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The day when my take on the GMAT went wrong

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The day when my take on the GMAT went wrong

by mmslf75 » Tue Sep 01, 2009 11:03 pm
Hi
With refernce to my debrief on this link -> https://www.beatthegmat.com/beaten-by-gmat-t44028.html
I thought about what went wrong finally ...
Would require help to understand what should be my next step...

Preparation done till date...

OG 11
OG 12
Verbal Review
Quant Review
Manhattan ( ALL MATHS Books )
Manhattan ( ALL English Books )
1000 CR ( few sets )
1000 SC ( few sets )
1000 PS ( few sets )
1000 DS ( few sets )
Princeton Review
Kaplan 800
Hard Maths from Princeton

MGMAT 1 640
MGMAT 2 640
MGMAT 3 650
MGMAT 4 680
Princeton Review 640
GMAT PREP 1 650
GMAT PREP 2 690
Sectional Tests from Kaplan

FINAL TEST DAY (G DAY 580 ( Q 44 , V 25 ))
Was always in the range of 46 to 49 for Quant and between 31 to 38 for Verbal ,, was expecting 650 at worst or 700 atmost...

I believe
#1 Time management was issue; I went into overanalysis of the questions both on Math and Verbal

#2 I took a practice test almost every second day

#3 Overburned/Overstressed/Exhausted by the day exam arrived. As I work I had to take leave for 15 days during the final phase of prep. however was preparing since 2 months

My query is how should I proceed now ?
Should I apply with this score ?
OR
Wait for a year more till the time I prepare all over again with speed ?
OR
take a shot once again in a months time ?
And if I were to then what material should be used..as by this time I know each and every question on OG by heart.. including why the wrong options are wrong (in CR and SC )

One more important TIP required on CR Preparation as I believe I have done something wrong in that section...


What should be my plan...
PLS HELP ~confused~
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by mmslf75 » Wed Sep 02, 2009 6:56 am
By the way got AWA Score of 5.0

Can a score of 5.0 compensate for low Verbal score ?
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by KapTeacherEli » Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:53 am
Hi mmslf, sorry test day didn't work out the way you hoped.

I definitely wouldn't wait a year to try again. By your own admission, you worked too hard and exhausted yourself on test day. Furthermore, You practice tests clearly show a mastery of the GMAT materials. That means you are in a good position so score well. It would be a tragedy if you had to repeat all of your studying

Taking the test again is probably the right call, but not necessarily; I'd have to know the specifics of the programs you're applying to and the rest of your resume and educational background to judge. However, the 5.0 on your essay, while good, will not make up for your verbal section.

Finally, in terms of what material I'd suggest you use to study...well, you can make an educated guess from my username :-). But I wouldn't be online as a representative of Kaplan if I didn't firmly believe in their resources and methods.

I will make a specific suggestion for studying, however, regardless of whether you choose our materials or those of a competitor: do small, timed quizzes. When pacing is an issue, it's very hard to practice on a 75 minute section. If you screw up the pacing on the first five questions, you don't get any feedback that it's a problem until nearly an hour later. Rather, try 5 questions in 10 minutes,then 10 questions in 20, until you can reliably pace yourself throughout.
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Cambridge, MA
www.kaptest.com/gmat

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by walkingbanana » Thu Sep 03, 2009 9:53 am
I definitely don't think you should wait an entire year before you schedule your next GMAT. Take 2 weeks off, shake the disappointment off, and get ready to get back into the game.

I bombed my first GMAT, took two weeks off, and felt like I nearly forgot everything. My first two prep tests after I started studying again were exactly the same as the very first practice CAT I ever took, so this process will definitely make you feel like you are starting completely over again. But two weeks back into studying and everything comes back to you.

If timing is an issue, make practicing under timed conditions a huge issue. Do every single practice problem with a timer. Make sure you are finishing the high level difficulty math problems within the allotted 2 mins. Sometimes you'll see a math problem that you don't know how to solve. I say spend 1 minute and try it, and if a solution is not becoming obvious to you, start looking to eliminate obvious wrong answers. Make an educated guess and move on. There are a ton of good posts about how spending too much time on one problem can ruin your score because you run out of time to solve the remaining problems.

Lastly, take practice CATS and use a timing strategy to keep yourself on track during the test.

