Must Boost Quant Score in 3 Weeks

[serenity5x5]

I took a diagnostic paper practice test before studying and got a 500 Q. After a month of studying, I took a PowerPrep Practice test and got a 690Q. Now with 3 weeks left until I take my GREs, is there any chance at all that I can boost up my score to be mid-high 700s? How do I do this?

*Panic*

[adaptations]

First - don't panic!

Without knowing your test prep strategy, it is hard to offer specific advice. Identify the specific question types that give you the greatest trouble (Kaplan's software automatically does this), and focus your efforts in that area. You certainly need to know all of your basic equations, geometry, etc. so they are second nature and you don't waste time or make silly mistakes on the test. You've already improved a lot, and with three weeks to go, there's no reason your score can't go higher - just study smart and really focus on the areas where you have the most to gain.

[tskinner]

I used a book similar to this when I took the GMAT and did great:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=800+gre+kaplan&x=0&y=0&ih=5_2_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_1.5_144&fsc=-1

It's just the hardest questions and will help boost your score.

[DrFaustus666]

I took a diagnostic paper practice test before studying and got a 500 Q. After a month of studying, I took a PowerPrep Practice test and got a 690Q. Now with 3 weeks left until I take my GREs, is there any chance at all that I can boost up my score to be mid-high 700s? How do I do this?

*Panic*

I am chiming in only because (1) I also will take the GRE in 3 weeks; (2) I also received a 690 on Quant last time; and (3) I also want to boost my score up to 750+.

I have no idea if my approach will work better or not. But a friend told me that the most important thing (after concentrating very carefully to be sure you get the first 6 or 7 questions right!) is to look for some "back door" into the problem.

A good deal of investigation on my part has shown that the GRE math problems at least (as exemplified on Powerprep and on ETS's ancient guide to the GRE) DO often have some sort of shortcut --- a relationship between two or more of the numbers; or a geometric fact that's not obvious but operative in the problem at hand; etc. ---- and if you (we, all test takers) can find that quantitative back door, we have a much better chance of getting the right answer.

On the other hand, sometimes it's easier to just brute-force the problem. Lots and lots and lots of practice makes me feel a bit more confident in my ability to discern when a back door is discoverable and when to simply do the math. Now, whether that confidence will persist into the test-pressure situation is another story completely.

So, I don't know if that's any help or not ... but good luck, to both of us

John

[balderdash]

I have no idea if my approach will work better or not. But a friend told me that the most important thing (after concentrating very carefully to be sure you get the first 6 or 7 questions right!) is to look for some "back door" into the problem.

To be more strategic about it, every question has a particular way of being solved that must be drawn from a discrete set of fields (ie, algebraic equations, geometry, etc). So the key is to look at the question and first understand what bit of knowledge the question is testing. When you approach it from the perspective of the test itself, you can get a grasp of what equation, set of rules, or skill is required. Once you get that sorted, you know what you have to do and it's just a matter of executing.

Also, remember that the first half of the section is much more important than the second half. Thus, budget your time but stack it toward the front end: don't be afraid to spend 3 minutes on each of the first few questions, but by midway through the test it should get shorter and shorter.

[Engineer]

Just keep studying and doing practice problems. 3 weeks is plenty of time to raise that score to what you want it to be. Like others have said you really need to take your time, especially on the front part of the quant section. When I took the GRE a couple of weeks ago I spent 24 minutes on the first 8 questions. Maybe that's a little too much time but it worked out well for me. I ended up with 790 Q / 720 V.

[TheDude]

I used the Barron's book for review and at a moderate pace got my score to 700 in about 7 weeks.

I'm now using the NOVA GRE math review book. It is more comprehensive than Barron's and a definite step up.

[DrFaustus666]

MusicForFun: I have the NOVA book and intend to work every single problem in the entire book, and I agree with you, it is more comprehensive than any other book I've seen. Though interestingly, a few of the so-called Very Hard problems are easier for me than the so-called Medium problems.

Engineer: I am considerably handicapped in math for several reasons. (1) The last math course I took was in 1970-1971 in my freshman year of college (I'm one of the 1% of all U.S. graduate students who are over age 50); (2) the most advanced math course I ever took was H.S. Calculus (1969-1970). For the GRE, I studied for almost a year and only improved my Quant score from 670 to 690; (3) one really DOES lose short-term learning with age. So, while a few weeks review might be enough for you (whom I presume to be an Engineering student under age 30?), it's not enough for an old fart like me

Balderdash: Your insight that I should "understand what bit of knowledge the question is testing" makes a near-perfect hand-in-glove complement to my friend's idea of "find the back door" ... the two bits of advice reinforce one another and simplify one another.

