Am I Ready for the real thing?

[chiba.pawan]

Stacey

I gave first GMAT MOCK from GMAT PREP Software last Monday i.e om 17th Mar 14 and scored a 720 (Q48 V40).

Question: Am I ready for the real exam and should i book a slot?

Or is it that I need to give more mocks and consistently do well before i take the plunge?

I myself feel that till i consistently score a 740-750 on GMAT PREP Mocks I must stay put and review weak areas. During my Mock test I found that I was falling short on time and was not able to answer the last question on Verbal and had to randomly answer few in both sections.

Please suggest.

Regards
Pawan

[StaceyKoprince]

What's your goal score?

Did you take that test under 100% official conditions, including essay, IR, length and # of breaks, etc?

If it were me, I'd want to score at or above my goal score at least twice under 100% official conditions. :)

Also, if you already know you have some timing issues, you'd want to work those out before you take the real thing, because timing issues can lead to score drops on test day.

Read these:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... lly-tests/

http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -to-do-it/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... nt-part-1/

[chiba.pawan]

Hi Stacey

Thanks for your reply

I am targeting a score of 740 plus. I Did not attempt essay and IR however took the test under strict timed conditions with two 8mins break and also created anxiety for self by giving the exam in a room which I usually don't sit in.

For the next mock I will try to visit some library so that the anxiety associated with new place increases.

What should be my Strategy to improve and bring my mock score to a range of 740-760? I have already purchased all the manhattan guides including the advanced strategy guide. I also have OG12 book and associated quant and verbal guides.

Please suggest.

Regards
Pawan

[StaceyKoprince]

There's a decent chance that your score was artificially inflated because you skipped essay and IR - a 2.5 hour test is easier than a 3.5 hour test. Your brain was not as tired for Q and V as it will be when you've done IR and essay first.

Short answer: don't skip them in future. And don't count this test as a 720 test. It might be - but it might also have been a 700 or a 680 or a 650 - there's no telling how much mental fatigue might be a factor for you.

In terms of how to improve, first, work on the timing resources that I gave you last time.

Next, read this:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -the-gmat/

And it'd be a good idea to read this:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/7 ... erence.cfm

I'm not going to give you more than that for now - read that and come back to tell me what you think you should do. If you want to score 740+, you actually need to be able to analyze / figure these kinds of things out yourself! (But don't worry - I'll tell you whether I think you're on track.)

[chiba.pawan]

Hi Stacey

Thanks for the reply.

All the links you provided have highly valuable guidelines and you wont believe but I have already read almost all of those atleast 5 times and read them again this time around.

As per me the steps I need to take are:

1. Develop a habit of making an educated guess and move on
2. Kill the feeling of - "But I know how to do it" - This actually is a Big issue for me
3. Review questions from GMAC test, OG & Manhattan in detail, may be spending 10-15 mins on each question and finding out why I got it Wrong or Right?
4. Next Mock - With AWA and IR for sure
5. Should not take 720 score as a benchmark of readiness for actual exam....rather work towards consistently scoring in a range of 750-760 on rest of the mocks
6. I must remember that I can score high even if I choose to make educated guess and move on in case I am falling short of time
7. Learn Strategies to make educated guess
8. Identify Areas of Weakness & Strength and improve on both

Your comments please.

Thanks
Pawan

[chiba.pawan]

Hi Stacey

I am devastated after the Manhattan Mock I attempted on 06th Apr 14. The results are far from the expected 700 plus (atleast) considering the GMAT PREP mock score of 720. I scored a mere 670 (Q47 V34) - Verbal was a real surprise!!!

Please see a screenshot of the assessment report below



I want to know what to do next? I have gone through your post on how to assess the scores (which is posted in two parts on the forum) however I am unable to reach a conclusion. I dont know which area to prioritize and thus am worried as I have my exam scheduled for next month.

Please guide/ help.

Shall be highly obliged to get an early reply.

Thanks

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm going to respond to your first post first.

From your list of 8 things (if I don't comment, that's because I like what you wrote!):
3. I spend a minimum of probably 4 to 5 minutes reviewing any problem, even if I got it right and thought it was pretty easy. There are often still shortcuts to find, traps to discover / understand, etc. And if I actually had a problem, I might spend 10 to 20 minutes or more! Part of that time includes going back into a book, for example, or even doing some drills on something that gave me trouble.

6. A student recently told me that she guessed - outright guessed and moved on almost immediately - on 4 quant questions. She scored a 51. (This was all on the real test!)

Second post:
I can't, unfortunately, do the data analysis for you - it takes 30 to 45 minutes even for me. If you'd like me to have the data, you'll need to draw up the 5 buckets and tell me.

A few things do pop out at me from the screen shot you posted. You lost, on average, 47 seconds per incorrect DS, or more than 5 minutes total. Meanwhile, your incorrect PS averaged 30 seconds faster than normal.

On which questions should you have cut yourself off faster? On which questions would an extra 30 seconds have made a difference?

How many of your incorrect answers were careless errors?

Dig into RC and figure out what happened there. I can't quite tell from the averages, but it looks like you were going pretty fast.

Geo time is too high. Look for things you got right or wrong too slowly AND things you got wrong too quickly.

It's good to get something wrong fast when you know you don't know what to do. But how many of those were problems you could've done?