Mine is as follows:

Question 1 - 75 min
Question 10 - 55 min
Question 20- 35 min
Question 30 - 15 min
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by Stacey Koprince » Tue Sep 15, 2009 10:16 am
Received a PM asking me to reply. Eli gives some good advice above - if you're going to take it again, I also wouldn't want you to wait a year (you'll just forget everything!) and I agree that the timing needs to be fixed more incrementally first.

You ask whether you should apply with this score. My area of expertise is the GMAT, so I can't advise you on that, but you should go ask the admissions consultants. Let them know where you want to apply, where you went to school, what your GPA was, what your work experience is, etc.

If you do take it again, our first task is to figure out what went wrong. If we can figure that out, then we have a chance to avoid having this happen again.

Can you elaborate on this quote:
Time management was issue; I went into overanalysis of the questions both on Math and Verbal
Do you mean: during the real test, you spent way too much time overanalyzing certain problems? What consequences did that have? Did you speed up to compensate or did you run out of time before finishing the section? If you sped up, by how much? On how many questions? If you ran out of time, how many did you leave blank? How many random guesses did you have to make? (Basically, quantify this as much as possible for each section separately.)

When you took practice tests, did you take them under full official conditions? (did both of the essays, took only two 8-minute breaks at the scheduled times, etc) Did you take them at the same time of day as the real test?

If you didn't, then your practice scores may have been inflated. For example, eople who skip the essays on practice tests often find that their multiple choice scores suffer when they do have to do the essays - the verbal score is especially vulnerable because you're not used to having to answer questions for that length of time. On your practice tests, you'd have been done with the test already.

Also, if you took practice tests every other day, did you take some that showed you repeated questions? That again would inflate your score - and often much more so than you think. It isn't just that you've seen that question before and maybe remember the answer - though that's already a huge advantage. It's also the case that you answer those questions more quickly than you would if they were new questions, so you give yourself an artificial time advantage as well!

What I'm trying to figure out with my above question is: do your practice test scores really reflect your abilities or were they artificially inflated for some reason? If the tests really do reflect your abilities, then your "fall" on the real test is more likely due to some combination of timing and stamina. If the practice test scores were somewhat inflated, however, then you may still have timing and stamina issues - but you also have an issue with the content as well.

Once we can diagnose what happened, we can set up an appropriate study plan.
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by mmslf75 » Tue Sep 15, 2009 11:12 pm
Hi Stacey

Thanks for the reply

Well, the tests that I took did have repeat questions. especially MGMAt tests and I believe the that might have resulted in inflated scores
And yes I was pracitising with AWA and under offical conditions.

Secondly, by saying OVERANALYSIS i mean. for simple questions I spent little more than 2 minute son the actual day of test.

HAVE ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS IN CAPS..

Do you mean: during the real test, you spent way too much time overanalyzing certain problems? YES
What consequences did that have?
I DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH TIME FOR LAST 13 on Verbal and last 12 on QUANT
Did you speed up to compensate or did you run out of time before finishing the section? I DID SPEED UP but towards the last question and was giving best shot for the ones I was attempting, and DID NOT LEAVE ANY QUESTION BLANK
If you sped up, by how much?N/A
On how many questions? 13 V and 12 Q
If you ran out of time, how many did you leave blank?NONE
How many random guesses did you have to make?
Last 13 V and Last 12 Q
(Basically, quantify this as much as possible for each section separately.)

When you took practice tests, did you take them under full official conditions? YES I DID
(did both of the essays, took only two 8-minute breaks at the scheduled times, etc)
Did you take them at the same time of day as the real test? SOME YES SOME NO


Also, if you took practice tests every other day, did you take some that showed you repeated questions? YES, esp. MGMAT


What I'm trying to figure out with my above question is: do your practice test scores really reflect your abilities or were they artificially inflated for some reason? I BELIEVE THAT There was some CONTENT ISSUE AS WELL THE FACT THAT I DID NOT SPEED UP ON SIMPLE QUESTIONS


If the tests really do reflect your abilities, then your "fall" on the real test is more likely due to some combination of timing and stamina. STAMINA IS ALL OK, HOWEVER TIMING PLAYED A PART and as you said. CONTENT as well.


