Complete laydown in Quant

[LSB]

Lesson learned: Stamina is worth more than any concept you can possibly know.

Took MGMAT 5 today. full simulation of test day. woke up at 5. Started test at 8am. Solid essays. And then ... fell into a million pieces in Quant. Barely understood what was being asked .. not to mention figuring out the answer. That's following a few days of heavy focus on Quant trying to break 46/47/48. Recovered during Verbal and finished off w a miserable 610.

This was the first time I woke up at 5 and the first time I did the AWA prior to Quant. All bets are off if you don't practice with the essay portion. One one hand I'm glad it happened a week before the test, as opposed to on test day. On the other hand this is the most depressing thing to have to go through one week before test day.

Anyway - thought I'd share the experience

Date / CAT Source / Total Score / V Score / V% / Q Score / Q%
Nov-07 Kaplan Free CAT 600 (no V / Q split)
Nov-07 MGMAT CAT 600 V32/64% Q42/63%
Apr-08 GMAC CAT 1 640 V38/83% Q39/55%
Apr-08 MGMAT CAT 600 V32/64% Q41/61%
Aug-08 VP CAT 730 V42/95% Q54/99%
Aug-08 MGMATCAT 640 V39/87% Q38/53%
Aug-08 MGMAT CAT 670 V38/83% Q43/68%
Aug-08 GMAC CAT 2 740 V47/99% Q45/75%
Aug-08 MGMAT CAT 610 V38/83% Q35/42%

[hengirl03]

Thanks for the tip! Did you take a 5 min break after AWA? The break helps me focus for Quant.

[toufeeq]

Or maybe it is MGMAT 5.

I'm talking about this particular MGMAT CAT. After my first 4 MGMAT CAT's I found this particular CAT (which was taken yesterday) very tough. There was a period during the Quants section (between questions 20 and 30) which took me around 30 minutes hence spoiling the whole test.

But I do agree that taking AWA seriously does make a lot of difference with building stamina.

[pepeprepa]

I believe what LBS says is one of the most important thing that I was going to omit, doing the AWA before Q and V.
I am used to 4hours test but in the case of the gmat I find it harder to be 100% all test long.
I made four practices tests, from 640 to 710, and today after AWA I scored only 640 which is the score I had for my first one test.

It's just paramount to get the habit to practice AWA+Q+V and to remain fresh for V; for me that's simple, I lose between 7 and 10 compared to what I score in V.

LBS come back on the post after you second full test practice, I am sure it will already be better.