I need help. Score:490

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I need help. Score:490

by scottchapman » Mon Feb 02, 2015 8:06 pm
I've dabbled quite a bit on these forums and have finally taken the plunge to ask for help with my scores; it's been fairly depressing lately for GMAT studying.

I took my last approximately a year ago after self studying and use of an online test prep company for approximately 2-3 months. My first score on the practice test was 580 (shooting for 600+); throughout studying 4-5 times per week for about 2-3 hours per session my scores for the second test fell to a 520 (about 6weeks into studying).

I wasn't particularly excited about this score but I wasn't planning on applying to top schools from around the country either. I took the 3rd practice test which scored a 540. Basically, after that test my scheduled gmat test day had arrived and I went forward anyways. All practice tests were taken under gmat conditions My score ended up as a 490; if I remember correctly the breakdown was Q:27 V:30 IR:6 AWA:5.5

After taking the live exam I was pretty much devastated and decided to take a break from the test and looking at MBA schools. It's been approx a year and I'm ready to get back in the game. The plan is to take the next 3ish months, 1-2 hrs per night and 3hours on Wkends to prepare but I need your help to do it because, clearly, it didn't work out so well last time. I'd like to do this with proper mentorship and strategies along the way. As of now, it's more of a pride thing knowing that I should be able to beat this thing than getting into a Top Program.


Thanks!

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by MartyMurray » Tue Feb 03, 2015 4:29 am
When you say you took practice tests, were they official practice tests or prep company tests? After you took the practice tests did you mine the results for information?

How did you go about in general choosing what to what to work on and what materials did you use?
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by scottchapman » Tue Feb 03, 2015 11:01 am
Marty-- I downloaded the MBA.com software and took their 2 tests; and the 3rd was from the online prep company test. After taking the tests I didn't truly mine the data from the tests. The data that I did obtain was from going through the OG and plugging in the answers to one of the tracking matrices from Beat the Gmat site in order to find out which areas I am weak. I went back to the online test prep company and used their questions and videos to try and better understand those topics.

How would I go about mining the results from the two tests from the CATs and group the results?

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by MartyMurray » Tue Feb 03, 2015 12:47 pm
Good question Scott, and maybe I don't have a simple answer to that such as some kind of ready made spreadsheet.

I guess what I meant was did you go back over the tests to see what information you could get?

This information could be in a variety of forms.

One thing that you could do is just redo any question you got wrong and any questions you got right but don't really feel comfortable handling.

The next level would be grouping the questions that need work somehow, possibly simply as data sufficiency, problems solving, sentence correction, and so on. Then of course you could take that to another level, noticing what problems types give you the most trouble, rates, functions, whatever they are for you.

So that's what I was getting at.

Beyond that, obviously it's a bit bizarre that the more you worked on this the lower your score went. I wonder if in the beginning you were using your own ideas and strategies to creatively get to answers, and by the end you had somehow gotten caught up in someone else's strategies and conceptions, and they are just not working for you. That's a possible partial explanation anyway.

Anyway, now you are familiar with the test and the questions. So you can build on that and drive your score up.

One way to do that is go over those practice test results and see what you could have done differently. For every question with which you don't feel comfortable, you could work on getting comfortable with that type. For instance if you missed an inequalities problem and you realize that you are not that comfortable with inequalities, they you could really work on figuring out various aspects of how inequalities work and do dozens of inequalities questions.

Then you could work on the next thing, and the next.

Someone recently asked me how many questions I have done. I think the answer is somewhere around 2000, probably more. If I don't get something, I'll do thirty questions, easily, of that type, and make sure I get it. Of course part of that is that I want to be super good at every type. Your goals are a little different from mine, but the point still stands. To get better at doing those questions, analyze how they work and do dozens of them. Spend two days' studying on rates, two days' studying on averages, three days' on algebra, doing dozens of problems of each type until you are super familiar and comfortable with them.

There are some good question banks out there. A good one for quant is the BellCurves question bank. For verbal you are better off finding something else. Maybe the Veritas question bank. You can also buy more questions from GMAC.

