Self-Study Toolkit: I finished the syllabus, now what?

[BennettD51]

Hi MGMAT community,

I began my GMAT studies in January by taking a baseline. My CAT 1 result was a 600 (36Q 36V). I then worked through the syllabus and did the entire Foundations of Math.

After finishing the syllabus and strategy guides, I took CAT 4, and was able to bring up my score to a 650 (40Q 39V). My breakdown by question type and subject area are as follows:

Quant:
- Geometry: 33% correct
- Number Properties: 67% correct
- Algebra: 25% correct
- Word Problems: 50% correct
- FDPs: 50% correct

Verbal:
- Sentence Correction: 64% correct
- Critical Reasoning: 70% correct
- Reading Comprehension: 83% correct

I am struggling to see the path forward to my goal of a 730+. To supplement the strategy guides, I have been maintaining an error log and making flashcards to "know the code" of the GMAT. Moving forward, should I just be doing mixed problem sets? I find it hard to believe that this alone will give me a 80+ point jump.

Also, should I focus primarily on Quant, with a small amount of review each week towards Sentence Correction? Should I look at other math prep materials?

Many thanks!

[StaceyKoprince]

Hi! Nice work so far.

First question: Did you already use your Game Planning session? If you did, that's fine—but if you didn't, then this would be an excellent time to use it.

Next, let's dig into your latest CAT results. Percentage correct tells only part of the story on an adaptive test. In fact, it's not unusual for you to have (on any given test) a lower percentage correct in an area that you're actually better at—because you may have happened to get a harder mix of questions in that area. So, by itself, percentage correct doesn't actually tell you that much.

Overall, the data requires some serious analysis to figure out what's going on / where to go with it. This article guides you through that analysis:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... ts-part-1/

It's a multi-part article—it usually takes people hours (spread over a few days) to get through it all. But by the time you're done, you'll know what you need to work on at a macro level (time management, mindset, etc) and a micro level (specific question types / content areas / strategies).

Speaking of the macro level, take a look at this:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... lly-tests/

Are you actually taking the test that way? Or are you still using the old school mindset, trying to get everything right? Most people concentrate first on learning the content—and you do need to do that!—but they then need to switch to what I call the "2nd level" of study for this test. This is literally all about how to think your way through this exam. Take a look at this:

http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -the-gmat/

Are you studying in this way already? If not, time to start. This is what takes people up into the 700 range once they've learned the content.

So think about the above and analyze your exam, then come back and tell me what you discover (and any other questions you have). (And, again, if you haven't done your Game Planning session yet, use that to have this whole conversation live with an instructor. )

Good luck!

[BennettD51]

Hi Stacey,

Thanks for your prompt reply and thorough reply. Very helpful!

I did a deep dive of my recent CAT using the article you suggested. Overall, I have a "small timing problem" on both Quant and Verbal.

Quant:

Timing: I found that I was rushing on many problems, with 4 questions in the "too fast" category. I need to slow down on these, be more careful with my computation, and test more cases for DS statements before I cross them off as sufficient or insufficient. In order to spend more time on those questions, I am going to start skipping 4-7 questions that are not in my wheelhouse.

Weaknesses: By analyzing % correct, average time, and average difficulty incorrect, I found that I should be focusing on Algebra (primarily inequalities, quadratics, and linear equations) and Word Problems (rates/work and statistics).

Strengths: Geometry and Number Properties

Moving forward: I am going to review my foundation in Algebra and Word Problems, and then begin doing practice problems.

Questions: Where should I get these practice problems from? Do you recommend that I use the Manhattan Question Banks, or should I hand pick them?

Verbal:

Timing: I found that I was going too slow on 3 SC questions (> 2:00) and 1 CR question (>3:00).

Weaknesses: Although I had a high % correct on CR, I was spending too much time on them on average. Over the past two tests, my most-missed question types are Strengthen the Argument and Inference (some of the most common question types!).

