Hi,
I last wrote a post on Jun18 after writing the first GMATPrep exam (with a score of 610).
https://www.beatthegmat.com/problem-with ... 59729.html
A few points to brief about my preparation (All tests given with AWA. Actual exam conditions without any additional break):
1) Started April 2010.
2) Target score of 730-740.
3) First GMATPrepTest: 610
4) MGMAT-1: 670 (25th Jul)
5) MGMAT-2: 660 (13th Aug)
6) MGMAT-3: 680 (23rd Aug)
7) Exam Date: Not yet taken but it has to be by 15th September. So you can assume 20 days left.
8) Preparation using OG-12, OG-V, Manhattan Sentence Correction, Kaplan-800 (for Quant only), The Wall Street, New York Times Science Articles.
9) Non-native English Speaker with a 6 years work-ex.
I was supposed to take the actual exam one month back but was not confident that I can achieve the desired score so I started with MGMAT tests instead.
I will write a few key points about the current error pattern so that you can suggest me something for next 20 days to achieve the desired results.
Coming to individual sections:
Quant:
1) Normal accuracy when not in test > 90%
2) Quant Score: 48. Accuracy in exam: 65%
3) Main error point was careless mistakes in 8 questions. Such as
word "distinct" not considered
Given that z not less than 0. Took it as z>0
Solved question starting with Monday whereas question mentioned that Month starting with Wednesday.
Error in Multiplication.
4) Main problem is Word Translation Questions.
5) Time management was OK.
Verbal:
1) Normal accuracy when not in test = approx 75-80% (with time)
2) Verbal Score: 34. SC: 67%. CR: 67%. RC:33%
3) Just moved on with one RC because of lack of time.
4) Have gone through Manhattan SC 4 times, but still do not feel that i have mastered everything. Still sometimes a few Idiom errors, Subject-verb agreement etc. When reviewing test, able to recognize such errors without difficulty.
5) RC has always been a problem Area but its not bad when practicing questions of OG-V and OG-12. Have seen considerable improvement in comprehension over last 2months (but not so in actual test).
Now the questions:
1) What all to plan for next 20 days. Will need to give some time to Essay Part as well (maybe 1-2 days).
2) Maths, I m confident of getting 49-50 in case I can avoid these careless mistakes. How to work on it (most of them are in Word Problems)?
3) I m planning to go for Manhattan SC 1 more time (if required will write and learn all idioms). What else to do for SC?
4) Strategy for CR n RC for this time span?
5) How good are MGMAT scores compared to actual test scores?
6) When to write GMAT Prep 2 and MGMAT 3,4,5?
7) Have taken leaves from office from last 1week as do not get enough time when I go to office. How to plan my 10 leaves hereon?
8) Somewhere in back of my mind, with the university deadlines approaching, I m feeling the pressure. Was able to feel it in today's MGMAT Test. How to work that out?
I request some BTG expect to help me?
Thanks a lot.
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Plan for next 20 days. Current level of 680. Target 730.
This topic has expert replies
-
shikhargmat
- Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
- Posts: 18
- Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2010 11:39 am
I am also in the same situation and my GMAT is on 1 October 2010.shikhargmat wrote:Hi,
I last wrote a post on Jun18 after writing the first GMATPrep exam (with a score of 610).
https://www.beatthegmat.com/problem-with ... 59729.html
A few points to brief about my preparation (All tests given with AWA. Actual exam conditions without any additional break):
1) Started April 2010.
2) Target score of 730-740.
3) First GMATPrepTest: 610
4) MGMAT-1: 670 (25th Jul)
5) MGMAT-2: 660 (13th Aug)
6) MGMAT-3: 680 (23rd Aug)
7) Exam Date: Not yet taken but it has to be by 15th September. So you can assume 20 days left.
8) Preparation using OG-12, OG-V, Manhattan Sentence Correction, Kaplan-800 (for Quant only), The Wall Street, New York Times Science Articles.
9) Non-native English Speaker with a 6 years work-ex.
I was supposed to take the actual exam one month back but was not confident that I can achieve the desired score so I started with MGMAT tests instead.
I will write a few key points about the current error pattern so that you can suggest me something for next 20 days to achieve the desired results.
Coming to individual sections:
Quant:
1) Normal accuracy when not in test > 90%
2) Quant Score: 48. Accuracy in exam: 65%
3) Main error point was careless mistakes in 8 questions. Such as
word "distinct" not considered
Given that z not less than 0. Took it as z>0
Solved question starting with Monday whereas question mentioned that Month starting with Wednesday.
Error in Multiplication.
4) Main problem is Word Translation Questions.
5) Time management was OK.
Verbal:
1) Normal accuracy when not in test = approx 75-80% (with time)
2) Verbal Score: 34. SC: 67%. CR: 67%. RC:33%
3) Just moved on with one RC because of lack of time.
4) Have gone through Manhattan SC 4 times, but still do not feel that i have mastered everything. Still sometimes a few Idiom errors, Subject-verb agreement etc. When reviewing test, able to recognize such errors without difficulty.