If you don't get how to do any problem, you can post it on these forums and generally you will get multiple methods of solving it.

One key thing in all of this is that your work is not really guided by any particular syllabus. Rather you guide it by noting how you feel on the practice tests and by using your results as a foundation for creating your own strategy for rocking this test.

So there are some ideas. Let us know what else you are wondering about or what challenges you are dealing with. It doesn't make sense to seek to address everything in one post. So keep the conversation going.
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by manyaabroadtpr » Tue Feb 03, 2015 9:58 pm
Hi scottchapman,

We appreciate your approach.You will indeed be able to crack GMAT this time.In your case, the ideal thing would be to join a test prep center and work with expert teachers who would give the right assistance to help you gain a good score.3 months of dedicated preparation would suffice.

We would advise you to visit some of the coaching centers close to your home and interact with their expert counselors. Ask all your questions and try to understand if your queries are being addressed well. Also take a mock test with them and discuss your performance in detail with the faculty there.You can find the GMAT course details at Manya Abroad - The Princeton Review, on the below link:

https://www.manyagroup.com/princeton-review-gmat-course

Hope this helps.Let us know if you require any further guidance regarding your GMAT preparation and we would be happy to guide.
www.manyagroup.com

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by BestGMATEliza » Wed Feb 04, 2015 5:44 am
well you know you are capable of doing better, now its just a matter of achieving your goal score on test day. I am a GMAT tutor and here are some common studying mistakes that I have seen hurt peoples score. If you are making any of these it is important to correct it.

Mistake #1: Not taking notes
There is a ton of GMAT content to learn and remember, especially for the Quant and SC sections. Unless you have some sort of superhuman memory, you are not going to remember it all just by reading a book or sitting in class. That is why it is crucial to take notes, preferably by hand. A new study published in Psychological Science demonstrates that students who took notes by hand, performed better than students who took notes on a laptop. So even though it may be tedious and take longer, write everything down. There is no point in saving time by not taking notes if you are just going to forget everything anyway.

Mistake #2: Not reviewing answers
I have worked with several students who have gone over thousands of practice problems and don't improve. When I ask them if they have been reviewing their answers and they say no. The best way to improve is to learn from your mistakes and in order to do this you must analyze those mistakes and find a better way to solve the problem in the future. There really isn't much point in going over practice problems if you aren't going to review the answers, so even if it means going over less problems, make sure to go over those answers.

Mistake #3: Not taking full length CATs
I know it seems pointless to practice the AWA and IR too much, because they aren't as important. But unfortunately they're first, so you will need to practice them quite a bit. Some of the students I have talked to have been extremely disappointed with their score, because they were scoring so much higher on their practice tests. However, they were only doing the Quant and Verbal sections, so their practice tests were inflated. Furthermore, they never built up their mental endurance. I think of it like training for a marathon, but for your brain. Most people cannot run for four hours straight with no training. Your brain is the same way. Most people can't fully concentrate on complicated problems for 4 hours straight without practice. So, it is essential to take at least 5 full length practice tests before your test.

Mistake #4: Studying on the last day
I know it is tempting to try to get in some last minute studying on your final day. However, anything you learn in that last day will probably not outweigh the negative effects of tiring yourself you before the big day. The GMAT is mentally exhausting, so you want to come into the test rested and refreshed. Give yourself that last day to do something you enjoy, relax and trust that your previous studying will get you through.
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by niddy » Wed Feb 04, 2015 5:48 am
Hi scottchapman,

I'm just in the middle of the process, but hope my perspective can help you a bit.

I wouldn't be discouranged by a score drop. I've been to this several times throughout the process and in my case that had some explanations:

- In the beggining I didn't know much about the content, so I was more aware about the clock and had no fear of guessing answers. I didn't know there were trap and punishment answers (of course you can't get a high score doing that, but you can get from 500 to 600 doing this)

- Then, I would be less worried with the clock and would try to solve all questions. I knew how to do them and didn't want to guess or estimate, even though it took me up to 8 minutes to solve one. Result: time out around question 20 and score went down.

