Manhattan Gmat CAT- Math is overwhelming me

[virtueso]

Hi.
I am on the last stages of my prep for the gmat, which is exactly two weeks away from today i.e on the 24th of March, '14. This will be my second and final attempt. I got a disappointing 640(Q-48,V-31) in my first attempt, dated Dec 22,2013.
This post is regarding the MGMAT CAT scores that I have been getting.

I just gave my third MGMAT CAT, and scored 680(Q-44, V-38) . I find that the quant in the MGMAT CAT is extremely tough, and this is adversely affecting my score and my confidence . Being a non-native English speaker and generally pretty good at quant, this is becoming worrisome for me.

In my first attempt, I had taken the first GMAT prep Official test a week before the exam, and the second GMAT prep Official test 3 days before my exam. In both these tests, I managed to score exactly 700 without giving myself any unfair advantage. However, in the free MGMAT CAT that i had given in my first attempt, about 4-5days before my exam, I scored 640, which was a nightmare figure for me, and I scored the same in the actual GMAT. That is why these MGMAT test results are unnerving me. They seem to predict a gloomy future for me yet again.

The following is a description of the CATs I have taken in the last 30 days.
- I took the princeton- free GMAT CAT about 3 weeks ago, and scored a 710.
- In the retake of the free MGMAT that I had taken 2 weeks ago (about 70 days after I had originally taken the test and scored a 640), I scored 670. My verbal had improved (38 i think) but quant was again poor.
- In the 2nd MGMAT test, that i took about 10 days ago, I scored a 690(V-38,Q-44). In this test, I recognized at least 5 questions and therefore pretty much remembered the answers and the solutions. However, the quant in this CAT literally had all 700-800 level questions except 1 600-700 level question.
- In the Veritas free GMAT diagnostic that I had taken between MGMAT CAT 1(retake) and MGMAT CAT 2, I scored a 720.
- In the Kaplan- free diagnostic GMAT CAT, i scored a 720.
- In the GMAC Official test 1 (retake) that i had taken about about 5 days back, I scored 750(Q-50, V-41). I recognized several questions(from the first time around, about 3 months ago), and remembered how to solve them correctly.
- And finally today, in MGMAT CAT-3, I scored 680 (Q-44, V-38) as mentioned previously.

For me, the MGMAT seems to be a recurring nightmare. Every time I give the MGMAT, the words "MGMAT quant will knock your socks off" which I had read in one of the posts on this forum, ring in my head. I feel that the lowest I score in any mock test I give, is my true reality and level of prep.
After every exam, I spend 2 hours or more, analyzing my mistakes and reviewing the questions in which I got my educated guesses right. Yet, despite the improvement in Verbal, which always seemed more of a daunting task than getting a 50 or 50+ in quant, MGMAT quant just keeps kicking my ass.

I have 14 days from today to my actual CAT. Please provide suggestions as to how I can improve my quant, and not let it negatively compensate for the improvements I have made in Verbal.

I have been doing the Kaplan 800 math book, and I find it rather easy. I have gone through all the MGMAT math books, which don't really have a lot of questions to practice, and solved the OG-13, and official quant and verbal review and created an error log for all three. I plan to review these and solve the incorrect questions again in the following days. Yet, as I mentioned already, the MGMAT is my nightmare, and the fact that it was the only exam that correctly predicted my score in the actual GMAT exam makes me shiver when I find that I cant even touch 700 on the MGMATs.

Sorry for the long post.
Any and all suggestions are desperately welcomed.

Regards,
Pawan

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Hi virtueso,

Based on your CAT scores, there is a distinct pattern worth noting: most of your "retakes" end in "inflated" higher scores. This points to a concept that many people don't think about: retaking a CAT is not a realistic way to test (and evaluate) yourself. Your post seems to put the burden on the MGMAT CATs, but that's not really the problem. All of these retakes hint at a pattern - you're not training yourself to handle the actual GMAT correctly. So my next question is "what ELSE are you not doing in a test-like fashion?"

Are you taking the ENTIRE CAT each time (including essay and IR) or are you skipping sections?
Are you doing anything unrealistic, such as pausing the exam or listening to music while you take the CAT?
Are you taking the CATs at a consistent time of day and day of the week?
Are you taking the CATs on a desktop computer or a laptop computer?

ALL of these details matter. The best Test Takers that I've ever worked with had a number of traits in common: they were calm, they were strategic and they made sure that their practice matched the real GMAT in every way that they could control.

With 2 weeks to go, I'm not sure how many adjustments you can really make to your process. Focus on fixing the silly mistakes and you should be able to pick up points. Write everything down (don't do math in your head) and label your work. These seem like obvious things, but most people won't make themselves do the necessary work - so they end up with scores that are lower than they wanted.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

[virtueso]

Hi Rich, thanks for replying.

