Urgent Quant help needed!

Question

Hello. I urgently need and would really appreciate if I could get some advice on Quant. My exam is two months from now. My target Quant score is Q49 to Q50.

Background: I began prep last year in June and covered all the Manhattan Guides and OG 13. In my mocks I was scoring around Q44-49 (Kaplan, Veritas)
Then something happened in the family due to which I had to put studies on the back seat. I resumed again in February of this year and have completed the OG 17 and the OG Quant Review. I had around 85% accuracy in both (without a timer).

Currently I am scoring around Q41- Q43 in the GMATPrep Tests. I have also purchased the GMATClub Tests and have got Q38 & Q40 in the first two.

My error log and the awesome GMATClub analytics reveal weaknesses in Word Problems, Inequalities, Absolute Value and Combinatronics. Apart from this, I’m also succumb to the pressure of the timer and make silly mistakes during the tests. I am able to solve almost all questions (apart from 2-3) without the timer after the test.

So what I’d like to know is whether I should revisit the Manhattan GMAT guides since I haven’t done them in 6 months?
I was thinking of attacking each weak area by doing lots of practise questions in that area. I am planning to use the GMATClub tags and start with 500-level questions in each topic and work my way up to 700-level. I am also doing GMAT club Tests simultaneously and will work on Bunuel’s signature questions.

I have also saved the Manhattan Advanced Quant Guide for the last month of prep.

I would love to hear your thoughts on my strategy. Any feedback/advice/other strategy would be super appreciated!

bb   Bunuel

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Gladiator59 · Answer

Hi chinmoinathan93 , Welcome to the GMAT club! I am no quant expert but I am fairly strong in it. Here are my two cents... First of all , based on your info it seems like you have already covered mgmat study guides last year. Based on your error log you have found out the weak spots in terms of topics ( that's a great plus! ... So your question of whether you should revisit the mgmat guides will be answered only by the nature of the errors. Were the errors due to "concepts you forgot about" or due to "concepts you had never heard of" .. or some other issue ( ex. Time pressure - which shouldn't be the case as it was untimed I think in the info provided) If it were concepts you forgot.. it would do no harm to go through only those specific topics from mgmat. However for "had never heard of that" kind of errors.. it may be beneficial for you to go through the GMAT quant megathread ( by Bunuel of course

)- https://gmatclub.com/forum/ultimate-gma ... 44512.html Also try to solve as many as hard and tricky questions once you are done going through the material so that the "haven't seen that one before " category stops existing for you.

After a through review.. revisit the GMAT club tests as well as the GMAT prep tests.. and do let us know of the results ! All the best! Best, Gladi

MBAaspirant939 · Answer

Dear Gladiator59,

Thank you for taking the time out to reply to my query.

To answer your question, I would classify most of my mistakes as “silly mistake due to calculation error and not reading the question stem properly”. Also as mentioned, I come under the pressure of the timer and make silly mistakes due to that as well.

Seldom is it a lack of concept-based error as I can solve almost all of them without the timer on and my solutions always match the expert solutions for 500-600 level and some 700 level questions. I also need to practise more 700 level questions.

That is why I feel that practise will help me avoid silly mistakes and get used to the timer. Any thoughts/advice?

Thanks!
Chinmoi

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Gladiator59 · Answer

Dear chinmoinathan93 , If that is the case - I would suggest you to solve as many questions per day as you can. "silly mistake due to not reading the question properly" do not demand a revision of study material but rather a focused and exam-like temperament which can only be achieved by solving questions - in my opinion. So start of with all the questions in your workbook - it is a button on the top left of the web-page "My workbook" for your ref. Also whenever you get a Q wrong due to lack of concept grasp kindly solve multiple similar Qs ( shown at the bottom of the page under the title " similar topics" and go through the detailed expert answers found a plenty on the GC. Happy learning! Also, we here at GMAT Club have a unique way of saying "thanks" - it is by pressing the " +1 kudos " button at the bottom of the post!

Best, Gladi

souvonik2k · Answer

Hi
In my opinion, you should practice from the OG and Gmatprep questions with timer. Unless you can solve all questions within 2-3 min (max.), you need to revisit the strategy to solve the question. Also, some questions may be really tough and require more time. You need to identify those topics and leave those questions deliberately in the test. But never leave the easy questions. Avoid silly mistakes at all cost. It is more important to get all the 500 and 600 level questions right rather than waste your time in a super hard 750+ level question.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi chinmoinathan93,

Before I can offer you the specific advice that you’re looking for, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) What are the exact Scores on each of your CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for each) since you restarted your studies in February?
2) Did you take the FULL CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?

Goals:
3) What is your goal score?
4) What is your exact Test Date?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
6) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

MBAaspirant939 · Answer

Thanks for the response and noted on the same!
So I am planning to do all the 500, 600 and 700 level questions on this forum with the timer that  bb  has very kindly categorised by topic and difficulty.

