CAT 5 Completed 11/2/2008 - Quantitative 48 Verbal 45 750
CAT 4 Completed 11/1/2008 Quantitative 46 Verbal 45 740
GMATPREP TEST#1 (2-3 weeks ago) - 47, 45 740 - Note: this one should probably not count, as I took it half a year ago...
CAT 3 Completed 10/19/2008 - Quantitative 45 Verbal 41 710
CAT 2 Completed 10/15/2008 - Quantitative 43 Verbal 37 660
CAT 1 Completed 10/5/2008 - Quantitative 43 Verbal 40 690
I'm scheduled to take the GMAT on Veteran's Day. Although my scores have improved and I think I've got the verbal down cold (tested 99% last two tests), I am alarmed at the number of questions that I am guessing on in the math section. I would say I probably guess about half of the questions for each section--about half of those guesses are somewhat informed and the other half are clicking and praying. Is this normal? I've taken two of the GMAT Focus tests that have both given me wide ranges from the high 30s and low 40s to the high 40s. I guess GMAT knows that I'm a wild cannon on math...
Stacey, under the circumstances, would you recommend I go ahead and test next week? This would be my first time and it's getting tight on app deadlines...on the other hand, I think I can test as late as mid-December in time for most round 2 applications. And I know I could improve in algebra, which is still abysmal. One last question, do you guys really recommend no practice tests in the last week before the real thing? Is this a fixed rule? Thx!!
Bag
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- bag
- StaceyKoprince
- ManhattanGMAT Staff
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For the scores you're posting, I'd say that the feeling that you're guessing on half of the questions is a bit high (though it looks like you're pretty good at guessing!). Most people have to do the "clicking and praying" thing on maybe 4-7 questions per section and then there are also some for which the person is reasonably sure they've got the answer (or narrowed it down to two) but not 100% confident. At the same time, I'll also say that my students often tell me they think our quant is harder than the quant on the official test.
Given that your GMATFocus scores are also up and down, I'm guessing that you have certain areas that are very strong, fundamentally, but you also have certain areas that are "holes" in your foundation. When you get more questions that fall into the "holes," your score goes down.
Go back through the last couple of tests and GMAT Focus questions. On what types of problems weren't you really sure what you were doing? What part of it threw you off? Did you not know the fundamental content well enough or was it more that you weren't sure how to interpret what they were asking or what they were telling you? Keep a log of your responses and look for patterns. If there are some holes in your fundamental content, go back and plug them. If you're struggling with interpretation of "what is it they're saying here exactly?" then study the language / setup of OG, GMATPrep and GMAT Focus problems to start to get a feel for: oh, when they want to ask about this topic, they tend to use these words, or when they want me to do this series of steps, then they tend to use this setup. Eg, when they want to talk about prime without using the word prime, they might say something about the number of factors (primes have exactly two factors) or they might ask whether there is a factor n such that 1 < n < x. If x does have a factor n between 1 and x, then that number isn't prime. eg 1 < 2 < 6. If x does not have a factor n between 1 and x, then that number is prime. eg 1 < ? < 5.
On that GMATPrep test - did you see question repeats that you actually remembered / recognized? If not, then you can count that. If so, then yes, you should discount your performance a bit.
You'll have to make the decision ultimately, obviously, but you're scoring well enough that I'd be inclined to take it and see what happens. If you still have time to take it until mid-Dec, that gives you an opportunity to take it a second time (you have to wait 31 days to take it again). So, if you take it this month, I'd view it as a dry run, see what happens kind of deal. Reduce the pressure. :) The mindset is: if this works, then I can spend the next month focused solely on apps. If it doesn't, oh well, I'm back to my original thought, which was to take some more time to solidify my math. I haven't lost any ground there. And I'll have the experience of having been in there once and knowing what I need to do the next time around. (Note: do this if you really can maintain the "let's see what happens" mindset. If you think you'll be super demoralized if you don't get the score you want the first time, then you shouldn't do this.)
