I see no improvement on my quant whatsoever

Question

So, I've been at it for like 2-3 months now, (actually started in june but had a busy time in school so i postponed it) - i finished all the manhattan quant books at least twice, and doing the GMAT Cats (all 6 of them) - my quant remains at a solid 43%. Its remarkable that at 6 attemps, I get the same exact score. I really don't know how to approach this. Clearly, I am weak at the quant section. any tips on what books I should use? Redoing the MGMAT books feels like I'll just do them by memory...

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi erikvm,

The problem you're describing actually happens to many Test Takers who use a "book heavy" study approach. Even the best books are limited in what they can teach you; they also can't force you to approach questions in a certain way and their explanations are often one-sided.

"Your way" of approaching the Quant section has you stuck at this current scoring level. To make a big improvement, you'll have to change your tactics. This will likely mean investing in some new Computer-based resources and learning (and practicing) new tactics.

I'd like to know a bit more about your last CAT:
1) What were your Scaled Scores on the Quant and Verbal sections?
2) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT (including the Essay and IR sections)?
3) Did you have to rush to finish the Quant section? If so, then how many questions did you guess on at the end just to finish?

After reviewing the section, how many questions did you get wrong....
1) Because of a silly/little mistake?
2) Because there was some math that you just didn't know how to do?
3) Because the question was too hard?

Thankfully, the GMAT is a predictable, standardized Test, so you CAN train to score at a higher level.

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

erikvm · Answer

Hey, thanks for responding.

1) What do you mean by scaled score?
2) I did the IR and essay once, but for the other 5, I skipped them and went straight to quant/verbal
3) I finished the quant just on time, had like 20 seconds left or so.

None of the questions I got wrong were because of mistakes, its just that some questions make me go "okay, I have absolutely no idea how to solve this", there are some questions too that leave me clueless as to what they're actually asking, but for the most part, its just that I don't know how to go about solving the problems.

I have studied the MGMAT books, and whenever I stumble upon a problem and get to see the solution - the question kinda makes sense, but getting there without viewing the answer is my biggest issue. I guess I lack a lot of theory, but I fear that if I just go about doing the MGMAT books all over again, Ill remember the answers by heart and not theory that I can apply to similar problems

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi erikvm,

When you take a practice CAT (or the Official GMAT), you will receive a variety of "scores" besides the score out of 800. For the Quant and Verbal sections, you'll receive a Scaled Score (a number between 11 and 51) and a percentile (a number from 1 to 99). The Scaled Scores are important, since they can provide information on what you're likely doing wrong and what you should focus on to improve your score. You mention that your Quant Score is 43%, but it's not clear whether you're getting 43% of the questions correct or if you're scoring at the 43rd percentile. As it stands, neither of those numbers means much right now, since they're based on OTHER factors. The Scaled Scores are based on how you performed relative to the Test, so that's why I asked for them.

The only realistic way to measure your progress (and likely GMAT score) is to take FULL-LENGTH practice CATs in a 'test-like' fashion. Skipping sections during practice is NOT realistic, so your score results on those 5 CATs are not realistic. You have to train for the FULL GMAT, so you MUST take the ENTIRE CAT each time as you continue with your studies.

Since you've worked through your practice materials more than once, you're likely 'stuck' with a certain point of view regarding the Quant section. This is one of the reasons why your scores are not improving. I agree that revisiting all of that material is probably not going to be helpful right now (it might be helpful later though). To improve, you're going to have to change how you "see" (and respond to) the GMAT. You'll likely need to invest in some new GMAT materials and learn (and practice) some new tactics.

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

erikvm · Answer

You might be right regarding investing in new material. However, what is frustrating is that whenever I do diagnostic tests on my quant skill, I end up on 80-90% accuracy, most of those questsions asked are very very basic, but then when I tackle harder problems, I have a harder time. I got a 43% (percentile,) aka Q39

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi erikvm,

The data that you just provided (the Q39) is valuable, since we can break down some of the *real* issues that you have to work on. The Q39 means that you're doing pretty well on straight-forward "math" questions, but you're missing out on a lot of "strategy" questions. These include DS questions and PS story problems with variables. You're also making some mistakes on "medium level" questions (you ARE, even if you don't think that you are) and you might have a pacing problem, but I don't know you well enough to say that for sure.

I'm going to recommend that you try out some our free resources. Practice what they teach you and I bet that you'll see some immediate improvement in the Quant section. The free set of Modules is on the main page of our website (https://www.empowergmat.com). Once you've worked through those, we can talk more about what you can do next to improve.

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

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I see no improvement on my quant whatsoever

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