I am also doing the GMATClub Tests and the Manhattan Advanced Quant, GMATPrep and OG Quant towards my last month of prep.

Would you say this suffices in terms of practise material? Anything I’m missing out on?

Also, is it possible to go from Q42 to Q49 in 2 months?

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MBAaspirant939 · Answer

Hi rich,

Studies:
1) What are the exact Scores on each of your CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for each) since you restarted your studies in February?
2) Did you take the FULL CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?

Goals:
3) What is your goal score?
4) What is your exact Test Date?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
6) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Hi rich,

Studies:
1) What are the exact Scores on each of your CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for each) since you restarted your studies in February? - I’ve scored 690 on GMATPrep 1 (Q48, V38) and 670 on GMATPrep 2 (Q41, V41). Apart from that, I’ve scored Q37 and Q40 on two GMATClub Quant Tests that I’ve taken so far)

2) Did you take the FULL CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)? Yes I did.

Goals:
3) What is your goal score? My goal score is 750 considering my verbal is where I’d like it to be and I just need to improve Quant.

4) What is your exact Test Date? June 5th, 2018

5) When are you planning to apply to Business School? September 2018.

6) What Schools are you planning to apply to?
Columbia, INSEAD, Cambridge, Wharton, Stanford, ISB, Yale

Do let me know in case anything else is required.

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MBAaspirant939 · Answer

Hi rich,

Studies:
1) What are the exact Scores on each of your CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for each) since you restarted your studies in February? - I’ve scored 690 on GMATPrep 1 (Q48, V38) and 670 on GMATPrep 2 (Q41, V41). Apart from that, I’ve scored Q37 and Q40 on two GMATClub Quant Tests that I’ve taken so far)

2) Did you take the FULL CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)? Yes I did.

Goals:
3) What is your goal score? My goal score is 750 considering my verbal is where I’d like it to be and I just need to improve Quant.

4) What is your exact Test Date? June 5th, 2018

5) When are you planning to apply to Business School? September 2018.

6) What Schools are you planning to apply to?
Columbia, INSEAD, Cambridge, Wharton, Stanford, ISB, Yale

Do let me know in case anything else is required.

And just to add, my Quant scores are all over the place. I have got Q48 in GMATPrep and Q49 on Princeton Tests and then dipped to Q41 in the next test!

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AkshdeepS · Answer

Hi,

I advise you to go through MGMAT quant guides again as it has been 6 months that you have not seen them. It will also give you some confidence about the concepts that you already know but forgot with time. It will not take more than 4 - 5 days to complete these. As you were scoring Q44 to 49 earlier, it will not be tough for you to regain. You must work on your time management side by side, as your accuracy with OG questions is 85% without timer. Time management is a skill that can be honed with time and practice. Silly error occurs because of absent mindedness or time pressure.

GMAT club tests are great but a bit hard then you will actually encounter during exam. So, better do all GMAT club quizzes to feel better in exam.

QZ

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi chinmoinathan93,

Your Verbal Scaled Scores on these two CATs are quite high - so you might be a naturally strong Verbal critical thinker. The inconsistency in your Quant Scaled Scores might just come down to the little mistakes that you admit to occasionally making. Based on your Score Goal, your immediate 'needs' are NOT 700-level questions; you have to work on the 'precision' in your work so that you keep the little mistakes from happening. You've also alluded to a potential pacing issue - but pacing issues do NOT exist on their own (they're the results of OTHER issues). It's likely that "your way" of approaching the Quant section (how you read, take notes, approach questions, etc.) is actually causing all of these problems.

With over 2 months of potential study time, you could potentially improve a great deal in the Quant section, but this will be based heavily on the specific skills that you hone and the adjustments that you make to how you 'see' (and respond to) that section of the Test.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

MBAaspirant939 · Answer

Hello all,

Just as an update - I gave a GMATPrep mock test one week ago and scored 710 (Q48, V39).

My new strategy is to go through the Manhattan Guides again, and simultaneously work on the 500 and 600 level questions for that topic from the GMATClub question directory. I plan to do this all of this month.
Next month (May) will be my last month before I give my GMAT in June. I plan to finish the Advanced Manhattan Quant Guide and do all 23 of the GMATClub Quants Tests in that month. I will also review my error log.

For verbal, I have finished the OG Verbal Review and the Manhattan guides. My accuracy is around 94% in SC and 87% in CR in the Verbal Review. Being an avid reader, I do not plan to devote too much time to RC, but I am reading 2-3 articles from renowned publications (Wall Street Journal, NYT, Bloomberg etc) every day.
I now plan on doing the OG 2017 for Verbal.
I am also doing topic-based 600-level CR and SC questions from the GMATClub directory everyday.
In the last month, I plan to tackle all 700 level questions from this forum.

