Practise Tests - dissapointed

Question

Hi All,

My test date is Nov20th. I started giving practise tests the first is Kaplan CD test 1. I am really dissapointed. I scored a 540. I took this test with AWA . My energy level stooped after quant. For verbal I was left with no energy and kind of breezed through the section.I literally skipped RC because of lack of energy. I did Math with full concentration but alas ended with such a low score.. The split was 31(Q) and 29(V).

i was working on improving my quant till a week back and kind of ignored verbal, so I feel was not geared for the exam..

How do I maintain my energy through out ? I am planning to take a test again on Sunday.. Planning to give continous tests..till Nov 20th. Twice a week.

I know people say dont take kaplan seriously but , even when adjusted with score estimator i am still in 630 range..

Just venting my frustrtion.

Thanks !

yangsta8 · Answer

If this is your first test than that's probably to be expected... especially if you did AWA. The way I see it.... a 4 hour exam is the equivalent of a marathon. If you're not used to it you can't jsut step into it and expect your energy levels to be up there the entire time without training.

I think you just need more practice and you're skill level and stamina levels will improve.

I think you just need more practice and you're skill level and stamina levels will improve.

skpMatcha · Answer

Thank You, I was reviewing my results and there are many problems that I can solve but couldnt solve under the test conditions, my goal is to give my best with out erroring out on things that i know atleast..

ya i will keep this thread posted with the results of my future exams..

ya i will keep this thread posted with the results of my future exams..

mohater · Answer

My advice based on the above:

Don't burn out on practice tests. If you simply churn out practice test after practice test, you might burn out and crash and burn on the test. Walker created a pretty powerful tool that you can use with your error log, tracking answers and time.

You seem to have trouble with timing and problem approach. Churning out practice tests DOES NOT (usually) help those two issues. Approach means you need more content/material. Once you master the approach, the timing becomes easier the manage.

skpMatcha · Answer

@Mohater,

let me give you some background on my prep, I have started the prep around march ,completed OG11, Verbal Review/Quant Review, ManhattanGMAT series twice i guess, then took some material which deal with hard math problems,while doing this I want to do Verbal parllely but couldnt afford to.

just week ago i refreshed verbal and then gave my first test. When i am compiling my error log I saw that the problems are not out of my reach ,my nerves dint allow me to dig into the problem, i was looking for more straight fwd questions guessing here and there..I have realized that I cant just get a feel of answer but have to proove it before confimring the answer.. I dont want to put any effort in further studying aimlessly , I think I have reached a point where I have put myself under this test environments.. This is just my feeling, feedback is welcome..

yes I am maintaining an error log.

mohater · Answer

If you're looking to be 100% confident you have the *right* answer, you'll be ripping your hair out and stressing out over every question on any standardized test.

The key with standardized tests (GMAT included) is to identify the *best* answer. This is especially true when dealing with more subjective topics, like CR, RC, SC and the quant problems that say "if you take XXX, ZZZ, and YYY the answer is closest to", then these is no real right answer. Your goal is to find the answer that most appropriately addresses the question (for quant, closest value).

I have not been able to decipher if you're having issues with problem approach and timing, or the CAT environment.

My experience with studying aimlessly: I did it for ~3-5 months when prepping for the GMAT the first time. I took the MGMAT class, and this provided me with the WHY I was studying aimlessly. From there, I came up with an action plan, and began to score consistently on practice tests. After that I was able to identify my weaknesses and move to overcome them.

I hope this helps.

skpMatcha · Answer

Can you please elobarate on this

Ya I am not sure either, couple of more tests will give me an answer. do you think I need to take sectional tests before slowly going onto full fledged tests? Kaplan has some sectional tests I can try those, post the results and may be *one can help me analyze.Or do you think I should try tests with out AWA ?

