Score stagnating - Please help

[SergeyK302]

Hey Stacey, thanks for your reply. And apologies for my delayed response. I was touring the Rockies with a friend, so I took a few days off and reset my brain. I will heavily use quotes this time so that we can understand each other quickly

There's no way to tell whether a question is rated easier or harder when you're taking the exam, so ignore that aspect.

I agree, this is why I should learn to ID the questions that are good guess candidates and that, if missed, won't hurt my score much.

Everybody has weaknesses—the question is just how to classify them. If the data doesn't show that certain overall types of CRs are worse for you (but: check your practice tests and OG performance to make sure this is really true), then there are other types of indicators of CR questions that are bad for you. You just need to find them.

Go look at the 30 CRs that have given you the most trouble over the past month—ask yourself why each one was so bad for you. Find the commonalities / patterns. Use those to figure out what you need to notice to get out within 30-45 seconds in future.

Use the following, in order:
(1) Step 1 is to identify the question type.
(a) Bail on any types you already know are bad for you. (I know you said this doesn't apply in your case. I'm including for thoroughness.)
(b) If you struggle to identify the question type, bail right then. If you're not there within 15 seconds, or you think it might be this category but you're not really sure...get out.

(2) Step 2 is to read and deconstruct the argument.
(a) Are there certain types of content areas that give you more trouble? (For instance, some people do worse on the science-focused ones; other people struggle with the business "theory / technical term" ones.) If so, that's the first place to bail and within the first sentence, maybe 30 seconds in.
(b) Next, how hard it is to understand the argument? If you have to re-read the first or second sentence (or part), get out.

I will do my best with the analysis of the previous questions. Actually, I shared about 20 CR questions that I missed within last 2-3 weeks with my tutor. He said he spotted few things that I could possibly pay attention to. So, there is definitely area for hope and improvement

Another question for you: Do you jot down any notes / make a map when doing CR? If so, see whether there are any differences for problems you're more likely to get wrong. For instance, maybe on problems you get right, you are able to start jotting notes right from the first sentence of the argument—but on incorrect problems, you often can't start jotting until you get much farther into the argument. Or maybe you find yourself jotting down way more because you're having trouble trying to make sense of what you're reading. Basically, if there are any visual indicators within the first minute that are giving you more trouble, then also use those as a sign to get out.

This is interesting. Yes, I usually take short notes, but I noticed that I started avoiding jotting things down lately, and that improved my timing by about 10-15 seconds. The last 20 questions that I did took me 2:10 on average, and I got about 15/20 right. The difficulty level was 600 - 700 lvl. I will start paying attention to my maps. Let' see.

If you have a tablet, you might go do 10 problems on the tablet while recording both time and whatever you write on screen, so that you can actually see what the differences are between ones that you're getting right relatively easily and ones you're either getting wrong or spending way too much time on (or both).

I do not have a tablet. So, perhaps, this is not an option for me.

Thanks for your suggestions. I will spend more time on CR/RC this weekend and see what I get out of it. If things go well, I am planning to take a diagnostic test within a week.

[StaceyKoprince]

That all sounds good. One question:

I agree, this is why I should learn to ID the questions that are good guess candidates and that, if missed, won't hurt my score much.

You won't know whether / how it'll hurt your score because (a) you can't know the difficulty and (b) you might guess right even if you're guessing blindly!

Short answer: Try not to think about your score. Just do what you know how to do in a reasonable amount of time and know when you don't know what to do or can't do it in a reasonable time. And make decisions accordingly.

[SergeyK302]

Hi Stacey, hope you are doing well.

I did a diagnostic test earlier today, and wanted to share the results. There are some very good news, and there are some so-so news... I got 670 Q49 V33 IR3.

My Quant performance was strong. During the test, I was checking my performance against the clock every 5 questions and noticed that I was always ahead by few minutes. Somewhere in the middle of the section I spent too much time on few problems, so that I ended up "wasting" my time extra time. I did not solve last 2 questions because I run out of time, but I made sure to pick random answers. I am confident I would have solved the questions if I had 4 minutes of time. Well, I could have gotten then Q50. Anyways, smiley face for the Quant section.

My Verbal performance was poor... I have just finished analyzing the problems that I missed (will cover later). I for sure wasted some time on the first two RC passages... Seems that my recent practice (~8 passages in last 2 weeks) was not enough. Overall, my performance dropped in the last 3rd of the test, i.e. I only missed 5 questions when I reached question #22, and all of the missed questions had medium-high to high difficulty. In the last 3rd of the exam I missed 8 questions... including 3 easy-medium SC questions. I did guess on 2 CR passages (thanks God), because they were and I would not have solved them correctly (I even missed them during the untimed review).

Overall, I missed 3 RC questions (yay), 5 SC questions (ugh...), and 4 CR questions (two of which I randomly guessed).

Definitely, Verbal needs more work. I still think (hope) that I am able to get a score in high 30s in Verbal since I got V37 and V39 in July in two official diagnostic tests, but I need to do something with timing, and nerves.

If I am not mistaken, at question #22 I had 22 or 24 minutes left, i.e. I had 15 questions to go (including 2 RC passages) and 22-24 minutes... I had 6 minutes deficit, so I started looking for opportunities to bail. I guess the fact that I did not yet solve 2 RC passages freaked me out... So, I started panicking and missed some easy SC questions. It appears that my timing was not too horrible: I could have bailed on 3 CR questions and gotten back on time. Well, easier said than done.

