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650 to 700 in 2 weeks??

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650 to 700 in 2 weeks??

by amolvichare » Wed Sep 21, 2011 10:20 am
Hi,

I have my GMAT in 2 weeks (4th Oct) and I am shooting for a minimum of 700.

My last 5 practise tests were:

M-GMAT CAT 1: 640 (Q 47; V31) June 12th 2011
M-GMAT CAT 2: 580 (Q 40; V31) Sep 3rd 2011
M-GMAT CAT 3: 590 (Q 41; V31) Sep 5th 2011
M-GMAT CAT 4: 650 (Q 45; V34) Sep 11th 2011
M-GMAT CAT 5: 650 (Q 44; V35) June 12th 2011

I was enrolled in a 9 week course with Manhattan GMAT. I took CAT 1 in June before starting the course. I had some notes from a freind and I had reviewed them for a day or 2 before I gave my 1st CAT exam. I knew Verbal was my weak area. After the course I took CAT 2 and CAT 3 and my verbal stayed the same but Quant went down. I was shocked..! I had studied verbal for a long time and the score still stayed the same... to make matters worst my Quant also went down.

In between CAT 3 and 4, I foused more on VERBAL - which paid off. My verbal went up to 34 and 35, but my Quant is still low. I am trying to focus now on Quant and bring that up to 47 or 48 and bring my Verbal to 36-38 or so. I think a 48Q and 36V should give me a 700+ score. Is that a realistic goal in 2 weeks? I had scored 47-48 before on Quant before, and I can do it again. Experts or anyone please let me know your thoughts.

As you can see from the practise test my Quant has been fluctuating and my Verbal has improved some. Has anyone seen that happen? Can someone please suggest some techniques? I know I am struggling with timing somewhat. I have missed 1-2 questions at the end.

EXPERTS: Please reply..!

Thanks,
Amol
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by tpr-becky » Wed Sep 21, 2011 3:18 pm
I would start with an analysis of why your Quant score has gone down with study. When you miss an answer and review it do you find that you don't know how to do the problem, or do you find that you made some small thinking or mathematical mistake somewhere? If you find that you don't know how to do problems then you need to focus on what words are used to test a concept and how to consistenly approach that concept.

If instead you are making small mistakes you need to figure out why. Are you using your scratch paper appropriately and writing down each of the steps so you don't have to hold everything in your mind? Are you spending too much time working problems in the begining of the test and rush through later questions? do you think you know how to do a problem and end up making small mistakes because you aren't using your entire brain on the problem? are you too worried about the upcoming verbal section to focus completely on the math?

if you can answer some of these questions then you can help yourself identify where your weaknesses actually are.
Becky
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The Princeton Review
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by amolvichare » Sun Sep 25, 2011 6:03 pm
Becky,

Thanks for the reply and sorry for writing back late.

I just took another MGMAT CAT today and scored a 590 (V27 , Q 45). Devastated...!!

I looked at your post and realised that I was not using scratch paper wisely. I was making silly mistakes in addition and multiplication. I also observed from the analysis that my Geometry problems were mostly wrong (which surprised me) and I was weak in verbs section of SC. I studied the "Advanced" sections of MGMAT strategy guides for geometry and SC and solved problems from OG 12 - especially focused on verbs and geometry. I also tried improving on my timing.

Previously I used to miss a couple of questions, but this time I was able to finish them all. I had to rush in between though when I realised that I was falling behind the benchmarks. I had a series of questions wrong in the last 15 verbal section. I guess that is the reason why my Verbal went down drastically. My Quant is still the same but I realised that I am not using all the techniques that I have learned - for example using 100 as a number to solve percents problem instead of algebra.

I also start getting anxious about the total score towards the end of Verbal section. I am having to force myself to not to think about it.

Can you also suggest some techniques on difficult RC passages? If the passage is interesting I can grasp faster and answer the first question in 2.5 minutes and the remaining questions in 1 or 1.5 minutes, but if the passage is not interesting and hard to grasp (especially medical related - like diseases or effect of drugs on harmones etc.) I take much longer to comprehend and loose time. Any ideas to improve comprehension on difficult passages? I have tried using MGMAT strategy of making a headline list but the comprehension takes time. After I comprehend I can write the headline list.

I am planning on giving another GMAT Prep CAT in 3 days or so. I think my best strategy would be to revise all the material I have, look at all the strategies, review my error log and do some mixed problem sets. Does that sound good? Please reply with more tips or suggestions.

Thanks once again.

Regards,

Amol
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