I have taken two practice tests by MGMAT and GMAC and have scored 420 and 460 respectively. I am about 3 weeks into my online MGMAT class and I have been able to keep up with the assigned homework in which I put in around 15 hours a week.
To sum things up, I am just not a very good test taker and while I feel good when I'm doing the homework, I just don't know how to apply it to the real test. I finish the tests with so much time to spare b/c I am guessing on most of the questions and don't know how to do them. I took the practice tests three weeks apart and I feel like I'm exactly where I left off last time.
It is very frustrating b/c I am putting in the time and effort but not seeing any results. I still have an additional two months of studying but I have A LOT of ground to cover and I'm just worried I won't get there.
Any advice/tips on how I can get better and improve would be extremely helpful.
GMAT Forum
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- RonPurewal
- Students
- Posts: 19744
- Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2007 8:23 am
it's not enough just to study; you have to study in the right way.
the WRONG way to study is just to put in your time, completing the assigned problems, checking the solutions to see whether you got them right, and cursing the stars (and maybe checking to see what your error was) if you didn't.
the RIGHT way to study, on the other hand, is to look for TAKEAWAYS and LESSONS in every problem that you solve. you should never leave a single problem behind until you have extracted a lesson that you can take and apply to future problems.
these TAKEAWAYS can take many forms, including, but not limited, to:
* associations between problem content and problem type. for instance, you may learn that problems containing absolute value are amenable to plugging in positives and negatives. you may learn that problems about divisibility by specific numbers are best solved with prime factorizations ("prime boxes"). etc.
* things to avoid: whenever you make a mistake on a problem, that's an instant takeaway. even if the mistakes are random things like arithmetic errors and sign errors, you can still take away an increased awareness of them. analogy: let's say there's a piece of furniture in your new house that trips you up a couple of times; all you have to do is just think about that piece of furniture when you walk through the room, and you won't stub your toe on it. in entirely the same way, if you develop a heightened awareness of the mistakes you usually make in math problems (instead of just expressing frustration at them), you won't make them nearly as often, if ever.
* openers: perhaps the most important type of takeaway is the opener. in other words, you should be able to look at the content of a problem and, while not necessarily being able to 'see' all the way through to the end of the problem, you should be able to come up with a way to start the problem within 10-15 seconds of the time you finish reading it. after you practice enough and make enough connections between problems, this opener time should decrease to about 5-10 seconds.
--
this is also much more time-consuming than you might think. if you're properly scanning problems for takeaways and openers, it can easily take 10 minutes to study every problem in depth. however, this sort of 'quality over quantity' studying is definitely worth your time; it's in learning the connections between concepts and problems, and learning the openers that make problems more accessible, that your future success will lie.
--
in short:
when you do practice problems, you're never going to see those problems again - but you're going to see the concepts again.
study accordingly.
the WRONG way to study is just to put in your time, completing the assigned problems, checking the solutions to see whether you got them right, and cursing the stars (and maybe checking to see what your error was) if you didn't.
the RIGHT way to study, on the other hand, is to look for TAKEAWAYS and LESSONS in every problem that you solve. you should never leave a single problem behind until you have extracted a lesson that you can take and apply to future problems.
these TAKEAWAYS can take many forms, including, but not limited, to:
* associations between problem content and problem type. for instance, you may learn that problems containing absolute value are amenable to plugging in positives and negatives. you may learn that problems about divisibility by specific numbers are best solved with prime factorizations ("prime boxes"). etc.
* things to avoid: whenever you make a mistake on a problem, that's an instant takeaway. even if the mistakes are random things like arithmetic errors and sign errors, you can still take away an increased awareness of them. analogy: let's say there's a piece of furniture in your new house that trips you up a couple of times; all you have to do is just think about that piece of furniture when you walk through the room, and you won't stub your toe on it. in entirely the same way, if you develop a heightened awareness of the mistakes you usually make in math problems (instead of just expressing frustration at them), you won't make them nearly as often, if ever.