5) RC has always been a problem Area but its not bad when practicing questions of OG-V and OG-12. Have seen considerable improvement in comprehension over last 2months (but not so in actual test).
Now the questions:
1) What all to plan for next 20 days. Will need to give some time to Essay Part as well (maybe 1-2 days).
2) Maths, I m confident of getting 49-50 in case I can avoid these careless mistakes. How to work on it (most of them are in Word Problems)?
3) I m planning to go for Manhattan SC 1 more time (if required will write and learn all idioms). What else to do for SC?
4) Strategy for CR n RC for this time span?
5) How good are MGMAT scores compared to actual test scores?
6) When to write GMAT Prep 2 and MGMAT 3,4,5?
7) Have taken leaves from office from last 1week as do not get enough time when I go to office. How to plan my 10 leaves hereon?
8) Somewhere in back of my mind, with the university deadlines approaching, I m feeling the pressure. Was able to feel it in today's MGMAT Test. How to work that out?
I request some BTG expect to help me?
Thanks a lot.
Can some one guide me as well.
-
shikhargmat
- Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
- Posts: 18
- Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2010 11:39 am
GMAT/MBA Expert
-
Stacey Koprince
- GMAT Instructor
- Posts: 2228
- Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:28 pm
- Location: Montreal, Canada
- Thanked: 639 times
- Followed by:694 members
- GMAT Score:780
Received a PM asking me to respond.
Target: 730+
Current scores: high 600s
deadline: sep 15th
1) FYI: your normal accuracy when not taking an adaptive test is largely irrelevant. Most people answer roughly 60% of the questions correctly on an adaptive exam no matter what (except at the very highest and lowest levels, when the numbers change a bit).
2) You said careless mistakes are a problem on quant. Use this article to help you minimize these:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/04/ ... our-errors
3) "time management was ok" on quant. Be more specific. How many times did you spend more than 2m30s on a quant question? What was your performance like? How many times did you spend less then 1m15s on quant? What was your performance like? Add that all up. (Note: the *only* acceptable reason for getting a quant wrong in less than 1m15s is when you know you're lost and you give up on purpose. If you thought you were knew what you were doing and made a careless mistake - well, you caused that error yourself by rushing, and you probably rushed because you spent too much time on some other questions.)
4) when you make mistakes on verbal, ask yourself: WHY did I make that mistake? WHY did I think the wrong one looked good? WHY did I eliminate the right one? (Not just why is the wrong one wrong, why is the right one right) If you don't know why, then nothing is preventing you from falling into the same traps next time.
5) MGMAT tests have a standard deviation of about 50 points (+/- 50), compared to an SD of about 30 points on the real test. Generally, I advise students to be scoring in the same range or higher on practice tests before taking the real test, so you do have some work to do.
You probably don't want to hear this, but a 50 point improvement in 20 days is a tall order. That doesn't mean you can't do it, but you may be unreasonably adding to your stress levels by trying to make that happen. I would advise you to either (a) tell yourself that you really want a 700+ and you'll be ecstatic if you can hit 730, or (b) consider postponing the test if necessary. From the language in your post, it sounds like you may not be able to do (b), so you may reduce your stress if you can do (a).
These articles may also help you to manage stress levels:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/stress-tips.cfm
https://www.manhattangmat.com/strategy-series-stress.cfm
Your list of materials does not show any material that teaches you how to do CR and RC. The below articles may help, though they're really just a starting point. I would ordinarily tell you that you need something similar to our SC guide for CR and RC, but 20 days doesn't give you much time to learn, practice, and internalize the strategies. There's a risk that trying to learn a bunch of new material at this point with inadequate time would just mess you up. So you might just want to try the below for starters and see how much they help.
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/04/ ... mp-passage
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/07/ ... rc-passage
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/05/ ... -reasoning
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/01/ ... r-question
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/02/ ... e-question
In particular, I would start with the RC, since that looks like your weakest area from the results that you posted.
You will also benefit from these two articles once you hit your last 2 weeks:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/08/ ... -game-plan
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/08/ ... -to-review
These will answer a lot of your questions about how to spend your time during the last 2 weeks.
Oh, and here's something on the essays as well:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2009/12/ ... -no-thanks
Target: 730+
Current scores: high 600s
deadline: sep 15th
1) FYI: your normal accuracy when not taking an adaptive test is largely irrelevant. Most people answer roughly 60% of the questions correctly on an adaptive exam no matter what (except at the very highest and lowest levels, when the numbers change a bit).
2) You said careless mistakes are a problem on quant. Use this article to help you minimize these:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/04/ ... our-errors
3) "time management was ok" on quant. Be more specific. How many times did you spend more than 2m30s on a quant question? What was your performance like? How many times did you spend less then 1m15s on quant? What was your performance like? Add that all up. (Note: the *only* acceptable reason for getting a quant wrong in less than 1m15s is when you know you're lost and you give up on purpose. If you thought you were knew what you were doing and made a careless mistake - well, you caused that error yourself by rushing, and you probably rushed because you spent too much time on some other questions.)
