Hi Stacey,
I desperately need your help. I have read a lot of your posts on strategy and would love to get some feedback from you on my case. I have given GMAT twice, with the recent one just 2 weeks back. I scored a dismal 640 (650 first time last year). Let me tell you first about my preparation-:
1) I was pretty confident with my preparation this time around. My weak area was CR with around 60-70% hit rate in exams. The reason I say this because while practicing OG and dverbal review, my hit rate was around 90%. I struggled in last 20 questions of OG and got only 50-60% questions correct. Though initally, I flt confident about CR but as my exam approached, I lost my accuracy and its not that I stopped practicing. I was in regular touch with all three sections of verbal. In Question Pack 1(QP1), I remember getting only 30-40% hard questions right a week ago my exam and hence I started revising Last 20 OG questions and hard questions(tagged as such in the forum) from Gmat Club.
2) I worked a lot on SC and generally got only 3-4 questions wrong across my mocks(when closer to actual exam). From start to end questions my hit rate was around 70-80% in official books. I was pretty confident in SC and would generally get any random question I picked as right.
3) RC would vary and the hit rate was around 70-80% in mocks whereas it was 80-90% while practice. It was not much of a concern for me except for a passage that would come in last 10 questions because that would give me a nervous breakdown and get questions wrong in that passage in particular.
I have talked only about verbal because my maths is a strong area and I got 50 in both attempts. Now, all the %s provided above are for timed practice. Based on my practice, i determined that my pacing as 2-2.15 minutes for CR, 1-1.2 minutes for SC and 6 mins for short while 8 mins for long RC. While practicing mocks, I realized setting up 20 minutes interval to check my progress was a good idea. I would aim for the following-
10 ques- 20 mins
21-22 questions - 40 mins
32-33 questinsos - 60 mins
remaining questions in last 15 minutes
Whenever I see myself lagging behind I would guess or answer questions quickly in the next slot to match up the time. Though I failed at it in the actual exam but more on it in a while. I used to succeed at this strategy in Manhattan tests on which I consistently got above 37 points in verbal. I was getting V40 in my last MGMATs.
In GMAT prep, since my approach was focusing on first 10 questions and then speeding up, i would get very tough questions and would take away lot of time.
I feel at times I could not just let go questions. I changed this in actual GMAT and was doing great till first 40 minutes. I was at 20th question(lagging by 1-2 as per my strategy) by then. After that I just didn't realize when time passed by and last thing I remember having 10 questions in last 12 minutes. I have read people saying if you get tough RC pretty early in your exam, you a re probably doing good, I got one on Genetics, very long and convoluted around 26 or 17th questions. Infact, I got two RCs with four questions each and this led me to believe that I was doing pretty good. Also, I didn't panic in the exam except for a little in last 15 minutes. I'm not sure what happened exactly but I got V28 in actual test, the lowest across all my mocks and 6 points lower than any mock.
Mocks-:
As mentioned I scored consistently above V37 in MGMATS and V33 in GMAT preps.
The first GMAT prep that I gave a month before actual exam and with little preparation, I got 690.
GMAT Prep2: My last GMAT prep, I got 700(just 10 point improvement of last GMAT prep after a month of studying, which included 3 weeks off from office). I did bad because I experimented a different strategy in the last mock before actual exam. I gave 2 minute each to first 20 questions and I ended up guessing last 6-7 questions in last minute. Still I got V34. I was determined to change this in actual GMAT and use my approach that I followed while giving MGMATs(in bold above).
I'm now shocked and it has been two weeks and I'm just not sure how to proceed next. I have exhausted OG, Verbal review, MGMATS, GMAT preps, QP1, EP1. I have to give my GMAT as soon as possible so that I can at least apply to one college in round 1. Can you please guide me as to how can I proceed next?
