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Postpone the test

by eki » Mon Jan 21, 2013 3:33 am
Dear Experts,

Earlier I had booked 29th Dec for the test, but postponed it to 22nd Jan as I was not feeling confident.Tomorrow I have something important come up at the work front, so I have to again postpone the test. Request your help in the following areas:

1. How to keep the momentum on? I am feeling a little demotivated today as I had been mentally preparing myself for he D day for last 2-3 days. I am through with all my material (OG,MGMAT,OG Question pack, OG supplements)

2. Inconsistent scores : scored 710 (Q48,V39),740 (Q49, V42),700 (Q47,V40) and 730(Q47,V44) on GMATprep tests. Since I have already done the retests,doing it 5th time will give highly inflated results.I am aiming at 720+. Please let me know whether I am in my target zone.

I am planning to book the test for 28th Jan. Please let me know your thoughts.

regards,
Eki
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by David@VeritasPrep » Mon Jan 21, 2013 6:12 am
You are in your target zone. I have found that well-prepared students often get a score that is slightly higher than their GMATPrep scores. So it looks like your average score is exactly 720 on those 4 tests so I would bet money on a 730 or so for you.

Since you are feeling "demotivated" and you have something important going at work, why not take today and tomorrow away from intense studying? If you are very tired then take Wednesday away from the test as well. Instead of working a bunch of problems how about reading some articles that might motivate you! I have a few suggestions below.

You do not want to take a practice test the day before your actual GMAT, but between now and the 27th you can retake the GMATPrep test 1 for the 3rd time (5th test total). When you see a repeated question you must go through the whole process of solving it so that you do not answer in a few seconds!

Now here is the thing. Ignore the score that you get from this next practice test. If it is a 750 or a 650 either way just ignore it. You have already proven where you are. The only reason that you would be taking this test is to keep in shape for the exam. From what you have already done I am betting on you to make your score on the 29th!

Now you CAN use the next tests to work on a couple of things. You see, the one thing that could really keep you from earning your score is if you lose your head. So on this next test why not take advantage of the extra week and prepare yourself for any contingency. For example, use this next practice test to decide several "what to do's"

1) What will you do if you are truly "running out of time" at the end of the test? Here is an article that will help you think about what to do if that happens. https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2013/01/ ... n-the-gmat


2) Can you keep yourself from being too stubborn? Are you ready to think strategically? Here is a very popular article on the subject "Why Federer would beat Nadal on the GMAT" https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/01/ ... n-the-gmat


3) Those silly errors can really hurt you on test day. Do you have strategies to catch any of the simple errors that the test tries to force you into making? Examples are, answering the wrong question or stopping too soon on Quant. Making assumptions on the Critical reasoning, being fooled into using false decision points on Sentence Correction.

Here is an article that gives you some idea of trying to avoid these errors. "The GMAT is slippery...so use the Handrails" https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/10/ ... -handrails


See having an extra week can be a good thing! You can have time to walk through the test in your mind and be ready for any eventualities. You are already prepared to get a great score and one week will not change that!
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by eki » Mon Jan 21, 2013 8:29 am
Hi David,

Thank you so much for the quick reply. You talked about reading a motivating article and you know what I am feeling very good after reading your reply.You have already motivated me. So thanks so much :)

You are absolutely right on the silly mistakes issue. I did some practice questions yesterday and day before and I found out that most of my answers were wrong because of silly mistakes.I suddenly started feeling ill-prepared and rusty.

what do you think I should do for next 3-4 days. Solve sets such as collection of GMATPrep Qs, 700+ level PS questions or just keep the preparation light?

regards,
Eki
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by David@VeritasPrep » Mon Jan 21, 2013 11:12 am
Glad to get you back in the right mindset! I told you this extra week could be a blessing.
The closer you are to the test day the better it is to use official materials as much as possible.

Sets of problems are great...what you want to focus on is that repeatable procedure for each type of question so that you can avoid those avoidable errors.

