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690 and why i missed a 700+

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690 and why i missed a 700+

by bhatius » Thu Sep 05, 2013 7:18 am
Hi,

I gave my GMAT yesterday and got a 690. Q48, v36 or 37...Not happy with the score but it's in line with my performance on the MOCK CATs.
April - GMAT Prep1 - 570
July - MGMAT1 - 590
July - MGMAT2 - 630
August - MGMAT3 - 640
August - MGMAT 4 - 640
August - MGMAT 5 - 670
September - GMAT Prep 2 - 710

I guess I know what I did wrong -

1) No error log - I had marked all the questions I got wrong/slow (OG10, OG12 and Quant Review) before but I never really bothered to analyze any trend. Even after 6 mocks I was clueless about what I needed to focus on in Quant. After MGMAT5, I prepared an assessment report. I think this was the single most important factor that helped my quant score, even in the limited time I had. In 10 days, I nailed every weakness I had. During the exam I actually got a bit worried..the questions just didn't seem to get much harder! That's the sort of progress I made!

2) Verbal - I'm kicking myself for not acting on the MGMAT CAT data I got for verbal. (V37 was the best I got on my mocks). I just mindlessly practiced questions right till D-day but never really rectified what I was doing wrong. Lesson learnt.

3) Not practicing much IR - I have to admit, I underestimated IR. I was terrible at it on all MGMAT CATs, yet I didn't devote time to it right till the end. I think I did pretty well on the actual GMAT's IR section, but the fact that it made me semi-panic right into the closing stages of my prep wasn't good.

So that's my story. I will be taking the GMAT again, hopefully a lot calmer and wiser than I wast the first time around.

All the best,

Bhatius
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by ani781 » Thu Sep 05, 2013 8:06 am
Many Congrats !! Though you seem to be not too happy, on a score , which would be a Day Maker for so many !! Anyways all the best with your APPs. I have just one Question for you.... Can you pls tell me what you mean by MGMAT analysis / report ?
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by ani781 » Thu Sep 05, 2013 9:52 am
Also Nikhil, can you pls let me know, how did you analyse the assessment report, which you said prompted you to change your tactics towards Quants - and "had" you been more reflective on the same for Verbals (which according to you would have helped you improve on verbal) .. So how did you take the report into account and what was your remedial steps ?

Thanks for enduring me for being so very interrogative... Hope you understand my anxiety to learn from experiences.
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by bhatius » Thu Sep 05, 2013 11:41 am
Hey Ani,

Well, 690 isn't a bad score but like you I was aiming for a 720. So I hope you can sense my disappointment.

Coming to your questions, if you are asking what the assessment reports are, I'm assuming you have bought the Manhattan Mock CAT package. If you look at the home page for your tests, you will see a section that says Assessment Reports with an option to 'generate assessment reports'. What this does is, it will break down the tests you've taken for a topic-wise analysis. It will tell you the percentage you got right, time taken per question, average time to get a question right, average time to get a question wrong etc. With so much data, you really know where you are weak, where you are slow etc etc. For example, I found out I was very weak (and slow) in Circles and Number Systems but good (and fast) in Ratios. Now imagine getting such info for all topics!

I spent a day or two just going through (and solving) each incorrect and slow Quant question from 5 CATs to understand why I was weak in a particular topic. Some topics were weaknesses because my concepts were wrong (Number Systems), some were weak because my approach was wrong (Inequalities) and in strong topics too I often made silly mistakes. This gave me particular areas to focus on and the result was a big jump in my Quant score.

And that's exactly why I'm angry with myself for not doing the same for Verbal. The assessment reports identified Inference questions on RC as a weakness and Find the Assumption, Complete the Argument and Draw a Conclusion questions a problem area on CR. SC was good. But I just didn't make the effort to improve on my areas of weakness in Verbal. As luck would have it, each of the RCs on my GMAT had Inference questions and I got about 5-6 Find the Assumption/ Conclusion/Complete the Argument questions in CR. As a result I had to settle for a Verbal score much lower than I was possibly capable of.

I did learn an important lesson here. As business school aspirants, its in our interest to become familiar with data and statistics and use these to our advantage!

Hope this helps!

Nikhil

PS - 1) I'd suggest you get into this only after you've taken at least 3 mock CATs to give you a larger and more representative picture.
2) Please read this carefully, if you haven't already! It tells you how to go about analyzing the reports. https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/
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by ani781 » Thu Sep 05, 2013 3:24 pm
Thanks a lot Nikhil... you took so much time out to help me clarify my doubts.
In your debrief you have not really mentioned the course or strategy that you underwent.
Would be of great help if you suggest a few tips in those areas also.

Regards.
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by bhatius » Thu Sep 05, 2013 11:16 pm
Hey Ani,

I'm glad the info helped. I studied on my own and used my friend's old Manhattan guides (4th edition). I practiced on OG12 and Quant Review and later did questions from OG10 too. I think the Manhattan Quant guides are really good and the SC guide is pretty comprehensive (though it has very few questions that test you on many things at once). The Manhattan RC and CR guides are good too. They are well written (especially the CR one with wording to mimic your actual thought process!). However, I will give the CR Bible a shot the next time I prepare. I've read good stuff about it.

I don't know how far you are from your GMAT but I will give keep you posted as I make progress in Verbal!

Nikhil
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by Java_85 » Tue Sep 10, 2013 8:38 pm
bhatius, Thanks for your post and I'm sure you'll get a 700+ next time taking GMAT.
May you please tell me what is IR ?

Thank you,
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by faraz_jeddah » Tue Sep 10, 2013 11:46 pm
Integrated Reasoning section that appears after AWA and before Quant.
A good question also deserves a Thanks.

Messenger Boy: The Thesselonian you're fighting... he's the biggest man i've ever seen. I wouldn't want to fight him.
Achilles: That's why no-one will remember your name.
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