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KarishmaB
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Tomorrow if not 700+, is 750 possible in 4 weeks? 12 Jul 2011, 03:08
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abhicoolmax

Thanks Karishma. Just want to confirm - are you implying that even if one is close to prefect in the rest of the test getting couple of wrong in the end might push him or her to a lower percentile. Correct?

Anyways, for me I got #2 #7 #10 #31 and #34 wrong. I think obviously I screwed up big time in the beginning and then also screwed up towards the end. So that explains the drop in my %tile.

How about this strategy? I take as much time as I need, double checking each answer, to make sure first 10 are 100% correct and then speed up in the middle #11-#27. Later take as much time as I need to solve last 10. Thing is time is never a problem for me. I always have ~10 mins (or more) left at the end of the section. I just cruise through the 37 questions w/o even looking at the time for the most part. Only when I am like 1/2 way - I just make sure I have > 50% time left and that's about - also when I take 3+ mins, I kind of sense that something is not right and I am taking way to long - my brain quickly switches to process of elimination then. I have never found myself short of time. So maybe if I deliberately spend more time in the beginning, it might help me keep close to perfect result, if not perfect. Any suggestion? Have you come across similar situation when dealing with any of your students?

ps... One of the reasons I don't force myself to imply any strategy in mind in Quant is because I want to just enjoy the whole section; that keeps me fresh to fight out the coming up monster (starting to enjoy it lot more now :-)) Verbal section. I am just worried implying any strategy in Quant might make me more stressed, hampering Verbal - that's the last thing I need at this point. Thoughts?
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Actually, I think each question is equally important. But if I had to be extra careful, I would do it in the last few questions (provided I am not running short of time). If makes logical sense to me that I don't have the option of rectifying my 'careless mistakes' after the last few questions. I can amend if I do make some in the beginning/middle. But I wouldn't expect you to get the 2nd question wrong given that the first 4-5 are absolute sitters. So in that sense, you should not make mistakes in the first few questions. (Not because it will affect your %ile but because they are very easy.) Again, the exact actual scoring algorithm is not known so we can only speculate.
I would suggest you to not worry too much about it and just 'enjoy' the section. But do make sure that before confirming your answer, you check that you have answered exactly what was asked and that in DS questions, you have considered each statement independently. These two things help cover for a lot of careless mistakes - those are the only ones that you actually have control on. And yes, if you don't need to, don't use any 'strategies'. If you do need to use some, make them second nature before the test. (e.g. When I was going through OG before my GMAT, I found that I often use data from statement 1 while considering statement 2 alone and hence trip. So I started considering statement 2 first and then re-reading the question stem and then statement 1. I did this for all the following questions and that's how I attempted the questions in the exam too.)
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Tomorrow if not 700+, is 750 possible in 4 weeks? 13 Jul 2011, 16:23
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VeritasPrepKarishma

Actually, I think each question is equally important. But if I had to be extra careful, I would do it in the last few questions (provided I am not running short of time). If makes logical sense to me that I don't have the option of rectifying my 'careless mistakes' after the last few questions. I can amend if I do make some in the beginning/middle. But I wouldn't expect you to get the 2nd question wrong given that the first 4-5 are absolute sitters. So in that sense, you should not make mistakes in the first few questions. (Not because it will affect your %ile but because they are very easy.) Again, the exact actual scoring algorithm is not known so we can only speculate.
I would suggest you to not worry too much about it and just 'enjoy' the section. But do make sure that before confirming your answer, you check that you have answered exactly what was asked and that in DS questions, you have considered each statement independently. These two things help cover for a lot of careless mistakes - those are the only ones that you actually have control on. And yes, if you don't need to, don't use any 'strategies'. If you do need to use some, make them second nature before the test. (e.g. When I was going through OG before my GMAT, I found that I often use data from statement 1 while considering statement 2 alone and hence trip. So I started considering statement 2 first and then re-reading the question stem and then statement 1. I did this for all the following questions and that's how I attempted the questions in the exam too.)
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Thanks again Karishma. Appreciate your time and the help.

