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kaplan 800

by resilient » Thu Mar 20, 2008 8:11 pm
I scored 650 on my last manhattan gmat. (38 quant and 41 verbal)

The verbal I am satisfied with but need a much much better score on quant. The goal is 700. I did some serious ground work and revisited all manhattan gmat math books for the basics. I am going over the kaplan 800 book however, it is not really that challenging. Any recommendations?
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by mayonnai5e » Fri Mar 21, 2008 1:45 am
I went through the Kaplan 800 book near the end of my studies (I believe in the second to last week) and I was actually very impressed by the quant section (I only looked at quant in that book because I had read that the Kaplan Verbal material is not the best).

In my opinion, the strength of the Kaplan quant material in the 800 book is not the "difficulty" of the questions, but rather the presentation of the problem and the breakdown of the problem into smaller manageable parts that help to simplify the problem. In addition, the 800 presents a technique (for example, variables in choices) and provides several problems in different topics (e.g. percentages, word problems, etc) that illustrate how to effectively use that technique to master the problem. What the 800 book provides is not more "difficult" problems, but rather a toolset to help you destroy the questions in the 500-699 range. The tools can further be used on the 700+ questions, but at the 700+ range most questions take on a whole new level of complexity that the 800 book does not venture into.

As you and I have already discussed in our private messages Engin, the 500-600 range appears to be slowing you down on the cats so I recommend paying particular attention to how the 800 book presents the material instead of how "difficult" those questions are.

The 800 quant material is actually the book that spawned, and is the basis for, the ideas I discussed in my last blog "Quant Complexity."
https://www.beatthegmat.com/my-blog-erro ... t4899.html
550 =\ ...560 =\... 650 =) ...570 =( ...540 =*( ...680 =P ... 670 =T ...=T... 650 =T ...700 =) ..690 =) ...710 =D ...GMAT 720 DING!! ;D

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ok

by resilient » Fri Mar 21, 2008 8:36 am
I am going through the book and noticing that I am better on my word problems. This was huge for me but I am just taking note of what I am having a hard time with. I already know all the tricks that the kaplan 800 book can teach me. BUt I noticed that I am losing points unnecesarily from a lack on how to combine and simplify roots and exponents. SO I am now doing some ground work on roots and exponents inhopes to never make that mistake again. The GMAT math is getting easier because I am living, eating and breathing QUANT. In regards to what you recommended, I did some ground work on percentages, fractions and decimals in order to not mis any 50-60 point questions. Oddly, I knew all the information. I realized I was reading some of the questions wrong and not translating the words into the right eqations on my paper. ASide from this, I wish there was an in depth analysis of where I am weak and how to approach it. THIS WOUD BE HUGE!
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kaplan 800 - mayonnai5e advice

by resilient » Fri Mar 21, 2008 8:14 pm
I took mayonnai5e's advice and realized through careful analysis that I am not really suffering from a lack of math. Instead, I was simply making hasty mistakes. After going through the kaplan 800 book (majority of material) I identified big weaknesses.

weakness:

1. I was not rephrasing when needed on DS
2. Not factoring when similiad values are in polynomials
3. Need to understand roots and powers more.

action taken:
1. need to draw diagrams to map out the the problem. (HUGE)
2. Keep clean, neat variable chart and find target answer.
3. Handwrite the question again to make sure I understand the question
4. Slow down to understand the question
5.keep clean and clear variables.
6. Use mayonnai5e way for picking numbers (DS)
7.pick numbers
8. plug numbers

overall my problem with word problems is not so bad anymore and feel pretty comfortable.

would love to get even better on work problems.
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by mayonnai5e » Mon Mar 24, 2008 5:35 pm
Engin, that is an impressive list of weaknesses and actions. Moving ahead is all about figuring out what is blocking your path now so you can either move around it or figure out how to remove the obstacle altogether. We all tend to have default patterns that we fall into whether it's our daily routine for getting out of bed or the immediate response/solution path your brain fires up when you see a particular type of problem (e.g. polynomials and factors), the hard part is to first recognize those patterns and to stop them or modify them to suit your goals. In your case, you know the patterns and now you have the actions needed to breakdown those patterns. Your analysis of yourself will be a great example for others working to break their glass ceilings. Thank you for the updates!
https://www.beatthegmat.com/my-blog-erro ... t4899.html
550 =\ ...560 =\... 650 =) ...570 =( ...540 =*( ...680 =P ... 670 =T ...=T... 650 =T ...700 =) ..690 =) ...710 =D ...GMAT 720 DING!! ;D

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by AleksandrM » Mon Mar 24, 2008 5:58 pm
6. Use mayonnai5e way for picking numbers (DS)

Could one of you or someone else post a link or attachment as far as these ways for picking numbers go. I am getting pretty solid on word problems, but number properties are ripping me in half.

I would really appreciate it.
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MORE WEAKNESSES

by resilient » Mon Mar 24, 2008 10:28 pm
This is painful but I had to do it in order to get past this 650 mark and start into the 700's. I found my serious weaknesses. I tried to ignore certain topics but this is no longer possible. If you want a 700 you have to minimze all weaknesses.

weakness:

quant:
1. functions
2.understanding the question
3. comb and perm
4. overlapping (just mastered today)

verbal:
Sentence Correction- find out why I know the grammar but still losing points to 500-600 level questions. Need to make this my strength

CR- ok points but need to master

RC- good handle just need to learn how to handle inference questions better.

