heh, i accidentally hit the "thanks" button instead of the "quote" button (in case anybody is wondering why i randomly thanked the last post).
Night reader wrote:I got abysmal 34 in verbal with 48 quant in CAT2/MGMAT. I was thrown off with 9 consecutive RC entries within three passages :(
passage one was all 700-800 level diff. -I handled 50% correct, passage two (long) was mixed 600,700-800 level diff. -50% accuracy and passage 3 (again mixed) more 600 level, one 800 -100% accuracy. I kept receiving mostly 700-800 level diff. questions throughout the test... total I had 4 RC passages
average diff right
CR 680
RC 670
SC 690
average diff wrong
CR 720
RC 720
SC 720
I feel like smashed in the face after this CAT, overall 680
please advise, I have 5 more days till exam
NR, i think the biggest problem here is that you're thinking about
way too many things.
during the exam, you should be thinking about exactly 2 things:
* THE QUESTION THAT'S DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF YOU
* TIMING
these are the ONLY two things you should be thinking about during the test.
if you are concentrating enough on these two things, you shouldn't even be able to remember, for sure, that the last 9 questions were rc's. you may have some vague idea or another -- but, if you are trying to notice the distribution of questions on your exam, that means you have to pay ATTENTION to that distribution. in turn, that means less attention that you can pay to the questions and the timing.
same thing with "difficulty levels" -- you should not be thinking about these.
in fact, if you are a student and you're scoring above 600 or so, you should NEVER think about difficulty levels -- you should only be thinking about the question itself: what's the best strategy for this question type? what signals are in the question prompt? what general lessons can i derive from this problem? etc.
the only students who should be thinking about "difficulty levels" are low-scoring students, who need to filter out the harder problems in order to have effective study sessions. if you are scoring high enough that the harder problems are within your adaptive window, then thinking even a single thought about "difficulty level" is a pointless distraction.
in fact, your statement about being "smashed in the face" provides a useful analogy: let's think about a boxing match.
in a boxing match, you can only pay attention to two things: your current actions, and your opponent's current actions. that's pretty much it -- any thoughts about anything else will just be a pointless distraction.
in such a match, are you going to remember if your opponent's last 9 punches have been right jabs? are you even going to have the
opportunity to remember that?
... or are you just going to react to each individual punch as you always have in your training, with no expectations?
same thing on this test.
I had three RC passages back to back! The second passage was very long. Has any body experienced the same till now? Should I expect 3 RC-s succeeding each other without any SC and CR in-between on the actual exam?
