Exam Date June 14 (Studying Advice Needed)

[abajmcus]

Hi,

I apologize if this post is too long or wordy but I wanted to include my analysis based on reading Stacey’s responses to other forum posts as well as the articles on how to study, evaluating practice tests, etc. My exam is scheduled for June 14. I am off from work and can dedicate every day to studying until then so any advice you may have would be very much appreciated. I still have a half hour of office hours with an instructor remaining so if it helps I can get on a call to discuss.

All of the exams (except the first) were taken under exam conditions (with 8 minute breaks, AWA, and IR). I had a significant jump between my previous 2 CATs and am trying to understand what may have driven it. I want to make sure that this is not an anomaly and am wondering if you think it is sustainable? I think the jump can be attributed to focusing much more on time management recently. My CAT exam results are as follows:
MGMAT CAT 1 - 580
Quant: 36/48th percentile
Verbal: 33/69th percentile

GMATPrep - 630
Quant: 39/50th percentile
Verbal: 38/83rd percentile

MGMAT CAT 2 - 640
Quant: 44/73rd percentile
Verbal: 33/ 69th percentile

MGMAT CAT 3 - 630
Quant: 40/61st percentile
Verbal: 36/81st percentile

MGMAT CAT 4 - 730
Quant: 45/77th percentile
Verbal: 44/97th percentile

I felt I was doing much worse on quant during MGMAT CAT 4 than any other CAT because early on I felt like I was getting much easier questions and lost a lot of hope. From analyzing the results, I was in a very low percentile and then got a few questions right (I believe I was guessing on some at this point too) and jumped to the high 70th percentile. Does that make sense from a scoring perspective? I am just trying to understand the significant jump.

Time Management
My timing criteria (for verbal and quant) that I write on each page of the laminated paper are as follows:
55 minutes - 10 questions complete
35 minutes - 20 questions complete
20 minutes - 30 questions complete

Average Timing
I am trying to practice with a stopwatch to internalize how long a minute is. I think my timing is getting better (but in MGMAT CAT 4 quant section I found myself ahead of time by a lot a little over halfway through the section and got worried that I was getting easy questions wrong). The timing that I try to practice with but have difficulty sticking to during CATs is as follows:
Quant - problem solving/data sufficiency - 1 min 30 sec (max 2 min)
Verbal - sentence correction - 60-75 seconds (max 1 min 30 sec)
Verbal - critical reasoning - 2 min
Verbal - reading comprehension - [Short - 2:30] [Long - 3:30]; Summary/General - 1 min; Other - max 1:30

Guessing Strategy
I try to switch to guessing mode using the following criteria (please let me know if there are any others you recommend!):
Quant - if I am just staring at the problem or pushing variables around for more than 30 seconds hoping something will happen
Verbal - sentence correction - if I am looking at a split or grammatical construction and do not know what to do with it
Verbal - critical reasoning/reading comprehension - if I cannot translate the bold statements, wording is extremely confusing, or if behind on time

Please let me know if there are any others you recommend or if there are any other sources to learn better guessing strategies (particularly for problem solving)! I have done the lab and watched Ron’s lectures pertaining to guessing strategies.

CAT Analysis
MGMAT CAT 3
Quant - I got a total of 20 questions wrong. The questions I got wrong in a row were: 4x (questions 10-13), 4x (15-18), 4x (25-28), 4x (30-33). My average time per question was 2 minutes and the median was 1 min 42 sec. From the assessment summary, the average difficulty was:
PS right - 610
PS wrong - 690
DS right - 680
DS wrong - 700

Quant - problem solving: I spent more than 2 minutes on 13 questions (and got 7 of the 13 wrong). I could have saved 6 minutes by guessing earlier (at the 2 min mark) on 7 PS questions I got wrong. From reviewing each question I decided that I need to guess earlier on statistics, combinatorics, probability, and exponents/roots.
Quant - data sufficiency: From reviewing each question I decided that I need to guess on (700-800 level) geometry questions.

