Retaking the GMAT: Need help on next steps

[JMB1993]

Good day,

I took the GMAT last October 7 after studying since January and got a score of 640 (Q47, V31). This is enough to get into my target schools but not enough to get a scholarship so I'm planning to retake it in a month. I'm aiming for at least 670 and I'm not sure what to focus on.

I took a bunch of MGMAT Prep practice test a month before the test. They were all taken in test conditions, same time as my scheduled time for the GMAT and taken within 3 days of each other.

CAT EXAM #6 Score: 640 (Q44, V34)
CAT EXAM #5 Score: 620 (Q41, V34)
CAT EXAM #4 Score: 680 (Q43, V39)
CAT EXAM #3 Score: 610 (Q44, V31)
CAT EXAM #2 Score: 650 (Q41, V37)
CAT EXAM #1 Score: 670 (Q44, V37)

I took the GMAT with only 3 hours of sleep (due to test day anxiety) and assumed that's the reason why I got a low score. But it seems my verbal score was in the range anyway so might not be the reason. Looking at the assessment reports, I get the lowest %right on RC, then SC (I assume on parallelism, really weak on that part)

Right now I'm suffering from decision fatigue and need help in figuring out the following.

1. Do I have enough time to increase my verbal score in a month's time?
2. Will it be greatly beneficial to get the GMAT's Enhanced Report if I already have info from these practice tests? (rather not cause it's pricey)
3. Studying strategy: Do I focus all efforts on verbal and review a little for quant?
4. Should I reset my practice tests in preparation for the retake? Or will the grades be skewed since I took the last tests just 2 weeks and it might seem familiar?
5. Should I double down on my studying efforts? Or was I overstudying?

Would be grateful for any form of help. Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Jo

[StaceyKoprince]

The good news: you aren't that far from your goal. You've got a real shot at getting yourself to 670. With the right kind of work, of course.

and taken within 3 days of each other

To make sure I understand: all 6 of these tests were taken within 3 days of each other? Like, 15 days total with 3 days in between each? Or 3 days total with 6 tests?

Either way, that's way too frequent. You don't get better while taking a practice test. You get better by analyzing your most recent practice test and then setting up a study plan to tackle specific weaknesses that you've identified.
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... many-cats/

Your practice scores show variability between 610 and 680. Whether that was over 15 days or over 3 days, it shows you that our ability level is always really a range of possibilities. There are things you can do to push yourself towards the higher end of your given range—just not by taking test after test.

In practice, Q ranged from 41 to 44 but you scored 47 on the real test. Awesome.
V ranged from 31 to 39, and you scored 31 on the real test. You may be right that mental fatigue and anxiety contributed to you performing at the lower end of your range. A lot of variability often indicates problems with timing or mental stamina—so maybe timing issues were also at play.

You can read more about what the Enhanced Score Report can tell you here:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... re-report/

Up to you whether you think that's worth $25.

Your goal will be tilted more towards lifting verbal, yes, but you want to make sure your quant score doesn't drop—that would be really irritating! So you'll still need to do some quant study and practice. But as to what and how to study, I need more info from you. I don't know what else you were doing besides taking lots of practice tests in a short period of time—but just that by itself is a sign of overstudying, yes. Can you describe how else you were studying? And what materials were you using?

Read this:
http://tinyurl.com/executivereasoning

And this:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -the-gmat/

And finally this:
http://tinyurl.com/2ndlevelofgmat

Does this match up with how you were studying before? If not, what do you need to do to make your studying more like what's described in those articles?

If you would like to get really detailed advice from us, you can use the below to analyze your most recent MPrep CATs (this should take you a minimum of 1 hour):
http://tinyurl.com/analyzeyourcats

Use all of the above to 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. Your analysis should include a discussion of your buckets—you'll understand what that means when you read the last article. Part of getting better is developing your ability to analyze your result—figure out what they mean and what you think you should do about them!)

Finally, you can still take both GMATPrep and MGMAT CATs with repeats as long as you follow a few guidelines to minimize the chance of artificially inflating your score via question repeats. First, anytime you see a problem that you remember (and this means: I know the answer or I'm pretty sure I remember the answer, not just "hmm, this looks vaguely familiar..."), immediately look at the timer and make yourself sit there for the full length of time for that question type. This way, you don't artificially give yourself more time than you should have. Second, think about whether you got this problem right the last time. If you did, get it right again this time. If you didn't, get it wrong again. If you *completely honestly* think that you would get it right this time around if it were a new question (even though you got it wrong last time) because you've studied that area and improved, then get it right this time.

But note that you're not going to take another CAT for at least 2 weeks...

[JMB1993]

Thank you for your inputs and articles. I've been going through them over the past few days.

To make sure I understand: all 6 of these tests were taken within 3 days of each other? Like, 15 days total with 3 days in between each? Or 3 days total with 6 tests?

I took the tests within 3 days of each other which now I know is wrong. Most of the time I was just rushing to improve the parts I was weak on in the last test before the next test so everything was half-baked.

