Stacey help!!-CATS with a lot of 700-800 level questions

[fak]

Hi Stacey and team,

I have been reading a lot of posts since a year and following your advice. I have come to a point where I see that I am not able to improve even with a lot of effort and practice on my weaknesses.
I have taken 6 MGMAT cats and cant seem to understand why both my verbal and quant scores are in the same range.

Today i read a post regarding how the percentile matters per question and the percentile with which you end the last question is your final percentile and not the overall average.
Now after this i tried to look at the flow of my answers and the type of questions. I got an average of 19-20 700-800 level questions on the quant. and I ended up with around 55-65 percentile. the 600-700 level questions that I got wrong were 2-3 on avg. and none from 500-600 were wrong.

I understand that if you get harder questions as you progress which means that you are going the right way. So out of the 700-800 level questions i got only 3 right . (i.e.3 out of 18-20 on avg) . So that makes me feel that I should try harder on the big hard problems and not skip them as soon as I feel that i wont be able to do them in time and waste time on other questions.
Remarkably, on the gmat prep exam i got 22 wrong overall and 44quant score. Which means that i was given a lot of 700-800 level questions and i got them wrong a lot.

Now my question is what do you suggest is the best strategy, should i work harder and faster on 700-800 questions and spend around 2-2. mins per question to try to get an educated guess even if i dont know how to get stuff right. OR should I study advanced concepts to hit the 80% percentile level because I have to get 50% success from the 700-800 level questions that I am getting in a large number.

I have to take the exam in 4 weeks and need to improve 80 points.

Thank you for reading !!

[StaceyKoprince]

Hi, I'm sorry for the delayed response - this is our busiest time of year. FYI to everyone, it's going to be like this till the end of the year!

I'm a few sentences into your second paragraph (haven't read everything yet) - but you can't calculate your score based on the averages of the difficulty ratings of the question. Someone could have lots of 700-800 questions in the beginning and middle, then run out of time or get a bunch of questions wrong for some other reason. Then, the score will drop and where you end is what you get, as you noted.

First, it's NEVER a good idea to spend extra time on something that you don't know how to do. Ideally, you recognize sooner that you don't know how to do that problem and you actually save time by making your guess before the time is up.

Second, you NEVER rush on questions that you do know how to do within a normal timeframe. You take the time that you need to be methodical and not make mistakes. You don't necessarily have to take the full time given to problems of that type - but you don't make yourself work faster

If you know how to do something but it will take some extra time (not more than about 45 to 60 seconds extra), then you go ahead and answer.

If it will take longer than that, then:
(1) BEFORE the test, you see whether you can learn to do that type of thing more efficiently
(2) DURING the test, you consider that problem too hard and you guess and move on (because you can't risk putting yourself in the position of running out of time at the end)

Next, because of the way the test works, it's not a great idea to study only the harder questions. The test questions are given in a pretty wide range, so even if you are capable of earning 90th+ percentile level questions, you will still have to answer lower level questions. If you miss a 90th-percentile question, you won't be prevented from scoring in the 90th percentile. If you miss too many 75th-level questions, though, then you're not going to be at the 90 level by the time the test ends.

In short, thinking this much about how the scoring works is just going to distract you from the task at hand. You've got certain strengths and weaknesses as far as content, question type, and timing are concerned. What are those strengths and weaknesses? That's what you need to improve in order to lift your score. :)

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

Are you already taking the test in that way? If not, start changing your mindset or you won't maximize your score.

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

Are you already studying in that way? If not, start!

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

Figure out what you think you should do based on that analysis and the previous articles that I linked above. 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. Part of getting better is developing your ability to analyze your results - figure out what they mean and what you think you should do about them!)

[fak]

thank you so much for the advice . I am constantly trying to get the lower ones right 100% of the time. But getting 28 out of 37 questions with a 700 level difficulty just pushes me back a bit. I have worked hard on the timing issue. Now i complete the test in time and the GMATprep tests before time.
I dont know why but i feel the quant on mgmat is harder and more time consuming. I am learning effectively and not bulking up as the article suggests.
I have followed your strategy on RC and I do 4 passages everyday to get better at it.
I have identified that OG problems are very much alike the gmatprep software problems. They test similar concepts but in different wordings. For e.g. algebra DS problems test most of the time if we can get an answer with 2 eq and 2 variables.
I think bulking up with huge questions is not the way to go like many people goto forums like gmatprep and do 1000s of questions without learning.

Again I appreciate you taking time out to help for free.

Have a good day.

[StaceyKoprince]

You're very welcome.

A lot of people tell me that they think our quant is harder than GMATPrep's quant. People also tell me that they think the real quant is harder than GMATPrep quant. So think of it as being well-prepared. Ideally, you'd want the real test to feel a little easier than normal, not harder than normal, right?

It sounds like you're learning some good takeaways from your study. I agree that doing thousands of problems is not the way to go for this kind of test. (Well, unless you're like me and do them over 20 years while thoroughly picking them apart. ;) The way you learn is by really analyzing and making connections between problems, not by simply doing tons of problems!