I HAVE NOW STARTED WITH POWERSCORE GMAT CR BIBLE TO LEARN HOW TO ATTACK CRs.
Please suggest for other sections as well
( Know OG QUestions in-and-out now !!)
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by Stacey Koprince » Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:26 am
How many random guesses did you have to make?
Last 13 V and Last 12 Q
This killed your score. If you had to make random guesses (didn't really have a chance to try the problem, couldn't eliminate any answer choices), then you got most of these wrong.

If you do not fix this timing problem, the same thing will probably happen next time - and you will not get the score you're trying to get.

There are some suggestions below about how to do this. Also, you need to change your study mindset. From what you've described above, you've been doing tons and tons of problems, but you have not necessarily been learning what you need to learn from each problem. The quantity of your study is not what's important here - the quality is.

Take a look at my post from earlier today (16 Sep) in this thread:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/how-should-i ... 44088.html

That will give you an idea about the kinds of things you need to study when you are analyzing problems. And re: knowing the OG questions "in and out" - if you can't answer all of the questions I posted in that other thread, then you do NOT actually know the OG problems backwards and forwards. (And I can pretty much guarantee that you haven't learned everything you need to learn from them, because your score is not yet what you want it to be. The information is there - it's your job to do the appropriate analysis so that you can learn from it.) :)

Re: timing, here are the guidelines you should be following (average followed by max to spend on any one problem):
SC - about 60-75 sec; max of 90 sec
CR - about 2m; max of 2.5m
RC - about 2.5m (short) to 3.5m (long) to read; about 1 min for general purpose questions; about 1.5 to 2 for everything else
quant - about 2m; max of 2.5m

First, change your mindset. Think of this as a tennis match, not a test. You're going to win some points and the other guy is going to win some points; you're not going to win them all, right? Your goal is to put yourself into position to win the LAST point. Translated, that means you have to put yourself in position to answer the last question - you have to have time to address it. Otherwise, you've lost the last point, and by extension the match. When the other guy hits a winner, don't go running after it so fast that you hit the fence and injure yourself, thereby hurting your chances on the later points. (Translation: don't go way over when the problem is too hard. Let the other guy win the point.)

Next: learn about how long one minute is without looking at a watch or stopwatch. If you don't have one already, buy yourself a stopwatch with lap timing capability. When you go to do a set of problems, start the stopwatch but turn it over so you can't see the time. Every time you think one minute has gone by, push the lap button. When you're done, see how good you were - and whether you tend to over or underestimate. Get yourself to the point where you're within 15 seconds either way on a regular basis (that is, you can generally predict between 45 sec and 1min 15 sec).

When doing problems, if you're not on track by one minute*, make an educated guess and move on. (The general idea is that if you're not on track by the halfway mark, you're unlikely to figure out what's holding you back AND have time to do the whole problem in the 1 min you have left.)

* For SC, 1min is well beyond the half-way mark (we're supposed to average about 1m15s here), but you can almost always eliminate at least some choices on SC in that timeframe. Once you've got that "I'm around the 1min mark and I'm struggling" feeling, go through any remaining choices ONCE more. Pick one. Move on.

For all of verbal in general, if you have narrowed down the answers to 2 choices, look at each choice ONCE more - that's it. Then pick and move on.

Remember that, no matter how good you get, you will still have to guess on something like 5 to 7 questions in the math section.  You don't want to be forced into making those guesses in a row at the end of the section, so choose the 5-7 hardest questions AS YOU SEE THEM throughout the section.  Remind yourself that you CANNOT get to the point where you can answer everything given to you in 2 min - that's just not how the test works.  You have to let those go. Instead, learn how to make effective educated guesses, in particular on those types of problems for which you tend to get sucked in. 
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by mmslf75 » Thu Sep 17, 2009 8:19 pm
Thanks very much stacey...

Superb post!!

I now understand the flaws ..

Will work on it...

Take a shot at the GMAT...

And will return to write a debrief after I score a "700"

THANKS
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by mmslf75 » Thu Sep 17, 2009 9:04 pm
Thanks very much stacey...

Superb post!!

I now understand the flaws ..

Will work on it...

Take a shot at the GMAT...

And will return to write a debrief after I score a "700"

THANKS
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