Yes, I am planning to continue doing what I normally do in Quant. Just double check every answer before marking, won't hurt - unless I am in last 10 and I am running out of time. Let's see if that helps me get a close to perfect score next time.
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Tomorrow if not 700+, is 750 possible in 4 weeks? 13 Jul 2011, 22:21
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Are your Aristotle RC/SC documents helping you push your score up?
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Tomorrow if not 700+, is 750 possible in 4 weeks? 14 Jul 2011, 02:31
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Are your Aristotle RC/SC documents helping you push your score up?
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SC theory part is just OK. It was good to recap while keeping MGMAT SC by my side. This exercise helped me realize that it was the tenses that have been the real problem for me. So that way Aristotle SC was good for me. I have not started their questions yet. I will let you know when I get to it. It is a small book and a good recap - it took me 1 weekend day to go over the theory part of the book.

RC is simply awesome. I have been doing 2 everyday and it has given a great boost to my confidence. I don't think I will get to all 99, but if I can finish 50% by the test date, it would be great. I highly recommend this book.

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Tomorrow if not 700+, is 750 possible in 4 weeks? 14 Jul 2011, 22:38
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Hi abhicoolmax,

You have awesome Quant scores - make sure to keep brushing up to stay at that level.

For Verbal, what I completely missed in your posts is your analysis of MGMAT CAT results for Verbal section. As you may already know, accuracy is not of primary importance in GMAT (what I mean is that it is important but it cannot alone guide you about your weakness and areas to develop). I would suggest if you have not focussed on analyzing your verbal score, pls do that and share that with us. A good article on how to analyze is: https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/

For all three areas: SC, CR and RC you should share accuracy along with the difficulty level of questions you got correct vs. incorrect. For example, an accuracy of 45% in SC with getting 730 level questions correct is great - this is a strength. But an accuracy of 70% with getting 670 level questions correct is not a strength (if you are aiming for 750) - it is an area of improvement. Hope this helps - I learned all this during this week while analyzing my first MGMAT CAT scores.

And as a side note, can you share some tips on Quant? What sources you used? I'd be happy with a Q50 :roll:
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Tomorrow if not 700+, is 750 possible in 4 weeks? 16 Jul 2011, 20:55
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Hi abhicoolmax,

You have awesome Quant scores - make sure to keep brushing up to stay at that level.

......
And as a side note, can you share some tips on Quant? What sources you used? I'd be happy with a Q50 :roll:
Show more

Probably you did not pay attention to his profile (IIT Bombay with 9+ CGPI)- does not it tells you something about him ?

on a side note if you are still wondering what I mean then please let me know :wink:
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Tomorrow if not 700+, is 750 possible in 4 weeks? 16 Jul 2011, 23:02
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hi yogesh, yes I did notice that after a few posts :) but then again assuming IITian will naturally have high quant score w/o practice would be an assumption (perhaps a reasonable one), these two variables maybe correlated but not necessarily causal :lol: hehe.. applying CR skills here. I am myself IIT alum (BTech from IIT Kanpur) though I graduated 10 yrs ago. and as you know as well IIT Maths is poles apart from GMAT Maths, CAT (tests to get into Indian management schools IIMs) quant is similar to GMAT. I reason I asked Abhi is that any tip is useful and sometimes people scoring Q51 do have very insightful tips.
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Tomorrow if not 700+, is 750 possible in 4 weeks? 17 Jul 2011, 00:00
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vinayrsm
hi yogesh, yes I did notice that after a few posts :) but then again assuming IITian will naturally have high quant score w/o practice would be an assumption (perhaps a reasonable one), these two variables maybe correlated but not necessarily causal :lol: hehe.. applying CR skills here. I am myself IIT alum (BTech from IIT Kanpur) though I graduated 10 yrs ago. and as you know as well IIT Maths is poles apart from GMAT Maths, CAT (tests to get into Indian management schools IIMs) quant is similar to GMAT. I reason I asked Abhi is that any tip is useful and sometimes people scoring Q51 do have very insightful tips.
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He he... lot of folks from brand IIT out here..good to see :). Keeping aside you are right being an IITian does not give you by default a high score in quant- no second option than to practice hard!

Also on comparison of IIT maths to GMAT math, CAT quant- yeah you are right they are quite different but just want to add CAT quant is quite difficult than GMAT quant IMO!
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Tomorrow if not 700+, is 750 possible in 4 weeks? 17 Jul 2011, 09:50
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Hi abhicoolmax,

You have awesome Quant scores - make sure to keep brushing up to stay at that level.

