Data Sufficiency on Official Mock Test

Question

Recently I was reviewing my third mock test, and even during the test I felt that the DS overall was pretty tough. I understand that I did 10 questions correct in the row in DI from the beginning but eventually due to shortage of time I got like 3 wrong before DS showed up again around question number 15. There were 3 questions from question 15-20 which were of Data sufficiency and each of them were 805+ difficulty as tagged on Gmat Club. But regardless they seemed tough at that time as well, this really screwed my score as I didn't find enough time after Q17 and just skipped the test. Bringing my overall DI score to a 76.

And even after getting them wrong on Q15 and Q16, my next questions were still 805+. I know the algorithm is something on which we shouldn't focus on and the difficulty is subjective but still this is weird in my opinion. I reached the peak at Q11 but was never brought down at least in DS question even though I only got like 1 right after Q11, due to difficulty and lack of time.

Does anyone else has faced this, could this be an issue with the mock test itself and something like this won't happen on the exam day?

For reference I have attached my DI section summary. I know it is pretty bad after Q10, but I think the difficulty level and the time pressure from Q10 just gave me a lot of anxiety to perform better on the remaining questions. But again I was not shown any easy or medium level questions as such after even getting 3 wrong in a row from Q11-13. As the DS questions i have reffered showed up Q16 and Q17.

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

Checking out some other publicly shared DI76 mock report (or score report) info may be helpful. You could see, for example, the different types of performances across a section that may result in the same DI score. The Understanding Your Score page, which mentions 3 factors DI scores are based on, and the myth vs. fact info (in the beginning of the Official-Guide) could also provide some helpful insight.

5 Data Insights tips

5 Data Insights tips

yc168 · Answer

Hi Pr4n,

Do you mind sharing another graph that shows the list of the questions and their respective question type?

Pr4n · Answer

For some reason I am not able to upload it as error is being thrown I will try again in sometime

hr1212 · Answer

Hi @Pr4n,

This to me seems to be more of a time management issue rather than the difficulty level of any particular question or the mock test. From the chart, it looks like you have pretty good accuracy in DS when given sufficient time, but that starts to take a toll when you're working within the 45 minute window. I believe the timer on your clock would have shown around 15 minutes remaining when you completed your 11th question, which means you were already at least two questions behind. Now, in a section like DI, that’s not a great position to be in, having less than 2 minutes left for 9 remaining questions. It becomes even tougher if you’ve gotten many of the earlier ones right, as the adaptive test is likely to throw harder questions at you toward the end.

There are two main takeaways here. First, since the test is adaptive and you're aiming for a high score, you can expect difficult questions near the end, just when time is tight. So you need to plan for that by saving time earlier on easier or medium questions, which you can then use for the tougher ones later. Second, always stay in sync with the clock, no matter how confident you feel about a question. As soon as you notice you're falling behind, start guessing strategically. Why? Because that way, you’re still in control. You can afford to guess on tougher questions and incur less penalty, rather than running out of time and having to blindly guess on the last few easier ones, which could hurt your score more if they go wrong.

In the real test, it's possible you’ll spend extra time on experimental questions in the middle trying to get them right, and end up missing more important ones later. So do not sacrifice timing for the sake of accuracy.

One last thought: regardless of difficulty, every GMAT question is designed to be solvable within 2 to 3 minutes. Always keep that in mind. If you don’t see the solution, it’s better to move on quickly. And during practice, focus not just on getting the correct answer but on learning the most efficient method, something you can actually replicate under timed conditions.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Pr4n,

I see it’s been a few weeks since this post. Out of curiosity have you taken any additional practice tests? If so, how did those go?

Pr4n · Answer

I have taken more practice tests, I changed my approach in DI as i was struggling for time in DI always. So first change i made was made my weakest the first section on the test, second in case i know this question type has given me an issue in the past I just read the info and if i feel overwhelmed i skip that and focus on the other questions. But also i know this technique should only be done at like 2-3 questions in the whole set. When i used to DI in the end, i felt stuck and totally forgot about i can skip and maybe it was due to less alertness or general fatigue and the fact I myself don't consider myself very strong in DI compared to Quant so i didn't look forward to DI. So i had this feeling to be done with in the end to see my score in case i was struggling.

But i still notice that the original question I asked is still relevant, difficulty in mocks specially in DI is weird. I have seen myself getting correct the same amount of question and still in the end sometimes the difficulty is 655-705, and sometimes even the 3rd question becomes 805+. So I am not sure whether it the pool of questions due to which this issue persist on the mocks or something else as I have not seen a consistent pattern. Also another thing I have noticed specifically with DS is, in OG and a lot of test takers does say logic based DS is there, i have in my 6 official mock attempts might have only seen 2 out of roughly 36 questions. And by this i mean Criteria-based DS.

Logic based math ques are still there atleast 1 on each test i would say.

One relevant theory that many might diagree with is the effect of the sectional adaptiveness, when I used to do DI in the end many of the questions specially graphs, DS and MSR were always higher on the scale. Since, I have switched to doing DI first, the frequency of 805+ questions have defintely reduced. And I know my capabilities best I can achieve is 705 on a good day (based on my best sectional scores) I am yet to see that in an official mock, so i am not sure why with such a high error rate in DI i am still seeing 805+ questions. For reference, my best DI score is 80 on official but 83 on a third party mock.

And the reason i feel this theory is relevant is because I have seen this impacting my verbal and quant score, when i used to do quant first even if i got more wrong (although i know difficulty of the question also matters) I could see a 84, but recently I saw my quant drop to 82 when i got 5 wrong and only a 84 when i only got 3 wrong, whereas when i used to do quant first it was more or less 83 and 84 even if i got 5 wrong which happened on 2 occasions.

For verbal i can't say anything as most of my attempts i have done verbal in the middle apart from 1-2 attempts and my score has been consistent regardless of the mistake so i feel that is more on my part that maybe i am commiting mistakes on the same level of questions.

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Data Sufficiency on Official Mock Test

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