Not Improving

[ch339]

I'm disheartened after my latest practice test. I took the first Manhattan CAT on August 12 (680, ~3.7 IR, 44Q, 38V). I took the first GMATPrep test today and received basically the same score (690, 5 IR, 47Q, 37V). My practice has been admittedly inconsistent (only 2-3 days a week), but I thought I had made some strides. BTW, is 3 questions in quant a good improvement? I see that's about 10 percentile points, but it seems like an arbitrary number of questions, well within the margin of error.

EDIT: On your CAT, I got -16 on quant (seven 600s, eight 700s, one 500s). Since I only got 1 more question right on GMATPrep, may I safely assume that I got more 700-level questions wrong and had higher accuracy for easier questions on yesterday's exam? That the reason for the 10-percentile-point increase is that I've (almost) hit the 700 ceiling?

I'm still steadily working through OG. I finished all problem solving with about 84% of questions correct (94% first third, 75% second third, 82% last third). Many of my mistakes were careless calculation errors or misreading the question. I caught myself a few times (not enough) on this practice test and quickly self-corrected. I faltered toward the middle of the OG problems, but I think I started to recover as I adjusted to the increased difficulty. I have fallen behind on DS and will probably start from scratch again later in the week.

EDIT: I have re-done the first 90 DS questions in OG. -15 this time, down from -26. Some question I got right before, I bombed this time. What does it mean that overall my accuracy seems to have improved but I now have flaws in my logic that seem to not have existed 2 weeks ago? I have re-done the questions in chunks of 30. -1 on the first chunk (97%), -4 on the second (87%), -11 on the third (64%). I felt more confident this time and was shocked at the -11 on the last 30 questions. What does this mean for my current proficiency on DS? I started to really mess up about halfway through DS practice. Does this mean that I am only 600-level for DS? If I am able to pull my accuracy up to 80% consistently, does that correspond to a true 700-800-level proficiency?

Ran out of time on math, so I didn't do the last question. I saw it was geometry, a historical strength.

My verbal study had been going well I thought. I get most reading questions right, although I do worse on inference questions--very hit or miss. I found reasoning questions to be quite simple so far in my practice, but harder on the latest exam. Perhaps this a good sign that I am getting harder questions? I need to tackle them better though. SC are also fairly easy for me, but I may have gotten a few wrong on the test. Severe pacing issues, finished ~10 minutes early.

I struggle with IR like mad. I know it doesn't matter and probably would not for any programs to which I would apply. I'd probably just do a regular masters (finance) through a B-school in about 3 years. Some programs I'm looking at will take GMAT. My GRE is 2 years old and might expire depending on my date of application. If it matters, I got a 5 on the essay, 163Q, 162V; 93rd, 87th, and 89th percentile, respectively. I wanted a more recent score, and this test seems fun.

I just finished the exam a few minutes ago and will update with more analysis when I've had time to go through my responses. I just wanted to record my impression.

[ch339]

Hi Stacey,

Any advice?

TOTAL: 690
GOAL:760+

5 IR
For every question I got wrong, I missed part of the answer. 2/3 or 1/2 right. That's a start I guess.

47 Q, GOAL: 50+ if possible (Am I even close? Most people seem to plateau at high 40s)
-15
-4 in the last 5 questions, -6 in the last 10
-7 PS
-8 DS
overthought 1 question, misunderstood the setup of another
misread 2 questions (missed "small" words, such as "different" or "more"

1 calculation error, checked my work incorrectly so changed correct answer fml

I got the last 4 questions wrong. How much would that have pulled down my score? I know there are multiple factors to consider, but if I had gotten even 2/4 right, would I be looking at a 48+?


37V, GOAL: 42+
-14
-1 in the last 5 questions, -4 in the last 10
-2 RC
-5 SC
-7 Reasoning
SC: There were several constructions I have never seen before (native English speaker). I knew that "beached" could be used as an adjective, but I did not know that whales could "beach." One correct version of a sentence read "plan ON practicing." I was taught that the infinitive is not preferred, but required. Another had an unnecessary word ("former"). (EDIT: I found your blog post about the "former" SC, super helpful!) I thought "former" was needed because the second half of the sentence was simple past tense, and past perfect would make more sense if the board member were still active. There were another two sentences I just could not figure out how to read properly. I've never had any trouble with grammar before, especially not on standardized tests. However, I sometimes find myself disagreeing with GMAT credited responses. Is this common?

REASONING: I got 2 strengthen and 3 weaken questions wrong. I'm not entirely sure why the right answers were better than mine. I can understand how they're good, but not how they're "best." When I am practicing, I can readily anticipate what the answer should look like. On this test, however, I frequently couldn't. I think that makes a difference, and I'm not sure why these questions were harder for me. Two errors were also account/explain questions--same deal: I could not really "see" the answer.

