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Thrashed in Knewton Mock exam ,1 mnth left - PLS ADVISE

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Bibli
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Thrashed in Knewton Mock exam ,1 mnth left - PLS ADVISE [#permalink] New post   13 Nov 2011, 09:51
Hi,

I took my first mock test yesterday ,the Knewton Diagnostic test and scored a 530.
Verbal Quantitative Total
32 / 64% 31 / 27% 530 / 40%[/color]

I wasn't expecting a very high score but wasn't expecting such a low score either. This was the first ever mock test i took and i experienced 2 things:

1) I was behaving very differently under time pressure - my focus was haywire and i was quite intimidated by math topics i dread (DS, inequalities, percentages). I was spending too much time on some questions. I marked almost 3-4 questions without reading as i was running out of time ,and 5 questions in Verbal.
2) i couldn't crack even the simple quant questions which i otherwise can. in almost 50% Quant incorrect questions i have made silly mistakes. In Verbal i messed up in RC big time. RC i thought was my strenght as i had been scoring high while practicing,however, i couldn't get my mind to read the passages peacefully. I got 6 inference questions wrong. I couldn't even follow the strategies i had learnt like reading the first two and last lines of the paras.

Quant isn't my strength. I thought Verbal was however, this exam has really shaken me. My target it around 700. After this mock exam it seems like wishful thinking. Some GMAT forums say that Knewton scoring is flawed but i feel i can't afford to get carried away with that as my end objective is to fix those silly /conceptual mistakes and push up my score on GMAT.

Prep Plan so far:
I started with Grockit about a month and a half back , in their Diagnostic test i had scored 48% in Quant and 96% in Verbal.
For Quant - I did Nova and am doing all the Manhattan series as i know i need to brush up my concepts.
For Verbal i did SC from Manhattan , CR - i am doing the Powerscore
Before studying any of these books i did around 900 questions (Quant + Verbal) from Grockit.
I am doing the OG as well.
My exam is in last week of Dec and i am now thinking how to prep better. I plan to take mock tests every week till end of Nov and increase the frequency to twice a week in Dec.

Pls share any suggestions and thoughts.
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Re: Thrashed in Knewton Mock exam ,1 mnth left - PLS ADVISE [#permalink] New post   14 Nov 2011, 19:16
Just a quick note, on this: it is not about frequency of taking exams, but rather quality studying. It seems with a score near yours that you are missing some of the fundamental concepts. You need to address these before you continue to consume the limited CAT exams in the market. Happy to talk about specifics.
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Re: Thrashed in Knewton Mock exam ,1 mnth left - PLS ADVISE [#permalink] New post   14 Nov 2011, 21:22
hey Thanks... i analysed my scores. In quant i had done some very silly calculation mistakes and in some i had got stuck due to lack of practice. In verbal i found that my RC questions went wrong - mostly in inference qs and in main idea. I am trying to make a study plan accordingly.

n thanks for the suggestion around the CAT exams too. I think it makes a lot of sense for me not to exhaust them at this stage.
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Re: Thrashed in Knewton Mock exam ,1 mnth left - PLS ADVISE [#permalink] New post   14 Nov 2011, 21:39
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Bibli wrote:
Hi,

I took my first mock test yesterday ,the Knewton Diagnostic test and scored a 530.
Verbal Quantitative Total
32 / 64% 31 / 27% 530 / 40%[/color]

I wasn't expecting a very high score but wasn't expecting such a low score either. This was the first ever mock test i took and i experienced 2 things:

1) I was behaving very differently under time pressure - my focus was haywire and i was quite intimidated by math topics i dread (DS, inequalities, percentages). I was spending too much time on some questions. I marked almost 3-4 questions without reading as i was running out of time ,and 5 questions in Verbal.
2) i couldn't crack even the simple quant questions which i otherwise can. in almost 50% Quant incorrect questions i have made silly mistakes. In Verbal i messed up in RC big time. RC i thought was my strenght as i had been scoring high while practicing,however, i couldn't get my mind to read the passages peacefully. I got 6 inference questions wrong. I couldn't even follow the strategies i had learnt like reading the first two and last lines of the paras.

Quant isn't my strength. I thought Verbal was however, this exam has really shaken me. My target it around 700. After this mock exam it seems like wishful thinking. Some GMAT forums say that Knewton scoring is flawed but i feel i can't afford to get carried away with that as my end objective is to fix those silly /conceptual mistakes and push up my score on GMAT.

Prep Plan so far:
I started with Grockit about a month and a half back , in their Diagnostic test i had scored 48% in Quant and 96% in Verbal.
For Quant - I did Nova and am doing all the Manhattan series as i know i need to brush up my concepts.
For Verbal i did SC from Manhattan , CR - i am doing the Powerscore
Before studying any of these books i did around 900 questions (Quant + Verbal) from Grockit.
I am doing the OG as well.
My exam is in last week of Dec and i am now thinking how to prep better. I plan to take mock tests every week till end of Nov and increase the frequency to twice a week in Dec.

Pls share any suggestions and thoughts.


Ignore the score you get in mocks (except GMAT prep tests by mba.com). Use the mocks to learn your weaknesses. That's what the 4 hr investment gives you. Use that knowledge and work on strengthening the gaps before you take another mock. Now that you know you behave differently under time pressure, take any section test you are taking in a timed environment so that you learn to focus under pressure. Work freely only when you are visiting the fundamentals and explanatory examples. Figure out the Quant topics that are not working for you and visit their concepts again. Work on RC, practice inference questions, figure out what strategy works best for you etc. Thereafter, you can take another mock to show you more gaps.
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Re: Thrashed in Knewton Mock exam ,1 mnth left - PLS ADVISE [#permalink] New post   14 Nov 2011, 21:51
Thanks Karishma, I am also trying to figure out if mere reading the first 2-3 lines in RC work well vs reading the entire passage in one go. Both have worked for me in the past. During the Mock test i took a new route though , i did a 50-50 of both, apparently that didn't quite work this time. Curious to know your thoughts around useful time saving techniques in RC.
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Re: Thrashed in Knewton Mock exam ,1 mnth left - PLS ADVISE [#permalink] New post   14 Nov 2011, 22:11
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Bibli wrote:
Thanks Karishma, I am also trying to figure out if mere reading the first 2-3 lines in RC work well vs reading the entire passage in one go. Both have worked for me in the past. During the Mock test i took a new route though , i did a 50-50 of both, apparently that didn't quite work this time. Curious to know your thoughts around useful time saving techniques in RC.


Check out: looking-for-some-suggestion-mostly-verbal-117264.html#p950440

I suggest my students to read the passage properly to understand it before they go on to the questions. In fact, I suggest them to skim over it once again in case of doubts after the first read. Thereafter, they don't need to re-visit the passage again and again for every question. You do need to invest the first 4-5 mins but you can pretty much do 4 questions in the next 2 mins after that. Plus, you understand the passage so you don't make many mistakes in the 'universal' and 'inference based' questions.
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Re: Thrashed in Knewton Mock exam ,1 mnth left - PLS ADVISE [#permalink]
14 Nov 2011, 22:11

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