Is GMAT Quant Broken? Need Advice to Break 80th%

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MartiniR: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 2; Joined: Thu Sep 12, 2013 6:36 pmFollowed by: 1 member; Location: NY; Thanked: 2 times

by MartiniR » Thu Sep 12, 2013 7:14 pm

Hello forum,

I've been studying the GMAT for at least 6 months now (when I include basic math review). I've purchased the Manhattan books, and they have been EXTREMELY valuable to get my math foundation back.

Here's the problem though. It seems as though there is an invisible wall around the 80th percentile. Is the curve broken? Why is a 49 the 81st%? Who are all of these people scoring near perfect.

I've read about problems with cheating, including a piece about cheating. Is GMAT quant broken? From what I understand the percentage hitting 49+ has never been this big.

Maybe I'm just envious, or just having a discouraged moment, but I need a way to crack through. I feel like I'm a pro at all of the math on the exam. Before signing up here I even spent a lot of time here reading articles etc.

Any advice would be greatly, greatly appreciated!

Thank you kindly,

Martin R.

Source: Beat The GMAT — GMAT Strategy | Thu Sep 12, 2013 7:14 pm

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[email protected]: Elite Legendary Member; Posts: 10392; Joined: Sun Jun 23, 2013 6:38 pmFollowed by: 511 members; Location: Palo Alto, CA; Thanked: 2867 times; GMAT Score:800

by [email protected] » Thu Sep 12, 2013 9:38 pm

Hi MartiniR,

Hitting a Q49 is more about discipline and less about intelligence. The percentile associated with a Q49 has been slowly sliding for years (a few years ago, a Q49 was the 85th percentile). It's because more and more people are learning about what's on the GMAT and preparing accordingly.

People who hit Q49 don't make silly mistakes, they tend to do really well on DS questions and they have proper pacing skills, so they get to the questions at the end of the section with enough time to answer those questions.

If you're curious about what might be missing from your performance, take a look at your last CAT. Count up the number of silly mistakes, goofs, etc. Then assess if you had to rush through any questions at the end of the test. Did you get any of THOSE questions wrong because you just didn't have enough time to solve them?

Fix these problems and you raise your Quant Scaled Score.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Contact Rich at [email protected]

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