Verbal - I got a total of 19 questions wrong. The questions I got wrong in a row were close to the end: 6x (questions 33-38) and 2x (40-41). I think getting so many wrong at the end may have pulled down my score? My average time per question was 1 min 49 sec and the median was 1 min 46 sec. From the assessment summary, the average difficulty was:
SC right - 750
SC wrong - 740
CR right - 640
CR wrong - 750
RC right - 690
RC wrong - 730

Verbal - sentence correction: I spent more than 1 min 30 sec on 10 questions. From reviewing, I decided that I need to guess sooner on modifiers (700-800 level).
Verbal - critical reasoning: I spent more than 2 min on 7 questions. I could have saved 2 min by guessing earlier on 3 questions I got wrong anyway. From reviewing, I decided that I need to guess sooner on boldfaced questions and weaken questions.

MGMAT CAT 4
I felt terrible during the quant section and quickly got the feeling that I was getting answers wrong because I was getting easier and easier questions. What confuses me is that the average difficulty in quant was much less but I somehow got my highest quant score yet. I’m not sure I understand whether this was just a fluke or actual improvement?

Quant - I got a total of 16 questions wrong. The questions I got wrong in a row were: 2x (6-7), 4x (questions 9-12), 2x (30-31), 2x (36-37). My average time per question was 2 minutes and the median was 1 min 45 sec. From the assessment summary, the average difficulty was:
PS right - 650
PS wrong - 690
DS right - 580
DS wrong - 640
I realize that I got less questions wrong but my average difficulty was significantly less than CAT 3. Additionally, I felt like I guessed on many questions and that only a few questions came very easily to me.

Quant - problem solving: I spent more than 2 minutes on 12 questions (and got 7 of the 12 wrong). I could have saved 8 minutes by guessing earlier (at the 2 min mark) on 7 PS questions I got wrong. From reviewing each question I decided that I need to guess earlier on word problems with statistics, probability, FDP percents, geometry (700-800 level).
Quant - data sufficiency: From reviewing each question I decided that, similar to CAT 3, I need to guess on (700-800 level) geometry questions.

Verbal - I got a total of 12 questions wrong. The questions I got wrong in a row were: 3x (questions 3-5), 3x (34-35). The biggest difference from CAT 3 that I noticed was my pacing was much better and I wasn’t as rushed for time at the end. My average time per question was 1 min 50 sec and the median was 1 min 45 sec. From the assessment summary, the average difficulty was:
SC right - 730
SC wrong - 710
CR right - 690
CR wrong - 740
RC right - 640
RC wrong - N/A

Verbal - sentence correction: I spent more than 1 min 30 sec on 10 questions. From reviewing, I decided that I need to guess sooner on comparisons.
Verbal - critical reasoning: I spent more than 2 min on 5 questions. I could have saved 3 min by guessing earlier on 3 questions I got wrong anyway. From reviewing, I decided that I need to guess sooner on boldfaced, weaken, and draw the conclusion questions.
Verbal - reading comprehension: I felt like I got much easier reading passages than any other CAT I have taken before. So I’m uncertain whether getting 12/12 right is inflated?

Further Improvement
Based on reviewing previous CATs and identifying weak areas I try to focus on an area to improve by the following (please let me know if you think there is another way to hone in on a specific area for improvement!):
1. Watching a "Thursdays With Ron" video (if there is one pertaining to that area)
2. MGMAT drill sheet/extra credit
3. MGMAT question bank for that workbook
4. Specifically for sentence correction - I attempt Ron’s "boxer method" of studying a certain set of OG questions and only looking for grammatical errors pertaining to a specific topic area (subject-verb agreement, parallelism, pronouns, modifiers). Do you have any other suggestions for improving in sentence correction?
5. Official Guide questions on that topic

Questions to Ask When Practicing
I ask myself the following questions when practicing questions (please let me know if you think there is a better way to ask the question or if I should add questions):

Quant - problem solving: Did you take 30 seconds to figure out the shortcut before writing? Why did you get it wrong (simple error vs. fundamental)? Is there a better guessing strategy (Estimating - eliminating extremes - answers that don’t pair)?

Quant - data sufficiency: Did you rephrase the question fully? Did you create table/grid (AD/BCE)? Did you pick numbers to be certain that you were right (especially on easier questions)? Which was the trap answer? Could you eliminate E or C because they were too obvious?

Verbal - sentence correction: Did you split and re/split to break down the sentence? Is there a new SC topic/trick to be learned here? Can you identify the grammatical issue in each answer choice? Did you read the full sentence with your new answer?

