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29 Apr 2019, 10:26
Kudos
Bookmarks
As you can see, my join date on this forum is in 2015. I have been *thinking* about GMAT for a long time. I have been preparing on and off for just little more than a year. I started studying seriously about 3 months ago. I was giving about 2 hours on weekdays and 4-5 hours on the weekends.
Background
I did my undergrad back in India in the field of Information Technology. I then did my graduation in the US. I have been working for about 5 years now in a manufacturing company’s IT department as an IT Analyst.
Preparation material:
1. E-GMAT- I have had an e-GMAT subscription for about a year and a half now. It expired sometime in March of this year and I extended it again. E-GMAT material has been very helpful for me to learn the basics again. However, I will admit that I have not used the Scholaranium very much.
2. Power Score CR Bible- I also went through the PS CR Bible. It was great and helped me a ton.
3. OG Guides
4. LSAT Practice Tests: I talked to GMATNinja (Charles) and he suggested to go through LSAT Practice tests. They have definitely been helpful.
Practice tests-
GMAT Prep Test 3: March 15, 2019- 690 Q49 V34.
GMAT Prep Test 1: March 29, 2019- 620 Q48 V28. I read somewhere that “the first 10 questions are most important and you should give them more time”. It clearly wasn’t a good strategy, at least for me. I had completely run out of time in verbal section and ended up guessing at least 6 -7 questions towards the end.
GMAT Prep Test 4: April 7, 2019- 700 Q48, V38.
GMAT Prep Test 5: April 14, 2019- 690 Q47, V37.
GMAT Prep Test 6: April 21, 2019- 700 Q49 V37.
Actual GMAT: April 26, 2019- 660 Q47 V35
NOTE: I always used the Manhattan GMAT Simulation Booklet whenever I gave a prep test. This also means that throughout my preparation, I had always used a fine point pen.
GMAT Experience-
My test center was Colorado State University Testing Center. I reached there on time. Everything was fine until they gave me a really broad point marker to write with. The pen smelled really bad. It was this pen to be precise. When I started my quant section, I was getting confused between 2’s and Z’s or 6s and C’s. I was used to writing small letters (as I did in my practice) which I couldn’t do with this pen.
I am not blaming my poor performance entirely on the pen but I feel that it was one of the factors. I was having to do the calculations multiple times just because I couldn’t read what I had written 15 second ago. I wasted too much time on 600 level quant questions.
When I started verbal section, I was feeling very demotivated because of my quant section. I was not able to make sense of the CR questions. In the last 3 Prep Tests, I had only gotten 1 CR question wrong in each test. In the actual GMAT, I felt like I knew nothing about how to approach a CR question. SC questions were the same. I am usually not good at RC but the RC passages that I got in GMAT were science related and I could get through them without losing much time.
I would like to prepare some more and give another attempt in about 2 months.
Is there a course that deals with advanced topics only?
Is there anything that you noticed here that you'd like to point out?
I do have the Enhanced Score Report (ESR). If you'd like to see it, please let me know in the comments and I will PM you the ESR file.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Thanks!
Background
I did my undergrad back in India in the field of Information Technology. I then did my graduation in the US. I have been working for about 5 years now in a manufacturing company’s IT department as an IT Analyst.
Preparation material:
1. E-GMAT- I have had an e-GMAT subscription for about a year and a half now. It expired sometime in March of this year and I extended it again. E-GMAT material has been very helpful for me to learn the basics again. However, I will admit that I have not used the Scholaranium very much.
2. Power Score CR Bible- I also went through the PS CR Bible. It was great and helped me a ton.
3. OG Guides
4. LSAT Practice Tests: I talked to GMATNinja (Charles) and he suggested to go through LSAT Practice tests. They have definitely been helpful.
Practice tests-
GMAT Prep Test 3: March 15, 2019- 690 Q49 V34.