It was around that stage that I found out I knew the content, but needed to be precise and fast.
The test is a game. Do anything you can do to beat it.
But when you study you can spend 8 and even 80 minutes on a question trying to understand and find the best approach, so when you get a similar one on test day you get it in 30 seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes.

Maybe your issue is not related to content, but to timing and preciseness.

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by scottchapman » Wed Feb 04, 2015 1:44 pm
@manyabroadtpr-- Thank you for your response. I'll be sure to look at the link you provided.

@BestGMATEliza-- I do think I had an issue with not writing things down and trying to work out the questions in my head; I'm working on that issue. I try to review answers as best as possible. And I do take full length CATs in preparation for the real deal.

@Niddy-- Thank you so much for your response. I feel your perspective fits with what I have experienced. I know how to correctly answer majority of the questions, however, as you mentioned, it may take 10 minutes to do so. I definitely need to know how to answer these questions faster while improving the accuracy. Timing and preciseness do seem to be my crux. I tend to also make simple errors or answer a different question than what is actually being asked for. Lastly, I've noticed that I struggle with Data Sufficiency-- more specifically the Yes/No DS questions. What were some of your other methods you used to perservere?

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by MartyMurray » Wed Feb 04, 2015 4:36 pm
Regarding DS, I was having a tough time with those too. "Oh no a data sufficiency question." So I did dozens of DS questions, many of them from the Veritas question bank, and I analyzed what makes them tick and what I had to do to get them right. Now I barely even notice, "Oh was that a data sufficiency question?" and I usually get 'em right too.

After a while you just develop this sense of them, what the tricks are, how to work with the statements, separately and together, and what to be careful of.

To get better you have to be pretty clear about why you are getting smoked when that happens, and often it's not really even about math.
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by niddy » Thu Feb 05, 2015 5:38 am
Scott,

I'm taking the EmpowerGMAT course. It made all the difference as I didn't have any experience with standardized tests and had no structured study plan.
But even if you are not willing to invest on a course, you could try different approachs to the questions. Taking a course is easier because the instructors train you to use the right approach to each question, you do not need to figure it out.

But there are some general tactics:

- Take notes of everything, even stupid and easy calculations (when you get perfectly precise, you may change that, I guess... I have not reach such a level yet... I still have to write even a sum like 2+2)

- Write reminders of things you tend to forget. In the beginning, I used to forget the DS was a YES/NO question, so now I write a little "Y/N" before any calculation. I used to forget converting values, I just write a reminder now: "in km/h", "divide by 60 in the end". I draw arrows and pretty much anything that can help me get the 700+ I want!

- Review, Review, review

- Pay attention to what the experts say here. All the repeated things are right: it's a game, you need tactics, content is not that hard, reviewing is the best thing you can do, take notes (you will be amazed how you get faster doing this, although it doesn't sound logical).

Hope that helps you!
And good luck to us!

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by scottchapman » Thu Feb 05, 2015 10:10 am
@Marty-- What helped you to see a clearer picture when it comes to DS? Because I'm getting smoked pretty bad on these. Typically I can answer the 'easy' questions correctly, however, intermediate and advanced DS I tend to answer majority of them wrong.

@Niddy-- I appreciate you reaching out to me. It seems like we're in a similar starting place when it comes to DS. I'll take a look at EmpowerGMAT; I keep seeing that pop up in the different forums. Good luck to you too!!! :)

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by MartyMurray » Thu Feb 05, 2015 8:50 pm
scottchapman wrote:@Marty-- What helped you to see a clearer picture when it comes to DS? Because I'm getting smoked pretty bad on these. Typically I can answer the 'easy' questions correctly, however, intermediate and advanced DS I tend to answer majority of them wrong.
I heard about a few tricks, such as rephrasing and looking out for C traps, and I got a LOT of practice. In the beginning I would get a little queasy every time I saw a DS question. So I decided to do DS questions until that was no longer the case, and it worked.

Key aspects of that practice included reviewing questions I had gotten wrong to see what I could have done differently and going over explanations, even of questions I had gotten right, to learn ways of handling the questions.

