How to understand ESR(Enhanced Score Report)

Question

Hi mikemcgarry
I got my ESR(Enhanced Score Report) today and your blog articles about ESR, such as https://magoosh.com/gmat/2015/gmat-enha ... re-report/ and https://magoosh.com/gmat/2016/gmat-score-report/,
and few questions need your guide.

#1 How should I set priority of verbal section?
I have question, because I think I am confident in SC during I take GMATPREP, while I feel SC is not smoothly on testing day. I feel points of SC is beyond those of my practice, OG, Magoosh questions.
I checked ESR, which includes time consumption of SC,CR,RC, and correct percentage of 4 sets of verbal, 41 questions divided into 4 sets.
from my practice , my CR and RC is much weak than SC and practiced more on CR and RC, but after this test, I am lost, and after reading ESR, still lost.
I have no idea the priority of verbal section, because my feeling is different between practice and test, and I am not sure how many SC I got, How many I failed.

Similar in Quant section, I got time consumption of each sub-sections, and correct percentage of 4 sets of 37 quant questions.
How should I set priority of each sub -section of Quant ?

#2 surprising, my Quant is 44, lowest in my preparation.
I got 47 on my first GMAT.
I got 3 times 51 , twice 50, and twice 49 on GMATPrep, and each time I can complete Quant section in advance about 15 minutes.
Quant is my most confidence part of my study, I have no idea how I got 44 this time?
I read the ESR , I found each question is over my practice time,
(this time, PS - 2:21, DS - 1:42, Arithmetic - 2:18, Algebra/Geometry - 1:45)
I remember, some question I calculated twice, because my first answer is out of the 5 options.
even though, it wouldn't makes my overall time / sub-section time over my practice overall / sub-section time.

#3 Does CAT mean your score depends on the level difficult of the last question?
my understand of CAT is that computer select the adaptable difficulty question depends on the work of previous question, if I fail or spend long time to sort out, next question will be easier, if you pass , then next one will be harder.
according to this adapt, does it mean what score you got is what you end ?

#4 How should I schedule my next study ?
honestly speaking, I have no idea about the next study for retaking test?
I think one of my next goal is how much time I need to save, while, I have no idea how to set priority of verbal.

I am a little puzzle,
genuinely want your suggestions.

have a nice day
>_~

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear zoezhuyan , How are you, my friend? :-)

I'm happy to help. First of all, I don't know whether you are familiar with this blog: Lower on the Real GMAT than on Practice Tests Read that article extremely carefully. The basic idea is that stress-reduction techniques can be as important to study as content areas. As you gear up for your next retake, I would urge you to develop rigorous habits of stress-reduction. You can find many suggestions in the links of that blog. 1) This is a classic instance of the effect of stress. When someone has a partial understanding of a language, high stress significantly reduces that understanding. By contrast, you may be familiar with the folks wisdom that when people drink a few alcoholic drinks, their abilities seem to become better: stress and self-consciousness go down, and the people gain greater fluency. Of course, I am not suggesting that you sit for the real GMAT in an intoxicated condition! First of all, you need to practice stress reduction, so that the effect is not as great. Also, you need to give roots to your understanding of English. You need to solidify it significantly. I would say that you should read a tremendous amount in English: as much as you can, read more in English than you do in Chinese. Also, you need at least some regular practice speaking it with a native speaker. If you could take any time to travel to the English-speaking world, that would be one way to get immersion in English. At your level, improvement is not about tricks or study tips. It's about continuing to build your English skills at a foundational level. 2) You are quite talented in math. Here, I think it was simply the effect of stress. Yes, keep practicing some math just to keep those skills fresh, but I think the difference-maker here will be the rigorous practice of stress-reduction skills. 3) The CAT is very sophisticated. As a general rule, as you get a question right, you get a harder question, and if you get a question wrong, you get an easier question. That's the general rule, but not always true--it's a very complex algorithm. I don't think time spent on the question figures into the CAT at all---it's just about right/wrong. Furthermore, don't assume that you can tell whether a question is easy or hard: easy or hard for you might not be easy or hard in general. The CAT does a complex probability calculation, and is constantly updating this calculation as you move through the section. The last question is not more important than any other section on the test, but definitely by the last few questions, the algorithm has a relatively refined sense of your level. Does this make sense? 4) I think I addressed much of this above. The big ideas are (a) practice stress-reduction skills, and (b) extensive English practice, preferably English immersion. Does all this make sense? Mike :-)

Mco100 · Answer

Hi, the practice tests I took on GMATPrep2 were 710 Q 44 V41 (Dec 23) and GMATPrep1 690 Q47 V37 (Nov) I scored Q41-47 on Magoosh and other practice tests. Scored 710 Q44 on MGMAT and in the exam Scored a 660 Q39 V41. I was running out of time on Quant for the last 10 or so questions. I thought it was time but my ESR seems to indicate there was a problem from the beginning. I would like feedback to know what I can do to get a Q44+ on the real exam!

MagooshExpert · Answer

Hi Mco100 ! As Mike mentioned, it's very possible that stress under timed test conditions is causing problems. To remedy that, I'd recommend that you spend some time each day from now on doing timed practice sessions, where you set up a realistic test session, or similar "mini" test sessions. You should aim to spend about 90 seconds per question. So you can set up a session where you practice 20 questions in half an hour, or 30 questions in 45 minutes, and so on. You need to train yourself to work quickly and to have the discipline to guess/move on when a question is taking too long. That can be challenging, and to help you out, I recommend reading this post on GMAT pacing strategies

Pacing and Timing Strategies for the GMAT The other component that you should focus on now is going back through your old incorrect answers. You need to be brutally honest with yourself about why you miss questions. Was it a "silly" mistake or did you not really understand the concepts as well as you could have? For all your GMAT practice, analyzing your practice and learning from your mistakes is extremely important! Basically, studying your mistakes gives you maximum improvement. If it were possible to never make the same mistake twice, you would become an absolute master of the test in a very, very short time. So be sure to watch explanation videos for every question you get wrong (and watching those you get right is also a good idea!), study very carefully the related concepts, research methods, or material you're not comfortable with but are mentioned in the solution, and really analyze the questions. On that note, see these very useful articles on learning from your practice, memory, and translating your practice to exam performance: GMAT Strategies: Learning from Practice Problems “Understanding” the GMAT: Practice vs. Exam Performance The GMAT, Learning, and Memory Regardless of which specific types of questions were causing your problems with this practice tests, following these strategies will be your best bet going forward

I hope that's helpful! -Carolyn

joseset1234 · Answer

thank you for sharing! amazing insights here

bensims · Answer

best

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