Re: the practice test advice, again, obviously you need to make the decision for yourself, but I strongly discourage my students from taking a practice test within 5 days of the real thing. Practice tests are for learning. It takes at least 5 days (if not longer) to figure out what you should be learning from a practice test and incorporating that into your arsenal. (So I also wouldn't take another test a day after I just took one, by the way.) If you aren't actually spending hours combing over a test, and using the data to hone your strengths and rectify your weaknesses, then you're not really learning much from that test experience.
Given that your GMATFocus scores are also up and down, I'm guessing that you have certain areas that are very strong, fundamentally, but you also have certain areas that are "holes" in your foundation. When you get more questions that fall into the "holes," your score goes down.
Go back through the last couple of tests and GMAT Focus questions. On what types of problems weren't you really sure what you were doing? What part of it threw you off? Did you not know the fundamental content well enough or was it more that you weren't sure how to interpret what they were asking or what they were telling you? Keep a log of your responses and look for patterns. If there are some holes in your fundamental content, go back and plug them. If you're struggling with interpretation of "what is it they're saying here exactly?" then study the language / setup of OG, GMATPrep and GMAT Focus problems to start to get a feel for: oh, when they want to ask about this topic, they tend to use these words, or when they want me to do this series of steps, then they tend to use this setup. Eg, when they want to talk about prime without using the word prime, they might say something about the number of factors (primes have exactly two factors) or they might ask whether there is a factor n such that 1 < n < x. If x does have a factor n between 1 and x, then that number isn't prime. eg 1 < 2 < 6. If x does not have a factor n between 1 and x, then that number is prime. eg 1 < ? < 5.
On that GMATPrep test - did you see question repeats that you actually remembered / recognized? If not, then you can count that. If so, then yes, you should discount your performance a bit.
You'll have to make the decision ultimately, obviously, but you're scoring well enough that I'd be inclined to take it and see what happens. If you still have time to take it until mid-Dec, that gives you an opportunity to take it a second time (you have to wait 31 days to take it again). So, if you take it this month, I'd view it as a dry run, see what happens kind of deal. Reduce the pressure. :) The mindset is: if this works, then I can spend the next month focused solely on apps. If it doesn't, oh well, I'm back to my original thought, which was to take some more time to solidify my math. I haven't lost any ground there. And I'll have the experience of having been in there once and knowing what I need to do the next time around. (Note: do this if you really can maintain the "let's see what happens" mindset. If you think you'll be super demoralized if you don't get the score you want the first time, then you shouldn't do this.)
Re: the practice test advice, again, obviously you need to make the decision for yourself, but I strongly discourage my students from taking a practice test within 5 days of the real thing. Practice tests are for learning. It takes at least 5 days (if not longer) to figure out what you should be learning from a practice test and incorporating that into your arsenal. (So I also wouldn't take another test a day after I just took one, by the way.) If you aren't actually spending hours combing over a test, and using the data to hone your strengths and rectify your weaknesses, then you're not really learning much from that test experience.
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
- StaceyKoprince
- ManhattanGMAT Staff
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- Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:05 am
- Location: Montreal
- bag
Took it this morning: Q39 (55%), V47 (99%) for a total of 700.
Pretty disappointing--the scary thing is that I had absolutely no idea that the math would be so low. A 39 is at the tail bottom of all my practice test ranges. (I blame MGMAT for not getting those 3rd edition books out in time!) ;-) I actually thought I was looking at a solid 730-750...
Anyway, it's back to the drawing board--I suppose I'll go out and buy those damn books, now...thanks, again, for the help, Stacey. I hope I can nag with more questions down the road...
Bag
Pretty disappointing--the scary thing is that I had absolutely no idea that the math would be so low. A 39 is at the tail bottom of all my practice test ranges. (I blame MGMAT for not getting those 3rd edition books out in time!) ;-) I actually thought I was looking at a solid 730-750...
Anyway, it's back to the drawing board--I suppose I'll go out and buy those damn books, now...thanks, again, for the help, Stacey. I hope I can nag with more questions down the road...
Bag
- StaceyKoprince
- ManhattanGMAT Staff
- Posts: 9360
- Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:05 am
- Location: Montreal
Take a moment to congratulate yourself on the 700. I know it's lower than you were hoping for, but a 700 is a great score! Only 10% of all test-takers score 700 or higher!
