Low score

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prad: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 75; Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:20 am; Location: Long Island

by prad » Sat Jul 26, 2008 9:13 am

i am going into my 3rd month of studying and still not getting the results i want. I have improoved from the start of studying(cold test 370 last cat 520) I need bigger numbers!! i am taking the material topic by topic so maybe that is why there have been some low scores because i have not finished all the material. i am in mgmat and am going to get some tutoring. i desire a 650+ is it possible with 7 weeks before my exam. all feedback is welcome in addition to suggestions. i know one of my weaknesses is cr, i just dont have a strategy yet and am second guessing myself when anwsering cats. my quant has been improoving but making careless errors and not reprahsing questions properly. i m just not seeing throught the disdguise that the gmat uses for their method of asking a question. need help

Source: Beat The GMAT — GMAT Strategy | Sat Jul 26, 2008 9:13 am

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

by mayonnai5e » Sat Jul 26, 2008 2:09 pm

7 weeks should be sufficient to see some kind of score improvement though it's hard to tell how large an improvement you'll see. If you are going topic by topic, be sure to review each topic as you go otherwise you may forget some of the lessons you've learned just a few weeks earlier. Are you effectively learning from your mistakes with error logs, question logs and lessons learned logs? If you are not learning from your mistakes and reviewing your errors and how to overcome them, it will be difficult to see further improvements.

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prad: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 75; Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:20 am; Location: Long Island

by prad » Wed Jul 30, 2008 8:21 am

i am deffintely learning from my errors
i feel that im making a lot of mistakes because i not fully understnading what is being asked.
i also feel that im memorizing questions from the og
when i see a question that i remember i try to apply methods rather than looking at the anwsers

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Stacey Koprince: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2228; Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:28 pmFollowed by: 694 members; Location: Montreal, Canada; Thanked: 639 times; GMAT Score:780

by Stacey Koprince » Wed Jul 30, 2008 6:28 pm

Nice improvement from your first test! Couple of things:

1) You said you're "in mgmat" - that means you're taking one of our courses, right? Make sure that you fulfill the requirements to get your end-of-course test review (one practice test by class 2, and two more by the end of the course). You definitely want to get your teacher's feedback. When you request the review, make sure to tell the teacher your goal score and when you plan to take the test - the advice s/he will give will depend on those things.

2) You mentioned that you're taking the material topic by topic. That's pretty necessary to start b/c you need to organize your work somehow, but one of your ultimate tasks is to figure out what kind of problem is sitting in front of you when it first flashes up. Obviously, you won't know during the test that the next five problems are all number properties.

So one of the things that you should start to do now is to do mixed sets of problems from the topics you've covered so far. Work on that task of recognizing what this problem is - what it's testing - within 20-30 seconds of it popping up on the screen.

Also, in my experience, it's not uncommon for people to see a little bit of a slump in terms of practice test scores (even a lower score!) about midway through a course. Basically, you're learning so much new stuff in such a short period of time that you're still trying to process it all and learn how to execute the various strategies effectively. That's going to slow you down, and that's going to hurt your score.

You don't mention when your course ends, but most people take 2-4 weeks after a course ends to "put everything together" - do some comprehensive review, check what weaknesses still exist and try to shore them up, etc. Just wanted to mention that you should work that into your timeframe for taking the test.

Finally, you mention struggling with CR - make sure you take the time to analyze CR problems. What's the conclusion? What is my task with each of the different major question types? Why are the wrong answers wrong? Why are they tempting even when they're wrong? Etc.

Good luck - let us know how it goes!

Please note: I do not use the Private Messaging system! I will not see any PMs that you send to me!!

Stacey Koprince
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Manhattan GMAT

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prad: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 75; Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:20 am; Location: Long Island

by prad » Sat Aug 02, 2008 12:10 pm

thank you for the advice
i have been able to determine the questiontypes but sometimes i just cant figure them out
i agree that i am learning a lot of material in a short period and maybe that is why im slumping
im staying positive and am determined to achieve my results
i am taking the test in september probably the 9th or the 16th
my class ends on aug 17th so im hoping i am leaving my self a suffient amount of time
thank you again for your advice and imput
peter

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