One Month to Go and Quant Is Still An Issue

[SirBolly]

I took the GMAT in February of this year and scored 640 (V42Q35). Just before the test I was averaging 680-700 on my practice tests but to be honest I completely lost my nerve partially through the exam when faced with the harder Quant questions and never recovered. My timing was also an issue as I found myself struggling down rabbit holes that I knew I should have avoided. The panic was sever enough to alos affect my verbal score that was averaging around 95%.

I am going back again and now have one month to go. As I know that Quant is my weakness I have gone through both the Kaplan Math Workbook and the GMAT Quantitative Review. I start the GMAT OG tonight and will also work through the questions there while doing a MGMAT practice test every few days (target of 7 practice tests before the exam).

As I went through the Kaplan Math Workbook and the GMAT Quantitative Review, I found that although I was improved I was still not using the right approach for the harder questions, especially DS. I have gone through the theory several times and I do understand the concepts but when a hard question comes along i am just not sure of the technique I should use. When I read the explanation afterwards, I understand everything, I just would not have thought of that approach, especially within 2 minutes.

I need to crack this over the next couple of weeks. Is there a technique can use or is it just a matter of doing as many examples and practice tests (and the associated corrections and learnings) as I can?

Thanks very mush for your help guys!

[[email protected]]

Hi SirBolly,

A 640 is a solid overall score (just shy of the 80th percentile), but the Q35 might be considered a minor "snag" in your application, especially if you're planning to apply to a Top15 Business School or a Quant-heavy program (such as Finance).

I'm curious about what resources you used originally. Were you just working out of books? Also, what CATs did you take? When you took those CATs, were you taking the ENTIRE CAT (including the Essay and IR sections)?

With a month to go, you can certainly improve. You're going to have to change your tactics though. As far as your overall plan, I suggest that you take 1 CAT per week (not 7 in 4 weeks). Taking lots of CATs is NOT the solution to your problem. Without changing HOW you're approaching the exam, you'll likely just score in the same general range over-and-over.

Once you've responded to the above questions, I'll be happy to offer some suggestions for your next month of study.

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

[Brent@GMATPrepNow]

Hi SirBolly,

Your quant score of 35 (33rd percentile) suggests that you still have some gaps in your mathematical knowledge. I'm not against taking lots of practice tests, but you'll need to carefully analyze each practice test if you want to improve your quant score (and overall score).

While analyzing your practice tests, there are four main types of weakness to watch out for:
1. specific Quant skills/concepts/topics (e.g., algebra, standard deviation, etc.)
2. specific Verbal skills/concepts/topics (e.g., verb tenses, assumption CR questions, etc.)
3. test-taking skills (time management, endurance, anxiety etc.)
4. silly mistakes

For the first two weaknesses, the fix is pretty straightforward. TAKE THE TIME to immerse yourself in that concept/topic. First learn the concept/skill and then find some practice questions to strengthen that weakness. To focus on one topic at a time, you can use BTG's tagging feature to isolate one concept. For example, here are all of the questions tagged as statistics questions: https://www.beatthegmat.com/forums/tags/ ... statistics
See the left side of that linked page for more tag options.

If your test-taking skills are holding you back, then you need to work on these. For example, we have a free GMAT time management video at https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gener ... es?id=1244.

Finally, if silly mistakes are hurting your score, then it's important that you identify and categorize these mistakes so that, during tests, you can easily spot situations in which you're prone to making errors. I write about this and other strategies in the following article for BTG: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/09/ ... n-the-gmat

Cheers,
Brent

[SirBolly]

Hi Rich, Brent,

Thanks so much for taking the time to responding and for being so swift about it.

Rich to answer you questions specifically, Like many folks I started studying for the GMAT's a couple of years ago but could not get a rhythm going. As am sure is the case for many, life events such as migration, getting married, moving houses, moving jobs, multiple spinal surgeries (for some reason I think I am an athlete), forced me to start, stop and re-start the preparation process many times.

Over a few months I completed the Kaplan Premier book and Kaplan 800. I made my own notes and flashcards but of course, when I stopped and restarted I always had to go over everything again.

I started getting serious in September of last year but my job only allowed me a couple hours per night and weekends to work. As such I took advantage of any free time I had but it was disjointed. As I was practicing everywhere I could I opted for the Paper practice tests you can get from mba.com. I was able to do some sections timed and others piecemeal. In all I completed all 9 of these. Each started with the Argument Essay but not IR.

I then did a couple of on-line Kaplan practice tests and finished with the 2 practice tests from GMAT Prep. These were done in their entirety, i.e. essay, IR, Quant and Verbal in one go. Here I was getting 680-700. The maths was not great but the verbal was pulling me up as i was averaging 95%.

Upon getting my 640, I began scouring the forums for advice and of course found BTGMAT. From everyone's advice I got the Kaplan Math Workbook and the GMAT Quantitative Review. I started by once again going over all my theory and then waded in but this time with an Error Log and with consistent sessions at home which have all been timed.

Those are complete and I am 80 questions into the OG 12, setting groups of 40 for 80 mins. So far good, and my confidence has taken a boost but i am about to get to the medium difficulty stuff.

Brent, thanks for your advice as well. My error log has been hugely useful in identifying my most troublesome areas, namely number properties including inequalities and 2nd degree equations and averages. I will try to get some deeper theory on these subjects and then practise.

I will also look at the 2 links for silly mistakes and timing. I think that i suffer from varying degrees of all these elements so i will go through everything.

Thanks again chaps.

Best,
SirBolly

[[email protected]]

Hi SirBolly,

It sounds like most of your studies have been book-based, which might be why you're stuck in the mid-30s in Quant. Working out of a book is different from working on a computer. augmenting your studies with more computer-based resources would likely help you to improve.

While knowing the concepts and formulas is a big part of scoring well in the Quant section, the GMAT is more of a critical-thinking Test than you might realize. The Quant section isn't really about "doing math", although you will do some math to answer each question. Most GMAT questions are designed so that they can be solved in a variety of ways; as such, having skills beyond "math" skills will make it easier to score higher on the GMAT. Knowing the various tactics that can be used throughout the Test is another area that you need to work on.

It might seem like a daunting task, but you can make some big strides in the next month.

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