I got all questions in IR question bank wrong

[maple10252003]

Three reasons: time pressure, no partial point and reading too slow.

For quan and verbal, I have enough time to finish them with decent score. This is not the case with IR.

I thought that I could at least get score 4-5 when I was watching the IR review class.

Q1: How do I overcome the time pressure and slow reading?

Q2: What consequences is there if I get zero for IR on GMAT? I am worried that I will be automatically eliminated because zero score on IR, although I might get 650 on Quan and Verb on GMAT.

Q3: Should I continue with my 9 weeks class (I am on week 6 right now), or should I review all of the questions in IR question bank before continue?

Q4: Will I be able to score at least 4-5 after I review all of the IR questions?

[RonPurewal]

One thing you should be aware of: The MGMAT IR questions are much harder than what you'll see on the official test.

This is an accident, basically. We created most of them before GMAC had put out a large number of sample problems. Nerds that we are, we made most of them too hard.

To get a better sense of where you stand, try some OFFICIAL IR problems.
"- You can use the code from OG13 (on paper enclosed in back cover) to access 50 official practice problems online.
"- You can download the GMAT PREP software for free on mba.com. This software contains a certain number (15, if I remember correctly) of IR practice questions.

[RonPurewal]

Q1: How do I overcome the time pressure and slow reading?

It's hard to say, given that you haven't shared anything about why you're having this problem. Still, I can make a guess or two as to why you're having issues.

The main distinguishing feature of IR is the presence of lots and lots of irrelevant information.
This is generally not a feature of the rest of the exam, except RC to a certain extent. In just about all of the other problem types, you're "spoon-fed" exactly the information you need to solve the problem"”and nothing more.
The point of IR is to better mimic the real world, in which there's always a huge flood of information available. In the real world, just finding the right information is just as important"”and often just as hard"”as actually solving problems.

If you're having huge issues on IR but not on the rest of the test, you might be trying to read ALL of the information.
You shouldn't do that.
You should briefly scan the information"”not to "read" it, but, rather, to "index" it. Just get a sense of where to find stuff.
Then, if you actually NEED to find something, use your mental "index" to find it.

[RonPurewal]

Q2: What consequences is there if I get zero for IR on GMAT? I am worried that I will be automatically eliminated because zero score on IR, although I might get 650 on Quan and Verb on GMAT.

You can't get a score of zero. The lowest possible score is 1; the highest is 8.

Currently, business schools do not put as much emphasis on IR as on the rest of the exam, because the IR section is still "experimental". It has only been on the test for two years; it won't become a core component of the exam until it's been there for 5 years.
- If you are applying to business school more than 2 years from now, the IR section will probably be more important then than it is now.
- If you are considering a future in management consulting, IR is very important; many consulting executives have stated that they will take IR scores into account in the hiring process for consulting associates. (This isn't surprising, given that consultants' main job is to sift through tons and tons of information to find meaningful bits and pieces"”exactly what's addressed by IR, and not by the rest of the test.)

[RonPurewal]

Q3: Should I continue with my 9 weeks class (I am on week 6 right now), or should I review all of the questions in IR question bank before continue?

I guess I don't really understand this question. Isn't your class on a fixed schedule?

In any case, yes, you should continue to follow the class syllabus.

Q4: Will I be able to score at least 4-5 after I review all of the IR questions?

This question is impossible to answer; we don't have any information about your strategy or general approach to the problems.

As stated above"”For a better sense of how you might score on the official IR, try some problems from one of the official sources listed above.

[maple10252003]

Thank you, Ron.

Your reply was very helpful. I didn't realize there was an access code for IR questions from OG. Thank you!

One thing you should be aware of: The MGMAT IR questions are much harder than what you'll see on the official test.

This is an accident, basically. We created most of them before GMAC had put out a large number of sample problems. Nerds that we are, we made most of them too hard.

To get a better sense of where you stand, try some OFFICIAL IR problems.
"- You can use the code from OG13 (on paper enclosed in back cover) to access 50 official practice problems online.
"- You can download the GMAT PREP software for free on mba.com. This software contains a certain number (15, if I remember correctly) of IR practice questions.

[tim]

:)