So while you are doing problems don't focus as much on time, but more so on how you approach that type of problem and how can you catch yourself before making the errors. Try to follow sort of an "ideal procedure" of what you would like to do on this type of problem in general. I give you some examples below for CR and Sentence Correction.

Something like writing down what the question is asking each time on Quant questions or doing your work early on critical reasoning so that you have an idea of the correct answer before you go to the choices.

Have you read this Critical Reasoning Article? https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/02/ ... duncan-way

How about this one from Sentence Correction? https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/01/ ... correction

Or this sentence correction discussion...https://www.beatthegmat.com/sentence-cor ... 95-15.html
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by Tommy Wallach » Mon Jan 21, 2013 6:43 pm
Hey Eki,

Great advice from David. One other quick thing I always like to add when people start talking about silly mistakes. It's very easy to write them off as nothing, but actually, silly mistakes are the only thing that students who've learned their content make. In other words, everything from 670 all the way up to 800 is a difference if silly mistakes (and also timing!). So when you're reviewing a test, don't simply look at something you got wrong and say, "Oh well, silly mistake." Make sure you really think about what caused you to make that mistake, and how you're going to avoid making it in the future. Was it an organizational problem? Was it an arithmetic problem? A basic algebra problem? A problem between solving the question correctly but somehow picking the wrong answer (trick question kind of thing)?

Notice any patterns in your silly mistakes, and see if you can use what you discover to inform your methodology moving forward. Good luck!

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by brianlange77 » Mon Jan 21, 2013 6:51 pm
eki wrote:Hi David,

Thank you so much for the quick reply. You talked about reading a motivating article and you know what I am feeling very good after reading your reply.You have already motivated me. So thanks so much :)

You are absolutely right on the silly mistakes issue. I did some practice questions yesterday and day before and I found out that most of my answers were wrong because of silly mistakes.I suddenly started feeling ill-prepared and rusty.

what do you think I should do for next 3-4 days. Solve sets such as collection of GMATPrep Qs, 700+ level PS questions or just keep the preparation light?

regards,
Eki
Eki -- Good to see that you are getting back on the horse here. Wanted to share a few tips and thoughts. First off, take a deep breath. Your practice scores are great. I would challenge you on the use of the word 'inconsistent' in relation to your test scores. Yes, you've got a moving target on verbal -- but I'd be really targeted about where you focus there.

Second -- you might find these two articles helpful -- they both talk about what to do in the last 14 days, which is a bit more time than you have, but you'll get the jist of what to do in the last few days.
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... an-part-1/
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ew-part-2/

Lastly, don't go crazy in these last few days. Balance the desire to 'learn that last bit' versus having the energy to nail the full exam!

Good luck.

-Brian
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by eki » Tue Jan 22, 2013 12:37 am
Hi Tommy,

The silly mistakes that I make are not calculation mistakes or usage of wrong formula, but of wrong understanding of a problem. I read questions in a haste......comprehend 80% and assume 20%...(it happens subconsciuosly).During the review I found out that I missed one word in the problem and hence was trying to calculate something else.In my mind I read ahead of actual reading. In my last test in 4 out of 11 incorrect answers, I had arrived at X, while the question was asking "Not X" or a slight variation from X. This happens with me only in Quant. Now that I have realized this weakness, I will try to spend extra few seconds to ensure that I correctly comprehend what the question is asking.

regards,
Eki
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by eki » Tue Jan 22, 2013 3:35 am
Hi,

For my last mock test, which test should I take : 5th attempt of new GMATprep software or 1st attempt of old software (which has analysis of an issue instead of IR).

Regards,
Eki
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by ceilidh.erickson » Tue Jan 22, 2013 7:53 am
To Tommy's point about silly mistakes, I couldn't agree more. Here's a blog post I wrote recently on how to track patterns in your mistakes: https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -studying/
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by Tommy Wallach » Tue Jan 22, 2013 9:00 am
Hey Eki,

If you've reviewed your tests a reasonable amount, I wouldn't take the GMATPrep Software again. You should know it by now (if those tests still hold mystery, you aren't reviewing well enough). Do the old test, or take one of our practice tests, which might be fresh.

-t
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