Retake advice

[candancezimmerman]

This post is targeted for Stacy, but I appreciate any response.

What I studied and materials:
I had studied for about 3 months for the GMAT and took the exam yesterday. My practice scores were as follows:

MGMAT1: 600 (did not do essays)
MGMAT 2: 600 (did not do essays)
MGMAT 3: 690 (did not do essays)
MGMAT 4: 700 (did not do essays)
GMAT PREP 1: 640 (did both essays true testing conditions)
MGMAT 5:730 (did both essays true testing conditions)
GMAT PREP 2: 720 (did both essays true testing conditions)

My percentile distribution for this was always 90-99+% verbal with math score ranging from 50%-75%.

In my preparation I did the practice tests laid out above, over 600 questions for math (nearly all the OG and many of the supplement) and reviewed and did all of the In Action questions in all of the Manhattan math study guides. I also read through the CR and SC guides for Manhattan and did some of those In Action. When I studied, I kept track of everything in the OG Archer and would always redo problems I got wrong and review why.

The issue with the Archer is I would redo the question and generally get it right on the second try. So it doesn't show me very well the weakness areas. I would recommend others not record their second attempts in the Archer for this reason.

I did generate reports though of my manhattan gmat PT as well as classify my GMAT prep tests by question type. My analysis of my skills and weaknesses is below.

I felt I had mastered identifying the problem type and had a game plan for my strengths and weakness which I will outline below.

Strengths:
Rate/Work problems (specifically combined work problems)
Divisibility rules (specifically hidden consec integers, LCM/GCM)
Geometry problems with circles/cylinders/area (specifically inscribed shapes)
Exponent problems where manipulating exponents cancels things out
Ratios using an unstated multiplier

Weaknesses:
Calculating cost for inventory/overtime in comparisons
Multiplying decimals quickly
Estimation of fractions or large multiplication/division
Combinatorics with limited conditions (i.e. people sitting next to each other) and in conjunction with coordinate geometry
Positive/negative data sufficiency where you should test numbers
VIC problems where you should test numbers

Test Day

On the day of the test I felt like the test was similar to the GMAT PREP 1 experience. I was getting very easy basic questions, and I was running about 5 minutes ahead of time pacing with extra time at the end. This was not normally the case for me on my manhattan PTs. There were a few questions I wasn't sure about, but none of the hard questions I was prepared to skip completely. On all the practice tests where I had done well (650+) I had felt like I was right on time, getting difficult questions, and having to skip some. This shook my confidence and I felt I did very poorly on the math. During the break time, I did not handle the stress well. When I went back to do the verbal section I had extreme difficulty concentrating and kept rereading questions and did not manage the stress well. I normally have plenty of time for verbal, so I did not watch the time and only realized near the end I had no time and 10 questions left to do. I decided to cancel my score.

In retrospect, I do understand the implications of canceling my score versus showing my score. I would recommend to anyone reading this to never consider canceling your score an option and to try and do your best on the next section even if you don't feel the first has gone well. I have read the content here before that you should not try to second guess whether you are getting hard/easy questions and that you may get easy questions at any point in the exam. I agree, and I greatly regret psyching myself out by thinking about it too much. Again, to anyone reading this you may think mentally you would not this after reading everything, but it's very difficult not to fall into this trap. Please avoid my mistake and don't think this way. Either way I made the decision to cancel and am just trying to move forward with the retake plan.

Post Test

I also after the test wrote down everything I could remember in terms of its content. Generally the trend I saw was:

- a few number of sequence questions
- no rate/work questions
- a few number weighted average questions
- a few questions with tables asking you to add numbers up
- a few very basic geometry questions near the middle/end (i.e. "If you have angles a,b,c can you solve for c with a and b)
- lots of profit/cost questions
- a few num prop questions +/-
- a few basic alegbra questions

Questions

I have a bit of a difficult personal situation as I have a very busy month planned for August which does not allow for intense GMAT studying. I could probably study 5 hours/week, but I'm not sure if this will be sufficient. I am wondering I wait until beginning of Oct (I can study intensely in Sept) if this will be too long of a break, and I will forget content.

I also would like some advice on generating a retake study plan. Since I have done so much of the material it's difficult to know what to do next. Here are initial thoughts:

- Back to basics - I could do many of the 600-700 level questions, but sometimes I'd get 500-600 level question wrong due to poor arithmetic or mistakes. I think this hurt my ability to score well as I was not able to show my strengths on the exam.
- Practice percents, estimation
- Review all practice tests
- Try to understand GMAT PREP incorrect questions and post to forums otherwise (I did not do this the first time around for questions I still could not understand).
- Do problems in Supplemental Math guide which I have not done
- Buy word bank questions from mgmat for problem areas and do those problems (potentially buy quant questions from GMAC)
- Buy practice tests from 800 score and do those for timing practice
- set clear timing strategy for verbal and practice doing it
this way
- Study SC for verbal more directly (I got stuck on some of these questions during the exam)

My biggest question is how I can make sure I stay fresh on the material that I have done. Should I review all the major concepts each week, or focus on weaknesses? Is it going to hurt me to take off a few weeks?