GMAT Prep Test 1: March 29, 2019- 620 Q48 V28. I read somewhere that “the first 10 questions are most important and you should give them more time”. It clearly wasn’t a good strategy, at least for me. I had completely run out of time in verbal section and ended up guessing at least 6 -7 questions towards the end.
GMAT Prep Test 4: April 7, 2019- 700 Q48, V38.
GMAT Prep Test 5: April 14, 2019- 690 Q47, V37.
GMAT Prep Test 6: April 21, 2019- 700 Q49 V37.
Actual GMAT: April 26, 2019- 660 Q47 V35
NOTE: I always used the Manhattan GMAT Simulation Booklet whenever I gave a prep test. This also means that throughout my preparation, I had always used a fine point pen.
GMAT Experience-
My test center was Colorado State University Testing Center. I reached there on time. Everything was fine until they gave me a really broad point marker to write with. The pen smelled really bad. It was this pen to be precise. When I started my quant section, I was getting confused between 2’s and Z’s or 6s and C’s. I was used to writing small letters (as I did in my practice) which I couldn’t do with this pen.
I am not blaming my poor performance entirely on the pen but I feel that it was one of the factors. I was having to do the calculations multiple times just because I couldn’t read what I had written 15 second ago. I wasted too much time on 600 level quant questions.
When I started verbal section, I was feeling very demotivated because of my quant section. I was not able to make sense of the CR questions. In the last 3 Prep Tests, I had only gotten 1 CR question wrong in each test. In the actual GMAT, I felt like I knew nothing about how to approach a CR question. SC questions were the same. I am usually not good at RC but the RC passages that I got in GMAT were science related and I could get through them without losing much time.
I would like to prepare some more and give another attempt in about 2 months.
Is there a course that deals with advanced topics only?
Is there anything that you noticed here that you'd like to point out?
I do have the Enhanced Score Report (ESR). If you'd like to see it, please let me know in the comments and I will PM you the ESR file.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Thanks!
29 Apr 2019, 19:18
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi sumert,
First off, a 660/Q47 is a strong score, so it could be enough to get you into your first-choice School. As such, a retest might not be necessary. Depending on the Schools that you plan to apply to, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile. There's a Forum full of those Experts here:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/ask-admissio ... tants-124/
GMAC has publicly stated that the Official Score that you earn on Test Day is within +/- 30 points of actual ability. Assuming a similar 'swing' in how your CATs function, most of your CAT score results - along with your Official Score - show that you essentially performed the same each time (about 680 +/- a few points). You handle certain aspects of the GMAT consistently well, but you also make certain consistent mistakes. There's no harm in retesting - and now that you have experienced the Testing Facility, you know the exact details about Test Day, so you can better prepare for another attempt. There are likely some 'inefficiencies' in how you're approaching the Exam, so we would need to analyze how you "see" (and respond to the GMAT). Beyond that, I'd also like to know a bit more about your timeline and goals:
1) What is your overall goal score?
2) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
3) What Schools are you planning to apply to?
While the ESR doesn’t provide a lot of information, there are usually a few data points that we can use to define what went wrong on Test Day (and what you should work on to score higher). Since you've purchased the ESR, I'll be happy to analyze it for you. You can feel free to PM or email it directly to me.
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
First off, a 660/Q47 is a strong score, so it could be enough to get you into your first-choice School. As such, a retest might not be necessary. Depending on the Schools that you plan to apply to, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile. There's a Forum full of those Experts here:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/ask-admissio ... tants-124/
GMAC has publicly stated that the Official Score that you earn on Test Day is within +/- 30 points of actual ability. Assuming a similar 'swing' in how your CATs function, most of your CAT score results - along with your Official Score - show that you essentially performed the same each time (about 680 +/- a few points). You handle certain aspects of the GMAT consistently well, but you also make certain consistent mistakes. There's no harm in retesting - and now that you have experienced the Testing Facility, you know the exact details about Test Day, so you can better prepare for another attempt. There are likely some 'inefficiencies' in how you're approaching the Exam, so we would need to analyze how you "see" (and respond to the GMAT). Beyond that, I'd also like to know a bit more about your timeline and goals:
1) What is your overall goal score?
2) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
3) What Schools are you planning to apply to?
While the ESR doesn’t provide a lot of information, there are usually a few data points that we can use to define what went wrong on Test Day (and what you should work on to score higher). Since you've purchased the ESR, I'll be happy to analyze it for you. You can feel free to PM or email it directly to me.
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
30 Apr 2019, 19:21
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi sumert,
I’m glad you reached out, and I’m happy to help. Although you are disappointed that you scored 660 on your GMAT, your quant score was right around where you had been scoring on practice exams, and your verbal score was just a few points below where you were scoring. With that in mind, the test date wasn’t really a total disaster, right? Furthermore, given that you were thrown off by your pen and then “out of the game” by the time you started verbal, it’s not too shocking that your verbal score dropped by a few points.
In any case, since you plan to retake the GMAT, you may as well continue to improve your quant and verbal skills prior to a retake. To improve those skills, you need to go through GMAT quant and verbal carefully to find your exact weaknesses, fill gaps in your knowledge, and strengthen your skills. The overall process will be to learn all about how to answer question types with which you currently aren't very comfortable and do dozens of practice questions category by category, basically driving up your score point by point. When you do dozens of questions of the same type one after the other, you learn just what it takes to get questions of that type correct consistently. If you aren't getting close to 90 percent of questions of a certain type correct, go back and seek to better understand how that type of question works, and then do more questions of that type until you get to around at least 90 percent accuracy in your training. If you get 100 percent of some sets correct, even better.
For example, if you find that you are not strong in answering Number Properties questions, then carefully review the conceptual underpinnings of how to answer Number Properties questions and practice by answering 50 or more questions just from Number Properties: LCM, GCF, units digit patterns, divisibility, remainders, etc. When you are working on learning to answer questions of a particular type, start off taking your time, and then seek to speed up as you get more comfortable answering questions of that type. As you do such practice, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get right. If you got a remainder question wrong, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not properly apply the remainder formula? Was there a concept you did not understand in the question? By carefully analyzing your mistakes, you will be able to efficiently fix your weaknesses and in turn improve your GMAT quant skills. Number Properties is just one example; follow this process for all quant topics.
Each time you strengthen your understanding of a topic and your skill in answering questions of a particular type, you increase your odds of hitting your score goal. You know that there are types of questions that you are happy to see, types that you would rather not see, and types that you take a long time to answer correctly. Learn to more effectively answer the types of questions that you would rather not see, and make them into your favorite types. Learn to correctly answer in two minutes or less questions that you currently take five minutes to answer. By finding, say, a dozen weaker quant areas and turning them into strong areas, you will make great progress toward hitting your quant score goal. If a dozen areas turn out not to be enough, strengthen some more areas.
You can work on verbal in a similar manner. Let’s say you are reviewing Critical Reasoning. Be sure that you practice a large number of Critical Reasoning questions: Strengthen and Weaken the Argument, Resolve the Paradox, find the Conclusion, Must be True, etc. As you go through the questions, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get correct. If you missed a Weaken question, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not recognize what the question was asking? Did you skip over a key detail in an answer choice? Getting GMAT verbal questions right is a matter of what you know, what you see, and what you do. So, any time that you don't get one right, you can seek to identify what you had to know to get the right answer, what you had to see that you didn't see, and what you could have done differently to arrive at the correct answer.
So, work on accuracy and generally finding correct answers, work on specific weaker areas one by one to make them strong areas, and when you take a practice GMAT or the real thing, take all the time per question available to do your absolute best to get right answers consistently. The GMAT is essentially a game of seeing how many right answers you can get in the time allotted. Approach the test with that conception in mind, and focus intently on the question in front of you with one goal in mind: getting a CORRECT answer.
