I need a solution please regarding improving my score.
When I've started answering the first quarter of the Quantitative CAT. I'm doing good with little bit more time (average 2:30) then when I faced 700 level questions I'm spending too much time on them (average 4:00), finally answering them wrong.Then my performance declined in general even the 500 level question I couldn't answer them correctly and the last quarter I'm out of time so guessing randomly...
for your information .. my ability to answer 500-600 level questions is over 90% and 600-700 questions 70% with more time.
my target to get 650 before Nov 24th. What is your advice ?
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- Abdulla
- StaceyKoprince
- ManhattanGMAT Staff
- Posts: 9360
- Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:05 am
- Location: Montreal
Get the hard questions wrong faster. Seriously.
You only need to answer about 60% of the questions correctly. So don't get "70% with extra time" - let some go.
When you go over 3 min on a problem, the longer you go, the more likely you are to get it wrong. And you also guarantee yourself other questions wrong in the section because you no longer have enough time to do everything. So you hurt yourself on both ends. If you go over enough, on a lot of questions, your final score will be lower than your actual ability.
So, you need to learn about how long 1 minute is without using a stopwatch. (Yes, 1 minute, not 2.) The 1 min mark, for quant, is the point at which you make the decision about whether you can do this problem. If you aren't already on track and solving by the 1 min mark, then it is highly unlikely you will both figure out what to do and do it during the second minute.
If you don't have one already, buy yourself a stopwatch with lap timing capability. When you go to do a set of problems, start the stopwatch but turn it over so you can't see the time. Every time you think one minute has gone by, push the lap button. When you're done, see how good you were - and whether you tend to over or underestimate. Get yourself to the point where you're within 15 seconds either way on a regular basis (that is, you can generally predict between 45 sec and 1min 15 sec).
Now, how do you use that when doing problems? If you're not on track by one minute, make an educated guess and move on. This requires another piece of study: how to make educated guesses on different kinds of math problems. An educated guess simply means: identify (and eliminate!) some wrong answers before you make a random guess from among the remaining answers. You might do this via estimation, partial math (if you can do some of the math but not all, for example), logic. For the last one, I'm thinking of one problem on which I was asked: after you pour various amounts of liquid into a vial, the vial is filled to what fraction of its capacity? Two of the answer choices were greater than 1 (eg, 7/6). If you've got a vial of liquid, can you "fill it" to greater than its capacity? No - the liquid will just spill all over the floor. You can only fill it to 6/6 of its capacity - or completely full. So the two answers that indicated it was "overfilled" had to be wrong from a logical perspective. (Note that the question didn't say the liquid would represent some capacity of the vial - that could allow for some spillage, if you're just using the capacity of the vial as a measurement tool. The question literally said you were pouring liquid into the vial and the vial was then holding this amount of liquid.)
The way in which you make educated guesses can be specific to the type of problem or content being tested, so make sure you study how to make educated guesses specifically based on problem type or content. Pay special attention to areas on which you tend to spend way too much time - it probably isn't just "all 700+ questions" but rather certain types of content / questions on which you tend to get sucked in.
It's also important, just in general, to be aware: oh, I get sucked in on long rate problems, or I get sucked in on combinatorics. When one of those pops up, you'll then be hyper-aware of the time you're spending, because you know this is a "danger" area for you.
Also try this exercise: go back to your last couple of practice tests. Add up the total time spend on quant questions on which you went over 3 min. Add up the number right and the number wrong in that group. Then go add up the number wrong on which you spend less than 1 min (some of these were probably problems you could've done, but you didn't have time to address them properly b/c of the extra time you spent elsewhere). How do those numbers look, all together? Probably not so good - that extra time you spent was probably not a good tradeoff. (Do the actual calculations though to see - I want you to prove to yourself with cold, hard facts that you're mismanaging your time and you're not getting the payoff you think you'll get by spending that extra time. Then maybe you can actually buy in to the fact that you have to let some problems go.)