I don't know what else you were doing besides taking lots of practice tests in a short period of time—but just that by itself is a sign of overstudying, yes. Can you describe how else you were studying? And what materials were you using?

I started with answering all the questions in the OG (2015 book) questions back in March. I took 2 practice tests but still wasn't happy with my score so that's when I read the MGMAT books (2013 editions I think). I answered all the OG questions again (This was starting July) but wasn't timing myself. I only started with practice tests again a month before the tests. Two weeks before the test was when I found the archive of articles Manhattan Prep has and by then it was too late to improve.

Read this:
http://tinyurl.com/executivereasoning

And this:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -the-gmat/

And finally this:
http://tinyurl.com/2ndlevelofgmat

Does this match up with how you were studying before? If not, what do you need to do to make your studying more like what's described in those articles?

Not at all. In fact, a sample class I only attended recently just explained perfectly how the gmat was scoring me and that finally got me off the "must answer everything" mindset. I was trying to invest my time on everything, making me rush on some questions I should get right. And when I review my answer, I only spend a max of 5 minutes trying to figure out the why the answers were wrong/right then just move on when what I really needed was spending 10-30 minutes to search for more strategies that I'm more in tune with using to answer those difficult questions.

Use all of the above to 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.

I took another one last Saturday just to check what I need to work on again since I went two weeks without reviewing (last one I promise!). I got a 660 (Q42, V38). The only preparation I made was reviewing and looking for RC strategies since that's my weakest part. Below is my analysis.

Quant
“Correct / Incorrect” Column
-No string of 4 questions wrong but strings of 3 are common.
-Mostly skipped combinations since I've forgotten how to do them and I'm also really weak in that area.
-I didn't do well in geometry, which I usually don't have a problem with. I guess I just need to review the formulas again.

“Cumulative Time” vs. “Target Cumulative Time”
-Everything was well within the time limit except for a portion in the middle where I answered a question on divisibility & primes (GCF of N(2)) that took me 4 minutes and which I got correctly. There was a string of 3 questions wrong after that, possibly because I was trying to catch up.

Verbal
“Correct / Incorrect” Column
-Same with quant, mostly 3 wrong answers in a row.
-CR: Unusually high number of wrong answers. I usually don't have a problem with this.
-RC: Still having problems with Inferences
-SC: Still having problems with parallelism

Assessment Summary - Things that stood out:
-Got 45% right on problem solving and took 2:23 on average solving answers I got wrong. 29% right on geometry, 25% right on number properties which I assumed was due to all the combinations I skipped and the geom formulas I forgot.
-Got 36% right on critical reasoning and taking 2:28 on average solving answers I got wrong.

Analysis by Difficulty - Things that stood out:
-Spending way too much time answering 700-800 questions, both on PS and DS and both on right and wrong answers.
-Too much time on 700-800 CR questions I get wrong .

Quant
Bucket 1:
-Digits & Decimals, FDP's: 100% right, within the time frame
-Statistics: 80% right, average time 1 min.
-Formulas: 80% right, though average time is 2:38
-Coordinate plane: 67% right, average time 1:17

Bucket 2:
Careless Mistakes
-Quadratic Equations: 25% right but looking through the 4 questions 2 of them were due to careless mistakes
-Triangles and Diagonals: 50% right
-Circles and Cylinders: 25% right
-Fractions and Percents: 50% right
-Ratios: 33% right, takes a long time to solve and usually involve careless mistakes.

Fundamentals
-Exponents and roots, linear equations: 50% right
-All of Number Properties average to 50%, just need to review the fundamentals and look for strategies
-Consecutive Integers:25% right, possible to improve if found the right strategies

Efficiency
-Overlapping Sets: 75% but average time is 2:45

Bucket 3:
-Inequalities: 0% right, been a weakness since the beginning.
-Rates and Work: 17% right, could do this correctly when untimed but a mess during the CATs

Verbal
Bucket 1:
-CR: Explain the Discrepancy, Evaluate the Argument: 75-100% right, within the time frame
-SC: Concision, Verbs, Quantity, Modifiers, Pronouns (75-100% right)

Bucket 2:
-CR: Describe the Role (80% right but takes 2:40 on average), Find the Assumption, Strengthen, Weaken, Inference (40-60%)
-RC: All within 50-60% right but could be improved.
-SC: Parallelism (29% right but it's a common question so must improve), Meaning (50% right but spending way less time on wrong answers),

Bucket 3:
-CR: Resolve a problem: 0%

Hope to have feedback if I've analyzed it correctly. And I promise not to take another test in the next week.

Thanks,
Jo

[StaceyKoprince]

Okay, good—it sounds like you're getting on the right track.

that took me 4 minutes and which I got correctly. There was a string of 3 questions wrong after that, possibly because I was trying to catch up.

So...in hindsight, was that a good trade-off?

Generally speaking, when someone starts a sentence "I spent 4 minutes on a question and I got it..." my reaction is to say, "Stop!" It doesn't matter whether you got it right or wrong. You spent 4 minutes, so you lost at least 2 minutes (depending on question type).