Given the above, what tactical steps would you recommend to try?


Should I spend 3-4 days doing timed bulks of Verbal questions? Perhaps, timed conditions will help to overcome anxiety? For example, I can set a timer for 16 minutes and do 9 questions in a row (3 CR, 3 SC, and 1 RC passage with 3 questions), or set a timer for 32 minutes and do 18 questions (6 CR, 6 SC, and 2 RC passages).

I feel I am close to my target score, and I just need to figure out a pacing strategy for Verbal. I think it could be reasonable to do another diagnostic test in about a week, and test whatever pacing method I pick.


Thanks much in advance.

[StaceyKoprince]

My Quant performance was strong.

Yay!

I for sure wasted some time on the first two RC passages...

Let's unpack that. Where did you lose time? On the initial read-through? While doing certain problems? What, specifically, slowed you down?

I did guess on 2 CR passages (thanks God), because they were and I would not have solved them correctly (I even missed them during the untimed review).

Excellent!

Overall, I missed 3 RC questions (yay), 5 SC questions (ugh...), and 4 CR questions (two of which I randomly guessed).

Which means that, overall, you only really missed 2 CR questions. On the other 2, you did what you wanted to do: You got them wrong fast / on purpose. (How much time did you spend before you guessed? The only way to make it better would be to figure out how to know even faster that you want to bail. )

I had 6 minutes deficit, so I started looking for opportunities to bail. I guess the fact that I did not yet solve 2 RC passages freaked me out... So, I started panicking and missed some easy SC questions

Yeah, we don't make good decisions when we're stressed out—kind of a rule for life.

This is why it's so important to bail whenever you hit an "ugh" question, even if you're ahead on time. It could even be the very first question in the section! It's fine to bank a little extra time—you'll definitely find a place to use that time later.

Also: You know that CR is where you want to bail, so next time you see that, oops, you messed up the time and you're going to need to bail, explicitly remind yourself: I want to bail on CR.

I do think it's a good idea to do problem sets—I would start with sets of 9, not 18. What you're really practicing is your decision-making process, so let's see whether a set of 9 problems is long enough for you to start to get into trouble and practice what decisions to make to get yourself back on track. If you find that 9 isn't long enough to really simulate the test, then you can go to 18. But if 9 is enough, then that gives you more opportunities to practice (less time and fewer problems used up each time).

[SergeyK302]

Hi Stacey,

It is hard to say where I wasted time... I can only speculate that I spent more than 2 min / question while doing the first two RC passages. Perhaps, I spent 2.20-2.30 or so... I do not think that I did CR super quickly, so I guess my timing was "regular", which is 2.25-2.35 per CR passage.

Which means that, overall, you only really missed 2 CR questions. On the other 2, you did what you wanted to do: You got them wrong fast / on purpose. ( How much time did you spend before you guessed? The only way to make it better would be to figure out how to know even faster that you want to bail. )

I almost instantly guessed after looking at the question stem (without reading the problem). Let's say I guessed within first 15 seconds.

Yeah, we don't make good decisions when we're stressed out—kind of a rule for life.

Yeah... totally agree.

This is why it's so important to bail whenever you hit an "ugh" question, even if you're ahead on time. It could even be the very first question in the section! It's fine to bank a little extra time—you'll definitely find a place to use that time later.

This is definitely not a piece of cake, I am training to become better at this.

Also: You know that CR is where you want to bail, so next time you see that, oops, you messed up the time and you're going to need to bail, explicitly remind yourself: I want to bail on CR.

Yes ma'am. Also, I tend to not grasp meaning when I am in the panic mode. I mean, I basically black out for the most part. So, I really need to address this part because it can also come back in Quant if I start getting many unfamiliar problems for which I do not have a method.

I do think it's a good idea to do problem sets—I would start with sets of 9, not 18. What you're really practicing is your decision-making process, so let's see whether a set of 9 problems is long enough for you to start to get into trouble and practice what decisions to make to get yourself back on track. If you find that 9 isn't long enough to really simulate the test, then you can go to 18. But if 9 is enough, then that gives you more opportunities to practice (less time and fewer problems used up each time).

I spoke with my tutor and he recommended that I do not do sets of 9 or 18 within 16 and 32 minutes, respectively, unless I only want to simulate the pressure in the last 3rd of the section. I tried to trade speed for accuracy in Verbal before, and my performance tended to get poor when I rushed through questions. So, the tutor suggested to continue doing what I am doing, and mentally prepare to be composed during the last 15-20 minutes of the section (and this is not easy for me). He suggested that if I have 12 questions an 18 minutes left, I should note that I have to guess 3-4 questions at the end, and just continue solving questions without rushing through them. If I happen to get a hard CR or very complex SC, I should bail immediately and note that I gained a bit of time, so I would guess -1 problem at the end. Once I have 1 minute left, I should just randomly guess the remaining 2-3 questions.

What are your thoughts on the above?

I am thinking to try the approach on one of the Manhattan CATs (will just do a Verbal section without doing Quant). Hopefully, it will give me a decent idea of whether the plan works and whether I get any gains. The scoring might be a bit off (since algorithm is different from the GMAT one), but I should still get a good picture of the mental state & how I perform.

[StaceyKoprince]

Also, I tend to not grasp meaning when I am in the panic mode. I mean, I basically black out for the most part.

