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09 Oct 2010, 08:52
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Hi,
First of all, I should say that this site is really a fantastic resource - big thanks and congratulations to those who have made it what it is. I wish I'd come across it sooner.
I have booked my GMAT for 2nd Nov, so have just over 3 weeks left to study - evenings and weekends. I'm looking for advice on how to get the very most out of this small remaining amount of time to push my score as high as it will go.
Here's what I've done so far and the results as far as I've recorded them:
OG 12 Diagnostic (threshold for "excellent" ranking in brackets):
Problem Solving: 22/24 (19+)
Data Sufficiency: 19/24 (19+)
Reading Comp: 17/17 (16+)
Critical Reasoning: 17/17 (14+)
Sentence Correction: 16/18 (16+)
N.B. This was completely untimed, so I imagine that in the quantitative sections, which I took a lot of time over, I would have scored a good couple of points lower had it been under timed conditions. The timing on the verbal sections wasn't really an issue.
OG 12 practice questions:
PS: 230Qs at 90% success rate (much higher frequency of errors in later questions - got last 4 wrong!)
DS: 77Qs so far at 96% (first 77Qs so haven't tackled harder ones yet)
RC: 139Qs at 95%
CR: 123Qs at 98%
SC: 140Qs at 93%
In terms of timing, again there are no major issues with the verbal - I was tending to average around 1min30 per question in occasionally quite distracting environments. Although I need to account for the fact that there will (hopefully) be a higher concentration of tough questions on the real thing, I think I have enough leeway to handle that, with a bit more practice. On the quant however, there are real timing issues, especially on the harder questions where I'm taking up to 2min30 or 3 mins per question and still getting quite a few wrong.
I also, a long time ago, did Kaplan GMAT 800 (published 2002), in completely untimed conditions, often taking a long time over a single problem just to see if I could get the concept. For the record, the results of that were as follows, but I'm not sure it's worth reading too much into them:
PS (straight math): 88%
PS (word problems): 86%
DS: 70%
RC: 81%
CR: 95%
SC: 65%
Looking back at some of the ones I got wrong in that book, I know I'm better now, particularly at SC, although there's work still to do.
So based on all of this, and on my intuitive feeling that quant - especially applied algebra and some of the more tricky number properties stuff - is the sticking point, I'm planning to move ahead as follows...
- Save the rest of the OG Problem Solving questions for later and find some good maths review/strategy resources to work from to improve my conceptual understanding and get more fluency in interpreting what's required by a question.
- Work through some good Sentence Correction resources, as it's the one of the 3 verbal question types where I feel least sure what I am being asked to do.
- Keep the Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension ticking over but focus on other areas.
- Find some banks of tough questions for all verbal and quant question types, and work through those to get used to the intensity of tough questions one after another.
- Do a few practice tests in the last week to get a feel for the pace of the exam and concentrating for that amount of time unchecked.
I have to say, I haven't given any attention to the AWA, and I'm struggling to know how to fit this in to my study schedule or how much time to give it.
Any thoughts on this are welcome, but in particular:
- What would be a good resource for the quant concepts and strategy? Based on what I've read so far I'm thinking of picking up a couple of the MGMAT books for this. I think I need to be quite thorough here in addressing the basic concepts and the strategy.
- What would be the best resource for sharpening up my SC? I'm fine on the basic concepts, this one's more a case of tweaking - it's really just the tricky concepts and questions I need to work more on.
- If I've misread my situation at all, or you can send any cautionary warnings on any aspect please go ahead.
- If anyone can take a quick look at my stats and give me a vague range of score that you feel I ought to be shooting for then I'd be glad to hear of it. I'll use the score predictor on here as soon as I've taken any of the relevant practice tests, but in the meantime a vague idea would be helpful.
Many, many thanks in advance for any help anyone can offer. I know this is my first post but I look forward to being an active contributor over the next few weeks leading up to my test and beyond.
Cheers,
Matt
First of all, I should say that this site is really a fantastic resource - big thanks and congratulations to those who have made it what it is. I wish I'd come across it sooner.
I have booked my GMAT for 2nd Nov, so have just over 3 weeks left to study - evenings and weekends. I'm looking for advice on how to get the very most out of this small remaining amount of time to push my score as high as it will go.
Here's what I've done so far and the results as far as I've recorded them:
OG 12 Diagnostic (threshold for "excellent" ranking in brackets):
Problem Solving: 22/24 (19+)
Data Sufficiency: 19/24 (19+)
Reading Comp: 17/17 (16+)
Critical Reasoning: 17/17 (14+)
Sentence Correction: 16/18 (16+)
N.B. This was completely untimed, so I imagine that in the quantitative sections, which I took a lot of time over, I would have scored a good couple of points lower had it been under timed conditions. The timing on the verbal sections wasn't really an issue.
OG 12 practice questions:
PS: 230Qs at 90% success rate (much higher frequency of errors in later questions - got last 4 wrong!)
