How to Improve DI Section

Question

Hi, hope you are well!

A week ago, I took the GMAT Focus and got a 615 (QR 83/90 with 81st %ile, VR85/90 with 94th %ile, and DI 75/90 with 42nd %ile). I did not expect this since my Quant and DI have been my strongest suits through all OG Practice tests 3-6. I had even gotten 100th percentile. I believed my hold was so strong that the last two days of my prep, I only looked at verbal. I have used the supplementary practice bundles available on the MBA.com website. I also used the OG books for Verbal and Quant.

I took the test as follows: Quant, DI, break for 6.5 minutes, and Verbal. I found the first few questions of Quant to be tougher than the toughest questions I have faced during the practice tests wherein I got 100th percentile. I got thrown off completely, got inside my head, and messed up my DI. I got some time to collect myself before Verbal and was thus able to perform better.

I recognise that my DI is the weakest - specifically DS. I also need to work on my mindset.

Despite this, I am confused about my low score given that I used the OG material for prep and did well on my practice tests (got 755 on one). However, I feel lost on what resources to refer to for my prep hereon. My aim is a 705+.

- Could you please share resources for DI and quant?
- How much do you think I can improve my score if I pick the low hanging fruit i.e. DS in DI?
- Do you believe a 705+ score is possible given the above within a span of 2-3 months?
- Request you to shed some light on what I can do better

Sincerely requesting for some guidance.

yc168 · Answer

AJ1608 , Sorry just saw your post.

pintukr · Answer

Forum Quiz is an excellent resource to practice various difficulty level questions.

All the Best,,,

bb · Answer

Hi  AJ1608  - there are lots of DS resources and it has a lot of similarities to PS (though being less about calculations and more about the word problems).

There are some DS Verbal questions as well which are honestly a doozy type of questions. Fun but not super clear questions when it comes to the Official sources.

Anyway, my big encouragement to you would be to get down to the specific question types and perhaps get DS split into categories and test yourself and figure out where you are weak. Here are the DS question subtypes:

Arithmetic
Combinations
  Distance and Speed Problems  
  Fractions and Ratios  
  Functions and Custom Characters  
  Mixture Problems  
  Multiples and Factors  
  Number Properties  
  Overlapping Sets  
  Percent and Interest Problems  
  Probability  
  Remainders  
  Sequences  
  Statistics and Sets Problems  
  Word Problems  
  Work and Rate Problems  
  Math Related  
  Non-Math Related

There are also Yes/No questions on the DS.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi AJ1608,

Since DI is your weakest area, here is some advice you can follow to improve your DI skills.

When students struggle with DI questions, the first thing I always ask is whether they have fully completed their quant and verbal prep. Not doing so can really affect how well you handle DI questions, as many of those questions involve quantitative and verbal concepts. So, would you say you are in that boat?

In addition, one way to improve each individual DI question type is to engage in topical practice. Doing so lets you pinpoint your weak areas in JUST ONE question type. For example, when practicing TPA questions, perhaps you see a pattern that you struggle with 3-part ratios or weighted averages. If you can find those micro weaknesses, you can fix them in real-time and thus improve your accuracy in DI questions..

Lastly, when working on DI questions, for the time being, make sure to practice them untimed so you can focus on JUST accuracy. As you become more familiar with these question types and get more accurate, better timing will follow.

For more advice, check out this article:  How to Prepare for GMAT Data Insights

Feel free to reach out with any additional questions.

AJ1608 · Answer

Hi Scott,

Thank you so much for your response.

I believed my Quant was okay because I have gotten 97th+ %ile in my Practice papers. However, I did feel some discrepancy in the difficult of questions in the Practice papers/Practice bundles vs the actual test.

Would you have any comments on that? (PFA the Quant report from my test)

I will definitely take you and  bb  up on the suggestion of trying to zoom into Question type on DI.

I have attached my DI report as well - any further insights you could share based on that?

One thing that really threw me off was non-math DS questions. I had not practiced any and I got 2 (as far as my memory serves me). Could you please recommend some sources for practicing that and DS in general?

SarfrazAP · Answer

I'm sorry if I missed it somewhere, but how many mistakes did you make on DI? I'm guessing around 10. You haven't attached the most important screenshot - the graph that shows where the mistakes were and how much time you took for each question. Anyway, is it possible that you just had an off day? Given your mock test scores, you should have certainly scored higher.

For DS practice, the Official DI Review book should be a great resource, in case you haven't used it already. And make sure you aren't immediately jumping into the 2 statements in DS. You want to dome some pre-thinking or pre- solving on most questions to know what exactly you are looking for in the two statements.

AJ1608 · Answer

Hi Sarfraz, thank you for your response.

I got 6 wrong and missed 2 questions at the end.

To some degree, I had mentally noted which question is what - 4/6 of my wrong answers were from DS.

My biggest take away right now is to focus on DS and revise my approach/understanding.

Regarding missing two questions - never happened before. During my prep/practice tests, I have always gotten done with DI with 5+ minutes to spare.

I was completely thrown off by the difficulty of the first few questions on Quant, got inside my head, and messed up DI quite a bit.

Would you have any comments on the difficult of Quant in the test VS the difficult of the practice bundle and practice paper questions?

SarfrazAP · Answer

See now this is useful information. With the first question incorrect, and essentially the last 5 incorrect in a row (with 2 that you missed, which really pulls down the score), that 75 doesn't look that surprising anymore.

Ha, this has been the case all the time. Even on GMAT Classic, a lot of people used to find the actual test more difficult than the practice tests. Do I think that's actually the case? Not really. It's an adaptive test after all, so how does one even judge that?

This isn't as surprising as you think. On test day, everything usually looks more difficult than it is. For obvious reasons - nerves, pressure, the works. Plus, you know this is the day that really matters, so there's a tendency to solve everything as much as possible and recheck everything, just to make sure that there aren't any silly mistakes. This can often lead to people taking more time on the actual test than on practice tests, where you know you'll get a second chance.

So definitely get more practice in on DS. And make sure you are doing some pre solving, as I said earlier. PM me if you want some difficult DS sets from the Classic version (DS used to be a lot more difficult then). It won't be a bad idea to prep at a slightly higher difficulty level for your retake, so that whatever you encounter on test day will look a lot more manageable.

AJ1608 · Answer

Thank you for the insight, Sarfraz.

Does missing questions impact the score more than getting questions incorrect?

PM'd you for questions!

SarfrazAP · Answer

Of course it does. A lot more. I'm surprised you didn't know this, coz this one of the first things I tell my students. Never leave questions unattempted at the end of any section.

AJ1608 · Answer

Thank you for sharing this!

Will definitely keep in mind for my second attempt!

Feeling a lot more motivated for the next take, thank you!

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