That's true for all of us! Mindfulness training can help with this.

https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/2013/05/09/stressed-out-meditate-to-lower-your-anxiety-and-boost-your-gmat-score/

I 100% agree with your tutor that you should not try to rush on a bunch of problems to catch up. Never.

I just posted this to someone else: Your goal when trying to save or make up time is to bail as fast as possible on as small a number of problems as possible.

I disagree that you should just assume it's going to happen at the end of the section though, and it's a bonus if you hit a hard one before that and can reduce the number that you'll bail on at the end. And that's specifically because of the nature of an adaptive test.

First, you are likely to see a wider swing in difficulty earlier in the section. The later you get, the most the test has honed in on your scoring level. In other words, you're more likely to see "ugh this is too hard" questions in the first half than in the second half or in the first two-thirds than in the last third. So I'd rather that you are a bit more aggressive about bailing earlier in the section.

It's hard—I get it. The way I think about it is this: I'm going to have to bail one way or the other. I either get to choose when to bail earlier on or I'm forced to bail at the end later on. I'd rather have some control over what I bail on (especially knowing what I said in the prior paragraph).

Also: Since the GMAT is a "where you end is what you get" test, I don't want to drop on the last 3-4 questions in a row. That could be enough to drop my score 1, 2, 3 points in that section, and I'll have no time to recover because the section will be over. So again, if I'm able to identify good bail opportunities earlier in the section such that that's when I bail, then I'm in a better position for this aspect of the test as well. (I don't think it's a big deal at all to bail on 1 at the end. That would most likely drop you 0 to 1 points and I'm fine with those odds. Even 2 isn't terrible. 3+ starts to get problematic, especially as you go higher on the scoring scale.)

Finally, on the nerves / anxiety part. Knowing that I'm going to have to bail on 3-4 at the end of the section is really nervewracking. I'm spending the entire rest of the section feeling behind, stressed out, nervous. If I bail on even 2 more somewhere in the first 2/3 of the section, I don't have that hanging over me the entire time. It's amazing how much of a weight that lifts off of your shoulders.

[SergeyK302]

Hi Stacey,

Good to hear from you. Hope you had fun over the Halloween

Finally, on the nerves / anxiety part. Knowing that I'm going to have to bail on 3-4 at the end of the section is really nervewracking. I'm spending the entire rest of the section feeling behind, stressed out, nervous. If I bail on even 2 more somewhere in the first 2/3 of the section, I don't have that hanging over me the entire time. It's amazing how much of a weight that lifts off of your shoulders.

So here is the thing. What you described is not how I feel (at least these days). Specifically, I feel better if I do not look at timer early on and just focus on questions. And I do not really care about guessing last 4 questions. It might not sound right for you, but such approach gives me comfort. Logically, I agree that it is best to bail on 2 questions during the first 2/3 of the test. However, you never know whether you are going to bail on an easier or harder one... So, one may put him / herself in a cave if he/she bails on a few easier questions early on... Again, ideally one wants to bail only on hard questions - I concur.

What really helped me recently is a solid strategy (see my last paragraph) about how to approach the Verbal section. I took two Manhattan CATs (Verbal only) last Friday and today, and I got V32 and V37, respectively. I was a bit sick last week, so I had a headache when I was doing my test last Friday (really bad decision, I know).

Unfortunately, it is not possible to attach a screenshot with statistics. Here is a description of what happened in two tests. When I got V32, my accuracy was jumping between 60%-ile and 80%-ile; I ended up missing last 3 questions even though I was not behind on time. Question #34 was a CR question and I had 4 minutes left, so I guessed on it (incorrectly), and had ~3 minutes left for last 2 questions, which turned out to be SC questions. I missed both... So, I got V32. But the analysis tool shows that questions #30 - #34 were 71% percentile, which is probably close to V34. In this test, I did unusually bad in RC, i.e. I only got 5/12 questions right. Frankly, the RC questions looked WAAAAY harder than those from the Official Guide.

Today, I was floating between 60%-ile and 75%-ile during the first 22 questions, but then I solved correctly 7 questions in a row (all of them were SC problems), and the question difficulty went up to 85%. I was a bit behind on time (3 minutes), so I had to either guess on one CR or speed up (rush). I knew I had one more RC to come. I tend to do RC questions within 2 minutes each, so I knew I have to guess on something. The RC popped up and I realized that it was a short one, so I read it without taking any notes and got 3/3 questions right. I felt that I saved a bit of time (in fact, I saved ~ 60 seconds). Funnily enough, I got 2/3 questions right in each of previous RCs during which I took notes ... So, my RC accuracy was closer to my usual performance, and RC questions looked a bit more realistic today than last Friday.

After the last RC, I had 4 questions and 5 minutes left. The 33rd question was a CR question and I decided to go for it. I got it right. Then I missed an SC question, then I again had the CR question which bailed on (correctly, by luck), and, finally, I missed the SC question (it was quite hard). So, I ended up getting V37 even though I was likely at V38 until the very last question.


Overall, I felt calmer today than last Friday. I cannot say that I was not nervous, but I was more composed for sure. I started the session with a goal of doing my best during first 30 questions (bail only if I get an abnormally confusing CR or even RC question) and making strategic decisions when I have 5-6 questions left. My strategy for last 5-6 questions is the following:

- Bail on every confusing CR question or one that has a complex question stem.
- If there is one RC left, attempt it without notes.
- Attempt to do all SC questions.


