In need of exam approach

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In need of exam approach

by resilient » Tue Jul 01, 2008 6:48 am
What worked:
1. Completing OG material untill it became elementary and then analyzing why and how the questions are really put together. I specifically like trying to sit in the seat of the test writer and understand the theory and logic of each question.
2.Going through a multitude of questions and practicing until perfect.
3. Learning not just math tricks that get you out of trouble but overall approaches, logic and REASONS why the answer is right and most importantly why some answers are wrong.
4.Shooting for perfect and making the og material look like childs play.
5.All my practice scores were near perfect in dealing with lsat verbal and og questions. I practiced very rigourosly and with great approaches.
6.I'm a true fan of MGMAT for the great direction, content and guidance from the pros like Stacy and Ron.

What I need:
I was scoring decently and scores were 630,640,650,620 and then a gmat prep cat exam with a score of 700. THis is my goal.
I took the exam and scored a 460. I had to rush on the last parts of the exam for quant but cant see why I messed up on verbal. My tutor explains that I am not really suffering from a content issue. I humbly agree but no one is perfect and we can all learn more. BUt i Feel that I have the content tools to get a 700. I do not have the tools to approach the exam to apply my skills. There is a clear approach issue that I need to resolve. MGMAT Is absolutely great at teaching excellent material for the exam. IN the past, I didn't know a certain topic and I simply refereed to a mgmat book on the topic, learned the material and practiced my brains out until perfect. This worked great. But now I need to do this on how to take the exam. I don't know when to guess, how to approach the exam,how to keep my stamina up and how to work up to the hard questions and stay there. I feel confident that I can achieve my goal but I don't feel confident that I am taking the right steps towards DOING the exam in the correct fashion. Is there such a thing like a manual to read or video to watch on how to approach this in a perfect manner? I need a perfect understanding of how to maximize the scores by approaching the situation the right way. All help is welcome.
Appetite for 700 and I scraped my plate!

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by aim-wsc » Tue Jul 01, 2008 9:15 am
Oh & you forgot to add one more point there:
7 Made it to GMAT destroyer's club & became the utlimate one :lol:


On serious note I think you need to practise more in simulated

environment and take CATs than regular problems.

It will help you set your own strategies to takle your exam.(Practise

helps improve.)
Strategies such as:
whether to read question first in CR or to read statement.
In PS there are lots of shortcut that can be learned by practising in

timed conditions.
It's a trial-n-error approach which I think would help you.

PS : No video or book or manual would help you hone your "this skill". The 6 points you mentioned clearly tells me that you've worked enough at making your "fundamentals perfect".

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by VP_Jim » Tue Jul 01, 2008 10:25 am
In my experience, it's very, very rare for a student to score a 700 on a practice test and then get in the 400s on the real exam. It sounds like you were doing everything right in your studying, so something must have happened on test day.

Can you offer more insight into what happened during the exam? Did you run out of time? Did you feel like you were doing well, or did you know the test was going poorly? Did you bomb verbal and do well in math (or vice versa)?
Jim S. | GMAT Instructor | Veritas Prep

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by aim-wsc » Tue Jul 01, 2008 10:56 am
VP_Jim wrote:In my experience, it's very, very rare for a student to score a 700 on a practice test and then get in the 400s on the real exam. It sounds like you were doing everything right in your studying, so something must have happened on test day.

Can you offer more insight into what happened during the exam? Did you run out of time? Did you feel like you were doing well, or did you know the test was going poorly? Did you bomb verbal and do well in math (or vice versa)?
I agree with Jim.
The info looks inadequate.

tsk :err: what a shame that I don't know much about your progress as you've been posting on forums quite regularly.

I have to ask some silly questions like: what was your earlier GMAT score & did you score 700 in practise tests prior to your real GMAT test?

I was not that active on forums since a year or so.... :(

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approach and explanation

by resilient » Tue Jul 01, 2008 11:56 am
Hey folks no problem. I thank you for all your help. IN regards to content and foundation of the questions, I have studied and learn almost everything. Verbal is my fun specialty because it comes easier to me and i learned to study for the wrong answer choices and their common characteristics. ALl in all quant is ok also.

My practice scores are mgmat 580,650,640,630, 610 and gmat prep 700.

On exam day:
I was a bit nervous but nothing out of the ordinary. A few times I saw myself getting a bit excited so i took some deep breaths and focused. IN regards to quant, the questions got harder and harder. Towards the middle of the exam then there was a drop and I was losing time and had to rush the last ten. I was nowhere near as calm as my mgmat exam. However, I wasnt panicking and going crazy either. lol

IN regards to verbal, I felt very prepared because i focused much of my practice on retired lsat questions which are much much harder. THe lsat practice made the reading comp rc and cr look and feel absolutely easy. I did not let this get my head too big so I double checked and proved my answer from the given text. I almost always had textual evidence for the answer choices. IN regards to SC, I feel that I gave it a good shot but had a few that were pretty hard to me. All in all, I felt that I had a great handle on verbal though. I was waiting for a score past the 40's. The only bad part was that I had to rush a bit on the quant last ten questions. This I can admit, but the verbal should have been excellent.

I had a good night sleep, nice breakfast and calm head. I was a bit nervous but nothing out of the ordinary because I was focusing in on the questions.

I would never even post such a thread but I was getting excellent scores on tough material. Therefore, my practice scores don't correlate with the real thing. Hence, the confusion. THis is a final hurdle in my opinion. It wont take long to figure out the hole and fix it.

Looking back on what could have been done better during the exam, I need to learn when to guess. I also need to learn how to guess. Sooner or later, the adaptive nature of the exam will stump you. THis is when I need to learn how to move forward in the exam, push for a 700 and get it. This will be done with a trial and error process of many many exams. The content knowledge is there (except permutations - but who is looking..lol) but my knowledge of how to deal with the stamina issue and exam nature is not existent.
Appetite for 700 and I scraped my plate!

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by aim-wsc » Sat Jul 05, 2008 6:28 am
Excellent. You pretty much sum up your case and what you need to do in the last paragraph of your last post.
& again I think I have already said what I felt you should do in my first post.
& you conclude it right. Trial & error method to build your own strategy of dealing with questions (esp. quant) in timed condition.

by the way you didn't tell me how much you scored in real GMAT last time? (with break downs)
I think you need to get away with real test's pressure & nervousness..
Guess lots of practise test will nullify this issue. :)

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yes exactly

by resilient » Sat Jul 05, 2008 7:34 pm
You are right on the money. The point is, I need to take a bunch of exams and see what goes nice and what goes bad. I have been taking some time off and focusing on other responsibilites. This is recharging my battery. THanks for the great words.
Appetite for 700 and I scraped my plate!