No apparent improvement during 3 months of studying

[ErikM442]

Hello,

I have been studying for the GMAT for close to 4 months now (taking the test on June 26th). MGMAT CATs have ranged from 620 to 640 and Gmat Prep from 530 to 600.

My quant score has ranged from 37 to 43. (Took an untimed Gmat Prep and got Q48 though).
I am really unsure as to what I am actually doing wrong. I have always thought that the way I studied for quant has been in an organized manner. Given my low quant scores, there is certainly something I am doing wrong, but the worst part is that I don't know, specifically, how I should go about improving. I have read several articles about how to analyze problems, but I still don't know exactly how to take it from there.

The thing that annoys me the most is this whole "its not a math test, its all about reasoning" - I am sure it's true, but the questions I get wrong (especially the harder ones) are because I don't know how to do the math. I just can't grasp the whole "its not math" perspective of it. I always see my shortcoming as lack of math theory. What I'm trying to say here is that I really do feel like the test is testing my math knowledge rather than "being able to reason". I (think) have the fundamentals down, but really, knowing that negative * negative = positive doesn't really land me in the Q47-50 range.

I am feeling a lot of frustration because I don't know how to improve.

Any advice?

Thanks in advance

[StaceyKoprince]

"its not a math test, its all about reasoning" - I am sure it's true, but the questions I get wrong (especially the harder ones) are because I don't know how to do the math.

Here's one of the potential problems. The actual quote is "it's not a math test, it's an executive reasoning test." Executive reasoning = making the best decisions to fit a given situation, including walking away from a sub-optimal opportunity. Expect to get questions wrong. The question is: how quickly were you able to recognize that this question was a "bad opportunity" and that your best decision was to walk away from it before you wasted too much of your precious resources (time and mental energy)?

That's what executive decision-making is all about. NOT getting everything right, NOT winning every opportunity, but evaluating the various opportunities and going after the ones that give you the best ROI (return on investment) while downgrading the others accordingly (anywhere from spending time to make an educated guess, where appropriate, to bailing / making a random guess almost immediately).

In other words, this is a test of your business capabilities; that's what you're actually trying to learn here. Sure, there's a bunch of math you need to know how to do in order to get a good score on the test - we're not saying that you don't. But the most important part is really about this series of decisions that you make. You can know all of the math 100%, but if you make bad decisions, you'll still get a low score.

I know you said you've read some articles, but I'm going to guess that you haven't read the one about analyzing your practice CATs because you didn't tell me anything about your buckets. (You'll understand what buckets are after you read that article.)

First, if you haven't already, read these two articles (in fact, it might be good to re-read the first one in light of what I said above - read it again with the understanding that you're trying to make a series of business decisions here):
http://tinyurl.com/executivereasoning
http://tinyurl.com/2ndlevelofgmat

Think about how what you've been doing does and doesn't match up with that and how you may need to change your approach accordingly.
Then, use the below to analyze your most recent MGMAT CATs (this should take you a minimum of 1 hour):
http://tinyurl.com/analyzeyourcats

Based on all of that, figure out your strengths and weaknesses as well as any ideas you have for what you think you should do. Then come back here and tell us; we'll tell you whether we agree and advise you further. (Note: do share an analysis with us, not just the raw data. Part of getting better is developing your ability to analyze your results - figure out what they mean and what you think you should do about them!)

You'll know you've got your analysis done when you can tell me what falls into buckets 1, 2, and 3, and what you think you should do about the stuff in bucket 2. (And, as I said, I'll tell you whether I agree or disagree!)

[ErikM442]

Hello,

Since two months back, I haven't taken any MGMAT CATs, only GMAT Prep CATs (bought the Exam Pack 1).

However, I have put everything into an excel file and marked the frequencies of my common mistakes.

Here's a screenshot of the common quant errors I make:



QUANT
My analysis:

Looking back at my notes during the exam, I notice that I'm incredibly sloppy, missing questions I really shouldn't miss. My remedy for this is to take the extra 10-30 seconds to write down the information in a readable manner. My concern with this approach is that it takes quite some time to stay organized - I know that "you'll actually save time if you stay organized because you don't have to double check everything". I am just concerned that being VERY thorough is very time-consuming. I have a hard time finding a balance point between staying organized and quickly recognizing what information will suffice (this generally applies to DS questions)

Second "common error" - Not recognizing ON THE SPOT what I need to do. I sit during the actual exam thinking "Wow okay I really don't know this question" - then, whenever I review the exam, I go "ahhhh OF COURSE, it's so easy". I understand the question so much clearer when I'm in review-mode. This is even before checking what the actual answer is. For these kind of errors - I actually don't know how to improve. I am all for that "2nd level learning" - it's a great article and I think, theoretically, 2nd level of learning is the way to improve, But the practical applications of it is quite the mystery - how - in practice, do I do this? It's like my brain doesn't really too well when I know I'm being timed. These types of errors, I labeled as "Didn't Apply Concepts (That I Know), which is the middle graph

Third, which should be the easiest to fix, but something I still struggle with, is translating the word problems into math. Whenever the questions get kinda tricky and convoluted, I can't make sense of them, in terms of math.


