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Seeking guidance - Test day 10th July

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Seeking guidance - Test day 10th July

by mseeker » Mon Jun 23, 2014 12:34 am
Dear experts,

I am seeking some advice on how to get ready for test day which is Thursday,July 10. Below is where I stand as of now.

Test materials: Veritas Prep,Various short test materials from Manhattan,Kaplan etc
Completed - OG12 and OG10.
Target score: 700 (minimum)

Previous CAT scores:

- Actual GMAT - Oct-2011 - 570 (37 quant, 30 verbal)
- Veritas CAT #1 - 680 (49 quant, 34 verbal)
- Veritas CAT #2 - 680 (49 quant, 34 verbal)
- Manhattan CAT #1 (Free) - May-27 2014 - 600(45 quant, 29 verbal)
- Veritas CAT #3 - 700 (50 quant, 36 verbal)

- MBA.com # 1 - Due this weekend


I did feel better that I could improve my score in the last Veritas test but my Manhattan score does diappoint me.

Quant - I struggle mostly with inequality and factorial DS questions. I have been able to manage the rest, however, I have to rush towards the end of the exam and that is one reason for majority of my mistakes.
Verbal - I have been able to improvise on CR and I felt RC was comparatively easier in the last test. I had 8 correct and 5 wrong in SC which is very bad! When reviewing I was able to identify my mistakes and correct them minus my wrong answer :(. Inputs needed!

Queries:

1. I have a error log from the huge OG10 and OG12 and I would work on the ones which went wrong. Should I work on them in a timed fashion or just work slowly for concepts?

2. Any additional materials? (e.g. Official Guides, useful quant books, etc.)

3. I am targeting around 6 more CATs until the D-day, is that more or less, dont know?

4. What are other places to find good CATs? (besides the 2 free from mba.com).

5. Looking at my scores, what should I be doing to maximise and score to a 700+.

I am really looking forward to hear your inputs and answering any information that you may require.

Cheers!
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by [email protected] » Mon Jun 23, 2014 1:00 am
Hi mseeker,

With a July 10th Test Date, you have 17 days remaining to continue studying. With the time that you have remaining, here's what I would recommend:

1) Review is important, so that you can solidify the concepts that you know and improve the ones that you're not great at.

2) With point #1 in mind, some emphasis on DS and ALL Verbal categories is warranted.

3) Plan to take 1 CAT/week, NOT 6 in the next 17 days.

4) You should not be "improvising" on any Verbal questions. The grammar in SCs is standard; the questions types and tactics for RC and CR are also standard.

At your scoring level, "precision" is what it will take to raise your score to the next level. Put your emphasis on staying organized and eliminating silly mistakes.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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by mseeker » Mon Jun 23, 2014 2:43 am
Thanks for the prompt response Rich! Really helpful.

I have a few more queries, on the test taking strategy :

a) I seem to be doing okay in Quant, however, I spend close to 3-4 minutes for around 3-5 questions somewhere between Q#12 to Q#25. Can I manage to do an educated guess for a few question between 12-25 and working more towards the end for accuracy? Will that hamper my score, just in case I do well at the end and slighly average in the middle?

b) With a 49-50 in Q, what is the least that I can target in V to score 710-730?

c) I get stressed after IR, as its quite time consuming, can I manage to attempt only 6-8 questions seriously and move ahead with an educated guess in the remaining 6 to 4?

Cheers!
S
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by [email protected] » Mon Jun 23, 2014 11:42 am
Hi mseeker,

In answer to your questions:

1) It's important to get to all of the questions in both the Quant and Verbal sections and have a reasonable chance to answer them all. As such, you can't afford to spend too much time on any one question, as that might "eat up" too much of your available time. Getting one question wrong (especially a hard question) won't really hurt your score. If that means that you have to "dump" a hard question to keep on pace, then that's fine.

2) The GMAT always has a little bit of a "curve" to it, but assuming that you scored Q49, then a V36 or V37 would probably be enough to get you a 700 overall. The interesting thing with Verbal is that if you can score a V36, then there's no reason why you couldn't score a V40 (or higher) - the skills that are required to score at that higher level are exactly the same skills required to score a V36.

3) IR is an interesting factor in everyone's performance, since that section requires a lot of work in a very short amount of time. Most Business Schools don't care much about your IR score, so you should factor that into how you choose to handle that section of the GMAT. My advice is the same as what I mentioned for the Quant section - don't get too bogged down with any one IR prompt. If a prompt is too complex to handle, then dump it and move on.

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by VivianKerr » Mon Jun 23, 2014 4:19 pm
Hi there,

So first of all, if you know you want a 700, you really aren't going to have that locked in until you're scoring 720+ on the GMAT Prep's. It's rare that people jump on Test Day. If anything, the nerves of the actual test-taking experience drags your score down. That's why I make sure my students "overprep" and I don't suggest they take their test until they have scored 20 pts higher on an official practice test (either the GMATPrep 1, 2, 3, or 4).

Based on your high-600's on Veritas and 600 on MGMAT, I'd estimate you're low-to-mid 600's. You CAN do a lot between now and July 10th, but you aren't going to jump 50-75 points. It's just highly unlikely. So I think the first thing you should do is evaluate how much you need that 700. If you gotta have it, I'd push back your test date at least 4 weeks and get with a no-joke tutor to set up a realistic study plan.

