Strategies with 1 week left?

Question

Hey y'all,

Just finished the PowerPrep Test 1 today, no AWA. Got a 710 (Q50, V35!), roughly 93%.

Was quite disappointed by my Verbal, where I missed 10 questions out of 30 (Powerprep only showed the 30 Verbal that counted). I missed 6 SC, 2 RC (two very careless mistakes) and 2 CR (could have thought it through a little more).

My previous scores were:
GMATPrep1: 770, Q50, V44
MGMAT1: 720, Q47, V41
Princeton1: 670, Q50, V33
MGMAT2: 680, Q47, V36 (taken right after Princeton on same day)
PowerPrep1: 710, Q50, V35

I'm not quite sure what's happening with my Verbal. I'm still missing around 6 SC questions, even after doing more than 1/2 of the Manhattan book. I'm noticing modifiers, parallel constructions and things like that, but I always pick the wrong one due mostly to idioms. I guess I'll just have to do flashcards for idioms and really memorize them, since I get a lot of those questions.

My RC and CR are good, but making a few mistakes here and there cost me (when I got V44 on GMATPrep, I had 8 wrong, 6 SC, 1 RC and 1 CR). Does getting 2 extra wrong make that big of a difference? Or is it because I missed 2 somewhat easy RC's by careless mistake that the computer thinks I'm bad for missing easy questions?

I have 1 week left till G-Day, and here's my plan:

- Finish the difficult 1/3 of the OG for CR and RC
- Finish the Manhattan SC book and all OG questions
- Review Math principles
- Do PowerPrep2, GMATPrep2, and maybe MGMAT3 (I enjoy the punishment of the hard math)
- If I have time, do GMAC Verbal Workout for RC, CR and SC

Do you think that will work? Any other suggestions? It's just very strange that my Math has been pretty steady but my Verbal is all over the place, and I'm not sure why. On my practice problems with OG (under time pressure), I rarely get more than 1 wrong out of 20 RC/CR questions (in the difficult sections). Any suggestions on that?

Thanks to those of you who have followed my GMAT studying progression and provided feedback!

trahul4 · Answer

Kryzak,
I suggest you to take GMATPrep 2 now . There is no point in taking GMATPrep2 just couple of days before your exam. Firstly becuase there is not much time left to leverage the learnings and you risk a bad test experience just before the real test if it doesn't go well. Infact i do not suggest you to take any CATs 4-5 days before the real exam. Even if you take (to test endurance, practice etc), just ignore the scores.

Your study plan for the last week is quite good. Make sure for CR and RC, you do all the questions from OG and its supplements. For quant, do the last 1/3 of both PS and DS. Just be cool and confident enough and you will get there. 

Goodluck and keep us informed.

kryzak · Answer

Thank you trahul! I'm really grateful for your words of encouragement! It's been a roller-coaster ride of emotions for my various CATs. 

I'm noticing that my first two CATs (GMATPrep1 and MGMAT1), I got V40+, and I had up to 9 minutes free when I was done with the Verbal section. with the last three tests (PR1, MGMAT2, PPrep1), I've been running out of time! I really don't know what's going on. Am I getting stupider or is my brain just full? I'm not sure how I can do so well on verbal (especially CR and RC) when I haven't studied for the GMAT at all, and now after doing problems and studying, I'm doing worse. 

I'll follow the plan. I plan on taking CATs on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday, then that's it. One of them will have AWA with it. After that I'll look over missed problems, finish up practice problems from teh OG and supplements, and not do anything Thursday, and relax Friday (maybe do a few medium level questions from each section just to get my brain fired up).

trahul4 · Answer

Kryzak,

I'm also in the same boat. My verbal performace has decreased gradually. My RC and CR were top notch a month back and now whenever i take practice CATs, i miss 3-4RC's and 3-4 CR's. The irony is i miss specific detail questions of RC (questinos which are the easiest). I have just not been able to cross 35 in verbal in last 3 CATs. I know if i perform at my best i will getto 40V. But now after a string of disappointing performances, my confidence is at an all time low. 
The same is the case with quant also to a certain extent, but somehow im confident of strikgni 48 on quant, but when it comes to verbal im just hoping that i perform at the higher end of my ability. 

Hope for the best .

financeguy · Answer

Hi,

Being a new member, I can't post URLs but go to Google and search for idiom flashcards and you will find a flashcard website on the top with very useful GMAT flashcards for idioms. Very easy and convenient.

Hope it helps.

kryzak · Answer

trahul, when are you taking the test? Strange that we're both having the same problems with our verbal slowly getting worse. Today I missed one of the easiest questions ever on Reading, the one about meteor showers. It literally said "annual meteor showers", and the inference question asked what can be concluded, and one of the choices was "meteor showers happen every year". I completely missed the "annual" and chose something else... grrr!!!