* openers: perhaps the most important type of takeaway is the opener. in other words, you should be able to look at the content of a problem and, while not necessarily being able to 'see' all the way through to the end of the problem, you should be able to come up with a way to start the problem within 10-15 seconds of the time you finish reading it. after you practice enough and make enough connections between problems, this opener time should decrease to about 5-10 seconds.
--
this is also much more time-consuming than you might think. if you're properly scanning problems for takeaways and openers, it can easily take 10 minutes to study every problem in depth. however, this sort of 'quality over quantity' studying is definitely worth your time; it's in learning the connections between concepts and problems, and learning the openers that make problems more accessible, that your future success will lie.
--
in short:
when you do practice problems, you're never going to see those problems again - but you're going to see the concepts again.
study accordingly.
- RonPurewal
- Students
- Posts: 19744
- Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2007 8:23 am
i'm also a major devotee of flash cards, by the way.
whenever you notice an association or a rephrase - especially in number properties, but in just about any other subject area as well - put it on a flash card that you can use for later.
for instance:
front of flash card: "when n is divided by 2, the remainder is 1"
back of flash card: "n is odd"
front of flash card: "the average of n consecutive integers is an integer"
back of flash card: "n is odd"
front of flash card: "if x is negative, then x^n, where n is an integer, is still negative"
back of flash card: "n is odd"
etc.
obviously you don't want to - indeed, you can't - make all these flash cards at once. instead, every time you notice a new association - which, for number properties, should mean every time you do a problem (at least at first) - make a flash card with that association on it, and watch the pile grow as you study.
whenever you notice an association or a rephrase - especially in number properties, but in just about any other subject area as well - put it on a flash card that you can use for later.
for instance:
front of flash card: "when n is divided by 2, the remainder is 1"
back of flash card: "n is odd"
front of flash card: "the average of n consecutive integers is an integer"
back of flash card: "n is odd"
front of flash card: "if x is negative, then x^n, where n is an integer, is still negative"
back of flash card: "n is odd"
etc.
obviously you don't want to - indeed, you can't - make all these flash cards at once. instead, every time you notice a new association - which, for number properties, should mean every time you do a problem (at least at first) - make a flash card with that association on it, and watch the pile grow as you study.
- Trill Talk
RPurewal Wrote:i'm also a major devotee of flash cards, by the way.
whenever you notice an association or a rephrase - especially in number properties, but in just about any other subject area as well - put it on a flash card that you can use for later.
for instance:
front of flash card: "when n is divided by 2, the remainder is 1"
back of flash card: "n is odd"
front of flash card: "the average of n consecutive integers is an integer"
back of flash card: "n is odd"
front of flash card: "if x is negative, then x^n, where n is an integer, is still negative"
back of flash card: "n is odd"
etc.
obviously you don't want to - indeed, you can't - make all these flash cards at once. instead, every time you notice a new association - which, for number properties, should mean every time you do a problem (at least at first) - make a flash card with that association on it, and watch the pile grow as you study.
Thanks Ron, very helpful. I am still a little confused about what you are supposed to put on the back of the flash card. Can you give a few examples out of OG11 so I can take a look at how you did it? This would be extremely beneficial for me as I would like to start using flash cards.
- Guest
Trill Talk
If you scored a 420/460, that means you are practically guessing every answer, and you have a long way to go.
Please take my comments to be helpful and not hurtful.
Simply put, you are deficient in all areas of GMAT (knowledge and aptitude). The only way you can improve is to put more than 30hrs+ you have invested so far into GMAT. You will probably need at least 200hrs of intensive studying to break 600. From what I have read over the internet, 100 hours of GMAT studying will generally improve your score by 100 pts (not guaranteed).
I would do every practice questions in MGMAT workbooks first before you take any additional test.
FYI, I am getting 700+ scores in practice tests after about 200 hrs of studying. I started at 640 though. The law of diminishing law applies to GMAT, and improving from 640 to 700 is lot harder than improving from 540 to 600.
If you scored a 420/460, that means you are practically guessing every answer, and you have a long way to go.
