Stuck in my progress/Big timing issue

[cs1826]

Hi Stacey,

I am a former Manhattan GMAT student kindly asking for study advice. I am stuck and not sure which direction to go from here.
I restarted studying late December 2017 and ideally I will take the official test late April.
When I resumed studying in December I used the old syllabus and followed it rigorously going through the MGMAT study books and the OG problems assigned.
My first MCAT on 1/8/17 was 550 (no IR, no Essay.) I thought this was a decent start point because I am trying to improve my score to around 650. After 7 weeks of studying I took my second MCAT on 2/26/2017 and scored the same 550 (with IR, no Essay.) This felt disappointing after the numerous early morning and late evening hours of study.
After the second MCAT I started reading the blog looking for advice and direction. I read your articles about making business decisions on answering GMAT questions and the 4 steps to get most out my CATs. Would you please glance over my below findings and correct/add to my conclusions?

Link to CAT2 data
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

Quant

1. “Correct / Incorrect” Column
- String of 5 wrong questions (#30-#34). For the first one I guessed (0:11.) At a first glance, it seemed to be a tough problem. In reality it was a 500-600 level problem that I can solve in two minutes. The second problem was 700-800 level and I tackled it, spent 4:18 (Stubborn) on it and got it wrong. Third and fourth 700-800 (1:46), 600-700 (1:36) were incorrect. I need to investigate why I got these wrong (content / strategy / careless?) On the fifth problem, 700-800m level, I guessed because I wanted to get back on track timing wise.

2. “Cumulative vs Target Cumulative” Column
#5 spent 4:34 (600-700) and I got it wrong
#19 spent 5:32 (600-700) and got it wrong
After #19 the Cum. vs Tgt. Cum was off by 4:41 mins and I was trying to get back on track. I guessed on the next one, but was still off by 3 mins. Felt pressured by the time and was trying to make up for the lost time earlier by working faster.

3. "Time" column
- I exhibit an imbalance on individual problems. On some I am too slow on others too fast because I am trying to make up and balance the individual time.
"Too fast" 8 questions (5 guesses-ranging from 0:11-0:35, I was lucky and chose a correct answer on one of them; 3 correct in total)
"Too slow" (2m30s – 3m) 2 questions (2 correct)
"WAAAY too slow" >3min: 5 questions (2 correct)
I have 5 questions over 3 mins, with the last 3 blowing up my timing completely: 4:18, 4:34, 5:23

I have a "large timing problem" on the Quant section.

Verbal

1. “Correct / Incorrect” Column
2 strings of 4 and 2 strings of 3 wrong questions.
1st string of 4 (1SC/3RC). 2nd string of 4 (1SC/1CR/2RC)
Timing on these strings looks fine. The difficulty on them looks mixed with half of them probably over my skills.

2. “Cumulative vs Target Cumulative” Column
I am too slow, 3+ mins, 2 times during the test. RC and CR take most of the extra time that I spend.

3. "Time" column
Too fast – CR 5 questions. SC 1 question
RC general 2 questions
Warning track – CR 4 questions
SC 5 questions
RC looks ok
Way too slow – CR 2 questions
SC 5 questions
RC 1 question
I conclude that I have a bigger timing problem for the quant section compared to the verbal section.

The next steps:
1. Use the method you recommended in your article to review the CAT problems.
2. I will work on my timing problem with timed OG sets (5-10 questions.) Are there any other exercises that you recommend in order to get more practice with the timing issue? Sometimes I feel that 2 minutes for CR is not even enough to read the question, text and answers.
3. Analyze CAT 1 & 2 to understand my weak content areas.

Also, if you have any advice for structure on how to study, it would be greatly appreciated.


Thank you very much for taking the time to read my long post, for writing really valuable advice in your articles and for helping me out with my GMAT studies.

