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Freaking Out Day Before Doom Day

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Freaking Out Day Before Doom Day

by MBA97 » Sun Nov 07, 2010 12:06 am
I have already taken the GMAT 3 times over 2 years, spread apart. I have studied a lot, taken courses, and private tutoring for my math. My GMAT scores were as follows: 570, 600, 630 (improved in 30 pt. increments). I have exhausted the Official Guides and countless practice problems.

Since I didn't take too many practice exams in the past, aside from the GMAT Prep Software, I decided to hammer out Manhattan GMAT CAT's. In the past couple of weeks, I took all 6 CAT's and my scores ranged from a 590-650. The last couple of times, I scored very well in the Math Section, and 36-39 in the Verbal section.

Although, I have to admit that I took 2 CAT's today- MGMAT CAT 6 in the morning, scoring 650, and took GMAT Prep Test 2 at 9 pm. I died on the Math Section of the Prep Test 2. scoring a super lame 31 for a combined score of 560... Now, I am in serious panic mode, after reading that the Manhattan software often over-estimates the scores, and that the GMAT Prep is a more accurate indicator of actual score. When I took the CAT in the past, before my last official GMAT exam, I scored 650.

I really don't know what to do. Should I take the $300 hit (the extra $50 delay) and cancel the exam?? Please give me advise! I really wanted to take the exam one more time before Winter Applications. I seriously don't know what to do. Please help!!
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by karanrulz4ever » Sun Nov 07, 2010 3:26 am
buddy..I hope this reply is not too late...
just relax....don't read too much into the score...just relax the whole of the remaining day...sleep well...
get up tomorrow morning in a positive frame of mind and go for the test aggressively...
u ll do well donot worry....giving 2 tests a day b4 d exam isn't a gr8 idea....but wats done is done....just 4get abt dese scores...
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by David@VeritasPrep » Sun Nov 07, 2010 6:24 am
Let me echo the previous reply. I had a tutoring student 2 weeks ago email me in a panic. He took yet another practice test and this one was at some strange time of day - like both of your exams were - and he seriously bombed it. I told him to relax, not think about the test and above all to take it! (He was threatening to not take the test). He took it, and his test was 140 points higher - back to the range of his highest practice tests.

You are like a rubber band that has been pulled too far. Relax and you will snap back into place! And stop listening to what you hear about scores being overestimated. The tests you have taken are pretty good indicators. From your practice tests and your track record, something like a 650 seems very well within reach.

Just remember that on the Official GMAT the Quant is really good at getting you to pick the wrong answer choices. So just review in your mind the best way to avoid making "Silly errors" as these will really kill you on test day.

Some suggestions for avoiding these errors tomorrow (today?):

1) use the first 4 minutes = called the "tutorial" to write down on your noteboard any quant formulas you might forget.

2) make sure you are answering the actual question. For both all problems in quant, I write down the question. Especially on Data Sufficiency "Yes or No" questions you have to pay attention to the exact question.

3) Do the math on your noteboard to avoid simple calculation errors.

4) on Reading Comprehension go back to the text if you can - this is quicker and more acurate

5) On critical reasoning focus on the conclusion if there is one - the conclusion is the argument.

6) for sentence correction focus on the differences between the answer choices when you are down to two. Really look for parallelism at that stage. I found that this was the error that they went to most when down to two choices.

Whatever you do - relax.

One caveat - you have taken the exam three times. So if something does go really wrong - and by this I mean something factual - not just the demons of doubt that we all have - and example of really wrong would be guessing at the last 10 questions on each section - then you would want to cancel the scores as you already have a very respectable score and this would be your fourth score.
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by MBA97 » Sun Nov 07, 2010 9:48 am
Thank you karanrulz4ever and David for taking the time and giving me such invaluable advice and kind words of encouragement at such an important time. I really, really appreciate it. My test is tomorrow at 11 am, so it is not too late. I will definitely relax and take your advice.

Just to give you guys a better idea of where I stand, I have definitely felt a lot of time pressure from Question 26 of the Quant, most times I took the practice tests. When I try to consciously keep pace, I start losing accuracy, which seems to be much more critical for the GMAT Prep than the MGMAT CAT. David, as you said, they try to trick you esp. with the Data Sufficiency. I will definitely chart out such problems, even if they seem intuitive. I will do a calm and brief review of the quant. formulas as you advised.

As far as the Verbal section, my strength is def. sentence correction as I am in the 80th percentile consistently, making few errors. The Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension consistently kick my behind. Again, your advice regarding these sections is invaluable. I tend to start losing focus and drift away from the text itself. For RC, when I fully comprehend the text, I am able to answer the questions. However, when the wording gets extremely convoluted my intuition starts failing. I know it is a mistake to rely on memory and instinct. When my RC is relatively good, the CR becomes a 50-50 split. Many times, even after carefully reading and re-reading the CR text and answer choices, I throw my arms in the air in despair and go for 1 of the 2 answers that I've narrowed down (this is usually for the 600-700 and 700-800 categories). What's weird is when I go back after the exam, I can almost ascertain the correct answer (my mistake) half the time. I guess this is what time pressure does to people.