Strength: Reading Comprehension

Moving Forward: I am going to review Strengthen/Weaken and Inference chapters of the CR Strategy Guide, and then begin doing practice problems.

Questions: How many skips do you recommend for Verbal? Is it still 4-7? How can you tell which questions are easy skips without diving into the argument and answer choices?

As a final question about my weaknesses, outside of reviewing those strategy guides and doing practice problems, should I be doing anything else to supplement? I've done some googling around for one-off lessons on Algebra topics such as absolute inequalities and remainders, but I feel like this is very hit-or-miss.

By the way, I have alrady used my game planning session - I used it after my first CAT to develop a study plan. Perhaps I should have waited!

Thank you Stacey!

[StaceyKoprince]

There are good reasons to use your game-planning session early and good reasons to wait—you basically have to decide what's best for you.

Overall, most people should aim to bail on about 4-5 per section now that there are fewer questions in each section. (Bail is defined as "guess randomly within 20-30 seconds and save all that time for something else.")

If you are going for a Q score of 49+ or V40+, I would plan aim for 3 in your stronger area and 4 in your weaker area. (I have had students bail on 4 quants under the old numbering—37 questions—and still score a 51 in this section. Now that there are only 31 questions, I would guess it's possible to bail on 3 and still get a 51, but I don't know for sure.) Since you are going for a 730, your Q and V scores will need to be in this range, so you should aim for 3 or 4 bails. The key is to do this as early as possible so that you save as much time as possible on each bail.

For others who may be reading this: If you are going for a lower overall score (less than 650), you can increase—up to about 6 or 7.

Next, time management. Go here:
blog/2016/08/19/everything-you-need-to-know-about-gmat-time-management-part-1-of-3/

Go through all three parts over the course of this coming week. When you get through part 3, start doing practice problem sets in multiples of 4 (quant) or 9 (verbal).

Speaking of problem sets: At this point in your studies, I recommend mostly mixed sets built out of official problems. You can try a few one-off problems in a specific category area, but mostly you want to practice under real test conditions. More details on how to do that here:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... rt-1-of-3/

When you do want to try a specific problem, the easy way to find that problem is to look at the Official Guide Problem Sets doc you can find in your student center on our site. But...the easy way won't help you develop your skills quite as much. The harder—but better—way is for you to browse through the Official Guide until you find something that you think falls into that category. (Why? Because the real test isn't going to tell you, hey, we're going to give you a quadratics problem now, okay? They're just going to plop it up on the screen and you have to figure it out.)

So my preference is to use that problem sets doc only to confirm that I have indeed correctly recognized what a problem was testing—but I have to try to decide first.

Next, maybe 80% of what you learn is going to come *after* you are done working on a problem set. Your review of the set is really where you learn. For this, use that file that I put in my last post, the one about the 2nd level of learning. That contains the kinds of questions to ask yourself when reviewing a problem. You don't need to ask every single question on every single problem you review—you use them as a guide to figure out which questions you need to ask yourself for this particular problem, based on how the problem went. (And expect to spend at least twice as long reviewing as doing in the first place. Most of the time, much longer—because your review will make you realize that you need to go back and review part of a chapter or make flash cards for certain things or try more problems in this area or...)

It can be useful to do some random googling on things that are giving you trouble, yes, but as you said—it's hit or miss. If you do that, you want to look for stuff that was specifically built for the GMAT, not "real math / school math" in general, because often, the way stuff would be presented and best solved for a school test is NOT the way you'd want to approach it for the GMAT.

I think it can also be useful to google specific OG problems to see how other people have thought to solve them. There are a lot of forums where people discuss their ideas for solving, so you may pick up some new good approaches that way. If the conversation is ongoing / you can ask someone questions about their approach, make sure to ask why they decided to approach a problem a certain way. What clues in the problem made them think to try that approach in the first place? Now you know what clues to look for yourself on future, similar problems.