Hi all, I am starting an intensive prep for my test and creating a study log to keep track of my progress. Feel free to hop on for the ride Test Date: week of Aug. 17th-23rd Goal: 750+ CAT Progress: GMATPrep1, July 5th, 2008: 750 (Q51, V41) MGMAT_CAT1: July 12th, 2008: 730 (Q48, V42) Study Materials: OG11 + verbal/math supplements MGMAT SC.

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6 Week Intensive Study Log

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PatrickBateman

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12 Aug 2008, 22:53

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seeing as how I've been neglecting SC's for the past 2-3 weeks, I ran through OG11 SC again.

I first attempted these about 4-5 weeks ago, so while some questions looked familiar, I certainly didn't have their answers memorized. That is, the questions still looked quite new.

Summary: bit dissapointing. need to get my act together for SC.

Long story:

Q1-100: 84/100, 0m43s/question.
last month's: 81/100, 1m15s/question.

So it seems like I'm getting faster on the easy stuff, but still making the same errors.

Q101-138: 28/38, 0m47s/question
no reference point (forgot to do these last month).

Q101-138 are obviously what I'm concerned about, as they are the tougher questions.
My goal was to have a 85% hit rate on 7-800 level questions (actual: ~73%).

I'm going to spend most of tomorrow analyzing my mistakes. Hopefully I can find one or two errors I make consistently.

PatrickBateman

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12 Aug 2008, 22:56

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SC def. seems to be where I can make up the most ground right now.

I took GMATPrep2 yesterday. Perfect on CR and RC, ~65% on SC for a V44.

Funny how when I started SC was my weakest, then became my strongest, and is now my weakest link again.

ryan987

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13 Aug 2008, 06:15

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PatrickBateman

So I figured out the problem with MGMAT_CAT5. According to tech support I've exhausted their bank of 7-800 questions. Bummer.

Just out of curiosity... On your MGMAT CAT 1-4, when you pull up your score report, of the 37Q & 41V questions on listed, how many are 700-800?

Also, how many can you get wrong and still be in 700 land?

Thanks

PatrickBateman

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13 Aug 2008, 08:57

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on MGMAT CAT 1-4, almost all the questions were 7-800 level. The CAT ramps up very quickly (faster than GmatPrep).

Not sure how many you can get wrong and still be in 700 land. MGMAT algorithm isn't exactly the same as GmatPrep, but it's pretty close.
I think a better indicator of success is how many tough questions you can get right.

Of course, the more questions you get wrong, the fewer tough questions you get.

ryan987

PatrickBateman

So I figured out the problem with MGMAT_CAT5. According to tech support I've exhausted their bank of 7-800 questions. Bummer.

PatrickBateman

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13 Aug 2008, 23:12

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went through my errors in SC today. Man, those hard-bucket questions in OG are pretty darn tough.

Also went through my error log in OG11 CR.
First pass, I had about 26 questions that I got wrong or was unsure about the answer.

The good news is that the answer seemed to "pop" much more than before (24/26, 1m47s/question).

The bad news is that I remembered a lot of the tricks, so I don't think it's an accurate projection of my abilities.
The other negative is that even though the questions were familiar, I was still fairly slow.

On test day, I am aiming to do CR's in <2min, SC <1min ,with RCs as the wild card.

Gonna review some Q tmw, and get cracking on some of the supplemental OG sets.

PatrickBateman

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14 Aug 2008, 22:40

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went through my error/trouble log of OG11 DS.

24/29.
1m44s/question.

needless to say, considering that I've seen most of these questions, I was expecting to do a lot better and a finish a lot faster.

Re-doing GmatPrep1 tomorrow.

PatrickBateman

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15 Aug 2008, 15:48

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8/15, GMATPrep1 (retake): 780 (Q51, V47)

saw about 5 repeats on each of the sections, and the score is thus inflated. I was more concerned with my performance on timing and stamina.

felt really good about the AWA, although I learned that I need to leave more time to edit. 5-6 mins should suffice.

2 questions wrong on Q, both careless errors where I misread the question stem.
Since I usually have 5-10min left at the end of Q, maybe I should spend more time double and triple reading question stems before confirming.

2 questions wrong on V. Both SC. Got some really tough RCs but still got through them unscathed. CR is down cold, felt pretty good.Timing in V continues to be a concern. I typically finish with <1-2 min to spare, but that's not leaving a lot of wiggle room. 1 or 2 bad RC's and I would be short on time.

Started to lose mental focus on around question 28 of 41 on V...I was hungry!
Need to make sure I push through to the end on test day.

ryan987

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15 Aug 2008, 17:56

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dude, ur a freak of nature...

I just wrote my 1st MGMAT CAT - 670 Q45V36 - I can only imagine what your 'report' looks like. i'm lookin to write my GMAT in early September and hopefully, break 700.

I'm still tryin to decide if your posts are inspiring or discouraging..... lol

Either way, keep posting. And good luck on your GMAT. When are u taking it?
And what suggestions do you have for me.

PatrickBateman

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17 Aug 2008, 10:29

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did the SC in verbal supp last night. some strange results, considering that the questions are supposed to be in ascending order of difficulty.

#1-30: 23/30, 0m53s
#31-60: 23/30, 1m12s
#61-90: 28/30, 1m20s
#91-113: 20/23, 1m18s

So this either means that
a.) I am better at the harder questions than the easier questions....
b.) I get a slightly higher hit rate when I take a bit more time.

