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Scoring in the 400s on the practice CATs...need help+advice!

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Scoring in the 400s on the practice CATs...need help+advice!

by decipherthegmat » Thu Mar 04, 2010 3:00 pm
These are my scores from my two Manhattan CATs:

2/23/2010 CAT exam 1 Q18, V32 Score 440
3/4/2010 CAT exam 2 Q20, V29 Score 430

The quant. section is totally rocking me. I am not totally sure how to setup most of the questions once I encounter them. I get flustered and deterred once I can't answer a math problem. The DS questions are the most killer. I have a hard time reading DS questions and rephrasing them. I know this is bad but most of the time I end up guessing on the DS questions!!

I bought a lot of books but I am not totally sure what's going on.

I have the 8 mgmat books
princeton review book
OG 11

I have gone through the PR book (not really helpful, but it was a fun read), grazed over a few concepts in OG11, and skimmed over mgmat number properties and word translations.

Should I reschedule my gmat test date? I am supposed to be taking it on March 19 which is approximately two weeks from now.

My target score was to get 600 to get into a top school. My backup plan was to get around a 450-500 and get into my backup school.

I am just at a loss of words right now. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
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by money9111 » Thu Mar 04, 2010 3:25 pm
I have gone through the PR book (not really helpful, but it was a fun read), grazed over a few concepts in OG11, and skimmed over mgmat number properties and word translations.
I would like to point out three things in the above quote:

1. "not really helpful" re: Princeton Review
2. grazed over a few concepts in OG
3. skimmed over...

IMO the issue is laid out for you there. PR you can put to the side for the time being. You don't need this resource to do well on the exam. Some would say it's a waste of time, but I haven't gone through it so I can't attest to that.

Secondly, grazing over a few concepts ESPECIALLY in OG will not get you anywhere near the score needed to get into a Top B-school. It's quite the opposite, you need to understand the underlying concept behind EACH question and question type. If you're going for a top score, you should be able to look at a DS question and see through all of the fluff and say to yourself "ok this question isn't really asking X it's asking Y" or if you look at a SC question stem, you should already be able to see where the error may be occurring and why it's in fact an error. Taking that last point one step further, once you can explain why all of the other answer choices are incorrect - you've hit paydirt.

I'm not going to say all of this without saying that I am not at this point either. But it's what I'm working towards.

Last but DEFINITELY not least, you mentioned you skimmed over the Number Properties and World Translations Guide. IMO these are the two most important MGMAT guides. I have spent a couple days on the WT Guide and will say that I still don't fully understand how to work out every single question at the end of each chapter. Number Properties is a book that I plan on going through again as well because those properties can be used in every single type of problem in the Quant section.

You said that you're not sure how to set up most of the questions once you encounter them... if you can take the time to go through all of the MGMAT guides, you will be much better off. By going through them I don't just mean doing the end of the chapter problems, but also following along and doing the OG problems prescribed at the end of each chapter. It may seem overwhelming but it's 100% worth it.

Other people may have more to add so I'll leave it at that for now. Just do not under estimate this exam. I personally don't think it's designed to trick you. I mean how can the right answer trick you? But I think that the test knows that you will make a mistake so it will provide the answer you believe to be correct.

If you have any questions, always always always post them in the Quant/Verbal forums. You will get great responses from other users.

Best of Luck!
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by decipherthegmat » Fri Mar 05, 2010 2:17 pm
Thanks money911....I really appreciate the feedback. I read a few of your blogs and they are indeed interesting. Yea I really think that I need to work on the foundation of math. I took off 6 weeks of work to study for the gmat but even that is not enough time. I guess I totally underestimated this test. Reading through the material is one thing but being able to identify it and solve it on the test is something totally different.

I am still going to take it on March 19th. Any last pointers before I take the test at the end of March? I am going to try to mow through mgmat fractions, decimals, and percents book, inequality book, and geometry book......or should I just wing it all and just study the og 11 book that I have barely touched?
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