Thanks to all for your comments!

[Tdearr]

I have no idea if my approach will work better or not. But a friend told me that the most important thing (after concentrating very carefully to be sure you get the first 6 or 7 questions right!) is to look for some "back door" into the problem.

Also, remember that the first half of the section is much more important than the second half. Thus, budget your time but stack it toward the front end: don't be afraid to spend 3 minutes on each of the first few questions, but by midway through the test it should get shorter and shorter.

A word of warning to everyone on this thread, the first questions of the GRE are NOT actually more important than the later questions. This is a common misconception that we at Manhattan GRE try to work against. You don't want to front load your time, because wrong answers at the end of the test hurt you just as much as wrong answers at the beginning, and leaving questions blank due to lack of time is worse than not answering them at all. While it is true that wrong answers early on in the test will hurt you, having less time at the end will hurt you more. See page 3 of this study published by ETS (the organization that administers the GRE) showing these results <A class=bbc_url title="External link" href="http://www.psych.umn.edu/psylabs/catcentral/pdf%20files/br02-01.pdf" rel="nofollow external">http://www.psych.umn.edu/psylabs/catcentral/pdf%20files/br02-01.pdf.

Let's say that your actual ability is to score a 700 on Quant; this means you should miss questions that are the difficulty of a 710 and, although they will likely be difficult for you to work through, you should get questions that are the difficulty of a 690 correct. On a Computer Adaptive test you begin with a medium difficulty question (lets assign it a difficulty of 400 for the sake of argument) a correct answer moves you to a slightly more difficult question, while an incorrect answer will move you to a slightly less difficult question. For a test taker with an ability of 700, the first question (of 400 difficulty) should be relatively easy, as will the next few questions. If you front load your time, you will be spending a lot of your test time on these questions below your ability, questions that you should be able to answer more easily, and leave yourself much less time for the questions at your ability that will be really challenging and require more time from you. As mentioned in the study cited above, taking more time at the beginning of the test and having less time at the end of the test is especially detrimental to test takers who should have higher level scores.

This isn't to say that early questions aren't important. It is true that you want to answer early questions well to get into more difficult questions, but all of that will be lost if you miss questions at the end due to a lack of time. We recommend setting a time limit on each question and sticking to it. That time limit shouldn't change as the test goes on, you should be measured throughout. The nature of a Computer Adaptive Test is that you will miss questions, if you get flustered and fail to keep an even pace, you won't score at your true ability level. Next time you do a practice test, try spending the same amount of time on each question all the way through and see how your score changes.

Good luck to everyone who is studying, and good luck on your tests.

Regards,

Taylor Dearr

Edited August 27, 2010 by Tdearr

[DrFaustus666]

A word of warning to everyone on this thread, the first questions of the GRE are NOT actually more important than the later questions. This is a common misconception that we at Manhattan GRE try to work against. You don't want to front load your time, because wrong answers at the end of the test hurt you just as much as wrong answers at the beginning, and leaving questions blank due to lack of time is worse than not answering them at all. While it is true that wrong answers early on in the test will hurt you, having less time at the end will hurt you more. See page 3 of this study published by ETS (the organization that administers the GRE) showing these results <A class=bbc_url title="External link" href="http://www.psych.umn.edu/psylabs/catcentral/pdf%20files/br02-01.pdf" rel="nofollow external">http://www.psych.umn.edu/psylabs/catcentral/pdf%20files/br02-01.pdf.

Let's say that your actual ability is to score a 700 on Quant; this means you should miss questions that are the difficulty of a 710 and, although they will likely be difficult for you to work through, you should get questions that are the difficulty of a 690 correct. On a Computer Adaptive test you begin with a medium difficulty question (lets assign it a difficulty of 400 for the sake of argument) a correct answer moves you to a slightly more difficult question, while an incorrect answer will move you to a slightly less difficult question. For a test taker with an ability of 700, the first question (of 400 difficulty) should be relatively easy, as will the next few questions. If you front load your time, you will be spending a lot of your test time on these questions below your ability, questions that you should be able to answer more easily, and leave yourself much less time for the questions at your ability that will be really challenging and require more time from you. As mentioned in the study cited above, taking more time at the beginning of the test and having less time at the end of the test is especially detrimental to test takers who should have higher level scores.