Should I go for any course. I have already taken a 2 week break and I'm all set to to embark on this journey again but with very little time this time around.(Sorry, I didn't mention earlier but I studied for 3 full weeks before exam and 13-15 hrs/week for a month before that)
GMAT Forum
2 postsPage 1 of 1
- ShobhitK282
- Students
- Posts: 14
- Joined: Sun Jun 15, 2014 12:41 am
- StaceyKoprince
- ManhattanGMAT Staff
- Posts: 9360
- Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:05 am
- Location: Montreal
Re: GMAT Help- Third attempt!!
I'm sorry the test has been giving you a tough time.
The percentage correct in practice is only a rough directional guide, since the real test scoring is not based on percentage correct. The difficulty levels of the questions you are answering can make a huge difference.
The timing benchmarks that you set up for yourself shortchange you at the end of the section - you have only 15 minutes for the last 9 questions (vs. 20 minutes for 10 questions at the beginning of the test). The GMAT is a "where you end is what you get" test, so if your score drops towards the end of the section...where you end is what you're going to get. :(
I'm still reading, but it sounds like the timing benchmarks got away from you on the real test. It also sounds like you may have heard the myth that the earlier questions are worth more (but maybe you don't realize it's a myth). The earlier questions are not worth more than the later ones; the questions are ultimately worth about the same amount in the end.
The only place this doesn't hold true is for the "outliers." For whatever mix of questions you receive in a section, the couple of hardest and couple of easiest questions don't count as much towards your score. In other words, it's not worth extra time to try to get the very hardest questions right, and don't stress out if you think you got a really easy question wrong.
Okay, and now I'm getting to your description of having 10 questions left in the last 12 minutes. Yep, that's going to kill your score. You would have missed a decent number of those questions and your score is NOT an average of your performance throughout the section. Where you end on the last question is what score you're going to get. So your score dropped at the end of the section and that was that. :(
The good news, though, is that if you can fix that timing problem (which is really stemming from a mindset problem), then you should be able to lift your score a decent amount!
So, mindset #1: Your primary goal is actually NOT to get everything right. Your primary goal is to make the best possible decisions as to how to spend your two precious resources: time and mental energy.
Have you read the below yet?
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... lly-tests/
If not, go read it right now; I'll wait. :) If you have read it before, read it again, because the mindset hasn't sunk in. In fact, read it again every day for the next week or two.
You are still using the old school mindset, trying to get everything right, getting stuck / not letting go... etc.
Next, read this (right now):
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -the-gmat/
This is how you should be studying, if you are not already.
Mindset Implications:
- you do need to review problems that you got right, in order to figure out more efficient ways to do them
- you need to notice careless mistakes and figure out what new habits you can build that will minimize those same kinds of mistakes
- you need to figure out how to know that something is too hard or is going to take too long
- you need to practice letting those kinds of problems go *before* you've spent too much time
- you need to learn how to make educated guesses
etc.
If you can get the right mindset going, then you have a very good chance to have a much better test experience next time. If you keep sticking to the same old "school" mindset, you are likely to continue having disappointing test experiences.
So, first, reply to tell me what you need to change with respect to your mindset and how you're going to do that. You may have "known" before you went in that you "should" let go on too-hard problems, but you didn't really *believe* it because you reverted to the old school mindset on the real test.
Next, this material will help on mindset and timing:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -to-do-it/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... nt-part-1/
Start doing what they say *today*! In particular, develop the 1-minute time sense discussed in the big time management article; that will help you know when to cut yourself off.
General rule: if you don't know what you're doing and have a plan to finish by half-way into a problem (eg, by 1 min on CR, by 30-40 sec on SC), then that problem is already over. See whether you can make an educated guess (if so, you can spend a little time to do so), then pick and move on.
It typically takes people about 3 to 6 weeks to fix the things we're talking about, and a common short-term problem is to cut yourself off too fast at first (ie, go too far in the opposite direction), so just note that you don't want to rush this. You'll need to take the time to get it right.
