Advice needed on approach to quant study for retest

[evanphelan]

Friends,

I have just sat the GMAT and have scored very high on verbal, but abysmally low on quant - 36% percentile. While my score was slightly lower than what I had obtained in the GMATPrep official practice tests, I am still dismayed that I cannot get my score higher. What bugs me more is that many areas I focused on did not even get tested (see below). I have been preparing consistently for about four months, and, recognizing that I am a lot stronger on verbal, focused solely on math, and intensively so, for the last two weeks.

The resources I have used are:

• Official guide, 13th and 12th editions


• A well known and established test prep provider's most recent guide


• The online material provided by a well-known online prep provider


• Random questions posted in forums such as this one

While working my way through the OG guide (all questions), I found I was getting about 80% of them, including those near the end, correct.

Here's what I got tested on today:

• Remainders


• Triangles


• Functions


• Exponents


• Rates


• Work


• Inequalities


• Absolute values


• Coordinate Geometry


• Factors, LCM etc

Here are some areas that were not tested:

• Roots


• Probability


• Simultaneous Equations


• Sets


• Counting


• Shapes


• Sequences


• Ratios


• Interest calculations

As you can see, some relatively easy topics (ratios, shapes, simultaneous equations) did not get tested at all. I am particularly frustrated at the choice of areas tested. During the practice tests, I struggled with sets, counting, and probability. So I dived deep into these areas in the last few week, got very good at them, and then nothing gets asked.

In order to best prepare for a retest, I welcome informed feedback on the following questions:

• What conclusions, if any, should I draw from the algorithm's choice of questions today?


• While working my way through the quant section, I did not "feel" like I was getting many questions wrong. I guessed rarely. My timing could have been a little less erratic - if a test-taker answers all questions, but takes an inordinate amount of time with some, does the algorithm take this into this and punish accordingly? And if so, how heavily does it punish? GMAC does not indicate that it does; some test prep consultants suggest that it does indeed punish. What is the truth of the matter?


• This math material came easy, ridiculously easy, to me in high school. And I have a bachelor's in engineering which included a BA in mathematics. Although that was a long time ago, I am shocked at my struggle in this area. I appreciate that the GMAT ask things in tricky ways, combines areas together in one question etc., but I would have expected that, having re-familiarized myself with this subject over the last few months, it would come easy. Has anyone else faced the same hurdle, and how best to get over it?


• Given all the above, what is a sensible way of approaching my study over the next four/five weeks before I re-sit?

Please, right now I am only interested in feedback on the GMAT in and of itself, not on scoring ranges and how they relate to admissions.

Many thanks

[jlucero]

First off, make sure you post these to the right forum. I've moved the topic for you.

What's most interesting to me about your post is that the last student I heard from swore he had no rate or geometry questions. So the takeaway is that the GMAT probably doesn't sort questions by topic. They most likely put a batch of questions together, sorted by difficulty, and the questions that any one student can get can vary. Your next test might have the exact opposite kinds of topics being tested. So you do your best to prepare and, most importantly, focus on your weaknesses because you never know when you might get three inequality questions in a row.

Since we don't actually get to see the GMAT algorithm at work, we can't guarantee anything, but I have never heard of a student being penalized for having erratic timing. More likely, the fact that you had a bunch of questions you felt you could answer means you were getting some of those problems wrong. This is not at all unusual, and I know of students who felt that they bombed quant and did fantastic in verbal, only to find the exact opposite to be true. Whether you're at a 300 or a 700, you're going to get questions wrong. Don't concern yourself during the test with your trajectory though. Do your best on a question, make sure your timing is ok, and once you hit "submit", forget the problem entirely.

It's impossible to diagnose you based on one forum post, but in my experience working with students, you sound like someone who likes to do a lot of questions (OG 12 AND(!) 13??), but might not spend enough time reviewing the problems you do. I don't mean look back at the problem and remember what the answer was. Could you mathematically redo the problem? Could you give a second way to do the question? Could you explain how you would get to an answer in 15 seconds or less and be able to detail why you're doing each step along the way? If not, then you need to slow down. This isn't a test of what you know, it's a test of how you think. That requires more than just memorization. You may know that x^2 - 5x + 6 breaks down to (x-3)(x-2), but do you know that you need an equal sign to be able to do that? Do you know WHY you would want to take that next step? This is what the GMAT is testing you on. You've seen lots of quadratic equations in high school, the GMAT wants to see if you know when to factor them.

There's a lot you could do here, but I'd recommend starting by purchasing the OG Quant Review and focusing on those (new) 300 questions. Don't rush through the book though. You can have a tremendously productive study session while only doing 10 questions, if you learn how to look at those problems in a different way the next time you see the problem. Start every session reviewing the questions you got wrong before as well as ones you spent too long on or didn't feel confident on. Check out this post on reviewing questions for more help:

http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... to-review/

Finally, if you have the time, don't schedule your next test. Let the practice tests (especially the quant sections) tell you when you are ready to take another test. There's a lot of things that need to go right to get the score you are hoping for, but it's crazy to think that the real GMAT is going to go better than all the practices ones. Once you score in the 70%ile on a practice, you can be confident that if all goes well on test day, you can repeat that performance.

Good luck!

[evanphelan]

Food for thought, thank you Joe.

[jnelson0612]

:-)