Kind regards,
Constantin

[StaceyKoprince]

Hello! Question for you: Did you take our class or do Interact? If so, did you ever take advantage of your Post Course Assessment (PCA) service after the end of your course? This is a 30-minute online meeting with an instructor to develop a post-course study plan—and it comes with your class. If you didn't do it before, you should sign up for it now. Contact our student services team (800.576.GMAT or gmat@manhattanprep.com) to do so (or just to find out whether you do have this available).

If you did "regular" self-study (just the books and online resources, not including our interactive classes), then you don't have access to this service—so we'll figure things out here.

Let's start by finishing the math on this:

#5 spent 4:34 (600-700) and I got it wrong
#19 spent 5:32 (600-700) and got it wrong
After #19 the Cum. vs Tgt. Cum was off by 4:41 mins and I was trying to get back on track. I guessed on the next one, but was still off by 3 mins. Felt pressured by the time and was trying to make up for the lost time earlier by working faster.

So if you had been able to cut yourself off around the 2m mark on both of those, you would have saved a total of 6 min. You were only behind by 4:41, so even if you cut yourself off around 2.5m on each one, you still would have been on time.

The real message here is: How do you learn how to react better when you really don't know what you're doing? In other words, how can you learn to cut yourself off when that's the best decision to make?

Have you seen this webinar? It talks about a framework to help yourself make this decision:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ziyp_Xon-UE

So even though you have a lot of questions over 2.5m, you really only have 3 questions that completely messed you up. Learn to cut those types of questions off a LOT faster. There are patterns—certain topic areas that always suck you in (for me, it's combinatorics and 3D geometry). Know your weaknesses so that, on some, you can stop yourself before you even get into the problem.

Also, learn how to gauge time so that you can pull yourself out if you realize that you're over 2m and things are not coming together. That's the 1-minute time sense that section 4 of this article series discusses:
blog/2016/08/19/everything-you-need-to-know-about-gmat-time-management-part-1-of-3/

You'll want to take similar steps on verbal but you won't have to be so extreme because your timing problems are not as severe there.

Sometimes I feel that 2 minutes for CR is not even enough to read the question, text and answers.

Agreed. There are two responses here that illustrate the broader mindset that you want to take into this test.
#1: I only need to average 2 minutes for CR. I don't have to finish every CR in 2 minutes. So I can go to 2.5 minutes on some longer / more complicated ones, if I think that's a good use of my time.
BUT #2: I don't need to get everything right on this test. Some of those CRs are just terrible problems and I shouldn't be trying to do them at all. Which ones? How will I know when an extra 30 seconds has a good chance of paying off and how will I know when it doesn't, so I can make better choices as I go?

Take the above and push your analysis one step further. What else do you think you need to do to get better?

[cs1826]

Hi Stacey,

Thank you for your response and advice.

I contacted student services and I don't have a PCA option because it has been longer than 30 days after the in person course completion. I was told that there is a PEA (post exam assessment) service available, but I am not sure how will it help me given the stage where I am in my studies.

The webinar on youtube was helpful, I will employ the recommended strategies when I will work on problems.

After reading your article about the 1 minute sense, I think the development of my "one minute sense" will be a top priority. I am planning to take another CAT in 2 weeks time to see how I perform regarding my timing.

Currently, I am working to improve on the quant areas with low a percent correct responses and low difficulty level. The difficulty level for the incorrect responses is lower for quant than for verbal and I thought it would be better to start with the weaker part.

Kind regards,
Constantin

[StaceyKoprince]

Agreed that you want to focus on lower-difficulty stuff that you're getting wrong—that's more important than missing harder stuff! And good—I'm glad that you agree that the 1-minute sense is a priority.

Now, it's just time to learn how to implement this mindset under testing conditions. When you review a set of problems, think about the "global" picture. Where did you make good decisions about how to spend your time? Where would you have wanted to make different / better decisions? What do you need to do / remember so that you make the better decision the next time you're faced with a similar situation? And so on. Try that, then check back in to let us know how it's going.