As far as scoring, I was told by my instructor (who used to work at Princeton Review) that cancelling the score is not a good idea, since the schools receive all scores of all exams taken in the past 5 years, regardless of prior cancellation requests, in the official GMAT score report that is sent. It would be great to know if this is in fact true, since this is a very critical decision at the end of the exam.

Thank you guys again. I really appreciate your kind help. I will be relaxed and focused tomorrow morning.
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by karanrulz4ever » Sun Nov 07, 2010 10:16 am
Best of luck MBA97...
Do tell us ur scores...looking forward to a happy debrief from u... :)
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by David@VeritasPrep » Sun Nov 07, 2010 10:37 am
I will have a couple of more points for you on Quant just a little later, but let me say this about canceling your scores: What I mean is at the very end of the test when they ask you if you would like to see your scores (and therefore make this an official test) or if you would like to cancel. That is what I mean by "cancel." Meaning that you would never see your scores and so they would not exist. In this case there is nothing to report to the schools except that the score was canceled. As I said this is only a consideration because you have taken the test a few times already. So you would only think of this if you had some objective evidence that you would not score well- such as too many distractions on test day (like construction on the building) or if you failed to answer lots of questions, etc.

I am sure that your instructor is saying something different than what I was indicating above. Perhaps he/she was talking about trying to cancel a score once you have seen that score. In that case, no this is not usually possible. But canceling the score before you see it means that it never happened - it is like you were never there - except for the $250, the fact that you cannot take the test again for 31 days, and the note on your score report of one canceled test!

So I am not advocating canceling and you should not go in with this in mind. But, worst case, say the person next to you slaps you every time she gets a new question, well at least you know that you can cancel it rather than see some crazy decrease in score.
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by MBA97 » Sun Nov 07, 2010 12:53 pm
Thank you guys once again. David, you cleared that issue up for me big time. I thought that the score will appear regardless, even if you choose not to see it. As you suggested, I will not think about it, and will use the option as a last resort in case of unusual circumstances.

Looking forward to your additional advice re Quant section.
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by David@VeritasPrep » Sun Nov 07, 2010 2:30 pm
Okay MBA97 here is some advice that I gave a few months ago at this link I have quoted a large chunk below:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/decline-frea ... tml#283915

"First, you need to understand that everyone (or nearly everyone) is going to miss problems on each section of the test, particularly on the quant side.

Many people base their "strategies" on the fear of missing questions. This leads them to the following approach - when they encounter a strange and difficult problem they become focused and alert and put maximum time and attention into this problem. Then when they see a problem that they can get right they try to not only get it right but do so in the shortest possible time so that they can make up the time they just devoted to the really difficult problem.

Here is the flaw in that scenario...between experimental questions that don't count and the chance of randomly guessing the correct answer, a test taker has about a 1 in 3 chance that a blind guess will not count against her. So a random guess will either be right or not count about 33% of the time. But if she attacks this difficult problem, even if she is able to narrow the problem down to just 2 choices - and assuming that one of those two is the correct choice - her odds are barely better than 50%. In other words, by continuing to devote her time and attention to a problem that continued to stump her, this test taker used three minutes or more and barely improved her chances of getting that question right. (And do keep in mind the very real chance that even if she does get it right that it will be an experimental question and not count in her favor).

Now that she has used too much time on the question that she struggled with she needs to make up that time somewhere - so she will make it up on the next few questions by hurrying so that she can save 20 seconds a question. This is the worst possible thing that she could do - other than just ending the test immediately. GMAT questions are deliberately tricky and are designed to specifically funnel test takers to the wrong choice - even when they fully understand the problem! The test writers want you to try to hurry so that you fall through their trapdoors into incorrect answers - for example, by answering the length of one side rather than the perimeter of the equilateral triangle. Of course the questions are usually set up so that you have to solve for the incorrect choice first and then go through that to the correct choice. If you are trying to "save 20 seconds" then you walk into these traps.

The better way to approach the quant section is this:

When you see a question that you can get right - devote the attention and the time that it takes to get it right. There is a difference between struggling for 3 minutes to come up with a strategy for a question you find very difficult (this is usually a mistake) and spending three minutes doing what it takes to ensure that you get a particular question (that you know you can solve) correct. It is a matter of approach to the test and it can make a huge difference. Do not try to steal 20 seconds from questions that you can get right only to hand that time over to a question that you will likely miss anyway.

Here are two things to think about:

1) If you do not have a specific strategy for solving a quant problem in about 1 minute and 15 seconds then you will want to choose from the viable answer choices and move on. It is precisely this type of question - where you have no strategy for a long time - that can sap the time and energy right out of your quant section on the test.

2) Set a time standard for yourself - I like to say that after question 25 I should have 25 minutes left (for the last 12 questions). If I am 5 minutes behind, I will just skip (randomly guess) at the next two problem solving questions I see. This will bring me back to the right pace. This is a better strategy than the alternative of " I can catch back up." Be careful here, trying to catch up usually means saving 20 or 30 seconds per question and we already know this is a mistake. Better to sacrifice two or three questions for the good of the test.

Finally, focus on getting questions right rather than on fearing that you might get some wrong. You will get questions wrong. But if you get say, 30 of the 37 right you will be in great shape.

Good luck!
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