In trying to make up for a 2-min deficit, most people won't just bail completely on 1 question for an entire 2 minutes. Most people will try to save 15 to 45 seconds on many questions—in other words, most people will try to rush a little bit on stuff they know how to do. And that's where you miss questions that you could've gotten right in a normal amount of time.

So don't, in future, tell yourself "I spent 4 minutes but I got it right..." because that implies that that decision was okay. Bad ROI because it costs you opportunities elsewhere.

Anything up to about 30 seconds over average time for that question type is fine—because you'll also have lots of questions that are 15 or 30 seconds faster than the average. In other words, it'll still average out okay.

And it's okay to have a small number go to about 1 minute over average, because you'll have a few on which you bailed fast. (At least, you should. As you know now. )

But 2+ minutes over? Nope. Too much opportunity cost.

Speaking of bail fast:

Mostly skipped combinations since I've forgotten how to do them and I'm also really weak in that area.

So, that means that you just guessed the second you realized it was combinatorics, right? If not: that's what you do in future. Oh, look, this is combinatorics. My favorite letter is B. Done. Moving on. Too many people still waste 30-60 seconds working up the will to move on. Cut your losses fast!

I skip combinatorics too. So when I look at the data, I don't look at the aggregate data for NP, because I know it's going to be pulled down by skipping combinatorics automatically. Instead, I go to the 4th assessment report, which breaks things down by sub-area within each book. Are you okay on the other areas within NP? (Note: probability is also a good skip candidate. You don't usually see more than 1 or 2 and people tend to hate those, too. But divis & prime is pretty common, and to a slightly lesser extent odd even pos neg. So see how you're doing on those.)

It's okay to have 3 wrong in a row overall—as long as they were legitimately wrong. You don't want to makea careless mistake in there because you're rushing or distracted or mentally fatigued. But if you did well enough to earn a hard little string and you really don't know how to do them, that's fine!

Okay, you didn't do as well as you normally do on Geo and CR, so dive into those questions (if you haven't already) and figure out why. What was it that caused you to miss these when you would normally have gotten more of them?

Did you just happen to get harder ones of that type and so it makes sense that you didn't do as well as you normally do?
Did you make some careless mistakes? Or forget some geo rules?
Did you get sucked in by a trap?
etc (this is the 2nd Level analysis that that one article talks about)

For CR, try this:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2015/12/ ... stion-type

You can use this as supporting material:
http://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/ ... reasoning/
And search our blog for more

For SC parallelism, go back to the SC guide (and the Foundations of Verbal guide, if you have it) for the underlying rules. If you're struggling more when the sentences / underlines are especially long and changing a lot in the answers, try this:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... ce-part-1/

Oh, and you said that you have older versions of our books? Look here, too (this was added to our latest-edition books, the 6th edition):
http://tinyurl.com/scprocess

For RC inferences, look here for the stuff labeled inference:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... rehension/

So key that you're noticing where you're missing stuff due to careless mistakes vs. actually underlying skills issues. You can do these! You just have to figure out how to minimize those types of mistakes in future.
http://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/ ... -the-gmat/

Ditto fundamentals. If you miss too many lower-level questions, that'll prevent you from raising your score. So keep looking for those and then going and tackling those topics / skills. (Do you have our Foundations of Math guide?)

For Overlapping Sets, decide what you're willing to invest. Maybe you do the ones that take you closer to 2m30s but the ones that are extra-convoluted and are going to need 3+ min, you bail or make an educated guess and move on.

For now, the bucket 3 items are "bail immediately." Lift the stuff in bucket 2 first—that might be enough to get you to your goal. If, later, you need more, you can look at trying to improve inequalities or rates/work.

For verbal:

CR Desribe Role always takes longer. I think it's okay to invest 2m40s if you're getting 80% right. You might save yourself some time towards the end by just saying, "Okay, I'll narrow down all the ones I know are definitely not right, but then I'm not going to agonize back and forth among the remaining answers. Just pick one and move on."

Find Assump, Strengthen, and Weaken are all related and decently frequent, so use the CR stuff I linked above.

Note: our newest SC guide has an expanded Subject Verb chapter that also includes Sentence Structure—you might look into upgrading to this version. Or go to your local library to see whether they have a copy.

You did a great job on this analysis. It's telling you exactly what you need to go study. Now, you just have to go do it! When you feel that you've made decent progess on the Bucket 2 areas that you've identified, you can talk another practice test. Analyze it again, come up with your new list of priorities, and do it all over again.

Great work. Let us know how it goes!

[JMB1993]

Hi Stacey,

Thank you so much for all the help. I took the GMAT last week and got a 670 (Q48, V34). Could NOT have done it without your guidance. You have helped me more than you know and I'm eternally grateful.

Hope you have a pleasant day.

Regards,
Jo

[StaceyKoprince]

Yay! Congratulations—I'm really happy for you!! Great work. And thanks so much for coming back to let me know.

Good luck with applications and I hope you get your scholarship!