How to Score Consistantly

Hi mromrell,

Since your last two GMAT scores are so recent (relatively speaking), and those scores flip-flopped (even though it appeared that you were making significant improvements in your CATs), I have some questions about how you took your CATs:

1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?
2) Did you take them at home?
3) Did you take them at the same time of day as your Official GMAT?
4) Did you ever do ANYTHING during your CATs that you couldn't do on Test Day (pause the CAT, skip sections, take longer breaks, etc.)?
5) Did you ever take a CAT more than once? Had you seen any of the questions BEFORE?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Hey EMPOWERgmatRichC
Sorry for the late reply,

During my practice CATs I always skipped the Essay portion, and I skipped the IR section only on the last CAT (where I scored 680)
I always took the test in a secluded, quiet place in the Garage or in a quiet corner at the public library, and always with Headphones with white noise playing to drown out the background noise.
I took the first Actual test at 8am and the latter two at 3pm - I generally took practice tests at either 8am or 3pm (both are generally good times for my brain).
During Practice Tests, I made sure to take no more than 8 minutes of break time between sections.
Every practice test was brand new and I had never seen the questions before.
And I always tried to eat right and get plenty of rest before the test.

So, I can definitely do more to better mimic the actual test in my studies. But I don't ever feel exhausted or burned out during the real tests. In fact I feel pretty good. Besides skipping the Essay portion, I feel like my practice tests aren't that far off from the real tests. What else am I missing?

To give some insight, I've included a side by side comparison of my last two Actual GMAT Tests. This data is pulled form the ESR reports that you can buy from GMAC after each test. (https://i.imgur.com/k0iiPjc.jpg)

Hi mromrell,

Based on all of the information that you've provided, I can point to a few factors that could help to explain the inconsistency in your performances, but I have a few follow-up questions about how you work through certain types of GMAT questions.

To start, Test Day is a rather specific 'event' - the details are specific and they matter, so you have to train as best as you can for all of them. The more realistic you can make your CATs, the more likely the score results are to be accurate - and the better you can train to consistently score at a higher level. The more you deviate though, the more inconsistent your scores can become. By skipping sections, taking the CATs at home, taking them at a different time of day, etc., you weren't properly training for the FULL GMAT 'experience' - so when you actually faced the FULL GMAT, you had to deal with a number of things that you just hadn't trained for. The swings in your Scaled Scores likely involve some other factors though:

1) When working through DS question, how often are you taking lots of notes and how often are you thinking/talking your way through the prompts without doing much work on the pad?
2) What 'steps' do you go through when dealing with a typical CR or RC prompt?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Thanks EMPOWERgmatRichC, I can definitely try to better replicate the actual test experience.

But to answer your questions:
For DS Questions, I definitely tend to pick up the pen less then I would for PS. With the Exception of jotting down the answer choices (AB / BCE) and eliminating them for nearly every question, I estimate that I jot down notes ~70% of the time when it comes to Data Sufficiency. I often focus on which Variables I have vs which ones I need.
My steps to solving CR and RC problems are essentially the same for PS (I actually write this out on my paper during the orientation of the actual test, along with many other notes):

Read the prompt
Jot down what the prompt is looking to solve (so I don't answer the wrong question)
Identify what type of question it is (Work, Proportion, Modifier, verb...)
Look at the Answer Choices
-Breathe
Identify the best method to solve it
- Backsolving
- Picking numbers (if their Variable in the Answer Choices
- Estimate (if Answers are spread apart)
- Factor
- Look out for the Trap Answer

Although for CR, RC and Verbal in general, I Also summarize each paragraph in my head (I don't write the summaries down) and I use an Answer Chart to help me eliminate answers as I read them. ex:
A| x √ x x
B| √ x x x
C| x x √ x
D| x x x x
E| x x x √


I do struggle with time management on the test and probably end up flat out skipping 3-5 questions each Quant and each Verbal section (As in, I don't even read the question, I just choose an answer and move on in order to stay on track with time and not stress myself out over being behind). I try not to skip multiple questions in a row, and I check the time every 10 minutes. if I'm +/- 2 minutes, then I don't sweat it, otherwise, I make a note that sometime during the next 5 questions I need to be on the look out for a question type that I'm bad at and could skip quickly.