The princeton free CAT i had taken was without IR, the first free mgmat cat (retake) was also without IR. All the rest of the tests however I had taken under exam conditions. I always take my tests at exactly 9:30 am, and I make sure that I attempt the AWA and IR sections. In the Official CAT retake, since I remembered the argument from last time, I simply got another AWA question out of OG13 and wrote its analyses for a full 25-30 minutes.
I do not pause the exam, except once when I had to pause it because there was someone at the door. This momentarily broke my concentration, rather than give me an advantage.

The MGMAT CAT-2 was not a retake, there were just 5 questions that I had seen before (probably on account of having taken the MGMAT CAT-1 twice). Regardless I do realize that these questions gave me an advantage and so this is not technically an accurate score.

I will take care to manage my silly mistakes in the next test. In MGMAT 3, I had made 3 silly mistakes which I can manage and improve upon.
In the coming days, I plan to review my entire error log, including errors in all the CATs i have taken, the OG13 and Official quant and verbal review, after which I will take the MGMAT 4,5 and 6, and the Official CAT-2 .

Please recommend any change of course or additional steps I can take in the few days I have left. I have taken leave from work, I can burn midnight oil. Workload and pressure is not a problem for me.

Thank you
Regards,
Pawan

[[email protected]]

Hi Pawan,

While it may be tempting to try to "cram" in these last few days, you should NOT do that. Some review is good, but taking a lot of CATs is NOT a good idea. You want to be well-rested for Test Day and the process of taking (and fully reviewing) a CAT is an involved process that burns a lot of energy.

The GMAT is remarkably good at giving you a score that you earn, so your practice in these last days should be focused on EARNING points. Focus on your attention to detail and taking notes. Some review of concepts is probably a good idea (math formulas, grammar rules, etc.) and going back to redo some of the original work that you started with will help you to reinforce the good tactics and approaches that you've learned during your studies.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

[virtueso]

Yes, of course- no cramming. Cramming on an adaptive test would be a bad idea. I just try to see things as many times as possible(i made flashcards) so that if the same type of concept comes up in the exam, I can place what I know about it and get the question right. This mainly applies to idioms in SC.

Ok, so I have exhausted all the material at least once (the OG 13 twice, once during my first attempt)and so now for the next few days, just to stay in touch with all the concepts and question types, I plan study the Official Verbal and Quant review guides.
Is this a good idea? Or is the OG a better source to practice and brush up on concepts ? I have seen that the OG is stressed the most, for every aspirant, but the quant and verbal reviews not so much.

I have 4 more CATs left, and one of the reasons that I want to do all of them is so that I can build an endurance for the 3.5 hour marathon that is the GMAT exam. I will keep the official CAT exam last as I will probably score well in that and this will reinforce my confidence.
Even if i do one on every alternate day, I will still have at least 3-4 days to relax and not exhaust myself before the 24th.

If any of this sounds like a bad idea, please let me know. I need regular practice because I have noticed that whenever I focus on any one thing too much, then I end up missing a few points on another topic. This is evident because it seems to have happened with quant (at least the mgmat quant) because I had been focusing on improving verbal, where there was a larger scope for improvement, these last two months. Similarly, I noticed that I was getting a lot of RC questions wrong several weeks back, so I focused on RC for a week, got my accuracy up from 60% to 80%, and at the same time I noticed that my accuracy in CR went down from 85-90% to 70%. Attempting these CATs brushes up all the areas and that is why I had planned to do these in the last few weeks before the exam.

I appreciate your time in answering my questions.
Thanks.
Regards,
Pawan

[[email protected]]

Hi Pawan,

Since you're already familiar with the OG13, reviewing the Quant and Verbal subject-specific guides is a good idea - doing so will help you stay sharp.

During these last 2 weeks, you should plan on taking just 2 of the CATs. Doing a CAT every other day is almost never helpful to a Test Taker. By definition, a CAT is just a "measuring device" - it gives you a reasonable assessment of your score at that moment in time and it points out all of the mistakes that you made (including endurance and pacing problems), but it DOES NOT make you a better test taker. It would be like weighing yourself on a scale every day - chances are your weight won't change very much from day-to-day - and the scale won't make you any lighter or heavier if you use it more frequently.

Your remaining study time should be spent on practice problems, light review (the flashcards you mentioned, etc.), review of past CATs and 2 new CATs. You don't need to take 4 CATs and I don't think that doing so would provide any benefit.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

[virtueso]

Thanks. This gameplan I can follow. 2 CATs,flashcards and Verbal and Quant review it is.

Regards,
Pawan

[virtueso]

I was unwell since the past two days, so today just to practice a variety of questions and get back in the groove I gave the Manhattan GMAT CAT-4 and scored a 720 (V-43,Q-44) . Only 1 repeat question, complete exam conditions and no pauses. Phew! Feels like I crossed a psychological barrier with this(crossing 700 on MGMAT), despite the fact that quant has been stuck at exactly 44 since the last three Mgmat CATs ! Feels good all the same.
Time to review the Official Quant review!