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FriedmanDillon
Joined: 24 Mar 2011
Last visit: 17 Dec 2012
Posts: 1
Own Kudos:
Concentration: Entrepreneurship, Technology
GMAT 1: 710 Q47 V40
GMAT 2: 670 Q44 V38
GPA: 3.46
WE:Information Technology (Consulting)
29 Dec 2011, 19:29
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Alright so last year I took MGMAT's course and thought it was fantastic. I thought the books were great and got a lot out of them. That said, however, my quant score from when I took my second CAT was a 44. That's the highest it's ever been and roughly the average across my practice exams (including when I reset the question bank).
When I sat for the actual GMAT, I got a Q44/V38. While that's my best performance, I don't feel it's indicative of my potential even if I am bad at math. Surely if I took a course I should have seen some improvement but no such luck. There must be SOMETHING I am not getting. It's not a timing issue because I am very prudent regarding time management but I'd love hear any insights you folks may have that would help me out. I am dying to cross the 80/80 threshold. (For the record, my verbal didn't change much either throughout the course but it started at a 34, shot to a 42-ish and stayed in that area... Yeah I know I had a bad verbal day but V38 sits fine with me if I can just get to Q48 or so.)
For those of you who may have come upon this post and thought "Man, no way am I using MGMAT. They are expensive and didn't get that guy anything," you are woefully mistaken. The curriculum is fantastic and I learned more about the test than I would have otherwise... I also walked in very prepared. I just feel like I am not studying properly so I couldn't fully utilize all of the resources they mad available to me.
Any advice is appreciated and thank you in advance.
When I sat for the actual GMAT, I got a Q44/V38. While that's my best performance, I don't feel it's indicative of my potential even if I am bad at math. Surely if I took a course I should have seen some improvement but no such luck. There must be SOMETHING I am not getting. It's not a timing issue because I am very prudent regarding time management but I'd love hear any insights you folks may have that would help me out. I am dying to cross the 80/80 threshold. (For the record, my verbal didn't change much either throughout the course but it started at a 34, shot to a 42-ish and stayed in that area... Yeah I know I had a bad verbal day but V38 sits fine with me if I can just get to Q48 or so.)
For those of you who may have come upon this post and thought "Man, no way am I using MGMAT. They are expensive and didn't get that guy anything," you are woefully mistaken. The curriculum is fantastic and I learned more about the test than I would have otherwise... I also walked in very prepared. I just feel like I am not studying properly so I couldn't fully utilize all of the resources they mad available to me.
Any advice is appreciated and thank you in advance.
FriedmanDillon
At Q44, your concepts are nicely in place.
Fact: 45-51 level questions use the EXACT same concepts. The only thing is that in higher ranges, the setting of the question is convoluted.
e.g.
Low level question: If n is a prime number greater than 10, is it divisible by (n-1)?
Medium level question: n, a positive integer greater than 10, has only two factors. Is n divisible by (n-1)?
High level question: n is a positive integer greater than 10 such that its square has exactly 3 factors. Is n divisible by (n-1)?
In the high level question, if you are unable to arrive at the conclusion that n must be prime, you will find it tough to answer the question. You have certainly mastered the low level and medium level tricks; the high level settings are taking you down. In a high level question, you should try and figure out the core concept they are trying to test. The information is the same in all the 3 questions above. It is just beyond recognition in the high level question. So practice high level questions and note down the takeaways. You will soon start to see how they are all based on your very basic concepts.
04 Jan 2012, 21:57
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Hi Dillon,
A few suggestions:
1) Make sure you are writing enough down! For many people, the biggest obstacle to success on the harder problems is not conceptual understanding, but keeping track of all the information in a problem. At the beginning of the problem, determine what the problem is asking for, and what you need to do in order to solve. It often helps to write down a solution equation, such as Average Rate = (miles in car + miles on foot) / total time. This allows you to focus on one piece of the problem at a time. You can fill each piece into the solution equation without wasting any time thinking "What was I supposed to do with this again?" It also gives you a great way to check yourself at the end. Before committing to your answer, ask yourself "What was the question asking for, and is that what I provided?" If you have a solution equation on your paper, this confirmation step is really easy.