Finally: if you don't fix this timing problem, you will not get the score you're capable of getting. This test does not demand that you get a high percentage correct to get the score that you want. This test will give you questions that are too hard for you. Let your opponent win those points so that you don't use up valuable time that should be for other questions. It's like a tennis match - you're not going to win every point. If you try, you'll tire yourself out before the match is over, and then you'll lose.
You only need to answer about 60% of the questions correctly. So don't get "70% with extra time" - let some go.
When you go over 3 min on a problem, the longer you go, the more likely you are to get it wrong. And you also guarantee yourself other questions wrong in the section because you no longer have enough time to do everything. So you hurt yourself on both ends. If you go over enough, on a lot of questions, your final score will be lower than your actual ability.
So, you need to learn about how long 1 minute is without using a stopwatch. (Yes, 1 minute, not 2.) The 1 min mark, for quant, is the point at which you make the decision about whether you can do this problem. If you aren't already on track and solving by the 1 min mark, then it is highly unlikely you will both figure out what to do and do it during the second minute.
If you don't have one already, buy yourself a stopwatch with lap timing capability. When you go to do a set of problems, start the stopwatch but turn it over so you can't see the time. Every time you think one minute has gone by, push the lap button. When you're done, see how good you were - and whether you tend to over or underestimate. Get yourself to the point where you're within 15 seconds either way on a regular basis (that is, you can generally predict between 45 sec and 1min 15 sec).
Now, how do you use that when doing problems? If you're not on track by one minute, make an educated guess and move on. This requires another piece of study: how to make educated guesses on different kinds of math problems. An educated guess simply means: identify (and eliminate!) some wrong answers before you make a random guess from among the remaining answers. You might do this via estimation, partial math (if you can do some of the math but not all, for example), logic. For the last one, I'm thinking of one problem on which I was asked: after you pour various amounts of liquid into a vial, the vial is filled to what fraction of its capacity? Two of the answer choices were greater than 1 (eg, 7/6). If you've got a vial of liquid, can you "fill it" to greater than its capacity? No - the liquid will just spill all over the floor. You can only fill it to 6/6 of its capacity - or completely full. So the two answers that indicated it was "overfilled" had to be wrong from a logical perspective. (Note that the question didn't say the liquid would represent some capacity of the vial - that could allow for some spillage, if you're just using the capacity of the vial as a measurement tool. The question literally said you were pouring liquid into the vial and the vial was then holding this amount of liquid.)
The way in which you make educated guesses can be specific to the type of problem or content being tested, so make sure you study how to make educated guesses specifically based on problem type or content. Pay special attention to areas on which you tend to spend way too much time - it probably isn't just "all 700+ questions" but rather certain types of content / questions on which you tend to get sucked in.
It's also important, just in general, to be aware: oh, I get sucked in on long rate problems, or I get sucked in on combinatorics. When one of those pops up, you'll then be hyper-aware of the time you're spending, because you know this is a "danger" area for you.
Also try this exercise: go back to your last couple of practice tests. Add up the total time spend on quant questions on which you went over 3 min. Add up the number right and the number wrong in that group. Then go add up the number wrong on which you spend less than 1 min (some of these were probably problems you could've done, but you didn't have time to address them properly b/c of the extra time you spent elsewhere). How do those numbers look, all together? Probably not so good - that extra time you spent was probably not a good tradeoff. (Do the actual calculations though to see - I want you to prove to yourself with cold, hard facts that you're mismanaging your time and you're not getting the payoff you think you'll get by spending that extra time. Then maybe you can actually buy in to the fact that you have to let some problems go.)
Finally: if you don't fix this timing problem, you will not get the score you're capable of getting. This test does not demand that you get a high percentage correct to get the score that you want. This test will give you questions that are too hard for you. Let your opponent win those points so that you don't use up valuable time that should be for other questions. It's like a tennis match - you're not going to win every point. If you try, you'll tire yourself out before the match is over, and then you'll lose.
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
- StaceyKoprince
- ManhattanGMAT Staff
- Posts: 9360
- Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:05 am
- Location: Montreal
4 posts Page 1 of 1