FediseK700+ wrote:
Hello,
I am seeking advice on how to proceed further with my GMAT preparation. During the last four months, I was intensively preparing for the GMAT Focus exam with
TTP (Expert + track, as I am aiming for a 700+ score) and completed all the chapters from quant, verbal, and data insights. Before that, I went through the majority of the practice questions from the
OG, but my preparation was not structured, and I felt that I was stagnating, so I decided to purchase the
TTP course. To know my baseline score, I also did one official mock exam, where I scored 535 with a high verbal score (although I did not tick the last question, I got 81/90), below average quant (75/90), and data insights (74/90).
I felt that my preparation went well, and I think that the
TTP course helped me to understand the basic concepts and taught me all the important theories that I did not know before. During the
TTP practice exams, I was able to almost always reach the target accuracy on all the easy, medium, and hard quant tests, but I was often struggling with time. Except for the mission review tests, I almost never finished the chapter tests on time and focused mostly on accuracy. I mostly did the test that was proposed at the end of the chapter, and then one chapter test from each difficulty level. For verbal, I felt that the easy and medium verbal tests were very easy, as I mostly got 100% on them, but the hard ones were very difficult, and I had to often redo them to reach the target score. I was struggling with data insights the most and had trouble reaching the target score on even the easy tests. This has thrown me off, as I found all the other material more manageable.
After I completed the
TTP course, I started to do the mock exams, and to my shock, after more than 500 hours of studying, I got the same score as at the beginning of my preparation. I felt like the questions were too different from the ones tested on
TTP, especially their wording and how they required the utilization of multiple concepts at once. I was also struggling with time and had to often guess on the last few questions. So I started to do additional quant tests on
TTP but timed. After a few weeks, I was able to reach the target scores on all difficulty levels for all chapters, often with a few minutes to spare. When I moved to the mock exams again, my scores were almost the same and I had the same issues as before.
I don't even know how to interpret the mock exam scores. Quant is often my weakest part, but I sometimes get very high verbal and data insights scores and sometimes very low ones. I am desperate and don't know what to do. Can you please give me some advice on how to proceed? Did some of you experience a similar situation? If yes, what did you do?
Here are all my mock exam scores in chronological order:
First practice exam:
535 with 74 (DI)/75/(QR)/81(VR)
After the preparation:
535 with 78/76/76
575 with 81/76/78
595 with 72/79/88
555 with 74/76/82
Thank you very much for your help.
Hi! I will give you a video link that I created just yesterday about exactly the same issue (score for mock exams not improving by much). It will for sure help. But before that I would like to call out that you have spent a lot of time on preparation and your fundamentals must be strong by now. The only thing you need now is a solid test-taking strategy. This means you will have to work on a lot of time-paced practice sessions where, let's say, you start with 10 questions in 20 mins and then slowly move to 21 questions in 45 mins on quant (and adopt a similar strategy for other sections). In the beginning,
pretty much all the aspirants face the same issue that you are facing (running against time) or if they focus on time then the accuracy goes for a toss and vice-versa. It's bound to happen, just that you will have to keep practicing and things will eventually fall in place.
Here are a few things you should do (and you can watch the video for detailed info if you like the pointers)
1)
Build a test-taking strategy and no matter what happens, don't budge from it. (example: Spend 11 mins on Q1 to Q5, 10 mins on Q6 to Q10 (you can take 1-2 risks), 10 mins on Q11 to Q15 (you can take 1-2 risks), 14 mins on Q16 to Q21. This also means that (since GMAT clock runs backwards) when you have 36 mins left, you should be at Q5 (considering you need 2 mins to answer that question), when you have 26-27 mins you should be at Q10, when you have 15-16 mins you should be at Q15 (since you will need 1-2 mins to answer that question).
2) Analyze your mistakes on each test
3) Review your correct answers on each test to ensure that you are getting them correct with right reasoning (and in stipulated time)
4) Identify patterns i.e. take note of the type of questions you are consistently getting incorrect, concepts/fundamentals on which you struggle, and questions where you spent more than 2 minutes (were they correct or incorrect)
5) Maintain an
error log and keep reviewing it during your practice sessions to ensure you are working on the weak areas. Review the
error log a day before the next test so that you remember the mistakes you made on the last test and you don't repeat them on the next one (it should be there in your subconscious mind)
I would also like to ask a few questions to understand in granular detail
1) At what frequency did you take these mocks?
2) How exactly were you practicing between the mocks (or during your regular practice sessions between two mocks)?
Here is the video link: The Art of Analyzing GRE/GMAT Mock Tests!Blog Link:
Boost Your GMAT/GRE Scores: The Art of Analyzing Mock TestsFeel free to schedule a
complimentary call to discuss the test-taking strategy in detail or to discuss the above pointers.
close
18 Apr 2024, 11:39
