lmariesanfrancisco wrote:
Hi there,
I originally wasn't going to study for IR at all, given that it's not counted towards your final score, but after getting a 4 on my first GMATPrep test and an embarrassing 2 on the
MGMAT CAT, I figure it's probably worth a look.
I'm planning on taking a look at the free
MGMAT videos and was wondering if anyone has looked at these and have found them helpful in raising their scores?
I'm really hoping that this will not require too much practice as I need to focus on bringing my score up in other areas.
Thanks!
Dear
lmariesanfranciscoI'm happy to respond to this one as well.
I can't tell you much about the
MGMAT videos, but here's an entire series of articles & videos on our free blog about IR:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/category/integrated-reasoning/I would definitely recommend studying for the IR, because (a) many of those skills will carry over to Q & V sections, (b) adcom didnt' have enough data on it yet, but they might start taking IR seriously at any point, and if this fall were the time, you wouldn't want to miss the boat, and (c) you will need many of these skills when you are in business meetings in your coming professional life. Ten years from now, if you're the executive who looks at a chart discerningly and notices the significant pattern that influences a major company decision, that would be very good. Data & data display is a very important topic.
Also, I will say: the decision to ignore part of the test sounds like a decision that results from the worldview of "what's the minimum I can do and still get what I want?" That question is one of the defining questions of mediocrity. Mediocrity is a very easy place to go, which is why many people wind up there. You aspire to an excellent score, which means you need to be asking yourself the questions of excellence. The principle one is "what else can I do to improve myself and my understanding?" Similarly, excellence takes nothing for granted, asking, "What else can I learn about this already familiar topic? What can I understand more deeply about this?" Finally, the mark of an excellent student is: never making the same mistake twice. That's an exceedingly high standard by which to live: when you get a question in a practice session wrong, it's not enough to glance at the answer and think, "Oh yeah. That's why I got it wrong." The question is: what review do you have to, and how many times do you have to return to the nature of that mistake, so that you are virtually guaranteed that you will never make that mistake again. Very hard to do. Excellence is a hard standard for which to strive, which is why very few people wind up there. If you really want an excellent score, are you ready to adopt the worldview that requires? Of course, if you can maintain that worldview as a habit through b-school and into your career, it will serve you exceedingly well.
Best of luck to you!
Mike
_________________
Mike McGarry
Magoosh Test PrepEducation is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. — William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939)