For Verbal, what I completely missed in your posts is your analysis of MGMAT CAT results for Verbal section. As you may already know, accuracy is not of primary importance in GMAT (what I mean is that it is important but it cannot alone guide you about your weakness and areas to develop). I would suggest if you have not focussed on analyzing your verbal score, pls do that and share that with us. A good article on how to analyze is: https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/

For all three areas: SC, CR and RC you should share accuracy along with the difficulty level of questions you got correct vs. incorrect. For example, an accuracy of 45% in SC with getting 730 level questions correct is great - this is a strength. But an accuracy of 70% with getting 670 level questions correct is not a strength (if you are aiming for 750) - it is an area of improvement. Hope this helps - I learned all this during this week while analyzing my first MGMAT CAT scores.

And as a side note, can you share some tips on Quant? What sources you used? I'd be happy with a Q50 :roll:
Show more

Hi vinayrsm,

Thanks for sharing the link that shows how to do the MGMAT CAT analysis.

I finally did an analysis of my last test. My accuracy rate was:
Ques Total Right Wrong % Time-right Time-wrong Difficulty-right Difficulty-wrong
SC 15 8 7 0 53% 0:54 1:26 620 720
CR 14 10 4 0 71% 1:55 2:31 660 650
RC 12 6 6 0 50% 2:49 1:53 650 650

I got many difficult SC wrong. In CR I did some silly mistakes. In RC I think I am much better off right now than I was when I gave this test. Anyhow, let's see how my next test goes.

Further low level analysis did help me even more. I realized I am getting more of Assumption question wrong in CR and also helped me realize weaknesses in SC.

About tips for Quant. Man, trust me, I have hardly spent any time working on my Quant skills; however, I feel sharper in Quant than I was when I started. Just a couple of tips from me: During the test if you realize that you are taking too long, it is good quickly look at the answer choices to find cluesCA. Sometimes there is clue in the answers that help you solve more complicated problems. And in DS, it is very important to read the stimulus and come up with a simplified version of the stimulus: GMAT plays trick with many thing: positive integers, NOT telling whether the number is fraction or integer, etc. Only when you are sure about what's asked in the Stimulus, then evaluate the choices. In some of the MGMAT tests I got few DS wrong, because I made wrong assumptions. And then I realized, I need to be extra careful with DS.
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Tomorrow if not 700+, is 750 possible in 4 weeks? 17 Jul 2011, 13:03
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Hi Abhi, good that you analyzed your results using the article from MGMAT blog.

As you stated, it looks like you need to focus on SC, RC and CR in that order (and you have already worked on these :-) ) I think your first target should be to ensure that you get 600-700 level questions correct in all three areas. This will allow you to get to the higher difficulty questions and will raise your score.

Good luck for your next test!
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Tomorrow if not 700+, is 750 possible in 4 weeks? 17 Jul 2011, 14:12
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vinayrsm
Hi Abhi, good that you analyzed your results using the article from MGMAT blog.

As you stated, it looks like you need to focus on SC, RC and CR in that order (and you have already worked on these :-) ) I think your first target should be to ensure that you get 600-700 level questions correct in all three areas. This will allow you to get to the higher difficulty questions and will raise your score.

Good luck for your next test!
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Thanks vinayrsm. I really hope in the next test (GMATPrep) I get past 720, which would give me the confidence that in next 4 weeks or so I can boost my score to 750 or even more :)
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Tomorrow if not 700+, is 750 possible in 4 weeks? 22 Jul 2011, 19:12
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Hey Karishma,

In error-log-verbal-help-needed-116330.html#p940900 , you said CR and RC in OG12 and OG Verbal are not par with high scoring questions in GMAT, is that true? I have 80+% accuracy in CR medium and hard level < 2 mins, and 90+% accuracy in easy ones < 1.5 mins. I have been considering my CR has improved based on these stats. If you think I should doubt these stats, what should I take up next? I was planning on using Aristotle CR set next.

I still not fully comfortable with hard RC. My mid-hard RC accuracy has been ~50-60% in OG12 and OG verbal so-far. I still have few passages to go in each. I did some Aristotle RCs but then I stopped as I was not sure of their GMAT-likeness. What else would you recommend?

Thanks.
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Tomorrow if not 700+, is 750 possible in 4 weeks? 25 Jul 2011, 00:39
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abhicoolmax
Hey Karishma,

In error-log-verbal-help-needed-116330.html#p940900 , you said CR and RC in OG12 and OG Verbal are not par with high scoring questions in GMAT, is that true? I have 80+% accuracy in CR medium and hard level < 2 mins, and 90+% accuracy in easy ones < 1.5 mins. I have been considering my CR has improved based on these stats. If you think I should doubt these stats, what should I take up next? I was planning on using Aristotle CR set next.

I still not fully comfortable with hard RC. My mid-hard RC accuracy has been ~50-60% in OG12 and OG verbal so-far. I still have few passages to go in each. I did some Aristotle RCs but then I stopped as I was not sure of their GMAT-likeness. What else would you recommend?

Thanks.
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Yes, my opinion on the difficulty level of OG hasn't changed. Especially CR I think is way easier in OG. The questions at the end are good but still, much more practice is needed. For RC too, extra practice is a must. I cannot comment on Aristotle CR and RC since I haven't gone through those books. But I know that Veritas RC and CR books have some great strategies and questions. I especially love the RC book since it has passages in line with the hardest passages you could see on GMAT.
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Tomorrow if not 700+, is 750 possible in 4 weeks? 20 Aug 2011, 09:34
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I think you summed up the situation pretty well. Man, my RC accuracy improved to 50% (from ~25% in previous test) and CR improved to 80% (from ~30%),

Hi Abhi,

I was reading this thread and given to understand that your CR accuracy jumped from 30% to 80%...thats huge. :) Can you give me some suggestion for the same?

How is your RC going? I understand it was problematic for you. Do you've some strategy fo that as well?

I'm also writing GMAT on 15th Sept and still struggling with my CR and RC.
Appreciate your help.

Cheers,
Aj.
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Tomorrow if not 700+, is 750 possible in 4 weeks? Updated on: 20 Aug 2011, 15:39
Originally posted by abhicoolmax on 20 Aug 2011, 11:57.
Last edited by abhicoolmax on 20 Aug 2011, 15:39, edited 1 time in total.
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Ajay369
I think you summed up the situation pretty well. Man, my RC accuracy improved to 50% (from ~25% in previous test) and CR improved to 80% (from ~30%),

Hi Abhi,

I was reading this thread and given to understand that your CR accuracy jumped from 30% to 80%...thats huge. :) Can you give me some suggestion for the same?

How is your RC going? I understand it was problematic for you. Do you've some strategy fo that as well?

I'm also writing GMAT on 15th Sept and still struggling with my CR and RC.
Appreciate your help.

Cheers,
Aj.
Show more

I think I was in your situation few weeks ago. When I thought my SC is good, and CR and RC, mainly RC, are killing me.

So I devoted 1 full week on RC - read Powerscore RC and did some RCs from OG - and, in the mean time and from before, I had been going through Powerscore CR, and guess what - my RC and CR accuracy went up tremendously. RC is now my strength. Check here on how I did it - rc-review-tips-117426.html#p962206

In my last couple of tests I realized that I am getting most RC and CR correct, but, as a result, I was getting TOUGH SCs in the tests and, guess what, I realized my SC skills are complete f'ed up. I just didn't know what I was doing. I didn't think I could overcome the SC just like that.

So I started with a short crash course on E-GMAT and that finally was the last missing piece of the puzzle. Check here on how I did it - need-help-in-sc-119050.html#p963453

CR was pretty natural for me since the beginning. But once I got myself familiar with all the parts of CR using Powerscore CR book, everything fell into place.

NOW, I think, I have the perfect strategy that suits my skills - as it varies person to person - for RC, CR and SC in place. How could you tell if a strategy is perfect for you? You will start to feel it, and EVERYTHING will start making sense - moreover, you will start to enjoy it more than anything. I just have to practice now to concretize these strategies and to perform under the time pressure. Well will see if these strategies will actually work - I will give a mock in 2 days to evaluate where I am.

Hope this helps.
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Tomorrow if not 700+, is 750 possible in 4 weeks? 20 Aug 2011, 12:58
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Thanks a lot Abhi.
I'll try to follow your advice and see if it works for me.

Cheers,
Aj.
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