So, I will do an official GMAT diagnostic test soon and check whether my strategy helps me to achieve V40 I will keep you posted.
Thanks for all your help!

[StaceyKoprince]

Interesting! Yes, let me know how the official practice test goes. Good luck!!

[SergeyK302]

Hi Stacey,

Here I am again with .... no very great news

I took GMAT today and got 640 again with Q47 V31 IR5 (no AWA score yet). I took Verbal, Quant, and then IR + AWA.

I had no major pacing problems in Verbal (only guessed on 2 CRs - one was in the middle of the test, the other was 35th question and it was VERY long) and finished the section with confidence. I thought I'd get at least V35, because the last couple of SC questions were definitely not very easy and RCs, for the most part, did not feel easy (especially texts)... At times, CR felt a bit easy, I got only one Find Assumption question, and all other questions were Evaluate the Argument, Strengthen, and Weaken. No Bold questions. Actually, I did not have Bold questions in my last test, too. Maybe this is some sort of indication that my performance is not too good, because some sources classify Bold questions as harder ones (there could be easy Bold questions, too).

Contrary to Verbal, I was getting DESTROYED in Quant... I do not know what happened, but I started having issues from the very beginning. Some of the first few questions were tricky and I wasted time on them, and knew that I needed to catch up. Hence, I was proactively looking to bail on harder questions.

I got at least 3-5 quant questions which I had no idea how to solve. Also, I got at least 5 questions which I knew I can solve, but somehow things did not click and I was not getting anywhere, so I guessed on them using some sort of reasoning. Overall, I reckon I guessed on around 10 quant questions. Some were educated guesses, some were definitely not. Nonetheless, I managed to finish on time (I had to randomly guess on 2 or even three questions, and I did that within 15 seconds of reading the question).

So, at the end of the Quant I was quite upset and I thought I screwed the section completely. I thought I was gonna get Q45 in the very best case.

Turns out my feelings did not reflect the reality. I got no improvement in Verbal at all compared to my last GMAT attempt. In fact, I downgraded from V32 to V31 which I got in my attempt in July. Frankly, I do not know what to do with Verbal. There is definitely no point in continuing studying the same way, because my current approach does not work. Moreover, I used up quite a lot of official CR questions. I tried several strategies, books, even worked a bit with my tutor (he is specialized in Quant, though). So, I really need some expert advise and likely outside help.

I cannot get the ESR yet (there is 72 hour delay), but I am going to speculate and will say that I probably bombed CR again.

I will take few days off and re-consider what to do next. Someone has recommended me to try GRE, because the test is not adaptive and I may perform differently in that test. I will probably try that.

P.S. I will appreciate any words of encouragement as these are very much needed...

Thank you.

[SergeyK302]

Hi Stacey, I got my ESR report as well as the AWA score, which is 5.5. I guess I no longer need to worry about AWA since I got 5.0 and 5.5 in two latests tests. Please see the ESR data below.


Verbal
Your Verbal score of 31 is higher than 61% of GMAT Exam scores recorded in the past three years. The mean score for this section is 27.08.
• Your performance on Critical Reasoning questions was equivalent to a score of 25, which is better than 39% of GMAT Exam scores recorded in the past three years. The mean score for this sub-section is 27.57.
◦ Your performance of 75% on Analysis/Critique questions is considered Above Average.
◦ Your performance of 0% on Construction/Plan questions is considered Very Weak.
• Your performance on Reading Comprehension questions was equivalent to a score of 25, which is better than 41% of
GMAT Exam scores recorded in the past three years. The mean score for this sub-section is 27.24.
◦ Your performance of 83% on Identify Inferred Idea questions is considered Strong.
◦ Your performance of 0% on Identify Stated Idea questions is considered Very Weak.
• Your performance on Sentence Correction questions was equivalent to a score of 51, which is better than 99% of GMAT Exam scores recorded in the past three years. The mean score for this sub-section is 27.27.
◦ Your performance of 100% on Grammar questions is considered Very Strong.
◦ Your performance of 100% on Communication questions is considered Very Strong.
• You completed 36 questions in the Verbal section.
• You responded correctly to 38% of the first set of questions, 71% of the second set of questions, 86% of the third set of
questions and 75% of the final set of questions.
• The average difficulty of questions presented to you in the first set of questions was Medium, the average for the
second set of questions was Medium , the average for the third set of questions was Medium and was Medium for the
final set of questions.
• The average time it took you to respond to the first set of questions presented was 1:45, the average time for the
second set of questions was 2:18, the average time for the third set of questions was 1:58 and 1:04 for the final set of
questions.
• Please Note: If you sat for the GMAT exam prior to April 16, 2018 this section contained 41 questions, on or after April
16, 2018 the section consists of 36 questions.

