[ESR ATTCHD] DI ADVICE NEED - 2nd 645 in Aug after a 645 in June

Question

The problem - I feel frustrated with DI. I want to know what I could do (practice sets, theory etc.) to go above a DI 83.

Sometimes I end up killing it and sometimes it doesn't go above 80. My quant or verbal score has never gone below 82 or 83.

Took my first attempt after a month and a half of prep using OG material and GMAT Ninja videos in June - got a 645. DI was the biggest issue. Verbal was a **** up but I wasn't worried about that because I consistently score more than 85 on verbal and quant.

Devastated because I will now be missing the R1 deadline to apply to M7. Took my second attempt today after preparing for more than two more months. Solved all of TTP DI and quant. Yet the score was the EXACT same. Gut punch

Attempt 1: 645 DI73 Q90 V82 - mid June

Attempt 2: 645 DI77 Q82 V85 - today (okay I f'd up quant too but that's no biggie - I'll practice that more)

But the DI man.

The DI from today seemed so vague and ambiguous! I was scoring good on the OG PTs - consistently above 705.

PT 1 and 2 retakes went up to 755
PT 3 and 4 went up to 735
PT 5 was 755
PT 6 was 685

But somehow the DI section today felt way different than the PTs.

Usually timing is the biggest issue in DI but today, even the timing wasn’t an issue - identifying the task to be done seemed much trickier with ambiguous phrasing. I say this with confidence because I am fairly good at verbal, and so the comprehension aspect is not a big issue.

Today there were much more compute, case-trial and fitting-values heavy questions than in the mocks.

I want to take another attempt but I’m scared.

Any advice?

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

Replaying what happened during the exam as you look over your score report could be helpful. Perhaps, looking back, you recall some potential careless errors you may have made on certain Quant questions you were sure you got correct. If, for the second attempt, you focused heavily on DI prep and were doing small amounts of Quant, that may have had a negative impact on your Quant performance.

5 Quant tips

rish_dutton · Answer

GmatKnightTutor  thank you - I will do so as soon as I have my score report. I am genuinely curious what could have gone so wrong.

How do I improve DI though? Is there any specific way to calculate certain types of things on a DI problem faster? Is there any set of resources for that?

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi rish_dutton,

Did you find yourself having to do many time-consuming calculations on your test (and did you use the calculator)?

rish_dutton · Answer

AjiteshArun  yes, and that is why I am very frustrated. I feel like the questions were too calculation heavy in a row.

In multiple GI questions I had to calculate the averages or do operations on multiple values across a bar chart. I used the calculator when the numbers were big, otherwise solved by hand.

AjiteshArun · Answer

There are a couple of things we should look at in your DI section. First, do you think some of those GI questions could have been done without resorting to precise calculations? This applies to the other IR question types as well; we often work with approximate values (when we don't expect them to be too close).

Second, did anything happen at the beginning of your DI section (you made 4 mistakes in a row)? Anything (section order, break...) that can explain the drop in accuracy?

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi rish_dutton,

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.

[ESR ATTCHD] DI ADVICE NEED - 2nd 645 in Aug after a 645 in June

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