VERBAL


(Sample might look too low, but I think it is quite representative of my actual performance on verbal)
My biggest issue with verbal is SC. I don't have a hard time spotting any grammatical issues - parallelism/subject-verb agreement/pronoun issues, but, it's meaning I struggle with. I have a hard-time finding splits for SCs where all answer choices look alike. The question I'm asking is: How do I study meaning? I read the article you posted sometime in 2012, but I'm still uncertain on what to do.

A good example of me not being able to break down the different answer choices: https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... 31897.html

Here, most answer (to me) don't really have obvious grammar errors, some do, but I ended up picking B because I thought it had good parallel structure, only to realize that the meaning in B is so wrong. I only realized the wrong meaning in B after someone explained it. I'd pick B during the exam, feeling confident I picked the right answer. I guess getting a good score on SC hinges on the ability to also understand the underlying meaning on it, but how do I apply this thinking?


For CR: Biggest issue here is when I don't understand the prompt or none of the answer choices makes any sense (to me) - I can cross off the right answer because I felt it didn't make any connection to the argument. A great example of this one is the Gmat Prep question (found here: https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... t7861.html) - I'd read the question, read the argument - which I just kind of understood, hit the questions and none of the answer choices seem to make any sense. According to the Gmat Prep software, my CR difficulty is in the 38-39 range, so I can assume the questions are quite hard, but still. Biggest issue with CR is not understanding the prompt. I do have a way to counter this: Re-reading the argument again, slowly, but the issue is that I usually dont have time for that.

My verbal score hovers around 34-36, and I haven't really done any deeper analysis on how to improve, because I feel that my quant is more important, considering that my quant score is in the 37-43 range.

[StaceyKoprince]

I go "ahhhh OF COURSE, it's so easy".

Why? What was it, specifically, that caused the lightbulb to go off? That's the level that you're trying to get to in your analysis: what are the specific clues that can (or should!) signal to me to do or think XYZ?

Whenever the lightbulb goes off like that, figure out why and make a "when I see / I'll think or do" flashcard.

My concern with this approach is that it takes quite some time to stay organized

I agree. So stop spending a bunch of time on the questions that are too hard! Basically, think of it this way: you're at work. You can't get every last thing done today. Do you want to do a 3/4 job on a bunch of things that are important and you know you can get done today, just so that you can spend even more time on some things that aren't as important?

Of course not. You do a good job on the things that you know are most important (which, on the GMAT, means the questions you know how to do). The others? Eh, you'll give some of them a look IF you have the time. But you don't sacrifice the important stuff to spend more time on the stuff that's not as likely to pay off.

For translations, take a look at what these two articles describe:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... them-real/
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... ms-part-1/

Try that "real world / back of the envelope" approach out on the story problems that are driving you nuts and see what you think. (Note: the beauty of this approach is that, if you can't use it, then most likely the textbook math is also too hard and you just want to skip this problem.)

For SC meaning, try going over some OG problems you've already done - start with lower-numbered (easier) problems first. Read the original sentence, then articulate the meaning to yourself, out loud and in your own words. Do the same for each of the answer choices. When you're done, check whether we mention meaning in our GMAT Navigator solution. (Every OG2015 SC has a written solution in GMAT Navigator.)

When you catch the meaning issues, give yourself a pat on the back. When you don't, study whatever we say in the solution - and look back at the problem again to notice what the "lightbulb" clue should be. Sometimes it has to do with a certain type of modifier changing places (vs. the words themselves changing to different words). Sometimes it has to do with the overall sentence structure changing. Go figure it out (with the Navigator solution's help) and you will know how to spot that kind of meaning shift next time.

For CR: Biggest issue here is when I don't understand the prompt or none of the answer choices makes any sense (to me)

In the moment, just guess and move on. Stop trying to get it right! Next, how often is this happening? If it's not happening much, then shrug your shoulders - you are always going to get some wrong. You said CR is 38-9 and verbal overall is 34-6, so I'm thinking that you should really just be blowing these ones off.

If it's happening a lot, then try to see whether there are any patterns - certain types of CR questions? Certain topic areas or patterns in the arguments?

Or, if this is like quant (when you read it after, you think, duh! I totally get this), then figure out what caused that lightbulb moment here, too.

Note: for verbal, part of the issue may very well be mental fatigue. But if you get better at blowing off Q and V questions when you should, you won't be so mentally fatigued on the problems that you actually know how to do.