Quant
Your Quantitative score of 47 is higher than 60% of GMAT Exam scores recorded in the past three years. The mean score for this section is 40.2.
• Your performance on Problem Solving questions was equivalent to a score of 47. Your score is better than 60% of all sub-section scores recorded in the past three years. The mean for all test takers is 40.2.
• Your performance on Data Sufficiency questions was equivalent to a score of 47. Your score is better than 57% of all sub-section scores recorded in the past three years. The mean for all test takers is 40.17.
• Your performance on Arithmetic questions was equivalent to a score of 48. Your score is better than 64% of all sub- section scores recorded in the past three years. The mean for all test takers is 40.33.
• Your performance on Algebra/Geometry questions was equivalent to a score of 45. Your score is better than 53% of all sub-section scores recorded in the past three years. The mean for all test takers is 40.1.
• Your performance of 50% on Geometry questions is considered Weak.
• Your performance of 60% on Rates/Ratio/Percent questions is considered Average.
• Your performance of 75% on Value/Order/Factors questions is considered Above Average.
• Your performance of 75% on Equal./Inequal./Alg. questions is considered Above Average.
• Your performance of 42% on Counting/Sets/Series questions is considered Weak.
• You completed 31 questions in the Quantitative section.
• You responded correctly to 86% of the first set of questions, 57% of the second set of questions, 43% of the third set of
questions and 57% of the final set of questions..
• The average difficulty of questions presented to you in the first set of questions was Medium High, the average for the
second set of questions was Medium High, the average for the third set of questions was Medium High and was
Medium High for the final set of questions.
• The average time it took you to respond to the first set of questions presented was 2:29, the average time for the
second set of questions was 2:14, the average time for the third set of questions was 1:40 and 1:36 for the final set of
questions.
• Please Note: If you sat for the GMAT exam prior to April 16, 2018 this section contained 37 questions, on or after April
16, 2018 the section consists of 31 questions.

Key takeaways
* I did very well in SC (got all questions right). Although I got all SCs right, it does not mean that I am super great at SC. So, I will continue doing ~ 5 SCs every day to maintain my level.
* It seems that my timing in Verbal was fast in the last quarter. Unfortunately, I do not remember whether I had an RC passage late in the test. I remember having 2-3 CRs (one of which I guessed) and 3-4 SCs. So, probably I did not have an RC passage, hence, timing is quite fast.
* I did not do well in both RC and CR. While CR is somewhat expected, I did not expect to do badly in RC. In my last 7 diagnostic tests (including two Manhattan ones) I performed well and got anywhere from 9 to 11 questions right out of 12. The only time I did badly in RC was when I did a Manhattan test two weeks ago when I was sick. So, I cannot understand why the score is so low in RC If I performed to my normal standard in RC, I would have gotten V35-36...
* Quant was equally decent across all sections. So, I should probably focus on maintaining the level. I plan to cover the key notes and do 5-10 problems every other day.

I have to figure out what to do with CR and, apparently, RC. My tutor suggested that I was both unlucky and too excited (adrenaline) in the beginning of the test and missed a few easy questions, so that the algorithm did not offer harder questions in the last three quarters of the section. It is worth to mention that I was driving 60 miles to the test center after a massive blizzard, and the road conditions were awful. I spent quite a lot of energy focusing on the road to just get to the test center.

My tutor (btw, he knows you from beatthegmat forum from a while ago and sends regards) recommended to focus on CR and RC, and just re-take the test in 16 days. What would you recommend? Any particular advice on how I could improve my CR? I observed it was getting much better lately, but obviously the test did not prove so.

[StaceyKoprince]

Hi, I'm sorry that I'm just getting back to you now. I was on the forums a few hours before you on the first day you posted, so I just missed you that day, and then I wasn't able to do my usual Thu posting last week.

Okay, so let's pick apart the data. Yes, you got every SC right—yay! That could mean two things:
(1) You were rocking SC and so that actually made CR and RC harder (because you would keep having an upswing on SC and so then be given harder CR and RC). So this could explain why RC went down unexpectedly. On RC, all of the questions that go with a passage are chosen at the beginning of the passage. So imagine: you get a couple of SCs, get them both right, then the test wants to give you an RC passage...so it chooses something harder for you. And it doesn't matter if you get the first question or two wrong—the rest of the questions for that passage have already been chosen based on your level before you even started the passage.

(2) Alternatively, you were struggling on CR and RC, so you would miss those and then get easier SC. So then naturally you would get those SC right.

It's probably some combination of both of those—that is, you did legitimately do well on SC but you also benefited from seeing some easier SC.

For CR, your data was pretty clear that Construction / Plan questions were the weakness. The Analysis / Critique questions were strong. If you look at the back of your OG, it lists the question numbers by the major categories, so you can use this to help focus your CR review—look at the ones that are labeled Argument Construction...and possibly the ones labeled Evaluation of a Plan. (I'm not sure whether that second one fits into analysis/critique or construction/plan. The word Evaluation points to analysis but the word Plan points to...well, plan.

For RC, Inference was really strong; Stated Ideas were the problem. Again, I'm not 100% sure how the RC categories listed at the back of the OG map to those two groupings, but I would say anything not labeled Inference is probably a Stated Idea. You'll also want to work on making sure that you've got a solid routine / process for RC, so that it's less likely to get impacted when something throws you.

It is worth to mention that I was driving 60 miles to the test center after a massive blizzard, and the road conditions were awful. I spent quite a lot of energy focusing on the road to just get to the test center.

That is quite worth mentioning! You had massive adrenaline / panic just to get there. You did V first. So yeah, you absolutely needed time to settle down and get focused—that did probably impact your ability to concentrate. And now we know that, even when you're operating under non-ideal conditions, you can still pull off SC, but RC will be impacted.

Hopefully, next time, you won't have a blizzard going on, but if something like that ever happens again, know that they say they will hold your appointment for 15 minutes past your scheduled time (really, what they say is that they will give it away if you're still not there 15 minutes after the time...so that means they'll keep it till then!). First, that gives you a bit of leeway to get there. Second, if you do manage to arrive on time, explain that you were rushing to get there on time and ask if you can have 5 minutes to just catch your breath and calm down before you register and etc. And then do some mindfulness breathing / routine to get yourself centered again.