Now doing DS is almost instinctive. For instance, when doing the DS geometry question you posted recently I almost chose C. Then something happened, and I stopped short and changed direction. That type of thing happens fairly regularly for me now. Brent talks about Statements feeling insufficient. I know what he means.

My original practice included doing most of the DS in an e version of the Official Guide, all of the DS in the Veritas question bank and other cool DS questions I found around. After that, I was pretty good at it, and I have been playing DS like a video game ever since, shooting for increased accuracy and scores.
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by VivianKerr » Thu Feb 05, 2015 9:33 pm
Hey Scott,

In general, it doesn't sound like your first go-round was particularly rigorous, so I think you could improve quite a bit! Since your studying was over a year ago, I think you really have to approach this new go 'round like you're starting from scratch.

There's three aspects of the GMAT that must be surmounted in order to get that competitive score: content, strategy, and pacing. The extent you improve is the extent to which you master these three areas.

"Content" can be subdivided into two groups: format and concepts. You already know the format, so you can check that box! :-) Now you need to strongly develop your content-knowledge, and this second is what will separate the test-taker stranded in the 500 zone from the savvy 700+ student. You need to be taking regular CATs, I'd suggest one a week, working backwards from your TEST DATE, and use them as diagnostic tools to recognize patterns in your incorrect questions and help you fill in the gaps of your content knowledge quickly and effectively. Analyze and address weaknesses systematically and effectively, and reinforce strengths. To do this, you need to create your own Error Log. I've attached a list of all the GMAT concepts and a basic Error Log template so you can get the basic gist of what I mean.

"Strategy" is a word that can seem a bit intimidating, but it boils down to this: do you have a systematic approach to each question type (DS, PS, RC, CR, and SC)? And, more importantly, does it work for you? 80% of my tutoring sessions involve some type of strategy overhaul. By strategy, I mean a written-out "Step 1 ... Step 2 ..." plan of attack: a process by which you get the correct answer over and over again once you know the concepts tested.

Strategy is necessary to prevent you from missing the traps of harder questions. Low-scorers will sometimes skim reading comprehension passages, sometimes take notes, sometimes read the question-stem first, sometimes not, to mixed results. High-scorers know exactly how to attack an RC passage, and do it methodically without even thinking. This is something that's tougher to learn on your own, but I've attached a strategy "cheat sheet" to give you some food for thought.

"Pacing" is arguably the toughest component of any exam. Theoretically, if you had unlimited time to take the GMAT, you should get 100% of the questions correct. Unfortunately, we're going to have to be accurate and fast on the GMAT, which definitely takes practice.

Students who start force-increasing their pace immediately usually have weak strategy. Students who ignore pacing until a week before the exam tend to be sweating bullets as they watch the timer click down to zero. You need to set pacing benchmarks for each assigned practice test (again, see attached yellow image for an idea). But remember: pacing is not just something that you only practice on full-length practice tests! You should do regular pacing drills, at least every other day. You can read up on my pacing drill theory here: https://gmatrockstar.com/2015/01/31/sent ... ng-drills/

Hope this gives you some ideas! Feel free to PM me if you have additional questions!

I'd say the next step for you is to create a realistic Study Plan that will utilize the best books out there (OG + MGMAT + Powerscore) and rotate the GMATPrep, MGMAT, Veritas CATs at weekly intervals.

Good luck! :-)
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Error Log Template.xlsx
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by scottchapman » Fri Feb 06, 2015 10:44 am
@VivianKerr-- Thanks so much for the tips of the trade. Additionally, thank you for the attached documents. You make great points that I have to take into account. I'm wanting to allow myself approx 2-3 months(flexible) of study to get a score that will provide the most amount of scholarship. You mentioned RC-- and skim reading. I tend to do this...a lot. Furthermore, I also seem to have a difficult time retaining the information after I read it so I end up wasting valuable time re-reading the passage multiple times which conflicts with the pacing and time management portion of the test. I'm going try and use your methods and incorporate them into how I respond to a question. Thanks so much for your advice!

Cheers!