DS: 77Qs so far at 96% (first 77Qs so haven't tackled harder ones yet)
RC: 139Qs at 95%
CR: 123Qs at 98%
SC: 140Qs at 93%
In terms of timing, again there are no major issues with the verbal - I was tending to average around 1min30 per question in occasionally quite distracting environments. Although I need to account for the fact that there will (hopefully) be a higher concentration of tough questions on the real thing, I think I have enough leeway to handle that, with a bit more practice. On the quant however, there are real timing issues, especially on the harder questions where I'm taking up to 2min30 or 3 mins per question and still getting quite a few wrong.
I also, a long time ago, did Kaplan GMAT 800 (published 2002), in completely untimed conditions, often taking a long time over a single problem just to see if I could get the concept. For the record, the results of that were as follows, but I'm not sure it's worth reading too much into them:
PS (straight math): 88%
PS (word problems): 86%
DS: 70%
RC: 81%
CR: 95%
SC: 65%
Looking back at some of the ones I got wrong in that book, I know I'm better now, particularly at SC, although there's work still to do.
So based on all of this, and on my intuitive feeling that quant - especially applied algebra and some of the more tricky number properties stuff - is the sticking point, I'm planning to move ahead as follows...
- Save the rest of the OG Problem Solving questions for later and find some good maths review/strategy resources to work from to improve my conceptual understanding and get more fluency in interpreting what's required by a question.
- Work through some good Sentence Correction resources, as it's the one of the 3 verbal question types where I feel least sure what I am being asked to do.
- Keep the Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension ticking over but focus on other areas.
- Find some banks of tough questions for all verbal and quant question types, and work through those to get used to the intensity of tough questions one after another.
- Do a few practice tests in the last week to get a feel for the pace of the exam and concentrating for that amount of time unchecked.
I have to say, I haven't given any attention to the AWA, and I'm struggling to know how to fit this in to my study schedule or how much time to give it.
Any thoughts on this are welcome, but in particular:
- What would be a good resource for the quant concepts and strategy? Based on what I've read so far I'm thinking of picking up a couple of the MGMAT books for this. I think I need to be quite thorough here in addressing the basic concepts and the strategy.
- What would be the best resource for sharpening up my SC? I'm fine on the basic concepts, this one's more a case of tweaking - it's really just the tricky concepts and questions I need to work more on.
- If I've misread my situation at all, or you can send any cautionary warnings on any aspect please go ahead.
- If anyone can take a quick look at my stats and give me a vague range of score that you feel I ought to be shooting for then I'd be glad to hear of it. I'll use the score predictor on here as soon as I've taken any of the relevant practice tests, but in the meantime a vague idea would be helpful.
Many, many thanks in advance for any help anyone can offer. I know this is my first post but I look forward to being an active contributor over the next few weeks leading up to my test and beyond.
Cheers,
Matt
09 Oct 2010, 09:19
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Bookmarks
Your diagnostic test scores are impressive. I can't advise you on anything at all, beside make sure to take a bit time to train on AWA before test day.
How did you train up to now to achieve such high scores?
How did you train up to now to achieve such high scores?
whiplash2411
Joined: 09 Jun 2010
Last visit: 02 Mar 2015
Posts: 1,760
Given Kudos: 210
Status:Three Down.
Concentration: General Management, Nonprofit
Schools: HBS '17 (M) Stanford '17 (A)
09 Oct 2010, 09:22
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Bookmarks
While the OG diagnostic is still a good preliminary assessment, I would recommend that you take GMAT Prep - the free practice test offered by GMAC through their website.
That would be the most accurate predictor of your score, and will help assess where your actual baseline is, on a scale of 200-800. Apart from that, using the MGMAT Guides, Powerscore CR and just picking one good strategy for RC and sticking with it, would be all you'll need.
Good luck!
That would be the most accurate predictor of your score, and will help assess where your actual baseline is, on a scale of 200-800. Apart from that, using the MGMAT Guides, Powerscore CR and just picking one good strategy for RC and sticking with it, would be all you'll need.
Good luck!
10 Oct 2010, 06:58
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Bookmarks
PadawanOfTheGMAT
Thanks Padawan, not sure I can advise you either based on your prep scores, which show some impressive progress.
All I've done is what I wrote in my post. Since I felt reasonably comfortable with most of the concepts (studied A-level maths about 10 years ago and did a tough philosophy degree which was good for RC and CR in particular), if a bit rusty on the maths, it has so far just been a case of practising questions, ideally tough questions, to get a feel for what's being asked and to identify weak spots. Now I've identified a few weaker areas I think I need to go back and cover some of the conceptual stuff before coming back to practice questions. If I do end up doing well on the test I'll happily come back and do a full debrief, but at this point I think it would be jumping the gun. I have a long way to go yet!
Thanks for the point on the AWA - I will be sure to do so.
Cheers