Verbal - critical reasoning: Did you read the question first? Did you write down notes? Did you de-construct the prompt (premise, assumption, conclusion)? Did you eliminate answers as you went along?

Verbal - reading comprehension: Did you spend too long reading the passage (you should read quickly and not memorize details)? What’s the point of the passage? What’s the point of each smaller paragraph? Did you pick a bad answer because you eliminated everything else? Did you take notes?

Thank you for taking the time to read this and offering your input. I look forward to your response.

-Jim

[StaceyKoprince]

You talk about having a few lucky guesses and then that resulted in a score jump. If that's really what happened, then obviously you can't count on that happening again on the real test. :) I'm curious though - did you then maintain that higher scoring level through the rest of the section? It sounds like it. If so, then you can sustain the level... so why were you so low at the beginning? Mental stamina? Nerves? Careless mistakes - maybe rushing because you knew you had problems in the past with timing?

Your CAT4 quant is close to your CAT2 quant; that's good (because it means you got about the same performance on 2 tests, not just 1), but your quant dropped on CAT3. Why? Was that a timing issue? Messing up the timing can really kill your score.

Verbal jumped significantly. Why? Did you also fix timing problems there? Fixing timing problems can really help your score. :)

For time management, you're making yourself rush a bit in the middle on quant. You only need to have 15 minutes left with 30 questions complete (because you only have 7 to go at that point).

For verbal, do you keep track of when you're given new passages and adjust accordingly? How? For instance, if you start 2 passages in the 20 to 30 question range, you're unlikely to get through those 10 questions in 15 minutes.

Timing: PS and DS 2m, max 2.5m. (section is 75 min with 37 Qs, almost exactly 2m per Q; you only need to avg 2m, not max 2m.) You'll have some that you answer more quickly and some that you answer more slowly, so it's okay to have some questions that go over 2m by a bit. The general rule is not to go more than 30 seconds over the average expected time.

You mention reading some articles; have you read this one?
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... anagement/

That one then has links to two other articles on educated guessing.

On verbal, yes, getting so many wrong in a row at the end would pull down your score. What was going on there - were there timing problems? Were you rushing because you were running out of time? What about mental fatigue - perhaps you were getting tired and started making more mistakes than usual?

Don't try to combine average data with the final score. On this test, the score is not calculated by averaging everything once you get to the end. Rather, where you end is what you get. If you do well for the first half but then tank and your score drops, wherever you are when that timer ends is it.

Re-do your analysis looking at how many questions were over 2.5m for quant, not 2m.

Also note that you talk about needing to guess earlier on certain categories of 700-800 level questions... but you're *never* going to know what the official difficulty level is while taking a test. So you can't actually use that as a decision point. How to decide? Look at that time management article I linked to above.

Re: the reading comp, sometimes we get topics that we like more and sometimes we get topics that we like less - so, yes, there can be a bit of luck involved. The same thing will be true on the real test. It's possible that you got 4 topics that just made sense to you easily - and we can't count on that happening on the real test. So assume it may be harder on the real thing.

In addition to the Thursdays with Ron videos, you may want to search or browse the blog for articles that address particular topics.

For SC:
general strategy:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/06/ ... on-problem

for harder / more convoluted sentences:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/03/ ... sc-problem
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/03/ ... -problem-2

Dealing with meaning in SC:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... orrection/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... on-part-2/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... h-meaning/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... problem-2/

For CR:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... g-problem/

http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... n-problem/
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/02/ ... ce-problem
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... e-Problem/

I like your list of questions. Here are others to think about:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/a ... roblem.cfm

In general, you're asking good questions and doing good analysis. Just remember that the *average* timeframes do allow you to go above sometimes... but you want to try to stick to no more than 30 seconds longer than the average for that Q type. The time management article will help with this and will also help with the benchmark stuff we discussed earlier (where you should be at 10 minutes, 20 minutes, etc).

For your list of steps for Further Improvement, I'd just like to add an overall mindset: your goal is FIRST figure out how to get better, and THEN to test yourself on new questions to see whether you really did get better. You don't get all that much better simply by doing a bunch of new questions. So your step 1 there (watch a video if available) should be broader: figure out how to get better (by watching a video, finding a relevant article, re-reading a relevant chapter or section of a chapter, asking a question on the forums, analyzing my work on past problems, etc). THEN test yourself (your steps 2, 3, and 5).