I felt that Manhattan GMAT is the best source of material for prep, and I felt like the explanations and advice were very clear. This is why I'd like to focus on material which Manhattan provides explanations for (i.e. OG 12 which I bought mgmat's explanations and the mgmt PTs). I often found the OG explanations difficult to understand or their methods difficult to execute in the 2 minute time period.

Any advice you can provide to me would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the extreme length of this post.

[jnelson0612]

Hi Candace,
Sorry that your test did not work out so well. It seems that you did wonderful preparation, so I have a very good feeling about your chances when you take the test again. Yeah, NEVER try to interpret your score trajectory during the GMAT. I tried to do just that on my last real GMAT and failed miserably. I was very concerned that I was getting lots of easy quant questions, but it turned out that they were experimental as my final score was good. Just keep going and doing your best on each problem. It really is impossible to know how did until you see the score at the end.

I think it's okay to take a week or two off but I really wouldn't take the whole month off as you could lose too much of what you've done. Even if you just do some short timed sets of each question type (problem solving and data sufficiency in quant; sentence correction, critical reasoning, and reading comp in verbal) a few times a week that will keep your skills from getting too dull.

I think you've identified some great things to work on for your study plan. Maybe focus on each one of these areas each week, yet at the same time continue to do and deeply review short problem sets. That way you learn topics but keep current with the overall picture.

As for your weak areas, I have bolded the ones that I think you absolutely should focus on. The others I think are okay to skip or de-emphasize:
Weaknesses:
Calculating cost for inventory/overtime in comparisons
Multiplying decimals quickly
Estimation of fractions or large multiplication/division
Combinatorics with limited conditions (i.e. people sitting next to each other) and in conjunction with coordinate geometry
Positive/negative data sufficiency where you should test numbers
VIC problems where you should test numbers

Particularly the last two should be easy for a student of your caliber to get squared away, and doing so will gain you some nice points and time on the test. Oh yes, and reviewing the sentence correction grammar rules and their applications is a GREAT use of your time.

I hope this is helpful--let me know if you have further questions.

[pri1229]

Good luck Candance!

[candancezimmerman]

Thanks so much for the feedback. That's very helpful. One other question I have is how long to study before retaking?

I've taken about a 2 week break, but I'm ready to get back to it. I'm trying to decide how much to study before taking the exam again. I'm searching and moving into a new apartment and traveling internationally for work in Sept which limits the time I can study each week. I don't want to wait too long though and lose all the work I've already done.

Basically my options are:

- Study less intensely for next month and take the test in Sept before my international trip
- Study less intensely for next month + take two week break during international trip -> then study again and take the test in Oct.

Given the necessary 2 week break would you advise taking the test before or after? If after how much time should I study for afterwards?

[StaceyKoprince]

What's your goal score? Were you scoring in that range on your practice tests? Were you taking your practice tests under 100% official conditions (including essays)?

Yes, it does sound like you may have psyched yourself out and then the timing got away from you on the verbal. I agree that people should almost never consider canceling the score, but the one time to consider it is when the timing is so messed up that you have a lot of questions in a row at the end that you can't finish - and 10 questions definitely qualifies as a lot. That would've killed your score even if (best case scenario) you were scoring in the 99th percentile right before you ran out of time.

So, timing is definitely something that needs some work. I'm going to guess that you likely exhibited what I call 'up and down' timing on your practice tests - that is, spending too long on some questions, but moving quickly on others to make up for it throughout the section, such that you finished on time. The problem is that, on the real test, you get nervous, so you hang on too long to everything, and then bam - you run out of time.

Go back and look at some of your recent practice tests at the individual problem level and see whether you see anything like this. You can use this article to aid you in your analysis:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/

As to when to take the test, you basically want to take it at the point that your 100% official-condition CAT practice scores are at or above your goal score and you don't see evidence of significant up-and-down timing (if you are suffering from this). When will that be? I don't know - were you already there before? You don't give practice CAT data in your earlier posts.

