Princeton vs Gmat prep help needed

Question

Hi guys need some help here

My gmat date is booked. And i thought i was ready. A few days earlier i took a Princeton mock (untimed) to check if i knew my concepts and score a 690 (q47v38).
This made me feel a bit confident and i gave my second gmat prep mock and score a 710 (q49v38) (my first gmat prep score was 630 after 2 weeks of intense studying my score went up to 710)
Today i gave a Princeton mock again and i scored a 550 (v32q35). I was shocked seeing my quant score { i got 7/31 wrong} and then i realised i had got my first question wrong in quants. In Princeton mocks they generally mark the questions difficulty in numbers and 11(i think) being the toughest. Generally the score seems to go up however in my todays mock it was just revolving at 6 after the first question of level 7 was wrong due to a silly mistake. 
I am seriously demotivated is it true that getting first question wrong can have the same effect on actual gmat

EducationAisle · Answer

Definitely GMAT Prep is the more credible one. You might want to give one more Official mock test.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Nums99,

In a prior post, you noted that you were planning to take the GMAT in September. Did you take the Exam as scheduled (and if you did, then how did you score?)?

Back in August, we discussed how the Scoring Algorithm on the Official GMAT is proprietary, so no GMAT company has an exact match for it - and CAT scores can vary based on the 'biases' involved in their respective designs. The most realistic CATs available are the 6 from GMAC, but the CATs from Kaplan, MGMAT and Veritas are all 'close enough' to the real thing that they will provide you with a relatively realistic score assessment (assuming that you correctly take the CAT in a realistic fashion). That all having been said, 'retaking' a CAT is NOT a realistic way to assess your skills. By extension, to properly define your current 'ability level', you need to take a reputable CAT that you have not taken before - and take it in a realistic fashion (take the FULL CAT - with the Essay and IR sections, take it away from your home, at the same time of day as when you'll take the Official GMAT, etc.).

To answer your immediate question: NO - getting the first question wrong in either the Quant or Verbal sections will not "kill" your score in the way that you have described.

1) Is your Goal Score still 710+ or is it something else?
2) When is you Official Test Date?

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

Nums99 · Answer

Hi  EMPOWERgmatRichC

Thanks for the reply, and yes i do remember having a conversation with you earlier. I have come a long way from 480 on my first mock to 710 on my gmat prep. And no i did not take the Gmat then in September because i did not want to give it without a proper preparation.

1) My goal is 750 and i am studying very hard improving all my mistakes trying not to make the same ones again. However my accuracy in CR is stuck around 70%
2) My date is finally booked for the end of this month i am really excited to beat this test but that mock yesterday almost killed me...pheww!!! Thanks for the clarification on the "first questions wrong"

What do you think do i need to do now to improve my Accuracy.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Nums99,

Using your recent 710 as a reference, you would likely have to improve in more areas than just CR to hit 750 on the Official GMAT.

"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

Nums99 · Answer

hi  EMPOWERgmatRichC

yes i have made a lot of these analysis here you go:

1) yes i am making tons of silly mistakes. Like seriously if i could improve on this i would get an easy 50/51 in quants. Making silly division and multiplication mistakes. 
i remember in 710 mock i made a mistake of writing 4x=120 as x=40 instead of that silly 30 this i think was due to the timing pressure but it shouldn't happen.
Also in the mocks that i have given 1 thing i have realised is i don't answer the last 3 questions properly just due to timing stress i have tried improving that a bit but yeah silly mistakes a tons of it. Could you possibly provide with a solution to help me with these.

2) Some question are naturally tough i feel i know i can do them but they end up taking a lot of time so i guess and move on. And for the ones that i dint know the concept to,I have learnt the concepts now.

3)As mentioned i end up spending a lot of time (3 mins+) on tough quants instead i let them pass now and focus on the next question

4) this happens especially in the verbal section. I end up guessing the last 4 questions especially if its an Rc because i just can read an entire passage and answer all those questions if i have like 5 mins remaining

5) Yea i don't actually remember this but yeah i will find it out.However how is this that important for judging mistakes please help me might just get my accuracy up for that 750

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Nums99,

To start, the good news is that you’ve already scored 710 on an official practice exam, so with some further dedicated prep, you probably can improve your GMAT score.

Now, regarding your careless errors, the reality is that there are a multitude of reasons why you may be making silly mistakes. Those reasons range from not reading carefully to writing sloppily to making mental math mistakes. In fact, I wrote an article that discusses  those and more causes of careless errors, and how to fix those issues .

While it’s quite possible that your careless errors are due to some of the reasons I’ve already mentioned, it’s also entirely possible that your careless errors are due, in some part, to a relative lack of GMAT quant knowledge. For instance, if you are presented with a quant problem that you may feel uneasy about, then that general uneasiness can lead to simple mistakes. On any GMAT, you must answer difficult and convoluted math questions in a timed and pressure-filled environment, so if you don’t know GMAT quant like the back of your hand, careless errors are likely, right? Take the following example:

14! is equal to which of the following? 
 
(A) 87,178,291,200
(B) 88,180,293,207
(C) 89,181,294,209
(D) 90,000,000,003
(E) 91,114,114,114

Upon seeing this question, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Grabbing a calculator to add up the values in the expression? If you are able to quickly recognize that using the “5 x 2 pair rule” will allow you to efficiently attack the problem (see the solution below), the question becomes very basic, and you can avoid having to perform tedious calculations that are likely to result in a silly mistake.
 
Solution:
 
Notice that there is at least one (5 × 2) pair contained in the product of these numbers. It follows that the units digit must be a zero. The only number with zero as the units digit is 87,178,291,200.
 
Answer: A

This is just one example, but hopefully you can see that by a) recognizing what the question is asking and b) properly attacking the question, your propensity to make a silly mistake greatly decreases.

If you’d like more detailed advice on how to improve your GMAT quant or verbal skills or if you have any further questions, feel free to reach back out.

Also, you may find it helpful to read the following article:

How to Score a 700+ on the GMAT — A Mini Guide for Success

Nums99 · Answer

hi  ScottTargetTestPrep

I have a week left now and i am thinking of giving 4 mocks this week just to get aquainted with the pressure do you think thats a good idea i have just bought gmat prep 3&4

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Nums99,

A CAT is really a 'measuring device' - when used correctly, it will give you a realistic score and help define your strengths and weaknesses, but it will NOT help you to fix any of those weaknesses. To raise your scores, you have to learn the necessary Tactics and put in the proper practice and repetitions. The CAT will show you whether your studies are helping you to improve or not. In addition, the process of taking (and reviewing) a CAT requires a significant amount of energy and effort - and takes time to 'recover' from. This is one of the reasons why you typically shouldn't take more than 1 CAT per week - and your last CAT should be taken about 1 week before Test Day. As such, you should NOT plan to take 4 CATs in one week (and you should not take any too close to your actual Test Date).

The issues that you've described about your Quant and Verbal performance all come back to your note-taking and how you organize your work. You DO have enough time to take notes on every question, but you do NOT have time to read every question over-and-over. Any time you narrow a Verbal question down to 2 choices but still get it wrong, then you were really close to getting the correct answer.... but didn't. So what work did you NOT do? What individual 'piece' of the prompt or 'step' in your solving-process did you miss?

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

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

So, I think 4 practice exams may be overkill. At most I"d take 2 more.

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