several people has asked me if it is possible to improve your quant score form 44-46 range to 50+, how this can be done and how much time is needed..... so i gave it some thought.... obviously - everyone is different.... each has different weaknesses and stregths so there is no generic answer to all - but still, i think that there can be some rough guidelines for doing this leap.... here are my thoughts about it. if you are constantly performing at the 44-46 quant range (previous gmats, trustable prep material) i guess you: - mastered most of the required skilled - understand the structure and requirements of gmat math questions your problems are likely to be in the following areas: - "silly mistakes" i.e. things that in the pressure of the gmat you do wrong although you know and understand them - get yourself into unnecessary complications in solving some of the questions. - timing issues... there are some things that just take you too much time to get right. - mistakes that are a result of a subtlety of concepts that you werent sure about (which made you both spend time, eventually guessing or answering without confidence, sometime getting it wrong) the most common prep mistake (in my view...) that people do: - concentrating on advanced concepts and hard questions. the ROI of this kind of prep is small (it would be higher if you were to advance for 48-49 to 51). what you should do (again.... my own opinion): - perfect your basic techniques. for example: solving regular linear, one variable equations should be performed with no mistakes at all, and should take you no more than 20-30 seconds; doing simple arithmetic - again... no mistakes are allowed, do it fast and with confidence... etc... - boost your confidence. my suggestion - do questions again and again, until you can do, in time, without guessing and providing full answers, until you can do a full test (37 questions of various difficulty) with no more then 2-3 mistakes. - try to look for the simplest way of solving things. don't "buy" comlex explanations. for 95% of gmat questions there are simple explanations. also, don't sufficient yourself with just one way to solve questions. for many questions there are more than one good way to solve. familiarizing yourself with all of them will help you find the simplest way to do it. - look for specialized material that concentrates (correctly) on subtleties of concepts, especially the concepts you feel are difficult for you. this is the most difficult part, as it is hard to come across specialized question sets. in fact, i thought of compiling such sets, but unfortunately i don't have much time for that. on the other hand - you can use this forum wisely. if you ask about a subtlety of a concept in this forum i'd probably answer giving 2-3 gmat like questions that uncover it. - try GMAT Club tests - these are hard math problems designed to make you work hard for every question again these are general guidelines.... as you can see the ROI (or effectiveness) of a prep method depends on where you are and what you want to achieve. concentrating on advanced concepts is good for 48->51 the above is better for 44->50 for 36-40 -> 45 you should probably spend more time reviewing concepts that are not clear to you (there are certainly some if you score less than 40). for under 35 you should probably continue review basic skills before moving forward.... any opinions? comments?

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several people has asked me if it is possible to improve

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orsang8

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22 Sep 2009, 11:12

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advice*. I should be careful.

ajonas

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great post. thanks.

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22 Dec 2009, 10:34

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Great Post. Let me try to hit the cealing.

tarun

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30 Dec 2009, 00:43

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Thnks for informative post.

It all boils down to holding your nerves (to avoid silly mistakes), good grasp of fundamentals and ability to apply them.

Sounds simple

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21 Apr 2010, 13:54

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quite helpful..thanks

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21 Apr 2010, 14:56

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indeed good suggestion

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27 Apr 2010, 11:12

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Very good original post. I was scoring 45-49 and on the real test i scored 45. In hindsight, instead of concentrating on hard questions, i should have been looking to reduce my silly mistakes which always cost me 6-8 questions. Ill try this approach when i give my exam a second time.

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This is a great thread. I clearly have to study more. And visit more. I am certain I would just sweat this problem out. I am confident that I would get the right answer but not nearly as quickly. Gotta study it till I start seeing the strategies.

skipjames

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I realized last night while working on some data sufficiency questions that the math is only part of it. They are really partly logic or verbal. This is supposed to be my strong point. Now that I look at them differently-- the math is pretty easy then you do the separate logical analysis-- they make much more sense and actually seem easy.

kobra92

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it is generally safe to use the rational roots test on some of these large polynomials on gmat? its seems the fastest way to at least reduce the choices....

if applied to the question in this thread, you would easily deduce 3 for the first one and then check it, taking 10 seconds or so......

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20 Sep 2010, 00:22

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I found this topic again for the second or third time. I'm stuck in the position of scoring 44-48 on practice tests. I would like to score consistently 48-50! It seems this final push is very difficult. I'm going to try as someone suggested, and work the last 50 problems in OG (tomorrow hopefully).

NewSc2

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20 Sep 2010, 00:50

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I'm stuck in the 48-50 range. I guess "stuck" is a good thing here, but I'd like to push it up to 51.

I'm finding most of my mistakes appear on bad/complicated algebra. Things like 42/7 = 7 can really mess up a full equation and add 1-2 minutes to the question. Also not noticing words like "cannot" or "from the remainder of" or "x is an integer" can hurt a lot. Sometimes the GMAT answer choices don't agree with my flawed algebra, and I get the chance to go back and find my mistake, but if I rush through with a "trap" error that the test makers built into the answer, I'll likely get it wrong.

My advice would be to practice your algebra, and to hone your testing-numbers skills on DS. Most problems can be solved with a good understanding of algebra -- it's worth spending an extra amount of time on general math manipulations (square roots, fractions, quadratics) and setting up good equations rather than the specific comb/prob-type questions that might only come up once or twice.

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20 Sep 2010, 01:37

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It is funny that we are complaining about being "stuck" at a relatively decent score

I would have killed to be at this score a few months ago.

You bring up a good topic… what to do when you have made a mistake. I did a problem earlier that used the compound interest formula and for some reason i did 11^2 = 111. Once you get to the answer choices and not seeing your answer is a really bad feeling. I went back and started from scratch and screwed up again (same mistake). I had so much time invested in the problem I checked everything and found my mistake. Of course, on a real test this is probably not practical. You then have to deal with the anxiety of wondering if you got the formula wrong, or whatever else went wrong. On a tougher problem, I usually look for any errors (of course they are always hard to find under a time constraint), and then just pick the answer closest to mine. On a simple problem that you know you should get, it is really hard to just guess and keep going.

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20 Sep 2010, 08:58

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wow an old thread but quite useful!!thanx a lot!!

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thanks for the advice

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great advice.. thanks

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30 Jan 2011, 23:29

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data sufficiency questions involving inequalities,then inequalities also involving concepts of absolute value , square roots and squares, reversing the sign of inequality, these are some of the problem areas. Then comparing different fraction values in inequalities is another trouble. Compound interest problems with a lot of word translations also create trouble.

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thanks for the post

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Hey I am in the same club, I am using a painful error logging and error analysis approach this time. I am also maintaining a small notebook in which i write "what I learnt today" everyday. Probably about 90 page of notes in 3 months along with a track or errors which I usually make,such as assuming x square to be an integer helps a lot.
Also I make sure to read the logs once in 2-4 days mapping in my mind the question and the parameters again. I think this is a good way to improve ur score, rather than brainlessly practice questions from all sources.

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bblast

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02 Jun 2011, 05:36

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My example was assuming x to be an integer if x square is an integer.
There are few questions on this concept in gclub tests as well as an og ds question.

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