So when to take it again? I'm not sure. I wouldn't schedule it quite yet. I'd study intensely for the next 2-3 weeks, then take a practice CAT (again, and I cannot emphasize this enough, under 100% official conditions, including the essays). See where you are. If you feel like you're almost there, then aim to take it before your trip. If you feel like you still have a ways to go, wait until after your trip. Either way, it's fine - it's not like studying intensely for 2-3 weeks will hurt you if you decide to take the test after your trip. :)

[candancezimmerman]

Hey Stacy,

Thanks for your reply and your help. I decided to take the test before my trip, and I do feel ready!

I did actually post my CAT exams scores in my original post (I know it was long so you may have missed it), but I didn't say my goal score. I'm shooting for 700+ but would be happy with anything 680+.

I didn't do a breakdown though as you suggested so I can see why you're theory of up/down timing was relevant. I think you're right in terms of that's how I performed on the actual test. I was so worried after math I felt like I absolutely had to ace verbal and get every single one right and spent way too long on each question as well as got distracted. Then I had to rush and was panicking so I couldn't concentrate.

On my past MGMAT practice tests though I've had pretty even pacing for verbal and been much better at time management. The article you sent over was very helpful. It seems pretty positive in the sense that I never missed 4 in a row, I was getting mostly 600-700/700-800 questions, I had less than 5 super long questions in each test usually < 3, my assessment category breakdown is mostly >50% in <2 minutes.

With that said I know I have a big problem to get over with how I react on test day which in some ways is harder than anything else to get past. I'm reading your articles on stress management, and I know the best way to get through it is to be prepared. So I'm also doing lots of SC questions along with my math work because those are the ones that I couldn't move on from on test day.

I have only done one PT since the exam as I already took all the MGMAT and GMAC ones. It was a Knewton test and I got 710 with no major timing probs but it doesn't have essays. Now that I've done and reviewed a lot of problems in my weakness areas including the Decimals and Percents question bank and two GMAT focus tests as well as lots of questions from the supplement books for Quant and SC, I'm planning on taking 2 more Practice Tests. 1 this weekend and 1 next weekend.

If you have anymore advice though on how I can best prepare in the next couple weeks before my test please let me know! I've seen your article on 2 weeks before, but not sure if you'd give the same advice to someone retaking.

Thanks again for all your help I've read your advice on other posts and it's always great. No matter what happens it's been a great service, and I will always highly recommend Manhattan and the forums to friends in the future (already have)!

Candance

[StaceyKoprince]

Good! I'm glad to hear you've been making such good progress. If you need to take practice tests that don't give you essays, pull two essays from your OG and do them from there first.

Yes, it sounds like you may have "psyched yourself out" on test day. A couple of additional things that might help you for this mental preparation:

1) The test SHOULD feel hard. The harder, the better - because the harder it feels, the better you're doing, right? Think about it - the better you do, the harder questions they give you... so the test starts to feel *really* hard. It feels really hard to me, too, at the 99th percentile!

2) It's next to impossible to tell how you're doing while you're taking the test. I hear all the time "I could tell I was starting to get really easy questions." The truth is - we can't really tell what's easy or medium or hard in the middle of the test. You've heard of experimental questions? Well, the reason they give the experimental questions is to figure out what the difficulty level of a question is. These are the test writers. They wrote the question and they can't just assign a difficulty level themselves! So how can we non-officlal-test-writers look at a question and somehow tell what the difficulty level is, especially during the stress and the 2 minutes we have to look at it? No way. :)

3) You only need to get about 60% of the Qs right up to around 80th percentile (this refers to the sub-sections, not the overall score). So you only need to get about 60% of the quant Qs right! And on the verbal, in the 90s percentile-wise? Eh. Maybe 80 to 85%. You're going to get a lot of Qs wrong and that's perfectly okay. You just can't get too many lower-level ones wrong or too many wrong in a row - both of which will happen if you run out of time. Just don't run out of time!

4) From now on, you're playing tennis. You don't expect to win every point when you play tennis; you just want to win more points than the other guy. That's how this test works. When your opponent hits a nice shot, say "Nice shot!" and move on. (When the computer gives you a too-hard question, concede that point and get ready for the next one. No big deal.)

Re: the last 2 weeks thing, no, I wouldn't change my advice for a re-take. It's still the same basic process - the closer you get, the less you're trying to improve and the more you're trying to just review and solidify what you already know and what you can already do.

Let me know how your next practice test goes.

[candancezimmerman]

Hey Stacy,

Thanks so much for the advice. I'm going to reread this morning of to make sure I internalize it and don't get psyched out.

So I took another practice test this time resetting the Manhattan set of 6. I got a 720 with a pretty similar score breakdown to previous (70% math and 99% verbal). I did several repeat questions though both in math and verbal since I had to reset so that score is likely somewhat inflated. I thought it would still be good practice for timing.