As part of my post-practice test review, I go over every wrong answer plus the ones I had questions on, and I've compiled a list of how well I perform on each Question type. The time:wrong ratio on the far right is a measure of How long I typically take on those kinds of questions and how likely I am to get it correct. Question types with Higher numbers are the Question types that I should skip if I get behind on time during the test (Since it's going to take me a bunch of time and I'm probably going to get it wrong anyways).
https://i.imgur.com/B3sRBsN.png

Hi mromrell,

With this recent post, you've described additional factors that are impacting your performance (and can arguably be described as 'bad habits'). We're now getting into some of the 'functional' problems with how you're approaching this Test - these are the most significant ones from your post:

1) Taking notes is essential - you should NEVER be doing work in your head.
2) It appears that you're trying to answer most questions in '2 minutes or less', which is impractical. Certain questions can be answered relatively quickly (in less than a minute) while others will take upwards of 3 minutes (and that's if you KNOW what you're doing). You should NOT be spending more than 3 minutes though.
3) Unless the block of questions that you end up skipping over in each section are all hard/weird questions, then you're likely losing out on some gettable points.

Given the myriad of issues that you'll need to work on to score 700+, I think that you should consider pushing back your Test Date. While that idea probably won't make you happy, I think that you could achieve your score goal IF you make the necessary adjustments to how you 'see' (and respond to) this Test. Unfortunately, that work will likely take another 2-3 months of consistent, guided study.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Got it. So What your saying is:
My scores are likely flip flopping because I'm not being consistant about when I jot down notes and Paragraph summaries.
I Definitely need to study more to better recognize and solve all of these questions.
And I should probably change up the way I track my time throughout the test. Currently I use a reference chart like this throughout the test.
Question | Time
0 | 75
5 | 65
10 | 55
15 | 45
20 | 35
25 | 25
30 | 15
35 | 5

What would be a better method to keeping track of time throughout the test that would allow for some 3 minute questions and less stress about time during the test?
Perhaps checking the time only 2 or 3 times instead of 7?
I heard that you should aim to be through the first half the the questions in the first 25 minutes, since, assuming you are answering the questions correctly, Easier questions are at the beginning and harder questions are at the end of the test?

And thank you very much for your help.

Hi mromrell,

To start, whoever told you to try to answer the first half of the questions in the Quant and Verbal sections in the first 25 minutes has offered you TERRIBLE advice. There are strategic ways to use the clock to your advantage, but there are a number of things that you have to work on first. Before we can talk about any of those concepts though, I'd like you to review your most recent CAT and answer a few basic questions:

After reviewing each of the Quant and Verbal sections, how many questions did you get wrong....
1) Because of a silly/little mistake?
2) Because there was some math/verbal that you just could not remember how to do?
3) Because the question was too hard?
4) Because you were low on time and had to guess?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

EMPOWERgmatRichC Thank you for your helpful replies. I seriously appreciate it!

In my last practice test (Kaplan 680)
For my incorrect choices in the Quant section, I missed 18 out of 37 and scored a 44

1 = silly mistake
5 = I understand the concept and just miscalculated along the way
4 = Too hard
4 = Educated guesses after a recognizing that I was low on time and that this was a weakness of mine.
4 = Flat out guesses at the very end of the test in the final seconds

For my incorrect choices in the Verbal section, I missed 18 out of 41 and scored a 39 (I am a native English Speaker)

0 = silly mistakes
7 = I understand the concept but missed an important detail
6 = Too hard
2 = Educated guesses after a recognizing that I was low on time and that this was a weakness of mine.
3 = Flat out guesses at the very end of the test in the final seconds

Based on this, where should I direct the remainder of my studies?

Hi mromrell,

To start, on this most recent CAT, did you take the FULL CAT (with the Essay and IR sections)? Based on what you described, you got 13 of the 78 questions wrong because of some minor issue (that's 1/6 of the total questions). Those wrong answers would likely have been correct answers IF you had just taken the necessary notes. By extension, 'your way' of dealing with the Test is clearly wasting time, since you had to guess on 7 of the 78 questions because you were low on time (that's almost 10% of the questions). All of this provides some evidence that you're inefficient in how you approach questions - and that inefficiency is costing you some serious points. Since these inefficiencies appear to be somewhat consistent, I think that you should push back your Test Date so that you can continue to hone your skills and eliminate these issues from your work.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich