shadowsjc wrote:
GmatNY86 wrote:
Hi all,
Update:
I took another Kaplan CAT and I have good news and bad news. I made an effort not to be nervous and stayed composed. I found the test to be a lot easier. I had 9 out of 22 right in problem solving last test and then when I went over the questions and without looking at the explanations answered almost all of them correctly. This time I had a good feeling with math. My feeling was correct and I got a 15 out of 22.
Now the bad news. For some odd reason, the previous test, despite my nerves and 9 out of 22 right in problem solving what prevented my grade from being atrocious was my surprising data sufficiency. I answered 11 out of 15 right on it. Even more surprising considering I got only 6 out of 15 right in data sufficiency the previous test. This time I'm back at sucking at data sufficiency, 6 out of 15 right. I wasn't very good in verbal (but I spend less time on verbal, even though I think I'm better in English in general, I think Quant is harder). So I ended up getting a 600 again! It bothers me that even when I feel good about a test I get a damn 600. The problem is that unlike problem solving I don't "feel" data sufficiency. You get a pretty good idea of how you're doing in problem solving. But data sufficiency is a lot more ambiguous. The same goes for SC and CR (especially SC which I almost always feel like I get right). Not so much RC, because usually when I suck at it, I can tell. Although today I did a lot better at it than I thought. I will say I didn't feel great about verbal, but got almost the same percentile for it as I did Math that I felt good about. Maybe I'm just not smart enough and it has nothing to do with nerves.
The GMAT has nothing to do with how smart you are. It basically just tests how well you can take a standardized test. This, in turn, measures preparation and ability to remain calm. It sounds like you've worked on - and mostly dealt with - your stress levels during practice test. The rest can be improved upon through more practice.
1. You say you spend less time on verbal. I was doing the same thing during my practice tests. Timing is probably the most overlooked concept on the GMAT. You don't want to finish with 7-8 mins left in a section, because that means you didn't focus enough on the ones you got wrong. (it's also bad to take too long on a section, but luckily you don't seem to be having that issue). For the verbal on your next few practice tests, I'd work on improving the timing of the section. Don't just pick the first answer you think is right - take the time to examine the other ones and make sure your answer is right. I used this timing strategy and it boosted my V score a lot.
2. Data sufficiency is IMO the toughest part of the GMAT. Only more practice can improve how you do on it. Try to target specific topics in the data sufficiency you are doing poorly in. For example, during my study course, absolute value data sufficiency was killing me. I spent extra time studying these specific types of questions, and it helped in the long run. Do you have any specific strategy for approaching data sufficiency questions? There are some good strategies on the forum about how to tackle these questions, and they should help.
Well, I've never been good at taking standardized tests (I'm good at all other tests, hence my 3.75 GPA, albeit from a city college). I got an 1100 for my SATs and didn't pass a standardized test to get into a specialized High School in NY TWICE. However, I took Kaplan for the Specialized High School test twice and Princeton Review for the SATs and did nothing else. I did my homework but didn't do any supplimentary work. It seems a lot of people here study like crazy. I don't do that. However, in the weekdays I study about 2 hours and 45 minutes in addition to an hour or 2 of Kaplan HW. On the weekends I don't study too much, but take a CAT on Saturday and then have a 2.5 hour Kaplan course on Sunday. Now the other issues:
1) Time IS an issue for me. There was only one test that I ended up not answering questions, and it was the first Kaplan CAT (unless you count the paper and pencil diag where I just lost track of time on a question that at the time I had no chance of answering). I got a 510 on that test. Since then, I've at least finished. However I ended up having to hurry at the end and guess a couple sometimes. The only test where that wasn't the case, I got a 710 in (my only CAT that I'm happy about). Verbal is more of an issue because of reading comp. I had that problem in the SATs too. Math, last test I noticed that I was running out of time and on some questions (mostly data sufficiency). That HAD to hurt my data sufficiency score. I also had a minute left on the last question and the question was so easy that I wish I spent more time on other questions (then again I'd probably get a harder question then). I hurried a bit in verbal in the last test (I lost concentration for a bit and had a damn natural science reading comp that I could barely decipher). The CAT before that I guessed the last few questions and ended up getting the last 3 wrong. So yes time is an issue. If I were finishing with 8 minutes to go I'd be the happiest person ever. That problem would be fixed easily.
2) Well after I bombed data sufficiency 2 CATs ago I did all of the DS problems in the
OG. I got something like 40 wrong out of 170. Not jaw dropping, but decent nonetheless. Then I got 11 out of 15 right on my last CAT. But I'm back to bombing it. Much like sentence correction for me, it's a silent killer. Problem solving and reading comp are sadistic killers, data sufficiency, sentence correction and critical reasoning are silent killers. I don't know I'm getting them wrong until I get the results. As far as my strategy goes. I try to write out everything in algebraic form for the appropriate problems and try to simplify as much as possible, or just make a different for (e.g. 1/a=1/b, I would write a=b). Sometimes it works, but sometimes it doesn't. The thing is about data sufficiency, the math is often easier than in problem solving, but it's so much trickier and you're not used to these types of questions. Sometimes the math is just as hard and this it's harder than problem solving. The positive with it is that in an easy data sufficiency question you can finish it faster.