[StaceyKoprince]

Please remember to read the forum guidelines before posting. Please don't "bump" your own post. We respond to all posts in order, oldest first, and the date of your post is based on the date of the last post in the thread, not the first. If you bump your own post, you will wait longer for a response.

Please also note that the forums are a free service, open to the public. Because of the volume of traffic we receive (especially this time of year!!), it is not unusual to wait a week from the date of the last post (sometimes longer) for a response. If you see that older posts in the same folder have not yet been answered, then you know that we haven't missed you - we just haven't gotten to your question yet.

Now, on to your question - from your first post first.

The test is not scored based upon the # correct. You will always get about the same # incorrect, but the difficulty levels will get harder as you get better. So the first thing to do is just to learn how the test works, because that has serious consequences for how you take it. If you take it as though the goal is to increase the % correct, then you probably won't get the score you ultimately want to get.

Read this:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... lly-tests/

If you'd like to get more into the actual scoring mechanism, you can also read the Scoring section of our free e-book The GMAT Uncovered. (It's in your student center already.) Or you can just accept / believe what I say in the above article - your choice. :)

The algorithm is extremely complex - it's not something that can actually be calculated on paper. So the answer to your question is - I can't tell you the reason for the score difference. There are multiple possible variants. 10 percentile points, though, is generally within the accepted standard deviation (meaning that it isn't a statistically significant difference).

Many of my mistakes were careless calculation errors or misreading the question.

What have you been doing to combat careless mistakes in future? Here are some ideas:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -the-gmat/

I now have flaws in my logic that seem to not have existed 2 weeks ago

It likely means that your logic was not quite as solid 2 weeks ago as you thought. :) You might get a question right one time but not be able to replicate that performance because you haven't actually mastered what was going on behind that question. This is where a lot of people fall short - they get something right and then just move on. If you want to get better, you still need to study / analyze a problem even after you answer it correctly!

Read this:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -the-gmat/

Finally, you talk a lot about your "true level" in overall section terms (quant or DS). It's not really accurate to talk about that in terms of 600 or 700 because those three digit scores apply to a combined Q and V performance. Better to talk about percentiles.

Further, though, your strengths and weaknesses are a lot more granular than just "quant" or "DS." Maybe you're closer to 75th percentile on algebra but 60th percentile on geometry or something like that.

In addition, other factors have serious impacts on performance - the most notable is timing. Your intellectual ability might be 75th percentile but you might score 60th percentile because you mess up the timing.

Finally, just looking at OG performance can't really tell you anything about your eventual test / percentile performance, because the experiences are so very different. OG questions aren't adaptive (again, if you want to know more about how this actually works, read the Scoring stuff I mention above).

In a nutshell: the vast majority of testers answer about 60% of questions correctly during an adaptive test, regardless of scoring level. (This only changes at very high and very low scores.) The test is not scored based on % correct; rather, it is scored based on a host of factors, including the difficulty level of the questions, the sequence of wrong answers (eg, getting 10 questions wrong in a section is not much of a problem, but getting 10 questions wrong in a row is a huge problem), and so on. Again, way more complex than any test scoring mechanism you've ever seen before.

Ran out of time on math, so I didn't do the last question.

This is a MUCH bigger issue than the # or % correct - this is what you should be asking me how to fix. :)

If you ran out of time, then you were likely also speeding up towards the end of the section in order to finish, which likely increased the incidence of careless mistakes on questions you did know how to do and also caused a score drop at the end of the section. Since this test works on a "where you end is what you get" principle, that score drop ended up being your score.

Read these and start doing what they say:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -to-do-it/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... nt-part-1/

Also, use the below to analyze your most recent MGMAT CAT(s):
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/

Then (after also reading the stuff I posted above) come back here and tell us the results of your analysis and what you think you should do based on that analysis. 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!)

[ch339]

Hi Stacey,

Thank you for the articles.

I thought it would be easier to post about my prep and the actual breakdown of my latest score separately. I made these posts within 1 hour of each other, and it was not my intention to abuse the forum.

Will you be responding specifically about the breakdown of my scores? Just preliminary thoughts before I get started. What about the SC sentences that didn't seem to make sense to me?

[StaceyKoprince]

I actually need the analysis that I requested in my last post. Knowing the # of questions you got wrong doesn't tell me anything at all about your strengths and weaknesses or what you need to do to get better - the test is not scored based on # correct (or incorrect). I also can't tell you what would have happened to your score if you'd gotten a couple of the last questions right instead of wrong - it might have lifted you but it might not have. The algorithm is very complex.

Re: the idioms - there's nothing to do there except memorize, unfortunately. I did miss your comment that you didn't know how to read a couple of the sentences - try this article:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... orrection/

Look here for CR:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... reasoning/

Finally, it's very common to want to argue with the correct answers - I want to all the time. :) But it's ultimately not productive; instead, we have to learn what they want and give it to them!