Last lap towards scoring 40 more points (< 30days to go)

Took my 1st GMAT Prep CAT

Scores:
GMAT Prep CAT-1: 680
Quant - 49
Verbal - 34
IR - 3

Accuracy
Quant - 62%
Verbal - 56%
IR - 8 incorrect out of 12

Issues:
Quant: Overshot time, primarily got questions wrong towards the end. Struggled in PS & DS, both towards the end
Verbal: Time management was better than Quant, but did overshoot time towards the end & marked 1 SC & 1 CR questions by mistake, in haste. Struggled in CR, followed by SC and then RC
IR: Spent 10mins on 1st Question, and then rushed through rest of the section

Target for next Mock:
Quant: Accuracy > 70% & Scaled score to be 50
Verbal: Accuracy > 60% & scaled score to be 35
IR: Target score 6

Few key problem areas:

1. IR section review
2. Need to bring down time spend/que in Verbal?
3. Weakening type questions are a real deal breaker for me
4. SC section - modifier err still a problem area
5. In quant, word problems - work, day realted problem, investment problem and P&C + probability seem to be a bit of challenge

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1. Rest of the month should be intensive application oriented
2. Study the concepts and apply to 25 question sets from GMAT Prep
3. Quant - Grockit tool can be used to practice
4. Use CR Bible - review
5. Intensive practice will possibly address problem area "2"

Cheers
GODSPEED

10th Jul'12:

Practiced from OG V2E with CR accuracy rate of ~80%+ & RC accuracy rate of ~60%, out of 2RCs, messed up one RC, which impacted the overall accuracy

11th Jul'12:

Review Quant from Grockit
IR from from Mangoosh & GMAT Prep
SC from e-gmat & OG V2E
CR from OG V2E
RC from OG V2E

Another round of GMAT Prep CAT

Score - 700
IR - 8 (i saw some repeats here)
Quant - 50 (accuracy >78%)
Verbal - 34 (accuracy > 58%)

Idea is to review it thoroughly and increase the verbal by +1 & Quant by +1
Now, I understand, how difficult it is to increase Quant score after 49?

GODSPEED

Hi,

Couple of suggestions...

Verbal
1. Did you try Thursdays with RON?
2. Where did you study CR from? I studied from Powerscore CR bible and i never got Weaken questions wrong. Rather they looked very straight forward to me!

Quant
1. Do a lot of practice from Grockit.. its a good site! Yes the HARD questions are really hard and are way ABOVE gmat level!
2. Am not sure if I could really tell you a single gurumantr which will help you touch 51 in quant! Wha ti would suggest you is. Be calm and be confident! Do a lot of practice and you will see the result!
3. Try MGMAT MOCK tests... yes their quant is tough and lengthy! But if you prepare from a tougher source then obviously you will get easier things right!
You can aprobably get more info in my gmat de-brief
570-to-700-my-gmat-journey-133461.html

Good Luck with your prep!

VERBAL
1. How can i attend tht "Thursdays with RON"?
2. Will refer to Powerscore CR Bible
QUANT
1. Just started using Gorckit, will use it to whatever extent i can...

Thanks, really appreciate it!

Cheers
GODSPEED

Another round of GMAT Prep CAT (version 1) on 17th Jul'12

Score - 660
IR - 33% accuracy - don't have the score here (picked up set of 12 questions from GMAT Prep v2)
Quant - 50 (accuracy >73%)
Verbal - 28 (accuracy > 58%): Had exactly the same accuracy as my previous mock, but scaled score came down drastically


I read it somewhere in this forum: someone got 32 problems correct and still got a scaled score of 31; and i suppose tht's how GMAT CAT plays games with you.

Henceforth, idea is to stay focused on the first 30 problems to cross that mark of 35 on Verbal...
- CR - Need to read through Powerscore CR Bible
- SC - is still the problem area
- RC - is the stumbling block, more towards the end of the test, when i'm rushing. Need to become more efficient...
- Quant - accuracy dropped, still a concern - PRACTICE - REVIEW - PRACTICE - REVIEW

GODSPEED

Just make a search for thursday's with ROn in google and you should be good to go!

GodSpeed, I am also sailing in the same boat. Let me know if you have found any profound ways to get beyond 48 in quant. I scored a 680 Q48 V35 on jun 26th and planning to improve it by 40 to 50 points. Already started preparing. Going through the MGMAT guides as of now, reviewing everything and I find a lot of new things in quant. As said by DonQuixote in the above post, there is nothing new to learn. Save time, be cautious, do not make careless mistakes, learn more about where we are strong and weak - this would help us guess the right questions, which we are supposed to make mistakes. That's what I am trying to do for quant. What practice material do you use ? And do check out backup methods for quant from Thursdays with ron, check for RC videos as well - https://www.manhattangmat.com/thursdays-with-ron.cfm. In which section, do you lag behind ?

Not been able to crack the code on, how to score beyond 49 in Quant?

I share with you my current performance:

680 (49Q, 34V), 610 (lost focus & track of exam), 700 (50Q, 34V), 660 (50Q, 28V) : SC is the weakest area followed by CR and then RC

And, my accuracy comes down significatly, usually in later part of the test (post question No# 20), when i'm going a little faster.
You tell me, how are you planning to push up your Verbal Score? as my target is to cross 35 in Verbal, so i can use some words of wisdoms here...

Cheers & GODSPEED

Few tips I'm using lately...
- Review the CATs and OG's thourougly (for every 3.5hrs of mock test, i spend 3 to 4 hrs analyzing the test)
- Take 2 CATs on weekdays and 2 on weekends
- Review MGMAT Guides & Powerscore CR Bible
- Take enough breaks to make sure you don't wear out...

