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Help: Finishing practice tests, planning date, review

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Help: Finishing practice tests, planning date, review

by blemming » Sun Mar 14, 2010 11:39 am
Hey All,

I have followed this forum quite rigorously for some time. I graduated from The College of William and Mary with a Bachelor of Arts in English and a minor in Sociology. I started studying for the GMAT in September, roughly. I have worked my way through each MGMAT Quantitative book, the sentence correction guide, and Powerscore's Critical Reasoning guide. Now, I know most people will assume I should have taken the test a while ago. However, I work two jobs, so time is scare, but I've ramped up the time lately. I need to take the test soon, and I NEED above a 700. Here are my practice test scores thus far.

When should I plan on taking the next practice test? In between, I will review my weak points. Once I am within reach of a 700 score, I want to take the GMAT and smash it. How far in advance must you schedule the test? I live in New York.

1/20/2009: GmatPrep #1 - 620 (I scored very high on the verbal, not so high on the quant, but I don't have the details).
3/5/2009: GmatPrep #2 - 630: 48Q / 28V (odd turnout, my verbal is usually much higher).
3/14/2010 MGMAT #1 - 660: 45Q / 35V (77% percentile in verbal and quant. 86% percentile overall)


Now, I am trying to figure out when I should take the next practice test. Today is 3/15/2010 and I plan on doing a review of all questions missed and some additional review in weak areas.

I am ready, lades and gentlemen, to TRY to beat the gmat. I can feel it. But, I do have a ways to go.

Also, I took the GmatPrep under horrible conditions. For example, I took the first one on little to no sleep and the second while my roommate was having a party. No, this is not going to help me. The Mgmat was taken after my computer froze 3 times and lots of frustration. I think I might be able to hit a little higher under "normal" circumstances.
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by cbenk121 » Sun Mar 14, 2010 8:56 pm
blemming wrote:Hey All,

I have followed this forum quite rigorously for some time. I graduated from The College of William and Mary with a Bachelor of Arts in English and a minor in Sociology. I started studying for the GMAT in September, roughly. I have worked my way through each MGMAT Quantitative book, the sentence correction guide, and Powerscore's Critical Reasoning guide. Now, I know most people will assume I should have taken the test a while ago. However, I work two jobs, so time is scare, but I've ramped up the time lately. I need to take the test soon, and I NEED above a 700. Here are my practice test scores thus far.

When should I plan on taking the next practice test? In between, I will review my weak points. Once I am within reach of a 700 score, I want to take the GMAT and smash it. How far in advance must you schedule the test? I live in New York.

1/20/2009: GmatPrep #1 - 620 (I scored very high on the verbal, not so high on the quant, but I don't have the details).
3/5/2009: GmatPrep #2 - 630: 48Q / 28V (odd turnout, my verbal is usually much higher).
3/14/2010 MGMAT #1 - 660: 45Q / 35V (77% percentile in verbal and quant. 86% percentile overall)


Now, I am trying to figure out when I should take the next practice test. Today is 3/15/2010 and I plan on doing a review of all questions missed and some additional review in weak areas.

I am ready, lades and gentlemen, to TRY to beat the gmat. I can feel it. But, I do have a ways to go.

Also, I took the GmatPrep under horrible conditions. For example, I took the first one on little to no sleep and the second while my roommate was having a party. No, this is not going to help me. The Mgmat was taken after my computer froze 3 times and lots of frustration. I think I might be able to hit a little higher under "normal" circumstances.
Hey blemming,

Sounds as if you've gotten a good start on your prep. I am concerned though when you say "...I NEED above a 700...". It's fine to have goals, but as many many people say on here, psychological factors can have a HUGE impact on your score. Putting such pressure on yourself is unlikely to help you, and may in fact hinder your score potential. So first thing I'd do is accept the possibility of a lower score. I had set up a range when I took the test:

760+ - Goal
730-750 with no clear weak area - Acceptable, but not ideal
720 or below - retake

But notice that my 720 or below didn't read "Curl into ball and die" - it read "retake". Accept the possibility of getting under a 700 (i.e., you will live), and then use that mental power that's no longer being used for worrying to get above a 700!

Now off of my soap box and onto your question.

You should take the next practice test when you think you've improved from your last test. What areas are you strong in, what are you weak in (e.g., SV, RC, CR, etc)? Based on your scores, either one area is killing you, or all areas have room for improvement. If it's the former, that's great news: it means you have a clear idea of what to study.

So let me throw it back to you: what types of questions have you been strong in? What have you been weak in? Once we know a little bit about your test history, then we can develop a plan moving forward. No point in me recommending you work on tenses if you ace those questions, likewise there's no point in me saying your OK in RC if you're bombing those questions.
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by blemming » Mon Mar 15, 2010 2:23 pm
Cben,

I was thinking about your post this morning while I was making breakfast, and I think you raise a really good point. When I'm relaxed I can think clearly, critically. When I'm tense, nervous, and excited, I think I'm prone to make mistakes. Though my memory fails me, my first Gmatprep exam was the one I took the most relaxed. I did not expect to do well, but I remember my verbal score was in the mid 90th percentile. I think I just get so wrapped up in the whole must have 700, that I'm afraid if I don't worry, I will slip into regression.

So, shooting for 700, but life will go on if I do not get it. And I can always take it again...and again lol.

I reviewed each question I got wrong and understand the answer. I was able to figure out most without having to reveal the explanation. The results are a bit scattered as far as what I did and did not get wrong on the MGMAT test. I know I need work on factoring/distributing, overlapping sets, and coordinate plane work.

There are not any glaring patterns, but the results of my first MGMAT test are below:

45Q/35Q first MGMAT test. 660 total. The following were incorrect:

Verbal :

Critical Reasoning: (4)
Draw conclusion
analyze argument structure
strengthen conclusion
restate the conclusion

Sentence Correction: (13)
idioms, clarity of meaning, verbs
modifiers (2)
clarity of meaning, pronouns
comparison, pronouns, concision
parallelism
subject verb agreement

Reading Comprehension: (5)
tone
specific detail (4)

Quantitative

Data Sufficieny: (6)
divisibility and primes
coordinate plane
percents
digits
FDP connections
Inequalities

Problem Solving: (9)
overlapping sets
variables in choices (2)
exponents and roots (2)
divisibility and primes
fractions
odds and evens (2)
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