in Q , if so then i wud suggest u to buy all MGMAT math set and KAPLAN math workbook. Dont go st. away for harder problems first learn the basics . even i wud suggest that one sud buy GMAT Hacks math not a strong book but the concept is good for building base.
intially dnt worry about probability or combinatics . cover word problems ,algebra , arithmatic,geometry and number system
analyze which is of more concern is it PS or DS
if its DS then repractice all the qusetion as many times as u can and specially the wrng ones .
prepare thouroghly inequalities .
solve the problems posted in the site.

for verbal at your score one must have following books things
1)doing grammer
2) power score CR
3)MGMAT sc
4)kaplan verbal workbook
5)reading habbit{economist,with an approach}
6)power score s/c
7)OG's

if have all these than revise it

spend each week on each of the concerned area.
practice all q with timer
make error log
make your own strategy for sc,cr and rc

in 2nd last week practice as many tests as possible.

dont leave any stone unturned

finally post doubts and question in the forum

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by beatthegmat » Tue Feb 23, 2010 4:40 pm

Jas, can you provide more details on how you were performing on your practice tests prior to your GMAT, as well as which tests you took?

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JasLamba: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 129; Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 6:04 amFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 15 times; GMAT Score:200

by JasLamba » Tue Feb 23, 2010 8:37 pm

GMAT Prep 1 - 610
Knewton CAT 1 - 530
GMAT Prep 1A - 630
Knewton CAT 2 - 540
GMAT Prep 1B - 650
Knewton CAT 3 - 600
GMAT Prep 1C - 690
Powerprep 1 - 550
Princeton Review 1 - 620
Princeton Review 2 - 550
GMAT Prep 2 - 570 (had to go to the toilet in between - urgency 7-9 minutes)

Real attempt - 580 (Q -39 V- 31)

In all of my previous Q tests I had gotten between 39-48. I hope I have given you the required and sufficient information. I can't remember the breakdown of the tests.

All the best,
Jas

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beatthegmat: Site Admin; Posts: 6778; Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2006 8:30 amFollowed by: 994 members; Location: Los Angeles, CA; Thanked: 1249 times

by beatthegmat » Tue Feb 23, 2010 8:40 pm

Thanks for that data. Some more follow up info that would be useful--did you feel that you have trouble with pacing, stress, and/or nerves while you were actually taking the test? These factors can have a tremendous impact on your test day performance.

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JasLamba: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 129; Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 6:04 amFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 15 times; GMAT Score:200

by JasLamba » Wed Feb 24, 2010 7:45 am

Hey Eric,

Actually, I think the verbal section was solid in terms of pacing and I felt like I was doing alright. In math, I really was a bit nervous/stressed and I drank a coffee right in between the AWA and the quant. I don't think I should have done that to be honest. I spent time socializing with the proctor rather than thinking of the test.

Hope it helps.

Jas

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jpnguyen: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 7; Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2009 1:54 am

by jpnguyen » Wed Feb 24, 2010 4:49 pm

If you're looking for a huge bump in your quant score, I suggest the Manhattan GMAT series. I scored in the similar ballpark as you did when I took my first gmat, 590 (42Q, 30V). Mostly due to timing issues but since then, I started studying with MGMAT/OG12 and my mock test scores have climbed. I'm almost done with the MGMAT Series, just need to do some CR/SC and work on my verbal. After powerscore and some SC, my verbal scores on mock tests went from 30 to 35-36. And after the MGMAT math books, I went from 43-44Q to 46-47, and I think I could hit 48-49 without careless quant mistakes.

If I were to put my money on prep material, it would be MGMAT all the way.

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beatthegmat: Site Admin; Posts: 6778; Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2006 8:30 amFollowed by: 994 members; Location: Los Angeles, CA; Thanked: 1249 times

by beatthegmat » Wed Feb 24, 2010 4:56 pm

Solid advice, jpnguyen.

Jas--sorry that I'm not diving right into advice, I'm just trying to keep probing to diagnose the root causes of your GMAT issues.

So would you say that it's a lack of mastery of certain GMAT concepts/strategies that is preventing you from reaching your ideal GMAT score? And specifically, a lack of conceptual mastery of GMAT math?