Action:
master the manhattan lessons in word translations.
copy more of mayonnaises strategies
Fix ALL OG mistakes.
MOST OF ALL: keep up on verbal while growing math

LAst week mgmat 650 (quant 38 verbal 41)
THis week mgmat 640 (quant 44 verbal 38)

I need to learn how to balance this all out
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by mayonnai5e » Tue Mar 25, 2008 1:55 am
AleksandrM wrote:6. Use mayonnai5e way for picking numbers (DS)

Could one of you or someone else post a link or attachment as far as these ways for picking numbers go. I am getting pretty solid on word problems, but number properties are ripping me in half.

I would really appreciate it.
See page 6 of my blog:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/my-blog-erro ... 99-75.html

Searching for the phrase, "Picking Numbers in Quant"
https://www.beatthegmat.com/my-blog-erro ... t4899.html
550 =\ ...560 =\... 650 =) ...570 =( ...540 =*( ...680 =P ... 670 =T ...=T... 650 =T ...700 =) ..690 =) ...710 =D ...GMAT 720 DING!! ;D

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by mayonnai5e » Tue Mar 25, 2008 2:05 am
Engin,

I discovered the same thing towards the last two weeks of my studies - that in order to score at my highest potential I had to work on my biggest weaknesses - those that I ignored while studying my strengths. If you imagine a chart with every single subject covered in the GMAT and each subject marked 1-10 for how good you are at each, then you will find some subjects are marked 10, some 8 or 9 and others 3 or 4. Breaking 700 is not about making the peaks of the chart (your strengths) higher, but more about moving the valleys (your weaknesses) up so that your floor (the lowest point in the chart) progressively moves higher and higher.
https://www.beatthegmat.com/my-blog-erro ... t4899.html
550 =\ ...560 =\... 650 =) ...570 =( ...540 =*( ...680 =P ... 670 =T ...=T... 650 =T ...700 =) ..690 =) ...710 =D ...GMAT 720 DING!! ;D

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excellent

by resilient » Tue Mar 25, 2008 8:50 am
I am closely watching your blogs because they are giving me the direction I need. Energy is wasted if no direction.

IN regards to your recommendation on valleys and peaks:

I have a clear weakness on SC. I will go to work on these asap.
CR I have a good handle on. BUt in CR something interesting is happening. I am not scoring well on the 700-800 level questions and this topic is quite fun to me. I can easily make it a strength. DO you recommend to read the powerscore cr bible even though I read the manhattan gmat approach or should I focus more energy on SC.

THe reason of my concern is that I am not sure wich one will yield more points and ultimately closer to my 700.
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by mayonnai5e » Tue Mar 25, 2008 8:59 am
I'm glad you are reading the blog and gaining a lot of information from it - that was the whole purpose of the blog!

With respect to your question about CR and SC, it depends really on the amount of time you have left. If you have sufficient time, why not work on both CR and SC and bring them both up? If you are really short on time, then working with SC should yield betters returns on your investment. Missing several 500-600 questions will more severely punish your score than missing a few 600-700 or 700-800 questions. Look at your verbal MGMAT report and determine whether SC or CR has more 500-600 level questions answered incorrectly and that should help guide your decision.
https://www.beatthegmat.com/my-blog-erro ... t4899.html
550 =\ ...560 =\... 650 =) ...570 =( ...540 =*( ...680 =P ... 670 =T ...=T... 650 =T ...700 =) ..690 =) ...710 =D ...GMAT 720 DING!! ;D

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by mayonnai5e » Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:06 am
To other members reading this forum, an important thing to note is how the MGMAT cat can help quantify where your real weaknesses are - this is because of the individual breakdown of each question into specific difficulty bins provides real data. The MGMAT cat is a great cat (aside from some questionable Q questions) and the statistics it provides is unrivaled. Personally, I would save the MGMAT cats towards the end of your studies because by that stage you will have learned about most topics and most strategies so the questions you get wrong in the 500-600 range really stand out and point out the weaknesses (as compared to you missing 500-600 questions simply because you have never never learned that subject area)
https://www.beatthegmat.com/my-blog-erro ... t4899.html
550 =\ ...560 =\... 650 =) ...570 =( ...540 =*( ...680 =P ... 670 =T ...=T... 650 =T ...700 =) ..690 =) ...710 =D ...GMAT 720 DING!! ;D

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overall status

by resilient » Wed Mar 26, 2008 9:47 pm
In general, I have been trying to mimic the moderator mayonaise approach to strong analysis of mistakes and ask many why's to my mistakes. This has helped a lot. I made a column for quant and verbal. Each with honest weaknesses and prioritiezed to their importance to how often they will be tested.

quant:

whats left: functions, roots, understanding the questions, fixing all og mistakes.

verbal:

CR- still trying to decide whether to abandon manhattan gmat and move onto powerscore CR bible in order to hammer home the scores or not. (think I just made up my mind)

SC- clear weakness on all ends. Need to get my hands on this and master it. I am scoring 60 percent right and its quite challenging. Through time it gets easier but i think I might get a tutor. I went through the manhattan gmat SC book and even the Powerscore SC book. Im getting lost in the options and cant keep track of things!

RC: stay on top of the game - scoring 90-95 percent correct!
Appetite for 700 and I scraped my plate!
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