32nd Percentile on GMAT Quant- need urgent advice!

Hi gmat1992,

As you go through the many practice questions - compare your approach with ours as shown in the video solutions to OG13 here: https://www.gmatpill.com/official-guide- ... p?id=ogps1

You can do lots and lots of practice questions - but still get nowhere if you're not learning from your mistake or seeing how other people might do that same question in a different/more effective manner. So open your eyes to the possibility of how you can improve so you don't run out of time and can better spot the answer within a short amount of time.

@gmat1992

The low score is mostly because of the severe penalty for not completing the test. For example, if you had just randomly selected answers to the last 10 questions, your score in the quant would have been 50th percentile(my best guess). Pacing is really important on the GMAT, and it is important to have a good gauge of one's ability when it comes to tackling the harder questions. Often, it is best to let go the harder questions. This is more of an issue for students scoring close to the average score, as you raise your level there is less room to let go the harder questions.

I wouldn't worry too much about the low quant score in your first diagnostic test. This is fairly common and is partly because most students are not used to the adaptive nature of the test, and on top of that the average difficulty of the questions is GMATPrep is fairly high and it is easy to get sucked in to the hard questions. For example, you can miss six questions in the quant(in GMATPrep only) and still get a Q51.

For now, I would recommend you to work on foundations and make sure you are very comfortable with the subject matter. Certainly use the Official Guide questions to get a hang of the GMAT style and common traps. You will make a lot of mistakes and this is a normal process for most students. At the same time, also start doing timed practice to add the element of pressure and get in the habit of getting to the end of the test, even if it means letting go a few questions here and there. For this I recommend using the GMATPrep Question Pack 1, and create mock tests. You can see this link where I describe how to do this: https://www.gmatquantum.com/faq/gmatprep ... -of-t.html

And reserve the adaptive tests in GMATPrep and GMATPrep Exam Pack 1 for later once you have gone through this initial process.

Cheers,
Dabral

Actually it isn't much about paper vs CAT. Certainly there are things that make CAT tougher such as its adaptability to your level, reading questions on the screen but solving on paper etc but at the end of the day, if you know your stuff, it doesn't matter what question they give you and in what format. Its advisable to practice CATs (to check out our free CAT, go to https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-resource-links-no-longer-available-399979.html#/free-g ... tice-test/. We also provide 5 practice tests at a nominal charge of $49) to get used to the different format but before you delve into that, you need to understand why you got 11 questions wrong. Were they conceptual errors or careless mistakes? Did you use circuitous solutions with a lot of calculations? Did you not read the questions properly? The point is before you worry about how to practice, worry about why you need practice. What is it that is lacking in your preparation.
By the way, great job on the Verbal section!