In terms of what to study while you fix the mindset stuff, use the below to analyze your most recent MGMAT CAT (this should take you a minimum of 1 hour):
http://tinyurl.com/analyzeyourcats
Figure out your strengths and weaknesses as well as what you think you should do based on that analysis (tell us your Bucket #2 - you'll understand when you read the article). 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!)
The percentage correct in practice is only a rough directional guide, since the real test scoring is not based on percentage correct. The difficulty levels of the questions you are answering can make a huge difference.
The timing benchmarks that you set up for yourself shortchange you at the end of the section - you have only 15 minutes for the last 9 questions (vs. 20 minutes for 10 questions at the beginning of the test). The GMAT is a "where you end is what you get" test, so if your score drops towards the end of the section...where you end is what you're going to get. :(
I'm still reading, but it sounds like the timing benchmarks got away from you on the real test. It also sounds like you may have heard the myth that the earlier questions are worth more (but maybe you don't realize it's a myth). The earlier questions are not worth more than the later ones; the questions are ultimately worth about the same amount in the end.
The only place this doesn't hold true is for the "outliers." For whatever mix of questions you receive in a section, the couple of hardest and couple of easiest questions don't count as much towards your score. In other words, it's not worth extra time to try to get the very hardest questions right, and don't stress out if you think you got a really easy question wrong.
Okay, and now I'm getting to your description of having 10 questions left in the last 12 minutes. Yep, that's going to kill your score. You would have missed a decent number of those questions and your score is NOT an average of your performance throughout the section. Where you end on the last question is what score you're going to get. So your score dropped at the end of the section and that was that. :(
The good news, though, is that if you can fix that timing problem (which is really stemming from a mindset problem), then you should be able to lift your score a decent amount!
So, mindset #1: Your primary goal is actually NOT to get everything right. Your primary goal is to make the best possible decisions as to how to spend your two precious resources: time and mental energy.
Have you read the below yet?
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... lly-tests/
If not, go read it right now; I'll wait. :) If you have read it before, read it again, because the mindset hasn't sunk in. In fact, read it again every day for the next week or two.
You are still using the old school mindset, trying to get everything right, getting stuck / not letting go... etc.
Next, read this (right now):
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -the-gmat/
This is how you should be studying, if you are not already.
Mindset Implications:
- you do need to review problems that you got right, in order to figure out more efficient ways to do them
- you need to notice careless mistakes and figure out what new habits you can build that will minimize those same kinds of mistakes
- you need to figure out how to know that something is too hard or is going to take too long
- you need to practice letting those kinds of problems go *before* you've spent too much time
- you need to learn how to make educated guesses
etc.
If you can get the right mindset going, then you have a very good chance to have a much better test experience next time. If you keep sticking to the same old "school" mindset, you are likely to continue having disappointing test experiences.
So, first, reply to tell me what you need to change with respect to your mindset and how you're going to do that. You may have "known" before you went in that you "should" let go on too-hard problems, but you didn't really *believe* it because you reverted to the old school mindset on the real test.
Next, this material will help on mindset and timing:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -to-do-it/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... nt-part-1/
Start doing what they say *today*! In particular, develop the 1-minute time sense discussed in the big time management article; that will help you know when to cut yourself off.
General rule: if you don't know what you're doing and have a plan to finish by half-way into a problem (eg, by 1 min on CR, by 30-40 sec on SC), then that problem is already over. See whether you can make an educated guess (if so, you can spend a little time to do so), then pick and move on.
It typically takes people about 3 to 6 weeks to fix the things we're talking about, and a common short-term problem is to cut yourself off too fast at first (ie, go too far in the opposite direction), so just note that you don't want to rush this. You'll need to take the time to get it right.
In terms of what to study while you fix the mindset stuff, use the below to analyze your most recent MGMAT CAT (this should take you a minimum of 1 hour):
http://tinyurl.com/analyzeyourcats
Figure out your strengths and weaknesses as well as what you think you should do based on that analysis (tell us your Bucket #2 - you'll understand when you read the article). 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!)
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
2 posts Page 1 of 1