How much of a sacrifice is the $250 test fee for you? And how many times have you taken the real thing now? If $250 is not a big hit to your budget and if you aren't close to the 8 test lifetime limit, I'm inclined to say, yes, go ahead and take it again soon. But I would also do this: Not tell me or your tutor or anyone else in your life when you're going to take it. Literally, not one single person.

Why? There's a certain amount of pressure that comes from people knowing that you're doing this—it's impossible not to have the thought, "If it doesn't work again, I'm going to have to tell so-and-so after this is over..." so just...don't tell anyone in the first place and you never have to tell us after, either, if you don't want to.

Also, get there half an hour early next time (otherwise, you may flash back to almost being late this time and recreate that panic). Can you have breakfast or lunch nearby, beforehand? Go for it.

Basically, leave your mind as free as you possibly can on test day to think about nothing other than the test itself. Minimize or eliminate as many possible distractions as you can.

For Q, what you describe is pretty common actually! When you're doing well, the test feels hard (because you're earning lots of questions you can't do all that easily—or at all, sometimes!), so when that happens, people often think they're doing a lot worse than they actually are. At least you know now.

And, yes, you don't need to worry about the essay.

Also: Tell your tutor I said hi! Whoever he is...since you didn't tell me his BTG username.

[SergeyK302]

Hi Stacey,

No worries about the reply. I guess I missed your reply window again and will see your message next week

I agree with your analysis of my SC performance. I do miss SCs once in a while, and I really try to minimize the number of medium level questions that I miss. I guess it is okay to miss 1/2 of questions that are hard unless one aims for 750+.

I would love to discuss RC and CR in more detail. I guess my method of preparation was not optimal, otherwise, I would be getting V35+ in all tests. So, I need to change how I do CR, and maybe fine tune RC a bit. Again, I think something very abnormal happened with my RC performance during the last test, as I have been doing well in RC in most of the tests that I took in July - November.

I spoke with my tutor about CR and he recommended to try to proactively pre-think a possible answer before jumping into answer choices in order to save some time. In my last test, I skipped two CR questions (without even reading them) to catch-up on time. So, my tutor assumed that the questions could have been easy-medium, and I should try to improve my pacing to be able to attempt all questions in Verbal section. The assumption was that I might be able to accurately pre-think an answer in a handful of CR problems, and save a bit of time by not reading all option choices if I find a choice that closely resembles my pre-thinking. If I end up finding an option that matches my pre-thinking, I should pick it and move on (without reading the remaining options). I tried this technique on about 20 CR questions and found that I did not trust my pre-thinking very much nor was I able to pre-think very often. Perhaps, the question pool was quite small, but I also found out that I do not feel comfortable at all when I answered a question without reading all answer choices. So, the experiment did not really work.

I still think that it is reasonable to skip 2, maybe 3 questions during the section (especially closer to the end) if I have to catch-up on time. In my case, CR questions are the best candidates since I tend to perform better in RC and SC.

The next thing to do is to analyze CR questions that I missed in last 2-4 months, and try to dissect the logic to the smallest detail, and even attempt to convert questions / answer choices into some other category (e.g. tweak an answer to Weaken a problem to Strengthen a problem). Perhaps, this will help to improve both comprehension & pacing. But this is a pretty complex exercise that involves a lot of analysis. Is there anything in particular that you would recommend to do?

Also, I noticed that I occasionally begun answering CR questions in under 2 minutes. Sometimes I even answer CRs in about 1.5 min. There could be two reasons for that: (1) I remember questions in my subconscious because I have attempted them several months ago, and (2) I pre-think effectively and, as a result, can eliminate completely wrong answers MUCH faster now than before. While (1) is likely pre-dominant, it could be that (2) also happens more often now than before. So far, I have noticed that I improved timing on easy-medium questions.

I checked how GMAT defines Construction/Plan questions. OG says that these are Argument Construction and Evaluate a Plan questions. I attempted 10 easy questions and got all right (I remembered most of them). However, I noticed majority of these questions are Strengthen / Weaken or Complete the Argument questions with a blank. I have not practiced many "blank" questions lately, and need to spend some time and learn the patterns of how these questions work. I do remember that I had a least 3 of those questions in my latest GMAT, so, perhaps, I missed them all and this is why I got 0% in Construction/Plan category.

I guess I should stick to analyzing older questions and do a handful of new problems here and there. Next week is a week off for me, so I will take a diagnostic test and then decide about next steps. I will keep you posted.

In any case, I will be carefully working on Verbal, review Quant notes and do a few problems every other day. I realize that my Verbal ability is higher than V31, but I should control my emotions and stay fully focused to achieve a bump in the score.

Here is an example of the type of questions that usually gives me hard time. This is an OG question, so I will just type the beginning of the 1st sentence (you can probably find the question in the internet). "Although parapsychology is often considered a pseudoscience ... " When I attempted the question, I easily eliminated three answer choices except for (C) and (D). Answer (C) uses a double negative, and I got confused. The question is classified as Conditional question, i.e. it tests sufficient & necessary conditions. I read several resources that address conditionality, but have not yet became proficient at this topic.

I would appreciate any advice on what I can try to improve my CR ability.