Please take my comments to be helpful and not hurtful.
Simply put, you are deficient in all areas of GMAT (knowledge and aptitude). The only way you can improve is to put more than 30hrs+ you have invested so far into GMAT. You will probably need at least 200hrs of intensive studying to break 600. From what I have read over the internet, 100 hours of GMAT studying will generally improve your score by 100 pts (not guaranteed).
I would do every practice questions in MGMAT workbooks first before you take any additional test.
FYI, I am getting 700+ scores in practice tests after about 200 hrs of studying. I started at 640 though. The law of diminishing law applies to GMAT, and improving from 640 to 700 is lot harder than improving from 540 to 600.
- RonPurewal
- Students
- Posts: 19744
- Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2007 8:23 am
Trill Talk Wrote:RPurewal Wrote:i'm also a major devotee of flash cards, by the way.
whenever you notice an association or a rephrase - especially in number properties, but in just about any other subject area as well - put it on a flash card that you can use for later.
for instance:
front of flash card: "when n is divided by 2, the remainder is 1"
back of flash card: "n is odd"
front of flash card: "the average of n consecutive integers is an integer"
back of flash card: "n is odd"
front of flash card: "if x is negative, then x^n, where n is an integer, is still negative"
back of flash card: "n is odd"
etc.
obviously you don't want to - indeed, you can't - make all these flash cards at once. instead, every time you notice a new association - which, for number properties, should mean every time you do a problem (at least at first) - make a flash card with that association on it, and watch the pile grow as you study.
Thanks Ron, very helpful. I am still a little confused about what you are supposed to put on the back of the flash card. Can you give a few examples out of OG11 so I can take a look at how you did it? This would be extremely beneficial for me as I would like to start using flash cards.
i'll give you a couple of examples. i don't have my og11 in front of me at the moment, so i'm going from pure memory here.
REPHRASE EXAMPLES:
1
one of the early data suff problems (i think it's #3 in either the og11 or the quant supplement) contains a statement (1) or (2) that says -x|x| > 0.
since this deals only with negative signs and absolute values, it follows that the subject material is positives/negatives. trying the 3 possibilities (pos, neg, 0) reveals that only negatives solve this inequality, so the inequality is equivalent to saying that x is negative.
therefore,
front of card: "-x|x| > 0"
back of card: "x is negative"
2
let's say you see x^2 < x.
if you want, you could solve this the long way: move the x over to make x^2 - x < 0; factor to x(x - 1) < 0; draw a number line with the two zeroes 0 and 1; test the 3 regions into which 0 and 1 divide the number line; ascertain that only the area between 0 and 1 works; deduce that 0 < x < 1 is the solution.
or, you could ASSOCIATE the comparison of powers with FRACTIONS, which are the numbers that happen to get smaller when you raise them to powers. once you make that association, realize that fractions (numbers between 0 and 1) do satisfy the inequality, whereas other numbers don't (test cases as appropriate to convince yourself).
no matter how you solve this,
front of card: "x^2 < x"
back of card: "0 < x < 1"
3
front of card: "xy < 0" or "x/y < 0"
back of card: "x and y have opposite signs"
etc.
ASSOCIATION / OPENER EXAMPLE:
let's say you have a system that looks like y + z = j, y - z = k (as in OGPS#245 - please don't post further details of that problem here).
the easiest way to solve this system is to ADD the equations to produce 2y = j + k (whereupon you can divide by 2 to give y = (j + k)/2).
then, you DON'T want to substitute to solve for z; you can just SUBTRACT the original equations to produce 2z = j - k (whereupon you can divide by 2 to give z = (j - k)/2).
therefore,
front of card:
"THIS + THAT = ______; THIS - THAT = ______
best way to solve?"
back of card:
"ADD the equations to isolate THIS; SUBTRACT the equations to isolate THAT"
etc.
basically, whenever you find any technique that generally works on anything, you should make a flash card containing that technique.
good luck.
6 posts Page 1 of 1