Cheers

You might want to check this link.

https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/680 ... 15975.html

These are top priority to do things for my retake. You should probably start doing this from now on as well.
- Take all the mocks with strict official condition.
- Try to sit for the full length of test during the mocks. Don't finish it earlier, even if you can.
- Follow a timing strategy so that you stay on track. I followed this timing strategy - https://gmatclub.com/forum/please-help-m ... 36133.html
- Don't take complete 8 min breaks during mocks, do it how you would do it on your exam day as soon as you are refreshed get back to test.
- IR section tires you out, if you already perform well in mocks, then you might find difficulty in the actual test if you don't follow the above steps.
Endurance is the one thing which we have concentrate on regarding this test.

As for the verbal improvement - have a look at this. Very significant improvement by someone similar to our level.
I am seeing a significant improvement in accuracy using this approach - taking notes but it takes more time to solve. Hope to improve it with practice. One more thing is don't have the mentality that bold face is the only indicator of your performance being good. Highlighted RC questions, tone, strengthen weaken in RC questions, except questions in CR, Mimic the argument. These are some of other indicators as well - faced in the actual test and in the mocks as well, both are similar. Don't be psychologically demotivated that you are not getting the questions right - that's one mistake I did in one of the GMATPrep mocks and I scored a 40 in that thinking that I was underperforming. From then on I stopped bothering about my performance and try to give my best for each question. Hope this helps !!

Taking too many tests is detrimental. Don't do this way in the last 10 days - I took 4 mocks in the last 10 days and was completely disinterested to take the test on the test day. It was like 'let's finish this darn thing'.

Thanks for your inputs....You're right
My intention of taking the mock tests is primarily to apply my prep learning in a real test taking conditions...but of course! don't want to burn out before the final one

Cheers
GODSPEED

25th Jul'12
GMAT Prep CAT-2 (v1)
Score: 690 (50Q, 33V)
Accuracy: ~81% in QUANT & ~66% in Verbal

Q: Got 1st problem wrong but later managed to pull it together
V: Got a humanities RC around 10th Q - possible reason for derailment, also, whereever i got the questions wrong, i got them wrong in clusters of 3, which possibly would have pulled the scaled score down...will come back with further analysis

Prior to this test:
- Reviewed to OG V2E, to some extent
- Went through Powerscore CR Bible (partly) - very interesting book
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Area of concern (basis performance in this test):
- Although, V accuracy went up significantly but scaled score at same level
- Q - got very easy questions wrong b'coz of silly mistakes
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Need to do some groundwork before the next CAT, any words of wisdom?

Further Analysis:
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- SC is the WEAKEST Link; out of 14 problems, which i got wrong on Verbal, 7 are from SC
- Quant - Did few silly mistakes & also stumble upon few tricky problems
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Accuracy Rates:

SC 59%
CR 73%
RC 69%
DS 83%
PS 79%

Thanks
GODSPEED

Use following materials for the review:

1. OG V2E & 12E
2. MGMAT SC
3. Powerscore CR Bible
4. GMAT Prep CATs

With all the above you Study can help you achieve 700. To add a little flavor you can use:

5. e-gmat SC

Few learnings about GMAT

It's a myth that first few questions will save your day on GMAT. The advice is just for not to do silly mistakes during the initial phase of your test. Any point loss happened during the initial phase of your test can't be compensated during later half of the test. But it doesn't mean you should ignore the later half, the accuracy in later half is equally important

For example: I have 2 examples from prep experience:
- Example 1: CAT Score - 700 - 50Q / 34V - 17 INCORRECT on Verbal: Question - Incorrectly answered questions were spread across
- Example 2: CAT Score - 690 - 50Q / 33V - 14 INCORRECT on Verbal - Got 2 to 3 clusters of incorrectly answered questions

So, it is about:
- Focus on initial question so that you can reach a certain level of score
- But, pacing yourself is equally important

Somewhere i read that you should skip one RC or mark few questions randomly to keep the pace. I beg to differ on this advice, this might work on your lucky day, but in case, this isn't your lucky day, then you might end up getting all your randomly selected questions incorrect - the penalty is heavier in getting the question incorrect in continous order than getting the spread of questions incorrect (non-continuous)

So, please manage your time accodingly!

And just to share a startling fact - I scored (on one of my practice CATs) 48 on Quant with 14 problems incorrect, with first few question incorrect in first 10problems of Quant section.

Reason: I manage to control my accuracy and timing in Quant but possibly i don't have that kind of skillset on verbal.

Cheers
GODSPEED

GMAT Prep CAT-2 @ 29th Jul'12
Score: 650 (49Q, 28V)
Accuracy: ~78% in QUANT & ~61% in Verbal

ANALYSIS OF THE TEST

Q: Got 1st problem wrong but later managed to pull it together - Did silly mistakes by the end of Quant section, forgot some Sine & Cosine values
V: Totally rodgered by RCs - most difficult RCs I ever came across
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- SC is the WEAKEST Link - Lacked concentratio on RC so too many mistakes
- Quant - Did few silly mistakes & also stumble upon few tricky problems
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Accuracy Rates:

SC 59%
CR 81%
RC 48%
DS 75%
PS 81%
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Area of concern (basis performance in this test):
- Stay focused during the test, very important!
- RCs can be the cause of a show down....be wary!
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Time to start winding up the prep...final countdown has begun

Thanks
GODSPEED