gmat weaknesses

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resilient: Legendary Member; Posts: 789; Joined: Sun May 06, 2007 1:25 amFollowed by: 6 members; Location: Southern California, USA; Thanked: 15 times

by resilient » Tue May 06, 2008 10:41 pm

First Question: In the beginning of the practice exams, I have almost too much energy and my nerves get the best of me. THis is usually controllable. However, by the middle of the verbal section, I start going brain dead and not alert at all. This takes a heavy toll on my verbal score. IN fact it dropped my 41 verbal to a 34. THis needs to be fixed and I need to find a sure remedy? Any ideas?

Second Question: I have quant part of my exam under decent control and only need to bring my quant of 44 to a 46. However, I am in dire need of a plan to bring my 34 verbal to a 41 atleast. I am very confident that I can do this and I have about 6 weeks for the mission. SO far my remedy for this is:

1. Powerscore CR
2. Manhattan gmat SC
3.Kaplan RC LSAT
4.OG
5.mgmat question bank sc, cr, rc (however, I already did these)

However, I need a plan or sure shot strategy to use these tools to my advantage! ANy help?

[/b]Interesting Finding: I am noticing that when I look over my past exam, more than half of the mistakes were completely avoidable. I knew the material and foolishly got lax. These are points left on the table for no reason at all. ANy help on that?

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Appetite for 700 and I scraped my plate!

Source: Beat The GMAT — GMAT Strategy | Tue May 06, 2008 10:41 pm

Prasanna: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 418; Joined: Mon Feb 26, 2007 6:41 pm; Thanked: 24 times

Re: gmat weaknesses

by Prasanna » Thu May 08, 2008 2:21 pm

resilient wrote:First Question: In the beginning of the practice exams, I have almost too much energy and my nerves get the best of me. THis is usually controllable. However, by the middle of the verbal section, I start going brain dead and not alert at all. This takes a heavy toll on my verbal score. IN fact it dropped my 41 verbal to a 34. THis needs to be fixed and I need to find a sure remedy? Any ideas?

The only way to improve is by practice. You could take timed tests even when you practice, so that you can improve your endurance over a period of time. There is no shortcuts to this.

Second Question: I have quant part of my exam under decent control and only need to bring my quant of 44 to a 46. However, I am in dire need of a plan to bring my 34 verbal to a 41 atleast. I am very confident that I can do this and I have about 6 weeks for the mission. SO far my remedy for this is:

1. Powerscore CR
2. Manhattan gmat SC
3.Kaplan RC LSAT
4.OG
5.mgmat question bank sc, cr, rc (however, I already did these)

However, I need a plan or sure shot strategy to use these tools to my advantage! ANy help?

I think you are looking at too much material. You will not have time to cover all of them. I would suggest you go from your weak areas and plan your prep accrodingly rather than covering many prep materials across the board. I personally found MGMAT SC guide very effective.

[/b]Interesting Finding: I am noticing that when I look over my past exam, more than half of the mistakes were completely avoidable. I knew the material and foolishly got lax. These are points left on the table for no reason at all. ANy help on that?

Probably you are rushing yourself through. Try to be concsious during practice and tests that you should not make silly mistakes. I had this problem and I fixed it through practice.

mayonnai5e: Legendary Member; Posts: 1018; Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2006 7:19 pmFollowed by: 6 members; Thanked: 86 times

by mayonnai5e » Thu May 08, 2008 3:39 pm

resilient, you have been posting for weeks and if you go through your posts they often reiterate the same mistakes. the one that especially comes to mind are the silly mistakes that you make for whatever reason that you could have and should have gotten right.

prasanna's suggestions are the right ideas, practice and practice more. work on your endurance and more importantly work on your focus. you need to have razor sharp focus for a prolonged period of time - this is the best way to avoid making these same small errors again and again. once you begin losing focus you'll find yourself making mistakes.

for me, each question was a little encapsulated object. each one started a new test, a 2 minute test. And after every one, my mind wiped out the last question because it no longer mattered - i made my choice i pressed submit, i confirmed the answer and there is no longer anything i can do to change that. so now erase - clean the slate, wipe that question off my mind. next question, another 2 minute test. this was my approach mentally to every problem and it helped me have very sharp focus on each individual question without letting other things hinder my thinking, which allowed me to avoid stupid mistakes.

you need to ask yourself really what is going on to make yourself continually repeat the small mistakes...

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resilient: Legendary Member; Posts: 789; Joined: Sun May 06, 2007 1:25 amFollowed by: 6 members; Location: Southern California, USA; Thanked: 15 times

excellent

by resilient » Thu May 08, 2008 7:00 pm

Excellent, Thank you very much. I will fully employ this strategy. FUrther, am making a special effort to grab every single detail of the question then start to atack the question. I think this will do the trick .. Thank you

Appetite for 700 and I scraped my plate!

mayonnai5e: Legendary Member; Posts: 1018; Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2006 7:19 pmFollowed by: 6 members; Thanked: 86 times

Re: excellent

by mayonnai5e » Fri May 09, 2008 2:22 am

resilient wrote:Excellent, Thank you very much. I will fully employ this strategy. FUrther, am making a special effort to grab every single detail of the question then start to atack the question. I think this will do the trick .. Thank you

That is a good idea - as I got further and further into my studies, I took longer and longer to "assess" each problem - to size up the question, how familiar I was with the topic, how successful I've been at that topic, the intricate details of the specific question, and to look for areas where I could potentially make a stupid mistake later on.

If I found something that could lead to a mistake later on (after I had started making calculations or doing analysis), I would write it down on first and circle it. As I went through the work, I would quickly glance back at the circled item(s) to make sure I was keeping them in mind. After I finished the question, I'd double check the circled item(s). Did my calculations and/or analysis account for that circled item? If not, then I most likely made a careless mistake...

This is a very simple idea. Find the places where mistakes can happen FIRST, before you start your calculations, note them down, circle them then do your analysis. With a big circled item on paper in front of you, the chance of you letting it carelessly slip your mind drops significantly.

Have you been doing this?

lexcecile: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 13; Joined: Tue Jan 20, 2009 1:14 pm

by lexcecile » Wed Feb 11, 2009 6:15 pm

Can anyone tell me what practice test generated those documents?

Hovey25: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 16; Joined: Sun Dec 14, 2008 9:19 pm; Location: Wausau, WI; Thanked: 2 times

by Hovey25 » Fri Feb 13, 2009 11:27 am

Looks like Manhattan GMAT

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