(You can find an example of a solution equation in action on a simple fraction problem here: percents-and-fractions-just-can-t-beat-them-124833.html )
2) I know you said you are good with time management, but keep working on it anyway! Even if you never time out, if you get too far behind at any point in the test, you may be wasting too much time on problems that you will end up missing anyway. At the same time, falling behind can stress you out and drag down your performance on problems you would otherwise handle just fine. If you finish early, on the other hand, you may have missed some opportunities to put a little extra time in where it was needed. Ideally, you never want to be more than 2 minutes behind the target time (2 mins/question). If you don't know what to do with a problem after 45 seconds, it's time to choose a backup strategy or guess and move on. If you are missing some problems that you finish really quickly, are you approaching these seemingly easy problems with enough suspicion? Watch out for problems that seem to be solvable by one or two quick operations. Most of the problems you do should be right at the edge of your ability, so it's unlikely that they will fall down that easily.
3) Use our comprehensive assessment tool to look for areas of weakness. From the Student Center, go to CAT Exams & Diagnostics. Click on "Generate Assessment Reports (Analyze your performance across multiple exams)." Check the boxes of the exams you'd like to include and hit Generate to see 5 reports on your test performance. In your case, I checked the boxes for 5A, 3A, 2A, and 1A. I won't share the results publicly, but try this yourself. Of particular interest is the 4th report, Quantitative by Content Area & Topic. Across the top, you'll see the names of all the quant topics in red. For each of these pages, look for topics where your accuracy is low, or where you missed a large # of problems (at least 1 per test--in this case, 4). You'll see that some areas are very strong, while others are just beating you up. These areas may well be the key to improvement for you.
4) You may want to check out our Advanced Quant strategy guide. It was designed for people who are trying to improve on a Quant score of 70th percentile or higher. While some of the material may be more of a stretch than you need, there are la lot of really good, instructive problems in there. It has a number of strategies that don't appear elsewhere, and it introduces a framework called Understand-Plan-Solve that many people find helpful in developing a more organized approach (in line with item 1 above).
Best of luck!
A few suggestions:
1) Make sure you are writing enough down! For many people, the biggest obstacle to success on the harder problems is not conceptual understanding, but keeping track of all the information in a problem. At the beginning of the problem, determine what the problem is asking for, and what you need to do in order to solve. It often helps to write down a solution equation, such as Average Rate = (miles in car + miles on foot) / total time. This allows you to focus on one piece of the problem at a time. You can fill each piece into the solution equation without wasting any time thinking "What was I supposed to do with this again?" It also gives you a great way to check yourself at the end. Before committing to your answer, ask yourself "What was the question asking for, and is that what I provided?" If you have a solution equation on your paper, this confirmation step is really easy.
(You can find an example of a solution equation in action on a simple fraction problem here: percents-and-fractions-just-can-t-beat-them-124833.html )
2) I know you said you are good with time management, but keep working on it anyway! Even if you never time out, if you get too far behind at any point in the test, you may be wasting too much time on problems that you will end up missing anyway. At the same time, falling behind can stress you out and drag down your performance on problems you would otherwise handle just fine. If you finish early, on the other hand, you may have missed some opportunities to put a little extra time in where it was needed. Ideally, you never want to be more than 2 minutes behind the target time (2 mins/question). If you don't know what to do with a problem after 45 seconds, it's time to choose a backup strategy or guess and move on. If you are missing some problems that you finish really quickly, are you approaching these seemingly easy problems with enough suspicion? Watch out for problems that seem to be solvable by one or two quick operations. Most of the problems you do should be right at the edge of your ability, so it's unlikely that they will fall down that easily.
3) Use our comprehensive assessment tool to look for areas of weakness. From the Student Center, go to CAT Exams & Diagnostics. Click on "Generate Assessment Reports (Analyze your performance across multiple exams)." Check the boxes of the exams you'd like to include and hit Generate to see 5 reports on your test performance. In your case, I checked the boxes for 5A, 3A, 2A, and 1A. I won't share the results publicly, but try this yourself. Of particular interest is the 4th report, Quantitative by Content Area & Topic. Across the top, you'll see the names of all the quant topics in red. For each of these pages, look for topics where your accuracy is low, or where you missed a large # of problems (at least 1 per test--in this case, 4). You'll see that some areas are very strong, while others are just beating you up. These areas may well be the key to improvement for you.
4) You may want to check out our Advanced Quant strategy guide. It was designed for people who are trying to improve on a Quant score of 70th percentile or higher. While some of the material may be more of a stretch than you need, there are la lot of really good, instructive problems in there. It has a number of strategies that don't appear elsewhere, and it introduces a framework called Understand-Plan-Solve that many people find helpful in developing a more organized approach (in line with item 1 above).
Best of luck!
