Hi mkil23,
I’m glad you reached out and I’m happy to help.
Looking at your practice test scores versus your actual GMAT, it’s clear that leaving two quant questions blank had a negative impact on your GMAT quant score. However, the larger issue is determining WHY you had a timing issue on your real GMAT. Since timing was never an issue for you previously, it’s possible that nerves got the best of you on test day, which led to some abnormal behavior when taking the quant section. The other possibility is that some of your quant weaknesses were exposed when you took the real GMAT.
To be on the safe side, consider giving yourself more time prior to taking your next GMAT, and use that time to fully analyze and fix any remaining quant weaknesses. Remember, as your GMAT skills improve, your timing should naturally become more consistent, as it is likely that you will spend a little more time to carefully answer questions that you are answering too quickly now and spend a little less time answering questions that you find particularly challenging now.
In fact, a great way to know how well you have a mastered a particular topic is to be cognizant of your reaction time when seeing a particular question. For example, consider the following simple question with which many students who are beginning their prep struggle:
20^2 + 21^2 + 22^2 + 23^2 + 24^2 + 25^2 = ?
A) 3,055
B) 2,060
C) 3,066
D) 3,704
E) 3,077
Upon seeing this question, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Performing all of the calculations by hand? Grabbing a calculator to add up the values in the expression? Are you spending 60 seconds or more just thinking about what the question is really asking or how it could be efficiently solved? Or do you quickly recognize that there is a simple solution that utilizes the concept of units digits?
If you are able to quickly recognize that using the units digits will allow you to attack the problem quickly and efficiently (see the solution below), the question becomes very basic.
Solution:
Because each answer choice has a different units digit, instead of finding the actual sum, we can just find the units digit of the sum. Let’s use the units digit of each square to determine the units digit of the sum.
- The units digit of 20^2 must be 0, since 0^2 = 0.
- The units digit of 21^2 must be 1, since 1^2 = 1.
- The units digit of 22^2 must be 4, since 2^2 = 4.
- The units digit of 23^2 must be 9, since 3^2 = 9.
- The units digit of 24^2 must be 6, since 4^2 = 16.
- The units digit of 25^2 must be 5, since 5^2 = 25.
Once we have this information, we can sum the units digits: 0 + 1 + 4 + 9 + 6 + 5 = 25. Thus, the units digit of the sum is 5. Answer choice A is the only choice with a units digit of 5.
Although this is just one example of many, you can see that you must have many tools in your toolbox to be prepared to efficiently attack each GMAT quant question that comes your way. As you gain these skills, you will tend to answer quant questions faster.
Finally, you may find my article about
how to score a 700+ on the GMAT helpful.
Feel free to reach out with any further questions.
Good luck!
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20 Jul 2018, 11:49
