Bombed Math, Rocked Verbal

[renalrabdoid]

18% Math 92% Verbal

I felt like I didnt recognize any of the math problems.....

Any advice?

I felt like if I brushed up on SC I could get a perfect on verbal :)

[james.jt.wu]

Hey there,

Sorry to hear about your math results, but good job on the verbal! As you eluded to you will need to spend significant portion of your effort between this try and the next (assuming you are attempting the test again) to brush up on both content and the timing of the quant section. I wouldn't spend time on the SC - you don't need a perfect score on verbal. Bschools want candidates with a well balanced score ideally with both sections above the 80th percentile for the top programs.

Can you give more detail on the following:
1.) What have been the results of your past practice exams, including split between math and verbal?
2.) How have you prepared?
3.) What materials have you used?
4.) How did you feel on test day? Were you suffering from stress? (maybe you were panicky during the math and just settled down after)
5.) Anything else out of the ordinary you want us to know about?

What is alarming is the fact that you mentioned you didn't recognize any of the problems; recognition is half the battle. If you didn't use MGMAT's Math Strategy Guides, I highly recommend them as they give you the content knowledge you need to quickly recognize the problem then come up with the most efficient way to solve them.

Don't get discouraged - I am confident with some more prep you can see improvements in your score.

Once you provide more info I'll see if I can come up with more targeted strategies for you to raise your score, especially on the math :)

James

[renalrabdoid]

Yes sorry posted too hasty with little detail. I went through the MGMAT online foudations in math course, then the full 9 week online course with strategy guides, and even the 750+ advanced quant, DS and SC workshops, I really struggled with math from the 600+ level up. Especially recognition. If i am doing the seciton in the book i recognize it right away and thus am able to solve them successfully usually. But constantly struggled with 600+ problems unless they were ones i was strong with, overlapping sets, rates & work (didnt see any of these on the real GMAT) I did all the PS math OG problems and 75% of the DS OG problems. On practice tests I scored as high as 36 but as low as 23. I think because of recognition. In most post test assessment my instructor said it was my small errors but I really think it is recognition as during the real test I felt I didnt even know where to begin or how to even guess. I am really frustrated about this as I feel I like if I could just get incrementally better at math I could get over a 700 overall with my strong verbal score.

Thanks for your help!

[james.jt.wu]

Thanks for the details. I am very confident that you can raise your score significantly. I think small errors may be part of the reason for your struggle, as GMAT likes to screw around with small wording here and there that impacts your score (e.g. integer constraints on quantities), but based on what you said it does seem like most of your problem stems from content recognition.

I think there is a feasible two-prone approach to building up content: i.) Re-establish Core and ii.) Reinforce Content

I. Re-Establish Core

Here you need to drill down on the OG questions you've already done before to really build up your content. If you have alot of trouble recognizing the problem, that means your content is very weak. I venture (please do correct me if I'm wrong on this) that you didn't spend as much time reviewing the questions after you've done them as much as you should. If you are scoring low, you will need to do a broad, question-based approach to building up your content.

Do the following:

1.) Go back to OG questions you've already done
2.) Identify a set of 20
3.) Re-do them
4.) As you re-do, categorize each question into the following categories: 1.) Correct, 2.) Wrong, 3.) Guessed

Mark down the content area of category 2 and 3
5.) Go back and read the strategy guide for category 2 and 3
6.) For EVERY question you did, try to come up with MULTIPLE ways of solving them. It's only by coming up with multiple ways of solving questions would you really develop mastery over the content.

A. Textbook - Do it for real
B. Estimate / Plug -In Number - You don't know how to do the textbook way, so try plugging in answer choices (for PS) and your own numbers (for DS)
C. Desperation Method - A desperate way to solve the problem. For instance, if it's geometry question, re-drawn the diagrams to scale and see which numbers fit. Can also try the strategic guessing method posed in one of your labs.
D. Randomly Guess - Pick any number and move on.

Note: If you are familiar with MGMAT's Thursday with Ron study halls, go look up the archive on backup methods and see a detailed explanation of the approach above.

7. Do more sets like this until comfortable.

Note: You need to focus on QUALITY over QUANTITY. Trust me you don't need to do a gazillion problems to build up your content. Really dissect each question you do via the approach above and you will build up your content, fast.

II. Reinforce Content

In this part you are trying to reinforce the content you have developed in Part I above. Do this part ONLY after you are more comfortable with the content and do this with about 2 weeks left to the real thing. This drill is known around the forums as the "open book drill."

1.) Identify a set of 40-60 OG questions
2.) In 30 seconds, see if you can START each problem e.g. recognize what is being tested and visualize how you would solve the problem.
3.) Do NOT solve the problem!
4.) At the end of the set, mark down the ones you had trouble STARTING.
5.) Use the Strategy guides to see what content area they fall under
6.) Read the Strategy Guide section pertaining to that area.
7.) Do a set of OG questions all of that area - around 10-20 OG questions for that content area. The strategy guides have a matrix of question aligned to content so you can use that to identify the right problems.
8.) Repeat

Once you finish Part I, start doing some practice tests again to see if your scores are improving. Then move on to Part II as you get closer to your next test.

Feel free to tweak the above plan based on your schedule and availability. I am confident though that if you put in the time and really focus on drilling down on each question, you will master the content and see a significant jump in your score.

Hope this helps!

Yes sorry posted too hasty with little detail. I went through the MGMAT online foudations in math course, then the full 9 week online course with strategy guides, and even the 750+ advanced quant, DS and SC workshops, I really struggled with math from the 600+ level up. Especially recognition. If i am doing the seciton in the book i recognize it right away and thus am able to solve them successfully usually. But constantly struggled with 600+ problems unless they were ones i was strong with, overlapping sets, rates & work (didnt see any of these on the real GMAT) I did all the PS math OG problems and 75% of the DS OG problems. On practice tests I scored as high as 36 but as low as 23. I think because of recognition. In most post test assessment my instructor said it was my small errors but I really think it is recognition as during the real test I felt I didnt even know where to begin or how to even guess. I am really frustrated about this as I feel I like if I could just get incrementally better at math I could get over a 700 overall with my strong verbal score.

Thanks for your help!

[timur.ivannikov]

this is a very nice reply by James.

However, the question I would ask is - do you think you did poorly on math because it was specifically GMAT math or have you always struggled with math? What kind of math did you take in college?

If you have always had trouble with math, what business school are you targeting? The reason I'm asking is that while you can study GMAT material and get a better score, you may still need to take a college level math course, inlcuding calculus, to make sure that you're prepared for business school, depending on where you want to go.

[james.jt.wu]

Very good point Timur. Another related question - do you typically know how to solve the problem once you RECOGNIZE the content area being tested? Trying to undertand one more level down... is your lack of content due to simply recognition... or both recognition and fundamental math knowledge?

[renalrabdoid]

Yes great points both, thank you.

I have always struggled with math. Two reasons I think. 1) The US way of teaching math is "This is how you do this problem, Step 1, step 2, step 3, now you do it." Then when I see a problem that must be solved: Step 2, step 3, step 1, I am lost....
Cannot recognize what the problem even is.

2) I went up to Pre-Calculus in Math in college. Did fine in College Algebra (A grade). Once I know a problem and recognize it I have mastered it just takes a while sometimes. Possibly I am just not Mathmatically inclined, I am willing to admit that weakness but unwilling to let that keep me from scoring high on the GMAT

I took the foundations MGMAT class but I am still stuck on learning problems instead of broad math concepts that i can apply to recgonizing many types of problems if that makes sense.