This is my prep plan so far. I am looking to score a 750 and hope this will suffice. Any thoughts, feedback or modifications to this plan would be highly appreciated!!

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MBAaspirant939 · Answer

Also, I am a total newbie to analysing my mistakes. I have marked all my wrong questions but haven’t got a chance to go through them again. It’s quite daunting for me to go through the ones I’ve got wrong but I know how important it is.

Any advice or feedback on how to analyse my mistakes and figure out trends in them? What’s the best way to gauge the maximum information from your wrong answers?

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MBAaspirant939 · Answer

@EMPOWERGMATRICH  QZ  any feedback on the above pls?

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MBAaspirant939 · Answer

EMPOWERgmatRichC

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AkshdeepS · Answer

Hi,

Congrats for a 700+ GMAT prep test score. It is indeed a great score to start with. Your brief shows that you have taken only GMAT prep test and nothing else. I would suggest you to use free tests available through GC and try all of them,and the list goes manhattan, kaplan, economist etc. Make your own flash cards for every concept for Q and V. Test day is totally a different day, and you should be able to hold your nerves at that time.The more you know your concepts, the more you are prepared for difficult times. 
Check your timing issues, go for full length tests. If possible buy veritas prep tests or manhattan tests to gauge your skill. 
I would certainly discourage you to kill all the GC tests in a month. That may burn you out, and if your score drops you will get less time to recover. You should start with GC tests from now onwards once in a week. Your other plans are good. Review the concepts you missed in every wrong question. That is necessary. You should be able to get all those questions right every time. Apologies for any typo.

QZ

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi chinmoinathan93,

Assuming that you took this CAT in a realistic fashion (meaning that you took it in a way that matches up with what you will face on Test Day and you did not see any 'repeat' questions), then you're within striking distance of your Score Goal.

"Review" is an exceptionally important part of the GMAT training process; your ability to define WHY you're getting questions wrong is essential to defining the areas that you need to work on (and the specific things that you need to 'fix '). As such, I'd like to know a bit more about your last CAT. While a full Mistake Tracker would provide a lot more information, there are some basic questions that you should be able to answer (and the more EXACT you can be with your answers, the better):

After reviewing each section of this recent CAT, how many questions did you get wrong....
1) Because of a silly/little mistake?
2) Because there was some math/verbal that you just could not remember how to do?
3) Because the question was too hard?
4) Because you were low on time and had to guess?
5) How many Verbal questions did you 'narrow down to 2 choices' but still get wrong?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

MBAaspirant939 · Answer

Dear Rich, First off, I really appreciate the time and effort you take to resolve everybody’s questions in this forum. I’m sure a lot of people owe their 700+ scores to you! (I hope to be one of them)

In the past month and a half, I have solved more than 900-950 questions in Quant (OG17 + GMATClub Tests + GMAT Club Forum) and have got around 150 wrong. I have not reviewed any of the wrong answers a second time around, I just went through the correct explanation the first time I did the sum and mentally made a note of why I got it wrong. That being said, I probably don’t remember some of the earlier sums I did, but based on recent experiences, I can narrow down a big majority my mistakes to the below reasons: 1. Last minute calculation errors due to time pressure 2. Missing out/forgetting information from the question stem like x is a positive integer, x and y are distinct integers etc 3. Solving for the wrong thing. E.g.: solving for x when the question asked for x^2 4. Rushing through and not testing out each answer choice. So to summarise: 1) Because of a silly/little mistake? - 80-85% of the wrong answers 2) Because there was some math/verbal that you just could not remember how to do? 10% and that too mainly at 700 level 3) Because the question was too hard? 5% mainly at 700 level 4) Because you were low on time and had to guess? Low on time leads to the aforementioned silly mistakes more than guessing mistakes 5) How many Verbal questions did you 'narrow down to 2 choices' but still get wrong? 40-50% I am cognisant of the fact that burning through tons of questions will not get me a good score. So I plan to devote this weekend to going through all the questions I got wrong in Quant. What would you suggest is a good strategy to go through these wrong questions? Should I attempt them again and see if I get it correct? If I get it wrong, make notes on why I got it wrong and the concept tested? Thank you! Chinmoi Sent from my iPhone using GMAT Club Forum mobile app

MBAaspirant939 · Answer

Also, a funny and sad thing that happened with my recent GMATPrep test (the one in which I scored 710) - yes it was a retake and I got all the repeat questions wrong!

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AjiteshArun · Answer

It'll be interesting to know whether you marked the same options again. That would indicate specific weaknesses.

Try to reduce the probability that you'll make the same type of mistake more than once. For that, you'll need to analyze your tests and maintain an error log.

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