For Math I had 3 too long questions and 1 string of 7 questions missed a row and 1 of 3 questions missed in a row. Otherwise fairly spread out. I missed 19 total, the majority 600-700 or 700-800. I had 6 questions in the 300-500/500-600 range.

For Verbal I had only 7 questions in 500-600/600-700 range rest were 700-800. Out of those I missed 4 questions (2 CR, 1 SC, 1 RC so distributed). I had 5 "too long" questions (defined as SC>2 min, CR>3 min). The 7 questions in a row I skipped 2 intentionally, the others I did spend time on but just got wrong. I think I did get a little flustered so I need to mentally prepare for getting out of a bad streak.

Inequalities and Percents continues to be my weak areas while Rates and Work and Number Properties are strengths. I bought the question banks for both weakness areas and did those which was quite challenging. I also did the question bank for World Translations as I find it tough to translate sometimes even when I know the general concepts. I did fairly poorly on the questions banks missing a majority of questions, but I reviewed them thoroughly and think I learned from them. As you said, I just have to be ok missing some things.

I also took 3 of the GMAT Focus exams spaced out since my original test and redid all the questions I got wrong. The ranges are wide on those so it's hard to tell how I did and the categories they break it down into don't make as much sense as mgmat's. I would recommend them just because it's good test-like practice that's computer based so you don't have to lug around the OG (especially if you've already done 90% of the questions if you're in a retake position!).

On the Focus exams I scored:

#1: 40-47
#2 43-48
#3 42-48

I feel good about this because they're all in the 40s range and with my verbal score trending up to 90+ percentile, I'm hoping I can get in the range that I want (680-720).

When I doing questions I kept track in a spreadsheet and flagged questions that were good representative examples of a question type. My plan for the next few days (test is in 5 days!) is to take a practice test tomorrow. I mostly want to do another test so I can practice timing again.

Then I plan on retaking 2 question banks I haven't yet done again and doing flagged problems for the other 2 days. The day before I'll review flagged problems but just try to relax and sleep early. Morning of I'll do a few flagged questions but test is at 10am so won't have too much time after breakfast.

If you have any other advice or suggestions in the meantime based on this please let me know. Thanks very much for your help. It's very appreciated.

Candance

[candancezimmerman]

Hey Stacy and Jamie,

Just wanted to give you an update. I took the GMAT today and scored in my goal range with a 690! I'm so happy and thrilled to be done with the exam.

I want to really thank you both for your help especially your most recent posts. I really kept thinking in my head, it's just tennis I lose a point I win a point! Whenever I started thinking about my score I would just think I'm just going to do the test as that's all I can control.

I'm going to do a post in Test Day area as I feel like I should contribute since those stories helped me!

Thanks,
Candance

[StaceyKoprince]

That's so exciting! Congratulations!

I'm sorry I missed your 2nd-to-last post - things have been a bit crazy around here for the past 10 days. But I did just read your post and your plan was a good one, so you didn't need us after all. :)

Good luck with applications! And, yes, please do post something in the Test Day folder - your fellow students will really appreciate it.

[candancezimmerman]

Hi Stacy (and others),

It's been a long time but as I thought back on my journey I remember how stressed I was when I took the GMAT, and I felt like I should update my story to anyone else reading it as couple new things might provide some perspective.

1) I repeat don't cancel your score! A few months after I took the GMAT a second time I got a letter from GMAC saying they accidentally released my cancelled score to a couple schools but due to a data glitch but then later reverted it. Because of this I was able to find out my cancelled score which is usually impossible, turns out my math score was literally exactly for both the first time when I thought I did terrible and on the retake. Everyone told me oh you prob did fine, but I was so sure I bombed. Don't overthink it!

2) It all works out. I was so burnt out from the GMAT and work I didn't apply that fall but I did this year. I found out last month I got into Kellogg, Northwestern's bschool, which worked out great for me because my family's from Chicago and they have a solid program for what I want to do afterwards. It's a long journey, but when it works out it is worth it.

So anyway - really appreciate mgmat's help in helping me through my insanity. I'm always recommending these materials as the best to anyone who asks me for advice on studying.

I just wanted to add some positive data points to the message boards. Best of luck to everyone!

Candance

[StaceyKoprince]

Wow, that's crazy! The official party line is that they don't even calculate your score when you cancel... clearly, that isn't the case.

Very interesting - you confirmed something that we tell people all the time but they don't always believe us. You can feel like you did horribly on this test when you actually did decently - or even pretty well!

Thanks so much for coming back and updating us on everything - and big congratulations on getting into Kellogg! Great school. :)

Good luck and have fun!