4) when you make mistakes on verbal, ask yourself: WHY did I make that mistake? WHY did I think the wrong one looked good? WHY did I eliminate the right one? (Not just why is the wrong one wrong, why is the right one right) If you don't know why, then nothing is preventing you from falling into the same traps next time.
5) MGMAT tests have a standard deviation of about 50 points (+/- 50), compared to an SD of about 30 points on the real test. Generally, I advise students to be scoring in the same range or higher on practice tests before taking the real test, so you do have some work to do.
You probably don't want to hear this, but a 50 point improvement in 20 days is a tall order. That doesn't mean you can't do it, but you may be unreasonably adding to your stress levels by trying to make that happen. I would advise you to either (a) tell yourself that you really want a 700+ and you'll be ecstatic if you can hit 730, or (b) consider postponing the test if necessary. From the language in your post, it sounds like you may not be able to do (b), so you may reduce your stress if you can do (a).
These articles may also help you to manage stress levels:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/stress-tips.cfm
https://www.manhattangmat.com/strategy-series-stress.cfm
Your list of materials does not show any material that teaches you how to do CR and RC. The below articles may help, though they're really just a starting point. I would ordinarily tell you that you need something similar to our SC guide for CR and RC, but 20 days doesn't give you much time to learn, practice, and internalize the strategies. There's a risk that trying to learn a bunch of new material at this point with inadequate time would just mess you up. So you might just want to try the below for starters and see how much they help.
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/04/ ... mp-passage
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/07/ ... rc-passage
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/05/ ... -reasoning
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/01/ ... r-question
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/02/ ... e-question
In particular, I would start with the RC, since that looks like your weakest area from the results that you posted.
You will also benefit from these two articles once you hit your last 2 weeks:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/08/ ... -game-plan
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/08/ ... -to-review
These will answer a lot of your questions about how to spend your time during the last 2 weeks.
Oh, and here's something on the essays as well:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2009/12/ ... -no-thanks
Please note: I do not use the Private Messaging system! I will not see any PMs that you send to me!!
Stacey Koprince
GMAT Instructor
Director of Online Community
Manhattan GMAT
Contributor to Beat The GMAT!
Learn more about me
Stacey Koprince
GMAT Instructor
Director of Online Community
Manhattan GMAT
Contributor to Beat The GMAT!
Learn more about me
-
shikhargmat
- Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
- Posts: 18
- Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2010 11:39 am
Thanks Stacey for your analysis.
As far as Quant is concerned, here is the analysis of my last test (23rd August):
After 12th Question: 2 wrong. Lagging by 2mins.
After 23rd Question: 7 Wrong. Lagging by 1min.
I was sort of confident by that time. But here did the real mistake thinking that I can afford some extra time on some questions.
Next 3 question, I spent over 10mins (fell in love) and 2 were wrong. So that meant I was lagging by 6mins at the end of 26th question.
Ques 27th to 37th: Ran through them because of less time and that affected my accuracy. 5 wrong.
Overall: I gave over 2.30mins in 10 questions . And I m glad to tell that 6 were wrong
(Glad because I caught the real problem)
6 question I gave less than 1 min. All of them correct.
So, I think I know the real problem of my quant section and I will take care of it for sure. Will do similar analysis of Verbal section as well.
As far as Quant is concerned, here is the analysis of my last test (23rd August):
After 12th Question: 2 wrong. Lagging by 2mins.
After 23rd Question: 7 Wrong. Lagging by 1min.
I was sort of confident by that time. But here did the real mistake thinking that I can afford some extra time on some questions.
Next 3 question, I spent over 10mins (fell in love) and 2 were wrong. So that meant I was lagging by 6mins at the end of 26th question.
Ques 27th to 37th: Ran through them because of less time and that affected my accuracy. 5 wrong.
Overall: I gave over 2.30mins in 10 questions . And I m glad to tell that 6 were wrong
(Glad because I caught the real problem)6 question I gave less than 1 min. All of them correct.
So, I think I know the real problem of my quant section and I will take care of it for sure. Will do similar analysis of Verbal section as well.
GMAT/MBA Expert
-
Stacey Koprince
- GMAT Instructor
- Posts: 2228
- Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:28 pm
- Location: Montreal, Canada
- Thanked: 639 times
- Followed by:694 members
- GMAT Score:780
Good! Well, not GOOD, but now you know what went wrong, so now you can fix the problem!
Please note: I do not use the Private Messaging system! I will not see any PMs that you send to me!!
Stacey Koprince
GMAT Instructor
Director of Online Community
Manhattan GMAT
Contributor to Beat The GMAT!
Learn more about me
Stacey Koprince
GMAT Instructor
Director of Online Community
Manhattan GMAT
Contributor to Beat The GMAT!
Learn more about me
