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help!! Tutors, logitech , cramya, mals24 etc please pitch in

by crazy4gmat » Mon Nov 24, 2008 5:19 am
Hi All,

I am in need of some advice. I am currently in 46 - 47 level in quants and 33 - 35 level in Verbal . I want to push my verbal level to 38 and Quants level to 49. The main problem i am facing to acheive this level is execution during the exam and not factual knowledge i believe.

In Verbal
-----------

On a average i am able to attend a maximum of 34 - 37 q in this section in a CAT. The main obstacle here is that if i am not able to zero in on an option in 2 mins i go through the answer options and the passage(in case of RC and CR) which consumes me a minute or so extra for it , and i end up doing this for a quite a few questions(5-10) in every CAT i take. The end result is that i have to randomly guess on last 5 -6 questions.

So what should i do here so that i get a shot at all the questions in verbal .Please recommend a strategy to suit my needs .People scoring in the 36+ range please give me ur recommendations regarding how i go about this section .


In Quants:
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Its much more worse here. I have never attended more than 32 questions in a CAT and randomly guess the last 5- 7 q each time.The Problem here is that if i get a question which i have no clue about i just guess and move on but most often( maybe on 6-8 q) i encounter something i feel i have 50% chance or more to crack it. Half of these questions i am able to crack it with little bit of extra time(3 min per q maybe) and for the other half ,after working for 3- 4 min i realize that i am not going to crack it or its gonna take a hell a lot of time to do and so pick the best option and move on . So in the end i usually end up attending about 32 q and randomly guess on the rest. And i usually get 23 -24 correct in what i attend.

Could u tell how i can improve here?. I am also interested to know how people who score 49 + approach this section. How many quetions do u attempt, how many u randomly guess etc.
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by mals24 » Mon Nov 24, 2008 6:00 am
Ok your major issue seems TIME. A lot of us face this issue, but the good news is you can overcome this problem.

Firstly, ALWAYS practice under time constraints. In this way you are training your mind to think quickly and work faster. Try solving difficult questions under time constraints, like questions in Kaplan and Kaplan 800.

Also buy the Manhattan GMAT CATs, they are brilliant especially for the quant section. They have nice difficult questions which require some time consuming calculations. The biggest advantage is that your training yourself to think quickly under time constraints.

Also I found the following post of Ron Purewal extremely useful.
* you should follow the following PROBLEM SOLVING HIERARCHY for ALL quant problems.
in order for you to proceed through the quant section without wasting excessive time (and therefore not finishing), you MUST stick to the following hierarchy - and, most importantly, you MUST MOVE ON TO THE NEXT STEP AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE IF YOU DON'T FIND A METHOD THAT WORKS FOR THE CURRENT STEP.
here's the hierarchy. it works slightly differently for problem solving than for data sufficiency, with most of the differences having to do with "plugging in numbers":


PROBLEM SOLVING:

1. can i find a "textbook method" to solve the problem?
- i.e., can i find an 'opener' that might be in an answer key, etc.?
IF NOT,
2. can i "plug in numbers" (for equation or word problems), or just LIST things (for counting or probability problems)?
- note that there are two kinds of "plugging in numbers" for problem solving:
(a) plugging in YOUR OWN numbers, and working through the problem in the normal direction with your numbers instead of variables (VIC style problems),
(b) plugging in the ANSWER CHOICES and working the problem backwards (used if the answer choices are numbers and there's a decently easy path "backwards" through the problem).
IF NOT,
3. can i estimate, or perform process of elimination in any other way?
- if the answer choices are NUMBERS and there's a decent spread - i.e., not all of the answer choices are extremely close together - then you may be able to eliminate answers based on estimation. this goes especially for geometry problems, which have DIAGRAMS and are therefore easier to estimate, but it goes for all sorts of other problems as well.
IF NOT,
4. guess
- if you get to this point, DO NOT DELIBERATE - just guess. remember that any random guess is as good as any other random guess. if you're an extreme "deliberator", then, as weird as it may sound, you may want to have an actual method for random guessing. this could be as simple as "pick the first one of the remaining choices", but anything you can do to prevent staring at the problem is good.