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hk: MBA Student; Posts: 532; Joined: Wed Jan 28, 2009 1:39 pmFollowed by: 9 members; Location: Barcelona; Thanked: 33 times; GMAT Score:640

by hk » Wed Feb 24, 2010 7:50 pm

Hi Jas,

Here is my 2 cents.

By your practice test scores you have scored about 10-20 points below your average score on the real GMAT. You also mentioned that you had problems in the quant section. My strong advice would be not to rush into re-taking the gmat again. If you are not fully prepared and confident of scoring well above what you scored in your previous practice tests you might not be fully ready. I'm telling you this from my own experience.

I think the first step should be to try to get the Quant Basics straight. One book that i suggest is Kaplan's Math workbook. This book discusses the basics and helps you develop you quant muscles. Its also easy to understand and offers many exercise problems for practice. Once you have that part straightened up then you can dive into the Manhattan books for more practice on tougher problem. Also in your free time, visit the quant section of the forum, and try to solve the problems posted without looking at the explanations. Then, check the explanations provided by various members. This will help you understand where you go wrong and will also help you avoid such mistakes. Another hint is to try the GMAT Focus. In my experience with the GMAT (I've taken it thrice), GMAT Focus (https://www.gmatfocus.com/) which is prepared by the same guys who prepare the gmat questions, is the closest to the actual GMAT quant. The level of difficulty is the exact same or may be even slightly difficult. Don't be overwhelmed - the questions in the GMAT Focus definitely are tough.

In sum, take you time, prepare well and crack the test.

Wanna know what I'm upto? Follow me on twitter: https://twitter.com/harikrish

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JasLamba: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 129; Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 6:04 amFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 15 times; GMAT Score:200

by JasLamba » Wed Feb 24, 2010 9:27 pm

Hi,

Thanks for all your thoughts and ideas!

@Eric: Quant mastery is not 100% solid. There is definitely improvement to do. Although I do have a basic understanding of most of the concepts there are some things that I am troubled with - particularly coordinate geometry. In my GMAT my first 10 questions 3 of them were coordinate geometry related and that put my morale down given that I knew that this is a weak area. I really need to pump it up.

@jpnguyen: thanks for your advice. Are you taking completely different mock tests now?

@hk: thanks for your thoughts. I think I will do it when I feel ready. I am, however, going to schedule the test for 2 months then.

Based on all your thoughts and opinions, I will proceed in the following manner:

Plan of Action for Quant:
- Finish up Kaplan M Workbook
- Start the MGMAT series and work thru the drills.

Plan of Action for Verbal:
- Powerscore CR
- MGMAT SC (keep learning)
- Do more SC, RC, CR from OGs

Overall:
- Keep a error log for every single wrong question
- Time everything
- Study 4 hours daily 2 hours Quant/ 2 hours Verbal.

Any thoughts and ideas and modifications to my current status would be appreciated. Thanks alot :)

All the best,
Jas

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beatthegmat: Site Admin; Posts: 6778; Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2006 8:30 amFollowed by: 994 members; Location: Los Angeles, CA; Thanked: 1249 times

by beatthegmat » Thu Feb 25, 2010 11:07 am

I like the books that you've reference, and hk's advice for mastering quant is pretty solid. What I like about your plan is that you're prepping smart--keeping an error log and timing everything is KEY! I recommend recording the data into an Excel spreadsheet, and you can run some analytics on your own performance over time. This may be an effective way to track your progress in a variety of areas related to question type, concepts, etc.

Good luck, keep us updated!

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JasLamba: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 129; Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 6:04 amFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 15 times; GMAT Score:200

by JasLamba » Fri Feb 26, 2010 4:10 am

Hi,

I just had a quick question with regard to the verbal portion of the exam. Say, I don't study much Verbal but instead focus on my Quant much more. If I keep my Verbal extremely limited... can my score suffer crazy variances come new test day? To illustrate my question better, here is a example:

Say I DONT touch verbal and only focus on math until test day - am I bound to get somewhere between a 27-31?
Is the score I am getting now a "benchmark of my true ability"? What do you guys think?