Please help !

skpMatcha · Answer

I took my second practise test with out AWA and scored as below
Source : manhattan gmat series CAT1

TYPE SCORE ESTIMATED PERCENTILE RANK 
Quantitative 45 77 % 
Verbal 34 72 % 
Total 650 84 %

mohater · Answer

Standardized tests don't test how well you can answer a problem. If that was the case, you wouldn't have the time constraints. When you study for a standardized test, you need to do two things: 1. Understand the content sufficiently to answer problems 2. Approach the problems in a way to either solve the problem or quickly eliminate incorrect answers and improve your changes of getting the answer right. Simply solving practice problems and taking practice tests works for a minority of people, the rest of us (myself included) have a fundamental shortage in one of the two things I listed above. Until you adequately address the deficiency, you can study for weeks, even months, and not see any improvement. A practice test will give you the beginning. I always recommend people start with a practice test before moving on to anything else. A practice test provides a baseline for studying, what to do and roughly how much of it. What books to use, time investment, etc, that all depends on what you actually need. Here's what I recommend: Take a full practice test (make sure it's a test that provides detailed results). Go through and figure out where your major deficiencies are. Then read the book review threads: GMAT Books: top-gmat-prep-books-guides-reviews-comments-77703.html Verbal Books: best-gmat-verbal-prep-books-reviews-recommendations-78094.html Quant Books: best-gmat-math-prep-books-reviews-recommendations-77291.html Go with the book that will best deal with this weakness and move forward. Take another diagnostic test after some time and gauge improvement.

mohater · Answer

Looks like you could use some marginal improvement in both sections. You will need ~3 points in quant and ~4 points in verbal to hit 80 percentile in both sections. This is an achievable goal.

Go through the details of each section. Figure out what problem type you fumbled on the most (CR, RC, DS, PS, NP, etc.). Figure out why you fumbled on those problems (lack of understanding concepts, timing, problem approach, etc.) and work to address that weakness. Use an error log to track time and answers and make sure you're making the needed improvement to succeed on the GMAT.

skpMatcha · Answer

Thanks ! I am maintaining error log .. I will use this thread to post my progress..

skpMatcha · Answer

SCORE & OVERVIEW OF RESULTS 
TYPE SCORE ESTIMATED PERCENTILE RANK 
Quantitative 44 73 % 
Verbal 33 69 % 
Total 640 80 %

mohater · Answer

Did you prep between the practice tests? Or just take back to back practice tests?

skpMatcha · Answer

I have a week gap between the tests, since the 1st test sunday i reviewd the answers on monday 2 hrs and tuesday 2hrs and around wednesday i re did OG 11 PS wrong questions (i noted these) and then did question banks on mgmat site before taking the 2nd test.

From what I observed, the actual number of wrongs were less this time,silly mistakes were more.

Please guide me as of what I need to do between exams ?I am taking one every sunday..

skpMatcha · Answer

SCORE & OVERVIEW OF RESULTS 
TYPE SCORE ESTIMATED PERCENTILE RANK 
Quantitative 45 77 % 
Verbal 36 81 % 
Total 670 89 %

mohater · Answer

Personally, I don't see value in just taking practice tests (i.e. taking one every Sunday).

(again my opinion here):
A practice test should either be used to gauge overall progress, or to check if you've overcome certain content or time management deficiencies.

As long as you're confident you're improving in the two areas above, you should be fine on the real thing.

shadow · Answer

i fundamentally disagree with this opinion. taking practice tests (vs doing individual problems) will allow you to work under the actual time constraints. you can also time yourself doing individual questions, but it's much more realistic and easier to pace yourself in an actual full length test.

furthermore, if you only do individual questions, you won't be able to replicate the question selection you'll receive by taking multiple full length tests. remember the actual GMAT is computer adaptive, so the difficulty of the questions will vary as you take the test.

if you can take practice tests (i used MGMAT tests), i'd recommend it. however, make sure you don't take all of them in the early part of your study cycle, and are left with none towards the end. save the official gmat preptests for the very beginning and the end of your study cycle.

mohater · Answer

I agree with you completely. I (believe) think you're using your experience as a benchmark in your response.

Going through debrief threads of people who miss his/her goal by quite a ways, there seems to be a trend that the more practice exams you do the better. That theory only holds true if the person preparing for the test either has solid grounding in content/material and timing techniques or has seen improvement in prep and needs a reassessment. Too often, I've read debriefs where stagnation takes place, the test takers is completely frustrated, and keeps churning through practice test without resolving the root of the issue (a content deficiency or a timing deficiency).

Doing practice test is a fundamental aspect of prep, but it's still only one piece of the journey.

skpMatcha · Answer

GMATPREP Test1
Quant : 48
Verbal : 34
Total : 670

skpMatcha · Answer

TYPE SCORE ESTIMATED PERCENTILE RANK 
Quantitative 41 64 % 
Verbal 37 83 % 
Total 650 84 %

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