P.S. $250 is not a big deal, I am willing to invest it. However, I won't be able to hide the test date from my wife. She will very likely notice that I have something going on I guess the best thing I can do is keep my support circle very small before going for next attempt. Btw, I live in Colorado and the weather here is super unpredictable this time of the year. Hopefully, there won't be any blizzards haha.

I have taken 3 tests so far (1st on June 24, 2nd on July 29, and 3rd on November 11). So, I have two more attempts until June 24 2020. Hopefully, my 4th attempt will be the last one! I feel that I might go for a test in early December, but this is contingent on the scores that I will get in the diagnostic tests next week.



P. P.S. My tutor's name on BTG is IanStewart

[StaceyKoprince]

I will cross my fingers for no more blizzards.

Okay, good context. On CR:
Yes, I do think you should stick with the plan of bailing fast on a small number. You can't completely control whether those bails happen to be higher vs. lower-level ones, but you can control it as far as choosing ones that you know are harder for you. If you're less likely to get it right, then it doesn't matter what the difficulty level is. So your task here is to study how to know quickly that a particular CR is not a promising investment opportunity for you so that you can make good, efficient decisions on the test.

Next, the ones you want to improve are the ones for which you're narrowing to 2-3 choices now with the right answer in the mix. You're close! So how to get closer.

We've had a long enough chain now that I don't remember whether I've already recommended this to you earlier...but it's what I think is best, so I'm going to say it (maybe again) anyway. What you really need to do at that stage is understand how they got you to think that one of the wrong answers was better than (or, at least, equally as good as) the correct answer. So, on those problems, you want to analyze:

(1) Why was the wrong answer so tempting? why did it look like it might be right? (be as explicit as possible; also, now you know this is not a good reason to pick an answer)
(2) Why was it actually wrong? what specific words indicate that it is wrong and how did I overlook those clues the first time?
(3) Why did the right answer seem wrong? what made it so tempting to cross off the right answer? why were those things actually okay; what was my error in thinking that they were wrong? (also, now you know that this is not a good reason to eliminate an answer)
(4) Why was it actually right?

If you can pick that apart, then you start to get into the mindset and patterns of the test writers—you start to understand how they construct traps...the traps that you're falling for right now. And when you start to see how they construct them, then you're a lot more likely to spot them next time, before you fall for them.

If you like, tell Ian that you're going to start doing this analysis. Keep a file in which you put your analysis or share some with him when you meet and ask him to help you spot the commonalities in the kinds of things you're falling for.

And when you come across a problem where you narrowed to 2-3, but the correct answer wasn't actually among those—ie, you were actually lost because you confidently eliminated the correct answer—pull those aside. Figure out the commonalities there, too, but this time, you're going to use those patterns to help you know when you should bail fast. The other category here, of course, is stuff where you knew you were lost / didn't know what to pick—ditto, for those, figure out why this one was so tough for you and keep that list to find the commonalities so that you can go into the test knowing the types of characteristics that should make you more likely to bail fast.

Although parapsychology...

That's an old one! (I have all OGs going back to the 10th edition...2003 )

This is a Find the Assumption question (by our categorization). I hate when they make the answers negatively worded on these! So confusing. Do you remember reading about the negation test in our CR strategy guide? I don't love that strategy on positively-worded answers—it can get confusing—but it's gold on negatively-worded questions.

Let's break this down:
Step 1: Q type = assumption

Step 2 deconstruct arg:
pp: considered pseudo, BUT actually real science (C)
b/c uses sci method (ex1 and ex2)

(Note: (C) stands for conclusion and ex1 and ex2 stand for example 1 and example 2)

Step 3: Assumption = something that must be assumed / must be true in order to get to the (C)

Step 4: (I'll only do C and D, since that's what you mentioned)
(paraphasing)
(C) Any org that does NOT use ex1 and ex2 is NOT genuine science
(D) Anything that uses sci methods is legitimate science

(C) has that double-neg. Super annoying. Use your SC: Which not is associated with the main verb? Concentrate on that one.

Negate that: Any org that does not use ex1 and ex2 IS genuine science. How does that impact the argument?

Thinking, thinking. I don't want your eye to catch what I write before you analyze it.

La la la. I'm not telling you yet.

Okay, here we go. It's irrelevant to the argument because the argument is drawing a conclusion about orgs that do use ex1 and ex2. The "fact" that orgs not using ex1 and ex2 are genuine science says nothing about what might be true of orgs that do use ex1 and ex2.

And now you have a way to deal with double-negatives. Focus on the main verb. The other "not" in the sentence is part of a modifier—it's defining which group you're talking about. If that had been the only negative, then you'd have negated that one. But if there's more than one, focus on the main verb / main action.

Answer (D) says: If you use sci methods, then you're automatically real science. Is that what this argument is basically claiming?
The arg says:
PP...is a "genuine scientific enterprise, for" (because) "it uses scientific methods"

That is: BECAUSE PP uses sci methods, it is a GSE.

So, yeah, it is assuming that the act of using sci methods means that you are a GSE.

What was it about (D) that made you doubt it / think it was less good than (C)?

[SergeyK302]

Hi Stacey,

Merry belated Christmas and Happy New Year! I wish there was a thematic Xmas tree smiley face


I was rude enough to not reply to your last message. I jumped into creating an error log using the format that you suggested and got quite obsessed with CR for a while. Sorry about zoning out. I wish I had great news to share, but sadly I do not...