And yes, please, do come back and ask us more questions. :) Make sure to keep those verbal skills up and I think the new quant books will give you some nice new ways to think about / approach things.
How was your timing on the math by the way?
And yes, please, do come back and ask us more questions. :) Make sure to keep those verbal skills up and I think the new quant books will give you some nice new ways to think about / approach things.
How was your timing on the math by the way?
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
- bag
My timing on the math went pretty well, or so I thought at the time. I definitely had a good 5-6 minutes on the last 2-3 problems, I remember that.
On hindsight, I must have blown it fairly early on in the section and entered into 500-600 land for the rest of the test. Like I said, leaving the math section, I was high-five-ing myself, mentally, because I thought I had done well and the verbal is not really a factor for me.
On practice tests, I am fairly confident that I've also done this on the front end, but have managed to pick up the score on the back end to a respectable 42-45. Apparently that didn't happen here!
Perhaps I should consider taking a bit more time on the first half, next time...I still have a few more practice tests left and will take a harder look at my timing.
Bag
On hindsight, I must have blown it fairly early on in the section and entered into 500-600 land for the rest of the test. Like I said, leaving the math section, I was high-five-ing myself, mentally, because I thought I had done well and the verbal is not really a factor for me.
On practice tests, I am fairly confident that I've also done this on the front end, but have managed to pick up the score on the back end to a respectable 42-45. Apparently that didn't happen here!
Perhaps I should consider taking a bit more time on the first half, next time...I still have a few more practice tests left and will take a harder look at my timing.
Bag
- StaceyKoprince
- ManhattanGMAT Staff
- Posts: 9360
- Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:05 am
- Location: Montreal
And, of course, the other "wild card" is: experimental questions. On the official test, they don't all count, and you don't know which are which. You can't put yourself into "500 land" in just a few questions, but if you're underperforming for, say, the first half of the test, then it would be a lot tougher to lift yourself towards the end, especially depending on how the experimentals played out (where they were, etc).
There may have been some time mismanagement going on - go look at the problem lists from your last couple of classes and see if you can map out how you spent your time and whether the decisions you made about where to spend more vs. less time were good decisions. Keep in mind that our bad habits / weaknesses tend to get magnified during the stress of the real test, so if you note some problematic patterns in your decision of how to spend your time, then that might have been even worse on the real test.
There may have been some time mismanagement going on - go look at the problem lists from your last couple of classes and see if you can map out how you spent your time and whether the decisions you made about where to spend more vs. less time were good decisions. Keep in mind that our bad habits / weaknesses tend to get magnified during the stress of the real test, so if you note some problematic patterns in your decision of how to spend your time, then that might have been even worse on the real test.
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
- bag
Well, I'm several weeks into these math books. And I have to say my patience for spending any more time on this damn test is really starting to wear thin.
One quick observation that I'm hoping you can confirm for me, Stacey. As I'm only trying to boost my math into the seventy-something percentile, I'm all but ignoring the parts of these books with the "(advanced)" label. Sure, I'll give them a quick browse, but I can't help but think my time is best spent at this point on shoring up the basics and a bit beyond. I'm already learning (or at least reinforcing) quite a bit from the non-advanced portions, so I think this strategy works. Also, I only have time for an hour or two per day, plus weekends. Am re-taking in a couple of weeks!
Bag
One quick observation that I'm hoping you can confirm for me, Stacey. As I'm only trying to boost my math into the seventy-something percentile, I'm all but ignoring the parts of these books with the "(advanced)" label. Sure, I'll give them a quick browse, but I can't help but think my time is best spent at this point on shoring up the basics and a bit beyond. I'm already learning (or at least reinforcing) quite a bit from the non-advanced portions, so I think this strategy works. Also, I only have time for an hour or two per day, plus weekends. Am re-taking in a couple of weeks!
Bag
- StaceyKoprince
- ManhattanGMAT Staff
- Posts: 9360
- Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:05 am
- Location: Montreal
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