In order to follow the path described above, you may need some new quant and verbal materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the best quant and verbal courses. You also may find my article with more information regarding
how to score a 700+ on the GMAT helpful.
Feel free to reach out with any further questions. Good luck!
I’m glad you reached out, and I’m happy to help. Although you are disappointed that you scored 660 on your GMAT, your quant score was right around where you had been scoring on practice exams, and your verbal score was just a few points below where you were scoring. With that in mind, the test date wasn’t really a total disaster, right? Furthermore, given that you were thrown off by your pen and then “out of the game” by the time you started verbal, it’s not too shocking that your verbal score dropped by a few points.
In any case, since you plan to retake the GMAT, you may as well continue to improve your quant and verbal skills prior to a retake. To improve those skills, you need to go through GMAT quant and verbal carefully to find your exact weaknesses, fill gaps in your knowledge, and strengthen your skills. The overall process will be to learn all about how to answer question types with which you currently aren't very comfortable and do dozens of practice questions category by category, basically driving up your score point by point. When you do dozens of questions of the same type one after the other, you learn just what it takes to get questions of that type correct consistently. If you aren't getting close to 90 percent of questions of a certain type correct, go back and seek to better understand how that type of question works, and then do more questions of that type until you get to around at least 90 percent accuracy in your training. If you get 100 percent of some sets correct, even better.
For example, if you find that you are not strong in answering Number Properties questions, then carefully review the conceptual underpinnings of how to answer Number Properties questions and practice by answering 50 or more questions just from Number Properties: LCM, GCF, units digit patterns, divisibility, remainders, etc. When you are working on learning to answer questions of a particular type, start off taking your time, and then seek to speed up as you get more comfortable answering questions of that type. As you do such practice, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get right. If you got a remainder question wrong, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not properly apply the remainder formula? Was there a concept you did not understand in the question? By carefully analyzing your mistakes, you will be able to efficiently fix your weaknesses and in turn improve your GMAT quant skills. Number Properties is just one example; follow this process for all quant topics.
Each time you strengthen your understanding of a topic and your skill in answering questions of a particular type, you increase your odds of hitting your score goal. You know that there are types of questions that you are happy to see, types that you would rather not see, and types that you take a long time to answer correctly. Learn to more effectively answer the types of questions that you would rather not see, and make them into your favorite types. Learn to correctly answer in two minutes or less questions that you currently take five minutes to answer. By finding, say, a dozen weaker quant areas and turning them into strong areas, you will make great progress toward hitting your quant score goal. If a dozen areas turn out not to be enough, strengthen some more areas.
You can work on verbal in a similar manner. Let’s say you are reviewing Critical Reasoning. Be sure that you practice a large number of Critical Reasoning questions: Strengthen and Weaken the Argument, Resolve the Paradox, find the Conclusion, Must be True, etc. As you go through the questions, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get correct. If you missed a Weaken question, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not recognize what the question was asking? Did you skip over a key detail in an answer choice? Getting GMAT verbal questions right is a matter of what you know, what you see, and what you do. So, any time that you don't get one right, you can seek to identify what you had to know to get the right answer, what you had to see that you didn't see, and what you could have done differently to arrive at the correct answer.
So, work on accuracy and generally finding correct answers, work on specific weaker areas one by one to make them strong areas, and when you take a practice GMAT or the real thing, take all the time per question available to do your absolute best to get right answers consistently. The GMAT is essentially a game of seeing how many right answers you can get in the time allotted. Approach the test with that conception in mind, and focus intently on the question in front of you with one goal in mind: getting a CORRECT answer.
In order to follow the path described above, you may need some new quant and verbal materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the best quant and verbal courses. You also may find my article with more information regarding
how to score a 700+ on the GMAT helpful.
Feel free to reach out with any further questions. Good luck!