If you have to go full steam ahead with July 10th, I'd take a break from the Quant and go full-tilt Verbal. You CANNOT "improvise" on CR -- you need a serious strategy that adjusts based on the type of question (Assumption, Evaluate, Bolded Statement, etc). Just like you need a serious SC and RC strategy. I suspect that's why your Verbal hasn't shown any significant improvement. You can see an example of what I mean by CR strategy here: https://gmatrockstar.com/2014/02/02/gmat ... age-first/

I'd suggest doing the GMATPrep 1, 2, 3, and 4 between now and July 10th, spreading them out and doing a thorough Error Log analysis between tests. Once you know the concepts you're getting wrong, study those in a targeted way before attempting the next official test. I would not recommend studying anything between now and July 13th outside of the GMATPrep questions and any OG13 questions you haven't answered yet. You don't really have time to go back and built Verbal from the ground up with books like MGMAT SC and Powerscore CR. BUT if you're not working full time and you plan to do a 40+ hr a week GMAT cram-a-thon (NOT recommended), then buy those books and hunker down.

The best thing you can do now is totally overhaul your SC, RC and CR strategy, study with official GMAC material, and use an Error Log to try to pinpoint in a precise manner what you're getting wrong, and WHY.
Vivian Kerr
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Former Kaplan and Grockit instructor, freelance GMAT content creator, now offering affordable, effective, Skype-tutoring for the GMAT at $150/hr. Contact: [email protected]

Thank you for all the "thanks" and "follows"! :-)
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by mseeker » Mon Jun 23, 2014 4:35 pm
Thanks Rich!

Thanks Vivian!

I will be giving my 1st GMAT prep this Saturday and I think would know where I stand. I am a full time working professional,but I have taken an off from 28th June - 10th July to ensure I dedicate all my time exclusively towards my prep.

As of now I am putting in 2 hours early morning and 2-3 hours every evening whereas the weekends are mostly dedicated to tests and reviews.

I hope I score well this weekend , else, I guess I will have to go back to my boss to reschedule by vacation!

Thanks again you guys! Much appreciated!
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by VivianKerr » Tue Jun 24, 2014 12:02 am
Sounds good! Use the CAT to make an Error Log, identify your weak concepts, then work on improving your Strategy!
Vivian Kerr
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https://www.yelp.com/biz/gmat-rockstar-los-angeles

Former Kaplan and Grockit instructor, freelance GMAT content creator, now offering affordable, effective, Skype-tutoring for the GMAT at $150/hr. Contact: [email protected]

Thank you for all the "thanks" and "follows"! :-)
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by mseeker » Sun Jul 27, 2014 8:59 pm
Hello everyone!

I come in a little late as I was slightly shaken by my GMAT score and wanted to forget about it for sometime. I appeared for my test on the 10th of July and scored a super disappointing 620 - Q48 V27. This is my worstever verbal score.

My previous CAT scores were

Previous CAT scores:

- Actual GMAT - Oct-2011 - 570 (37 quant, 30 verbal)
- Veritas CAT #1 - 680 (49 quant, 34 verbal)
- Veritas CAT #2 - 680 (49 quant, 34 verbal)
- Manhattan CAT #1 (Free) - May-27 2014 - 600(45 quant, 29 verbal)
- Veritas CAT #3 - 700 (50 quant, 36 verbal, IR 4)
- GMAT Prep 1 - 670 (48 quant, 32 verbal, IR 5)
- Veritas CAT #4- 680 (49 quant, 34 verbal, IR 4)
- Veritas CAT #5 - 650 (48 quant, 32 verbal, IR 4)
- Veritas CAT #6 - 680 (48 quant, 36 verbal, IR 6)
- GMAT Prep 2 - 670 (48 quant, 32 verbal, IR 8)

Actual GMAT (10th July '14) - 620 (48 quant, 27 verbal, IR 4, AWA 5.5)

I started my prep mid- March and joined Veritas classroom courses. My study schedules was as below.

Weekdays -

5:00 AM to 7:00 AM
40-50 questions of either Quant or Verbal - 5:00 AM to 06:00 AM
Review the questions- 6:00 AM to 07:00 AM

8:00 PM to 11:00 PM
40-50 questions of either Quant or Verbal - 5:00 AM to 06:00 AM
Review the questions- 6:00 AM to 07:00 AM

Weekends:

6-7 hours each on Saturday and Sunday.

I used to take tests on either a Thursday or Saturday 09:00 AM to 13:30 PM. and reviewed them the same day. These were timed and included both IR and AWA.

I used the following materials:

Veritas books and material for concepts
Official Guide 10
Official Guide 12

I took a 2 week off from work before my exams and was committed to tests and practice all day alng from 29/07 to 08/08.

09/08 - I went and visited the centre in order to be sure of its location and ensured I got comfortable.

Test Day:

I couldnt sleep well on the night of Wednesday although I went to bed at 10:00 PM but I didnt manage any sleep until it was 03:00 AM. I tried reading and even watched Argentina v/s Holland for 15 mins but none helped.

I woke up at 06:30 and had my breakfast got a few red-bulls and felt at ease at the centre.

Test:

AWA - Easy.
IR - I always targeted working on the first 8 problems and took wild guesses in the last 4 and used the same approach here.
Break : Ate 1 snickers:
Quant - I never felt any panic during the test, was never short of time and infact believed that I would score close to 50. When I reached Q#37 I had 2.5 minutes.
Verbal - I wasnt the best at verbal but I thought I was making any big mistakes as the questions were challenging to me. I always had trouble goign through all 4 RC passages so I to manage time I risked the 3rd passage starting at Q27 to Q30 and did it casually to make up most of it in the last 10. I had 4 minutes to spare for my 41st question.

Test result and analysis : I believe I might have gone down in the lat 10 questions, oing downhill starting the passage at Q#27.

As of now I am a little shaken up but I have restarted my prep with Quant review and Verbal review. I have now taken it up as a challenge and upped my target score as 740 and I AM GOING TO BEAT IT! I have a target of last week of August.

I am open to any suggestion that could help clear my mind and also help me realise what could have led to this failure.

Many Thanks,
Shobhit
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