I personally found the format of the error log that you suggested quite useful. I noticed that I slowed down on questions and started meticulously analyzing them. After following the error log for a while, I took two diagnostic tests around Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, I did not excel in the practice tests.

The first test that I took was from a test prep company (not Manhattan, the name of the company starts with V). I got 680 Q47 V36 in that test. I did not really trust both the test and the score just because majority of the questions seemed too ambiguous. In fact, I asked my tutor to check the questions out and he confirmed that some of the questions (especially Verbal) were unrealistic. Just that you understand - I got only 3-4 Verbal questions right in the second half of the section and still got V36. This indicates that either I was at V51 level and then my score dropped to V36, or the algorithm of the test prep company is off. Anyway.

One week after I tried to take an official GMATPrep paid test and got so nervous that ended up closing the window of the browser and bailing on the test that day. I got two pretty difficult RC passages in a row in the very beginning and I this made me very anxious. Few days later I took the test in full and got 650 Q46 V34. I run out of time and did not answer last 2 quant questions, so my Quant tutor told me that I was likely at Q47-Q48 level, but the algorithm punished me for not answering the last two questions. Had I guessed them randomly, I would have probably gotten Q47. Anyway, 650 is not the score to be happy with especially since I have two official attempts in which I scored 640. Just FYI - this time I took the practice test under beta-blocker, which is an anti-anxiety medication. Funnily enough, I have never had problems with anxiety before I met the GMAT...

Since I have not gotten above 700 in my practice tests, I decided to give up an idea of taking the official test this year and started looking for help.

I found a reputable GMAT tutor (not the same person as my Quant tutor) in Colorado, with whom I had a couple of sessions. He recommended to do a few LSAT tests (only CR and RC sections) for diagnostic purposes and he also analyzed my ESRs to get a good picture of where I am. Long story short, he indicated that I have a massive problem with test anxiety and that I also have problems with my technique & execution. He advised to work with the psychology therapist on the anxiety thing and said that we can try addressing the technique / bad habits stuff with tutoring. Sounds quite promising, but there is absolutely no guarantee that my performance will increase since it is not super easy to fix bad habits in a short run.


Meanwhile, I also spoke with an admission consultant about my chances to get in b-schools of my choice (most in top-10 in the USA). The consultant said that I should try the GRE, because (1) schools are a bit more lenient with the scores and (2) GRE scores are not (yet) used in ranking of the schools. So, I might have a better chance with a good GRE score (~320), but I almost certainly need to get a very strong (700+) GMAT score to have a good chance to get in.

So, I took the GRE and got 313. My Quant was lower than I expected (I got 162 but hoped for 165+), but I made 6 careless mistakes... There is no guarantee that I won't make mistakes again, but 6 is way too many. My Quant tutor also told me that the GRE is less forgiving in terms of mistakes than the GMAT. So, I have to be much more careful next time, but hopefully I can add 3-5 points to my Quant relatively easily. Verbal was fine as far as CR and RC go, but vocabulary part was a disaster. I only got ~ 25% of the questions right. So, I need to work on my vocabulary and, possibly, technique if I decide to proceed with the GRE.

I know there is a lot of new information in the above, but what do you think I could try as next steps? Obviously, I am not applying this year. So, I will push applications to R1/R2 next year. Also, I admit I need to fix my test anxiety and I already reached out for help. I will come back to meditation & mindfulness, too.

Do you think it still makes sense to continue with the GMAT or should I rather switch to the GRE? Should I self-study or continue with a new tutor? The tutor is very nice person and quite good at teaching, but the financial side also plays a big role. The rate is much higher than the average rate on the market and investment seems to be quite risky since there are no guarantees, and I have been stuck for quite a while. The trick with the self-study for the GMAT is that I am not too sure about what to change and how to study. I may want to continue using the error log and maybe I will have a click that will help me escape from the maze, but the error log did not help in a short term in late November - early December.

As you can see, I am in a quandary and cannot agree on next steps. I will really appreciate your feedback and suggestions!

Many thanks!

[StaceyKoprince]

Hi! Good to hear from you.

Performance anxiety can significantly mask your score—and it will cost money, too, to work with someone on that—so I would start there before you decide whether to invest more in GMAT tutoring. You have time since you're pushing back apps till next season, so see how far that gets you and then you'll have a better sense of what you might need with a tutor.

We do also have a psychologist we refer students to for performance anxiety issues—Dr. Michael Klaybor:
https://klayborandklaybor.com/test-performance-anxiety/

Depending upon how your performance anxiety manifests, it may be the case that the GRE is a better exam for you. One of the big sources of anxiety on the GMAT for many people is the fact that you have to answer each question as you go and you can't return to them. On the GRE, you can move around within a section. In practice, you don't have a ton of time to go back to questions—but just the knowledge that you could seems to help people who struggle with certain kinds of performance anxiety. So that's something to explore. Mention to whomever you work with (the psychologist) that you're trying to figure out whether the GRE might be a better exam for you.

After you've got...4? 6? 8? weeks of work under your belt on the performance anxiety, we can revisit the question of whether to switch. (Ask the psychologist how long / when you should start to think about making that decision. I don't know what the treatment protocols are.)

I will mention one thing—some schools are now posting average GRE scores and the US News & Report rankings do include GRE scores when calculating the rankings for certain schools (those that have a high enough percentage of students submitting GRE scores). I don't know which ones, though, so you may want to do some research there (or get a US News & World Report subscription—that data is behind the paywall, which is why I don't know!).

Happy new year to you too!