Analyzing MGMAT CR Cat

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Kristinaw14: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 9; Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2013 8:24 am

by Kristinaw14 » Mon May 18, 2015 6:38 am

Hi! I am trying to analyze my MGMAT cat for Cr and Sc. I only answered 36% correct for CR but the average question I got correct was a 690. I scored at 60% in SC but the average answer right was 570. My question is: which should I focus on more? I am going to study both subjects, but which should get more of my attention?

Just in case you need this info, it was my first car before I start studying so I want to make sure I am focusing on the correct areas to boost my score. 520 33Q 28V

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Verbal Reasoning | Mon May 18, 2015 6:38 am

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Ian Stewart: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2623; Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2008 3:17 amFollowed by: 355 members; Location: Montreal; Thanked: 1090 times; GMAT Score:780

by Ian Stewart » Fri May 22, 2015 9:01 am

I would not suggest trying to use a single prep company test to evaluate your level in CR and SC. A lot of company tests provide detailed diagnostic information to test takers, breaking down performance by question type. It's important to recognize that this kind of information becomes increasingly useless the smaller the sample of questions in the breakdown. When you look at your performance, on one test, in CR and SC, you're looking only at a sample of 12-14 questions of each type. There's a huge margin of error when grading a test taker on a sample that small. That's not even to mention the difference in style and logic between prep company questions and official questions, which makes any company verbal score even less meaningful.

Using a GMATPrep test will give you a more reliable indication, but better still would be to do about 25 questions of each type from the beginning of the OG or the VR books. The questions in those books are roughly arranged in increasing difficulty, so by doing the first 25 in each section, you'll be solving questions of similar difficulty, and then you can use your 'hit rate' to compare your ability in each question type. I'd certainly advise working on both, but one other thing to bear in mind is that it tends to be easier to improve in SC with study than in CR or RC, so if your level is similar in SC and CR, you'll likely see a bigger improvement by focusing on SC. Good luck!

For online GMAT math tutoring, or to buy my higher-level Quant books and problem sets, contact me at ianstewartgmat at gmail.com

ianstewartgmat.com

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VivianKerr: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 1035; Joined: Fri Dec 17, 2010 11:13 amFollowed by: 365 members; Location: Los Angeles, CA; Thanked: 474 times

by VivianKerr » Sun May 24, 2015 4:12 pm

Hey Kristina,

The "average answer right" is not really what you should worry about. Add all your incorrect questions to this Error Log (see attachment). You need to identify what type of questions you're missing the most often right now.

For example, what TYPES of SC? How many Subject-Verb, how many Parallelism, how many Pronoun, etc. That will give you a good idea of your strengths and weaknesses starting out.

To answer your question, you will need to study BOTH Verbal and Quant. Some tutors believe you should only focus on one at a time, but I am NOT one of those tutors.

I think it's beneficial for your brain to go back and forth, and your score division doesn't show that you're radically better at one side versus the other.

Based on your Error Log results, I'd select 4 basic topics (2 Quant, 2 Verbal) and dive into those. I highly recommend you use MGMAT's books as well as the OG.

Best,
Vivian

Attachments

Error Log Template.xlsx: (12.64 KiB) Downloaded 139 times

Vivian Kerr
GMAT Rockstar, Tutor
https://www.GMATrockstar.com
https://www.yelp.com/biz/gmat-rockstar-los-angeles

Former Kaplan and Grockit instructor, freelance GMAT content creator, now offering affordable, effective, Skype-tutoring for the GMAT at $150/hr. Contact: [email protected]

Thank you for all the "thanks" and "follows"!

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Rich@EconomistGMAT: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 163; Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2015 12:47 pmFollowed by: 13 members; Thanked: 27 times

by Rich@EconomistGMAT » Sun May 31, 2015 12:50 pm

Hi Kristinaw14,

I think in addition to the great advice you've gotten, it'd be helpful for us to know what your target score is. However, I have to agree with the advice you've gotten already and urge you not to focus too heavily on ONLY quant or verbal. You'll notice as you take a few practice exams, you'll notice patterns in your test taking in both sections that will point you in the direction(s) you need to focus on. Keep a detailed error log and focus your attention on your weakest areas.

Best,
Rich

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