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navalpike
- Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
- Posts: 103
- Joined: Mon May 04, 2009 11:53 am
- Thanked: 6 times
Hi ,
So I was hoping to come on here and scream at the top of my lungs how I killed the GMAT but unfortunately I am not able to do so. I actually had to 'cancel' the score. A little background - I have taken the test three times and my scores were 570, 620, & 660. This was last year. I started studying again this year in May. I wanted to take the test one last time and hope to get above a 700.
Since I had gone through most of the prep material the previous times, I really did not have much use for them. I also noticed that this form tackles and explains far, far, far more difficult questions than ANY test prep material. I literally went through each one of Ian Stewart's posts (the best math instructor I have ever known). I copied and pasted about 250 pages worth of his posts and went through each problem one at a time, multiple times. I did the same thing with Stuart's posts. I copied all of the explanations and strategies I learned on these forums and copied them on a word doc. as well. Together, everything made up about 600 pages. I MADE SURE that I went through each of them multiple times and understood the concept.
I took 5 kaplan tests. averaging around 700. ( I had already taken all of MGMAT tests previously). Then I took the full length GMAT PREP test 2 times each, again averaging around 700 - essays included. Since the questions were starting to repeat in considerably, I simply focused on the quant section because I wanted to see as many official quant problems as possible. I would keep re-installing the program and went through the quant section of each test 4 more times - each. Any problem that I had trouble with, I would come on here and understood the concept behind each of them. I felt completely ready for test day since this was around 9 times the effort I had put in previously and I had already gotten a 660 without this much effort.
On the test day, I was completely thrown back by how much the GMAT quant had changed. From the VERY beginning, I started to get lengthy (I mean a paragraph length) word problem - all DS. I immediately recognized the parallel between the OG 12 DS section on the test. Notice the NEW problems on OG 12 DS section. Notice how they are really lengthy, introducing multiple variable. I noticed that the GMAC is now focused on making it as difficult as possible for you to "set up" the problem and wants you to spend a lot of time on each. This was my worst nightmare. I had noticed the change in OG 12 DS, but I did not think that almost "every" problem would show up in this format.
I was literally shocked because here is how the DS section on the test broke down. About 4 Geometry problems, 0 inequalities, 0 probabilities, about 2 or three remainder problems. And the rest - lengthy word problems. If someone doesn't understand what I mean by lengthy word problems - check out OG 12 DS problems 120, 128, 161 etc. In fact, the last page of the DS section is considered the toughest. However, as you can see the questions are way too short in format. I did not see any of these. I really wish I had. I knew that I had bombed the quant section. So I just decided to cancel the score.
So, even though above is a little rambling and incoherent, I am really at a loss of words. Even though I understand pretty much every concept being tested, I simply do not know how I can tackle and prepare for these long problems. They are very intimidating. I immediately lose confidence when I see them. It takes far too long for me to "set them up". Worst, I simply do not know where I can go to get a lot of practice on them. Even this forum does not really focus enough on these type of "new" problems. I am already familiar with the ones in OG and GMAT PREP since I have done them a hundred times. If you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them.
Thanks,
So I was hoping to come on here and scream at the top of my lungs how I killed the GMAT but unfortunately I am not able to do so. I actually had to 'cancel' the score. A little background - I have taken the test three times and my scores were 570, 620, & 660. This was last year. I started studying again this year in May. I wanted to take the test one last time and hope to get above a 700.
Since I had gone through most of the prep material the previous times, I really did not have much use for them. I also noticed that this form tackles and explains far, far, far more difficult questions than ANY test prep material. I literally went through each one of Ian Stewart's posts (the best math instructor I have ever known). I copied and pasted about 250 pages worth of his posts and went through each problem one at a time, multiple times. I did the same thing with Stuart's posts. I copied all of the explanations and strategies I learned on these forums and copied them on a word doc. as well. Together, everything made up about 600 pages. I MADE SURE that I went through each of them multiple times and understood the concept.
I took 5 kaplan tests. averaging around 700. ( I had already taken all of MGMAT tests previously). Then I took the full length GMAT PREP test 2 times each, again averaging around 700 - essays included. Since the questions were starting to repeat in considerably, I simply focused on the quant section because I wanted to see as many official quant problems as possible. I would keep re-installing the program and went through the quant section of each test 4 more times - each. Any problem that I had trouble with, I would come on here and understood the concept behind each of them. I felt completely ready for test day since this was around 9 times the effort I had put in previously and I had already gotten a 660 without this much effort.
On the test day, I was completely thrown back by how much the GMAT quant had changed. From the VERY beginning, I started to get lengthy (I mean a paragraph length) word problem - all DS. I immediately recognized the parallel between the OG 12 DS section on the test. Notice the NEW problems on OG 12 DS section. Notice how they are really lengthy, introducing multiple variable. I noticed that the GMAC is now focused on making it as difficult as possible for you to "set up" the problem and wants you to spend a lot of time on each. This was my worst nightmare. I had noticed the change in OG 12 DS, but I did not think that almost "every" problem would show up in this format.
I was literally shocked because here is how the DS section on the test broke down. About 4 Geometry problems, 0 inequalities, 0 probabilities, about 2 or three remainder problems. And the rest - lengthy word problems. If someone doesn't understand what I mean by lengthy word problems - check out OG 12 DS problems 120, 128, 161 etc. In fact, the last page of the DS section is considered the toughest. However, as you can see the questions are way too short in format. I did not see any of these. I really wish I had. I knew that I had bombed the quant section. So I just decided to cancel the score.
So, even though above is a little rambling and incoherent, I am really at a loss of words. Even though I understand pretty much every concept being tested, I simply do not know how I can tackle and prepare for these long problems. They are very intimidating. I immediately lose confidence when I see them. It takes far too long for me to "set them up". Worst, I simply do not know where I can go to get a lot of practice on them. Even this forum does not really focus enough on these type of "new" problems. I am already familiar with the ones in OG and GMAT PREP since I have done them a hundred times. If you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them.
Thanks,