All the best,
Jas

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beatthegmat: Site Admin; Posts: 6778; Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2006 8:30 amFollowed by: 994 members; Location: Los Angeles, CA; Thanked: 1249 times

by beatthegmat » Fri Feb 26, 2010 1:58 pm

I think it would not be a good move to ignore or severely minimize your verbal prep. Do at least a couple questions each day to keep your skills fresh.

I do think that your last GMAT score and performance is a decent benchmark of where you stand today. At least that's a far more accurate indicator than any practice test you could buy on the market.

Good luck man, keep us posted,

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Brian@VeritasPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 1031; Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2008 1:23 pmFollowed by: 255 members; Location: Malibu, CA; Thanked: 716 times; GMAT Score:750

by Brian@VeritasPrep » Fri Feb 26, 2010 3:42 pm

Hi Jas,

Thank you for your invitation to reply! I'll echo what the BTG guys said...I wouldn't entirely shut down your verbal prep, as I've seen quite a few instances of people reversing their strong and weak suits by exclusively focusing on the weaker and neglecting the stronger.

What I recommend is to do 2/3 of your time on your weaker suit and 1/3 on the stronger. That way, you're fresh and may even improve on what you do well, but you're still emphasizing the area on which you need to improve the most.

My other recommendation to you - if you're doing well on the verbal but struggling on the quant, think about how you can employ the same strategies that you employ on verbal to the quant questions. You'll likely find that you:

-Read carefully on the verbal to ensure that you know exactly what they're asking...that's important on the quant, too.

-Use quite a bit of logic to determine what must be true and what is not necessarily true on CR questions - that's the same thought process that's essential to Data Sufficiency.

-Take quick inventory of the relevant parts of each RC passage or CR question so that you can start working on it...that's rewarded if you can turn words in to mathematical concepts in word problems.

There's enough overlap between the thought processes on either section that if you just ask yourself from time to time "how can I think more verbally", you may find that to be an advantage.

Brian Galvin
GMAT Instructor
Chief Academic Officer
Veritas Prep

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JasLamba: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 129; Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 6:04 amFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 15 times; GMAT Score:200

by JasLamba » Tue Mar 09, 2010 8:13 pm

Hi,

A bit of an update on what is going in my studies...

As per the tangible results:

Quantitative:
- Finished the quant NOVA guide - read the chapters and took some notes, attempted each and every practice problem timed. Post working through the problems I make a table which I wrote down the Question, Answer, and Time. I then go through each and every problem in the solutions. After that, I LOG the errors in excel that:
a) took me longer than 2 mins - Time
b) were wrong - Incorrect
c) theres an alternate method of solving it - Method

You can find attached an excel sheet with a sample log for your reference.

Verbal
- Been doing 1-2 RC passages from the OG 11 everyday. Although I have already done these... I am reinforcing the GMAC way of tricking others in their traps. Everything is timed and I read the passage go for the questions and then analyse the errors. I know RC is my weakest section out of strongest suit so I can improve A: my timing B: my overall strategy which influences the whole section C: avoid the GMAC trap.

I started on Feb. 26th and today is Mar.10th so very slow progress given the fact that I am fulltime at this. Nonetheless, I am involved in job applications and a transition phase. I recently got interviewed by Nomura Investment Bank so looking forward to it ... hopefully it doesn't collapse anytime soon:P Also sent thru some apps to JP Morgan and some other companies.

Steps to follow:

Quant:
- Solve every single question from my error log in the NOVA quant workbook.
- Kaplan Math Workbook

Verbal:
- Continue plugging away with the RCs

Intended Plan prior retake:
Kaplan Math Workbook
Solve Error Log #2
MGMAT Guides 1-5
Solve Error Log #3
Magoosh PS
OG 11 PS
OG 12 PS
OG Q R PS
OG 10 PS

My plan is to mainly focus on every muscle at once so at this point in time it is PS. I will exhaust all the PS then move on to DS and then work through 10 PS questions per day while working on DS. Then I will move on to SC and do 20 Questions a day (10PS and 10DS - all from my log).... all this will be paralleled with at least 1-2 RCs every single day no matter what.
Not really planning to take any CATs at the moment - just feel like its a waste of time until I have the knowledge down.

Keep applying for jobs.

If you have any thoughts, ideas, suggestions, recommendations or jokes please feel free to chime in.

Peace,
Jas

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