I think we both have the skills to get 40+ on Verbal, but for some reason we're both in a slump. Just did a bunch of RC/CR on OG again, only missed 1 or 2 out of 20+. Did some SC on Modifiers, I'm getting the hang of it. I think once I do the chapter on Parallel Construction and Idioms, my SC score should improve enough to compensate for any mistakes in RC/CR. I think that's the safest bet for both of us.

financeguy, thank you for the tip! i did find the Manhattan flash cards and have printed them out. Will cut them up and use them in the next week!

trahul4 · Answer

financeguy, thanks for the tip.. this should realyl help. 

kryzak,
i'm also banking on SC to work out for me as i know it is the best section to improve in such a less time. like you , i miss quite a lot of idiom questions and i'm going to work through the flashcards that financeguy has advised. let me see. I have 3 weeks to go for the real test. As you are giving before me, i can take some tips from you after your experience with the real test. Btw, how is your quant ? is it top notch? are you confident on getting 48+?

financeguy · Answer

I have the same problem - trying to improve verbal.

My strategy so far: 

SC: Manhattan SC Book, SC-1000
CR: LSAT Logical Reasoning Bible - An advanced CR book which can take more than a week to master but if you can conquer it, 100% CR score is guaranteed as it's 10 times more advanced CR than GMAT but very well written and explained.
RC: No short term strategy but I can recommend a few good books if you have atleast 2 months to prepare.

Thanks

financeguy · Answer

Download link: https://www.mediafire.com/?0ezztbgiss1 Thanks

kryzak · Answer

yes trahul, I'll be taking it in a week, and I'll definitely debrief and hopefully it's good news.

flashcards for idioms is the key right now. 

I'm pretty confident with Quant. I've been getting Q50 for GMATPrep1, PowerPrep1, and Princeton Review CAT1. I got Q47 for MGMAT CAT 1 and 2, where the first time I was just shocked by how hard it was and didn't ration out my time well (had 10 min to do the last 10 questions, and guessed on most of them, getting 9 of them wrong), the second time I handled my time better, but somehow didn't pick an answer for the last question before the time ran out, so I'm sure there was a penalty there. 

Thus, I think my Quant is ready for roughly a 48+ (a 50 on a good day). Now I just need Verbal to be 40+ and I'm set. 

I'm still doing PS/DS hard bin questions from OG, doing MGMAT CAT reviews, and reading some books from a friend's class notes.

seofah · Answer

kryzak, if i were you, i would not take more than 2 CATS(with AWA!!!) in the rundown to the test.
Rather, concentrate on your mistakes, rehearse your strategies, and build mental sharpness.
Crack the gmat and let us know !

kryzak · Answer

thanks botirvoy! 

Is there a reason why everyone says not to take too many CATs? I thought the key was to get used to taking the full length tests... Just wondering.

I do understand the need to look at my mistakes, but other than SC, all my mistakes have been pretty inane. There are some CR mistakes that I need to review to catch the tricks. But I guess I'll just do more CR/RC and SC to get my verbal score up and memorize some tricks to speed up my quant. 

PowerPrep 2 and GMATPrep2, here I come!

seofah · Answer

the more CATs you take close to the test day, the more you get burnt, the less time you have to reflect on the results of the CATs. 
Imagine yourself a professional sportsman who trained heavily before the competition and who takes rest in the last week, to restore musles, increase focus, and prepare mentally.

My best performances in CATs were the ones I took after several days of switch-offs from GMAT!

trahul4 · Answer

I agree with bortivoy. Dont burn yourself out. Relax. All the best.

kryzak · Answer

alright! I will stop taking tests after Sunday, giving myself 4 days of doing regular questions, reviewing mistakes, and re-reading general strategies! Wish me luck everyone!

financeguy · Answer

hmm .. I agree but remember one thing - GMAT is a sophisticated test designed in a way that it's extremely difficult to improve your score within a short time so theoretically no matter what you do in last week or so you can't significantly change your expected GMAT score range so I would rather relax when the time to improve my score range is already past.

Wish you good luck.

kryzak · Answer

True, the only problem I have is I don't really know my score range (or my score range is really big, from 680-770). I guess it'll all come down to which questions were asked that day, how many careless mistakes I make, and whether I freeze up or not.

The one thing I *can* improve though is SC, so I've been working on that the last couple days!

bsd_lover · Answer

Kryzak,

Take a break. Dont burn yourself out with one week to go. Save your strength for d-day. Remember you have to perform at your peak for 4 hours straight and if you are mentally tired, all that practice will go to waste.

Good luck.

financeguy · Answer

Agree about SC but according to GMAC, things like your mood on a particular day or other factors don't have any role in your final score. If you take a GMAT test every day for 7 consecutive days, your score should be the same or within a close range. The range can't be as wide as 680-770.

Thanks

kryzak · Answer

thanks bsd, will take things lightly. Just panicked a bit after some low practice scores. 

financeguy, yeah, the range shouldn't be that big... but none of my scores make much sense (except for the one where I took 2 tests back to back). 770 before studying at all, 710 after studying for 2-3 weeks. Very strange.

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