This isn't to say that early questions aren't important. It is true that you want to answer early questions well to get into more difficult questions, but all of that will be lost if you miss questions at the end due to a lack of time. We recommend setting a time limit on each question and sticking to it. That time limit shouldn't change as the test goes on, you should be measured throughout. The nature of a Computer Adaptive Test is that you will miss questions, if you get flustered and fail to keep an even pace, you won't score at your true ability level. Next time you do a practice test, try spending the same amount of time on each question all the way through and see how your score changes.

Good luck to everyone who is studying, and good luck on your tests.

Regards,

Taylor Dearr

I read the entire study, and yes indeed, it seems to corroborate this post.

The moral of the story is still, IMHO, the average test taker (someone who hopes for an 1100-1150 total for example) should front-load to a certain extent.

Test takers with high or very high expectations (people who hope for 1300 or above total) should not front-load, because, as the study says, front-loading takes time away from the most difficult questions, which appear near the end of the test. The following is directly out of the link T.D. provided (emphasis is mine):

"Using simulated data, Steffen and Way (1999) showed that a string of guesses at the end is likely to have more severe consequences for higher ability than for lower ability examinees, because incorrect answers are more at odds with the model’s expectations for the higher ability examinees."

When I said "concentrate very carefully to be sure I get the first six or seven questions right" I did NOT mean that I should spend four minutes trying to decide which is larger, Column A: one-and-one-sixth, or Column B: one-point-six ....(FYI this exact question is in the Powerprep set and often appears as question one) I DID mean that I should be darn sure that I don't accidentally confirm the wrong answer (A) by a slip of the fingers. Once an incorrect answer is confirmed, it's gone forever; as are my chances for getting an 800 in Quant in this example

I am not really contradicting you, T.D., rather, I'm pointing out that your warning appears to me to be aimed more at people who wish for and expect to receive high scores---and admittedly, there are many such people on this site, myself included.

John

[balderdash]

A word of warning to everyone on this thread, the first questions of the GRE are NOT actually more important than the later questions.

I mean, I appreciate the effort you've expended, but I'm fully aware about how CAT works. So are the people who write Princeton Review and Kaplan, and both counsel spending more time at the front than the back. No offense, but I'm going with what they say.

Also, you're ignoring other beneficial effects of spending more time on the front. Usually, you have to warm up and take your time at the beginning to get your brain working, even if you're mid-test. Also, getting a few answers solidly right to start the test boosts your confidence and helps you with the rest.

So I'll keep my "misconception," thanks.

[Tdearr]

I appreciate the responses to my post. I agree that this study is more geared toward those trying to achieve top tier scores, but as John points out these types of test takers are active on forums so we want to make this information available to them.

Balderdash, I appreciate your points about warm ups and confidence. I definitely didn't mean to imply that any less care be taken early on in the test. Once you have found a rhythm to your pacing that works for you it is certainly good to stick with it. I just hoped to explain the CAT format to any readers who might not be as familiar and might be having trouble finishing the test in a timely manner. We know from our years of test prep experience that the front-loading misconception is prevalent, and many students who study with us, both for the GRE and GMAT, come to their first class believing that first questions are more important, with the last questions being less important or even mostly irrelevant. We endeavor to make sure that people understand that questions are important all the way through, which is why we have taken care to look at all of the ETS research on the subject when developing our curriculum. If you are interested in hearing more about our approach to CATs we would love to invite you to one of our free previews should you fidn yourself in New York City; the CAT format is discussed in great detail there. You can find more information on our website, which you can reach through my signature. Thank you.

Regards,

Taylor Dearr

[balderdash]

Balderdash, I appreciate your points about warm ups and confidence. I definitely didn't mean to imply that any less care be taken early on in the test. Once you have found a rhythm to your pacing that works for you it is certainly good to stick with it. I just hoped to explain the CAT format to any readers who might not be as familiar and might be having trouble finishing the test in a timely manner. We know from our years of test prep experience that the front-loading misconception is prevalent, and many students who study with us, both for the GRE and GMAT, come to their first class believing that first questions are more important, with the last questions being less important or even mostly irrelevant. We endeavor to make sure that people understand that questions are important all the way through, which is why we have taken care to look at all of the ETS research on the subject when developing our curriculum. If you are interested in hearing more about our approach to CATs we would love to invite you to one of our free previews should you fidn yourself in New York City; the CAT format is discussed in great detail there. You can find more information on our website, which you can reach through my signature. Thank you.

I appreciate the intent.

[by the way, not that I'm a mod or anything suchlike, but they don't like proprietary posts on the forum. I know that's not what you're doing, but you will probably want to be careful that your posts can't be construed as such.]

[serenity5x5]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Good luck to those of you taking the GREs soon!