few hours ago, my complete defeat

[lorcar]

really did not hope to write here for the first but not last time....

few hours ago....
in PP I used to have Q790 and V 540-590

verbal was supposed to be my weakest part. Simply, I ignore the meaning of most of the words met in Antinomy and Analogies. The strategies to improve do not seem to be useful, as far as you do not memorize tons of new words, at least for me.....

Also, i did not have the time to brainstorm the Pool of Issues and Argument (never written a test essay, but I used to write in english), so i was quite scared. But the issue and argument (first to show) were quite easy
Issue "greatness of individual cannot be determined by contemporaries"
Argument: "pollution and decline of numbers of anphibians".
I think i did very well so i was quite comfortable for this part. But i was also very stressed: i did not recognize the break of 10 minutes and i tought it was 10 seconds, until i saw the seconds ticking.....

Verbal: very tough and difficult for me. Even the reading comprehension, that usually makes my score in the Verbal, was a disaster.

Quantitative: as far as i saw a question i had not seen previously, i started to loose all the residual calm.....i was on a greatest tension, i run out of time, several questions i had to guess. I remember some data interpretation about mortgage payment, where i was required to determine the amount paid in interest, but i had no clue which data to use to split interest from capital. Also I remember: which is the greatest value of n that makes 252^5 divisable by 6^n???

i was very sad and disappointed, as u can imagine. And eager to see my results.
So u can imagine my surprise when i realized that i had to complete an other 30 minutes verbal section. That was really easier than the first one, but u can imagine my psicological situation, since i was sure i had wasted the verbal.

summing it up, i made better in the part i feared the most: the essay.
Q: 620 and V: 540.

i just rescheduled for a new test in the new year, and i have some other days to practice from big book, since PP at the end is going to present the same questions.

Lesson from my case: the psycological part is the most important. As far as u start to think that u are running out of time, you are gone......

now, i am open to your questions, if any

sadly yours

l

[saikai]

Cheer up! At least you know what the test will be like and which areas to focus on. By the way, I think the answer to your question is n=10. I hope you put that down. Was the test harder than Powerprep? Do you remember any other questions?

Good luck on your next attempt, and sorry to hear that you'll be studying through the holidays for this wretched exam like I will. We can commiserate together.

[lorcar]

thi is another:
in a company 3/8 of the workers are part-time, and 2/5 are temporary workers,
which is the ratio of part-time workers that are NOT temporary??
HOW to solve if you do not have any other data?

[Dingus]

lorcar, no need to be so wrought with sadness! From what I can gather from your test experience, you were just not in the right frame of mind. I don't think you took enough *timed* practice tests. You see, knowing a sum is entirely different from doing it under the pressures of time. I suggest the following:

Please make a nice tight schedule and DO NOT FORGET to include a TIMED test in it everyday. This SHOULD include
-Both essays
-followed by verbal and
-then by quantitative.

This is the most draining sequence that one can get in the exam. The idea should be to test your endurance powers and stretch them out slowly till they are at their peak on the test day.

So this should be your new year resoulution
-ONE TIMED FULL-LENGTH test *everyday* till the day before test day.
-Five wordlists from Barron
-Analysis of your tests - including
*finding shortest way to solve the questions which took a lot of time.
*noting down techniques to ALL the questions.
*remembering the techniques learnt from the last day's test.
*Sticking VERY VERY strictly to time limits.

I am sure that with a little bit of discipline and patience, you results will be great. Also, sleeping on time, a good diet, minimal distractions and concentration is essential during preparation. My Chemistry teacher once said that studies were like mountaineering. To reach the heights of a mountain, one has to patiently climb it, and forgetting the oxygen tank behind will not help!

So, lorcar, I wish you all the very best! Look beyond this little glitch and you will find that 1600 is not far away!

[Dingus]

thi is another:
in a company 3/8 of the workers are part-time, and 2/5 are temporary workers,
which is the ratio of part-time workers that are NOT temporary??
HOW to solve if you do not have any other data?

Lets say total no. of workers = 40
No. of part-time workers =15
No of temporary workers =16

So technically, the ratio could be from 0 to 1!! There has to be a mistake in this question.

[saikai]

Yeah, there seems to be something missing here. Do you mean you this? -

3/8 = part time
2/5 = part time that is is temp

So ratio of part time that is not temporary is

3/8 - (3/8)*(2/5) divided by 3/8

Ans. 3/5

[neokeynesian]

Hi lorcar,

what sequence did u get?
QVQ or VQV?
If I'm not mistaken, based on my observation from some of my friends who took the test last year, the sequence of the sections are as follow:
Tuesday & Thursday : QVQ
Monday & Wednesday: VQV

[Dingus]

Hey! This is interesting. I am going to start a thread if a pattern emerges.

What about Friday, Saturday and Sunday (some centers offer it on Sundays too)? I gave it on Oct 29th, which was a Friday, and the pattern was VQV.

[Econ]

Hey guys: don't need to disappoint you, but two of my friends gave the test on the same day, the same hour (14:00) and at the same test center (I don't remember the day though) -- the one got VQV and the other QVQ. Quite interestingly, however, I gave my test on the same day with my friend Dingus and I got VQV too

[lorcar]

i dont think there is anything u can foretell....but

awa
V, the first
Q
V, the second