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Trouble with 2nd half of CATs

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Trouble with 2nd half of CATs [#permalink] New post 21 Apr 2012, 11:11
Hi All,

I've been on this journey now almost 5 months and I've been all of the map. In the beginning I was actually scoring better than I am after 5 months of studying which is extremely frustrating. I am now finding a pattern that I will do much worse towards the 2nd half of each section (quant,verbal). For example, for quant first 17 questions I am at 70% and remaining at 50%. For verbal even worse, 1st 20 questions 76% vs last 21 33% correct. I am finding as I am getting 1/2 way through or later I get ency and distracted and guess at alot of the questions. Has anyone run into this? Any suggestions? I'm almost ready to throw in the towel.
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Re: Trouble with 2nd half of CATs [#permalink] New post 21 Apr 2012, 13:12
Everyone does worse on the 2nd half of the sections because you are suppose to do worse in the 2nd half of a Computer Adaptive Test... remember the questions get harder as you get the early ones right.. once you get to "your difficulty" level in theory you should be getting about half the questions right.. IE you would get one wrong, they reduce difficulty and you get next one right prompting harder difficulty question which you get wrong..

In practice this doesnt work exactly this way because your proficiency isn't the same across all topics.. To improve on the 2nd half of CAT's, you have to practice more difficult questions basically.
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Re: Trouble with 2nd half of CATs [#permalink] New post 22 Apr 2012, 18:58
AbeinOhio wrote:
Everyone does worse on the 2nd half of the sections because you are suppose to do worse in the 2nd half of a Computer Adaptive Test... remember the questions get harder as you get the early ones right.. once you get to "your difficulty" level in theory you should be getting about half the questions right.. IE you would get one wrong, they reduce difficulty and you get next one right prompting harder difficulty question which you get wrong..

In practice this doesnt work exactly this way because your proficiency isn't the same across all topics.. To improve on the 2nd half of CAT's, you have to practice more difficult questions basically.


I have also been noticing that similar trend during my test preps. I have seen that some of my 2nd questions being wrong are as a result of rushing the final 10-15 questions, which is not good. It shows that I must significantly work on the way I mentally time myself.
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Re: Trouble with 2nd half of CATs [#permalink] New post 23 Apr 2012, 02:07
Well since it is a CAT test , your second half of the test will be harder if you are do well in the first half . Also do not go by the percentage of correct answers you get to determine whether you are struggling or not . Everything depends on what level of questions you are getting right/wrong . It is possible to get 8-10 questions wrong in quant and still get 48/49

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Re: Trouble with 2nd half of CATs [#permalink] New post 23 Apr 2012, 05:08
The GMAT is designed to "break" people. This is how the GMAC has maintained rigorous metrics in keeping the scoring in a normal distribution (outside of India/China folks skewing math scores up).

Read this thread:
stay-healthy-score-higher-22103.html

Also remember, you are your own worst enemy. By giving up half way through, you're simply letting the CAT down score you and scoring well below your potential. This is one of those "not slowing down before the finish line".

The bottom line: The GMAT is not meant to be easy. For some people it comes naturally (this is a VERY SMALL % of test takers). For everyone else, it requires a different level of time investment and prep.
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Re: Trouble with 2nd half of CATs   [#permalink] 23 Apr 2012, 05:08
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