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Advice needed... CATs in mid 6s, Quant Sinking?!

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Advice needed... CATs in mid 6s, Quant Sinking?!

by Lindsey Ann » Fri Aug 19, 2011 4:42 am
Hi all... Long time lurker, first time poster. I am praying that anyone with valuable advice will respond to this post. I am truly confused.

Brief backgroud: 24, working in finance (budget and planning, not investments). Native english speaker from New York. I've been studying for GMAT on and off for... 7 months at this point. I had a few huge breaks during that period (alot of job interviews, scheduling conflicts, etc) but I have been solidly studying for the past 3 months.

I did Manhattan GMAT (all strategy guides) exclusively learning content for the first few months. I then hired a private tutor for strictly Quant, who I worked with for 2 months. (I know, surprising I'm not a natural math whiz given my career). Overall, I consider myself to be stronger in verbal, so I would say 70-80% of my study time has been on Quant.

My practice CATs are as follows:
1. Gmat Prep: 530 (first ever)
2. Gmat Prep (I deleted and retook the 1st one): 590 (still pretutor)
3. MGMAT CAT1: 660 (45Q/77%, 35V/77%)
4. MGMAT CAT2: 640 (41Q/64%, 36V/80%)
5. MGMAT CAT3: 660 (42Q/66%, 38V/86%)
6. MGMAT CAT4: 650 (39Q/57%, 39V/89%)

WHAT IS GOING ON!? I literally have done every approach for Quant. I have hundreds of flashcards with both concepts and problems I've got wrong and I review them everyday. At this point, my studying conists of a good mix of OG (still trying to finish all probs), reviewing my tutor lessons/hw and redoing all problems, and also reviewing all problems I got wrong on these CATs.

I am so confused and desperate for answers. My verbal continually improves and yet I spend the most time on Quant. I would like to take my test in a month and I really would like to break the 7s.

Help!!!
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by VivianKerr » Fri Aug 19, 2011 7:50 am
Usually the problem is three-fold:

1. You don't know the concepts as well as you think you do.
2. You're a little weak on strategy.
3. You're stressing quantity of study versus quality.

Here are my suggestions:

1. Create an Error Log. You can find templates on BTG. Do you know your Top 3 Quant strengths? What about your Top 3 Quant weaknesses? Are you seeking out the hardest questions for your strengths, and focusing on building your 3 weaknesses?
2. Re-take old questions.

You should be spending the vast majority of your time now reviewing, esp. since you've covered so much ground. If it feels like you're spinning your wheels, then something isn't quite right in your PROCESS, so no number of new questions is going to change that until you diagnose the issue/s. If you are getting old questions wrong a 2nd time, then that is a BIG clue as to what your focus needs to be.

3. Write down your Step-by-Step strategy for each Question type.

And evaluate. Do you use it EVERY time? Or do you rush to set up the algebra/look to the answer choices? Are you confident solving a problem in multiple ways (i.e. using trad'l math AND backsolving/picking #'s when possible?)What is your separate, unique strategy for DS and PS? How do you distinguish between DS "value" and DS "y/n"? What do you do for word problems?

4. Make sure you know the set-up & reasoning behind every OG question & GMATPrep question COLD. And I mean, COLD. Reviewing once just reading the explanation is NOT "reviewing."

5. Schedule study-time in "concept-blocks" - HOW are you studying? Are you burning out? Are you doing the "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" approach? It's really important to set a clearly defined goal for each study session.

Based on your CATs, I would guess you'd likely score in the low 600's right now on the GMAT. To get 700+ is going to take some hard work, but it's doable! The good news is that since you're naturally good at Verbal, you could probably use strategy to pull Verbal up a bit more and improve the overall score.
Vivian Kerr
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https://www.GMATrockstar.com
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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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by Lindsey Ann » Mon Aug 22, 2011 5:09 am
Thanks for such a helpful reply! You are correct when you say my approach up to this point has been "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks." While I've covered a LOT of ground, I am most likely getting burnt out and emphasizing quantity over quality.

One theme I've observed in reviewing my practice CATs is the inability to solve problems given in ways that I'm not used to seeing them. Example: feeling 100% confident with my Rates/Work concepts from HW and my tutoring lesson.... but once the problem gets altered a bit, I'm thrown off. I need to work on applying what I know to a variety of question types, not just the straightforward ones.

One final question, if you wouldn't mind. I've heard from a few people that MGMAT Quant is slightly harder than the real GMAT and also features aLOT more geometry. The last test I was thrown off by more than few questions that seemed far more difficult and complex than any geometry question I'd seen even in the MGMAT Guide. Any truth to this?

Thanks!
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