Help me

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Help me

by sana.noor » Fri Aug 30, 2013 11:01 pm
Hi everyone!
i have been working on gmat since last one year but i took it seriously just two months back. My target is 750+ and i want to apply for the round 1 which is ending in October (in most of he universities). i try giving various tests such as Kaplan, manhattan and Veritas & few question banks but i ended early with low score. the teasing part is that when i revise all the mistakes, i found that most of the questions were easy but i give up very easily. at first instance, those questions seems to be tough but when i revise, those were easy based on few logic, which i understand very well. i am good with the basics and even advance level of quant & verbal but couldn't understand that why i cant end up with good points. Please help me with some good strategy.
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by [email protected] » Fri Aug 30, 2013 11:08 pm
Hi sana.noor,

I've noticed that most of the questions that you post in the forums tend to be advanced, difficult or rare concepts. By your own admission though, your problems are more about making silly mistakes and giving up too easily. For the next few weeks, I suggest that you focus on HOW you're handling questions (organization, connecting ideas, doing work, etc.). Go back and review everything you've done to date (minus the really hard stuff) and redo all of those practice questions. Make sure that you can spot the clues in questions that can help you figure out how to solve them and then focus on eliminating the silly mistakes that are keeping you from getting the questions correct.

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by KapTeacherEli » Sat Aug 31, 2013 12:20 pm
Rich has a good suggestion.

Many students keep what are known as "error logs." Each wrong answer, write down why you got it wrong--forgot a formula? Didn't carry the 1? Misread the question? Gave up too soon?"

Seeing a list of the mistakes you've made will let you know what mistakes to target. it will tell you if most of your incorrect answers are caused by issues with test-strategy, or from the content itself. That can help you adjust your strategy to improve most efficiently.

Best of luck prepping, and let me know if I can offer any other help!

Regards,
Eli Meyer
Kaplan GMAT Teacher
Cambridge, MA
www.kaptest.com/gmat

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by sana.noor » Sun Sep 01, 2013 4:45 am
Rich and Eli, thank you for the help, the main issue is that i give-up on 650+ question. in fact, when ever i start a test i get nervous. but later when i review the test i find every question really easy. I am more worried about quant and RC. any strategy to improve my confidence?
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by Resp007 » Sun Sep 01, 2013 5:13 am
Try this advice in Quants, Perhaps instead of jumping in the que to solve it, hang on, try solving it without pen. Try, say, 5 questions of moderate difficulty like this to see if this is of any help, not timed but within 15 mins. I have also seen your questions that you have posted and your understanding of concepts seems fine, perhaps give yourself a break. Don't eat your marshmallows.

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by [email protected] » Sun Sep 01, 2013 12:18 pm
Hi sana.noor,

I'm not sure if you've posted this info before, but what have your practice CAT scores been?

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by sana.noor » Sun Sep 01, 2013 7:11 pm
between 580 and 630 but believe me most of the wrong questions are my silly mistakes...:(
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by [email protected] » Sun Sep 01, 2013 10:17 pm
Hi sana.noor,

Can you be more specific? What were your Scaled Scores in the Quant and Verbal for each of the practice CATs?

You can email me directly if that's what you'd prefer.

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by sana.noor » Sun Sep 01, 2013 11:44 pm
Q 40 and V 34 (in most of the mocks)...kaplan also tells the percentage so my average percentage on quant is 75%. as i was really upset on my quant part i couldn't focus on verbal. however, my verbal is better than quant. i am good at CR and SC. i completed my veritas verbal and i was nearly 90% right on most of the questions.
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by [email protected] » Mon Sep 02, 2013 12:51 pm
Hi sana.noor,

It's important to clarify the difference between "percentile" and "percent correct", since these are two different pieces of data.

A percentile is based on how you perform relative to EVERYONE ELSE, so it can be a misleading statistic. On a CAT, if you perform at the 75th percentile, then you performed at, or above, 75% of the people who took THAT CAT. That result may or may not be a "good" score because it doesn't explain how you did against THE TEST.

Percent correct is the absolute measure of how you performed on a particular question type or category.

Most CATs will provide you with both pieces of data, but the numbers that are the MOST important are the Scaled Scores - they measure your performance against the Test and are used to calculate your score (out of 800).

Both your Quant and Scaled Scores are decent, but neither is strong enough to help you hit your goal (which, if I remember correctly, is 750+). You're going to need to make some significant adjustments to HOW you view the GMAT, the tactics that you use to answer questions, etc. if you want to hit your goal.

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