Context:I originally was supposed to take the GMAT this upcoming Saturday (4th) but seeing my CAT scores made me hesitant. Ultimately, when I decided to register, there was nothing left available for this upcoming weekend. The best I could do is August 18th, giving me approximately ~16 days to study. I see it as a blessing in disguise in some ways, as if destiny was blocking me from hastily completing the test, knowing that I personally can do better.
EDIT: 18th was no longer available. Now I scheduled for Sept 29th tentatively, but I'll definitely try to reschedule to much earlier (mid/end August) if a date gets free'd up.Admittedly, my initial strategy was flawed. I started by doing
OG problems right away - I did all 250 PS with minimal/no revision. This strategy not only yielded bad results, but also made me unable to "learn" from my mistakes. I see these first few weeks as a complete waste/sunk cost, unfortunately. I took a small break and changed my strategy - I read all the Manhattan Guides & did their suggested "Review" questions at the end before starting to do exercises again. Unfortunately though, I would say that I have completed more questions from all my CATs combined than I have completed as part of "Review/Preparation" with
OG/Manhattan. That is something I still believe is sub optimal, and if changed, can unleash some untapped potential, as I am someone who learns from mistakes more than from reading theory. With that in mind, I would say that I have been "seriously" studying/preparing for ~3 weeks, and only started taking CAT's last week.
I understand that it is not advisable to do multiple CAT's in quick succession, but given my limited window to study and do the test, these are my results to date:
July 24, 2018 GMAT Prep CAT #1: 610 (Q41, V33)
July 27, 2018 Manhattan CAT #1: 540 (Q34, V31)
July 29, 2018 Manhattan CAT #2: 590 (Q39, V32)
July 31, 2018 Manhattan CAT #3: 630 (Q42, V34)
I must note that I perceive the Manhattan CAT scores to be inflated, mainly because I used the Pause function more than I should've while continuing to work on problems. With that being said, most of those questions still yielded the wrong answer or were abandoned on my part, but it nonetheless alters the score I obtained. My logic for doing so mainly lies in the fact that I wanted to determine what my raw capabilities were, rather than my capabilities under time constraint (once again going back to the fact that this should've been done through practice problems - but I admittedly haven't done enough of them).
Here is data from my Three MCATs.
AVG Difficulty of Correct Answers ||
Avg Difficulty of Incorrect AnswersPS:
550 ||
640DS:
560 ||
640SC:
690 ||
720CR:
660 ||
710RC:
690 ||
720AVG Difficulty of Correct Answers ||
Avg Difficulty of Incorrect AnswersGeometry:
530 ||
630#Properties:
580 ||
640Algebra:
560 ||
630Word Problems:
540 ||
620FDPs:
580 ||
670CR:
Categories Under Avg. Difficulty of Correct Answers (650): Find the Assumption (650), Weaken the Argument (600)RC:
Categories Under Avg. Difficulty of Correct Answers (690): Specific Detail (680), Main Idea (680)SC:
Categories Under Avg. Difficulty of Correct Answers (690): Connecting Punctuation (550), Modifiers (680), Comparisons (680), Verbs (650)________________________________________
My objective is to score 700, although I will not cancel any score above 650. I am starting my full time job soon on Wall St, and therefore will have no time to study. However, until test date, I believe that for the next five days, I should be able to keep the rhythm I've had for the past week of ~6-8 hours/day. Following that, ~2 hours/day for the next 11 days (Maybe ~4 hrs/day during weekends) should be achievable.
I plan on using the GMAT Official Guides (Comprehensive, Verbal and Quant) for questions, and possibly Manhattan as well for the Quant.
As an Anglophone, I was quite confident that Verbal would be my strong suite, as I mostly rely on intuition to answer these questions, with a few tricks that I've learned from past question mistakes. Thus, as to maximize my efficiency during the next few days, I believe that Quant should be my priority. Despite my lower scores, I do not particularly find it "hard". Seeing the answers makes me facepalm ~70% of the time when I look at the solution, as I know that they are within the grasp of my capabilities. I would say that for the most part, my issue in Quant lies in quickly identifying what needs to be done. As someone with ADHD, I tend to read the problem, skip over parts and start working right away without necessarily knowing "what" I need to do or where I want to go.
I have saved 1 GMAT Prep CAT, which I plan to take 2-3 days prior to my official test date. I also have another 3 MCAT's remaining.
As of now, I am planning to only do
OG/Mahnahttan questions with time constraints to simulate the test. 31 Verbal Questions, 36 Quant, then take a break, review/write down my mistakes, then start over again. For my previous 4 CATs and other practice questions, I always write down my mistakes and tend to review them once a day, just so they stay fresh.
What would you recommend for me? Is the above outline appropriate? Or do you believe that the aforementioned scores may indicate an underlying issue with fundamentals/theory that might be having a trickle-down effect on my scores, and should be addressed before hitting up the practice questions again?