DATA SUFFICIENCY:

1. can i find a "textbook method" to solve the problem?
- i.e., can i find an 'opener' that might be in an answer key, etc.?
IF NOT,
2. can i "plug in numbers"?
- note that NUMBER PLUGGING WORKS DIFFERENTLY FOR DATA SUFFICIENCY. with problem solving, all you have to do is plug in one set of numbers (VICs) or plug in one answer choice at a time (working backwards). with data sufficiency, though, you have to plug in MULTIPLE numbers or sets of numbers, with the goal being to TRY FOR 'INSUFFICIENT'.
in other words, you should try multiple values, with your goal being to get both a 'yes' and a 'no' (if it's a yes/no question) or two different values (if it's a value question).
if it's a number properties problem, you should make sure that you figure out the TYPES of numbers being tested, and plug in accordingly. for instance, if the problem involves absolute values, then it's likely that you'll have to plug in both positive and negative numbers.
IF NOT,
3. can i use the "easy statement", or perform process of elimination in any other way?
- always use the "easy statement" first, if there is one. this is essential for time management: you want to eliminate as many answers early as possible, in case time runs short.
ironically, the hardest problems commonly have one very "easy" statement out of the two (such as a statement that doesn't contain one of the relevant variables).
IF NOT,
4. guess
- if you get to this point, DO NOT DELIBERATE - just guess. remember that any random guess is as good as any other random guess. if you're an extreme "deliberator", then, as weird as it may sound, you may want to have an actual method for random guessing. this could be as simple as "pick the first one of the remaining choices", but anything you can do to prevent staring at the problem is good.

again, when you move through the above hierarchy, you need to progress EFFICIENTLY through the different steps. in other words, if one of the steps isn't working for you, you should more or less IMMEDIATELY move on to the next step. i like to follow a "10 second rule": if you stare at a problem for 10 seconds without doing anything, then it's time to move on to the next step of the hierarchy.
this may be difficult to implement at first, especially if you're a "deliberator" by nature, but it's ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL for your success on this exam. you will not be able to finish the quant section on time if you aren't adaptable and don't move quickly from one method of problem solving to another.

--

- if you are wasting time DELIBERATING between two or three final choices, YOU MUST LEARN TO STOP DELIBERATING. you should get into a mental state where you can just make a decision, even if that decision is random.
if you're an extreme "deliberator" type - common in business school - then you may even want to figure out a systematic way to make random guesses! for instance, you might plan to always guess on the first remaining choice (say, (b) if you're down to (b) and (e)). whatever it takes so that you NEVER feel like staring at a problem.

--

if you adopt this sort of STRICT hierarchical mentality, you will almost certainly do much better on the quant section. it's a difficult thing at first, because it's almost certainly alien to your current manner of thinking, but it will make a HUGE difference.
For the verbal section unfortunately I cannot help you much, I myself am in a dire need of tips!!!
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by logitech » Mon Nov 24, 2008 8:55 am
I can actually use some advice for the verbal section as well!

As for the quant goes:

You need to understand when you should not spend time on a question and walk away from that emotional bond. I am an engineer and I should have no problem solving any GMAT quant questions. In my first months of GMAP prep, I could only score maximum of 49 because of my EGO and its best friend TIMING PROBLEM. I remember spending 4-5 minutes on a question and have major timing problems in the last 10 problems.

And I started to stick to my time management method:

5 66; 10 56; 15 46....

I tried really hard to stay around this time line and I had to kiss good bye to many questions that I could solve but I learned to move forward.

I never scored 49 again.

I do have around 3-5 wrongs when I score 51 and 2-3 of them are guesses.

And I have around 5-9 wrongs when I score 50. And in one of my GMAT prep test I missed 13 questions but I was still able to score 49.

You have to remember that this is not a linear test. The better you are, the tougher the test gets. This means that you will even need more time for the tougher questions and this is WHY you need stay with your timing strategy. Because when you get up to 700-800 question levels, it is okay to miss couple of them and move forward.
LGTCH
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by cramya » Tue Nov 25, 2008 5:21 am
Hi crazy4gmat,
Looking at your scores I see that if u step up your verbal scores (4-5 points more which does require some work for all of us)then u are definitely in contention for 700's. Increasing verbal score has more impact on th overall score.(For example a 3-4 points increase in Verbal has more impact on your overall scoore than 3-4 points increase in Quant).I obtained this info from on of the posts in this forum. Some one please correct me if I am mistaken here but I am confident of what I just said. I have seen this from some of the overall scores here also. Just my 2 cents worth.

As far as qaunt goes I am sharing with you what I read from Ron's post.
I think on hard questions u can spend a maximum of 3 minutes and on medium hard question 2-2:30 minutes. There are definitely going to be question for which the opener(how to start a given problem) may come to our mind as soon as we see it and we may complete it well within 2 minutes(this will offset the time for questions on which we may take more than 2 minutes). When trying to solve questions look for an algebric approach and if it doesnt come to the mind then try backsolving by pluggin in numbers etc. The worst thing we cando is keep staring at the problem trying to come up with an algebric approach.GMAT does not care how we do it as long we can arrive at the right answer. I think if u make it a point to complete all the questions by following a stricter timeline then I would say u r in good shape for a 700 or more score. I think you can do it.This applies to all of us.

I think Logitech and Mals24 have covered the rest. Sorry about the long post.

Best of luck!



Regards,
Cramya
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