It is likely b, but I really think 1m20s is pushing it.

I've read that SC's should be <=1min.

PatrickBateman

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17 Aug 2008, 10:32

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ryan987

there are a few freaks of nature on this board...but I'm not one of them.

If you're around 670 on MGMAT you should be in good shape. A Q45 means you're capable of getting 48-50 on the actual GMAT. My suggestion is to focus on verbal as MGMAT verbal can at times be a bit easier than GmatPrep.

I'm taking my exam this week.

zonk

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17 Aug 2008, 13:09

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What are you doing to work on verbal? Our scores are very similar, and I can't seem to get over the verbal 99% hump, for some reason.

GMATPrep 1 (late July, hadn't start studying yet): Q50/V44 -- 760
GMATPrep 1 (re-take 1): Q50/V45 -- 770
GMATPrep 1: (re-take 2): Q51/V47 -- 780
GMATPrep 2 (today): Q50/V42 -- 760

MGMAT CAT 1: Q48
MGMAT CAT 2: Q48/V38 -- 710
MGMAT CAT 3: Q47/V44 -- 740
MGMAT CAT 4: Q49/V39 -- 720

PatrickBateman

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17 Aug 2008, 14:59

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zoinnk

Which of the 3 sections is giving you the most trouble?

Your scores look good though. When do you plan on writing?

zonk

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17 Aug 2008, 15:47

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PatrickBateman

zoinnk

Which of the 3 sections is giving you the most trouble?

Your scores look good though. When do you plan on writing?

I'm taking Aug 30.
I'm basically perfect on RC.
SC and CR are evenly split as my weak points, but I've focused on them a little bit and haven't improved, so I'm annoyed with myself. I'm very clearly missing the separator questions that jump me into the next tier of verbal scores. I can't seem to get over that hump. Even taking extra time and care didn't help (I finished my first GMATPrep verbal with 20 min to spare vs. today w/ 30 sec to spare).

I'm not too worried about my score, but since I have 2 weeks, I figured I'd use my time wisely and improve my verbal. Quant, at this point, is very diminishing returns.

I have a bad GPA due to family circumstances during college, so I would prefer that my GMAT be as high as possible, even if it is a difference b/w 760 and 780.

PatrickBateman

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17 Aug 2008, 18:18

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just went trough PS in Q supplement. My timing was strong, but I made more errors than I would have expected.

Q1-100: 98/100, 0m50s
Q101-176: 70/76, 1m27s

ryan987

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17 Aug 2008, 18:29

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As in ...you did all the problems in the book ..... TODAY??!?!?

PatrickBateman

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17 Aug 2008, 20:03

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booyah!

i was gonna take it easy for the rest of the night...but I started getting a little worried about DS.

Did the very easy and very hard questions, and really tried to push my pace.

Q1-20: 20/20, 0m36s
Q61-80: 19/20, 1m00s
Q81-100: 19/20, 1m21s
Q101-118: 17/18, 1m23s

very happy with those results. It's a nice confidence booster with my exam coming up this week.

I think I'm pretty much done with math prep.
Going to hit some RC and CR from verbal supp tomorrow, and retake GmatPrep2.

PatrickBateman

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17 Aug 2008, 20:06

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ryan987

As in ...you did all the problems in the book ..... TODAY??!?!?

yup.

Actually, if you want my advice, I highly recommend against doing that. I just got lazy and left all the official questions until a few days before my exam.

I think it would be much better to do 20 questions a day for a week or so, sampling from the easy to hard questions (e.g., do q1, 7, 14......140, 147....etc).

This way you can absorb the lessons learned from your mistakes better.

PatrickBateman

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18 Aug 2008, 12:36

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V supp CR

#1-20: 20/20, 1m00s
#21-40: 20/20, 1m24s
#41-60: 20/20, 1m45s
#61-82: 20/22, 2m02s

CR is my strongest, so I'm a little disappointed with my performance on the hard questions. The two errors were careless errors though (misread the question stem). I really pushed to be <2min on hard questions, so that may have been what caused the misreads.

PatrickBateman

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18 Aug 2008, 16:21

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wow...that was a bad idea.

I decided to do gmatprep2 again. For some reason was just not feeling at all during the Quant.
After seeing a handful of questions in verbal and seeing that they were all repeats from OG or V Supp, I skipped it.

The result? Q48. Yikes. On review, lots of stupid mistakes, and a couple of questions that were just down right tough. I think that I may have become a bit complacent by doing so many OG questions in the last few days. Instead of attacking the questions, I kind of went about everything very casually.

Of course this is not something you want to see <48hrs from the test. I was sort o taking a Q5x for granted, and looking to push my V score up as much as possible. Hopefully this will serve as a wake up call to show that I can't just coast through Q.

PatrickBateman

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18 Aug 2008, 16:25

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alright, time for a somewhat embarrassing post.

I hate to admit it, but as G-day approaches, I've started to crack a little bit under the pressure.

I know that I can't let it get to me, and that I have to be confident. But on the road to 760 there is very little room for error.

I had trouble sleeping last night, and actually had my first gmat related nightmare! :shock:

So I'm going to take a step back tomorrow, and sort of just stop my prep work here. If I don't know it by now, I doubt that I will be able to absorb it in 1 day.

Also, going to try and get a good night of sleep.

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