GMAT Strategy

Well, I have been scoring around a 600 on the Princeton Review and Manhattan practice tests and with 5 days before my test I score a 460 on the GMAT Prep practice. I did horrible in quant, which is normally my strength. Verbal had been giving me problems, but today I did pretty well and got a 30V...but a horrible 22Q. Normally I am around a 40Q and with as much work as I have put into the GMAT I am feeling like I am about to lose it. Any advice???

I didn't even come close to finishing...a first, so I am thinking that tomorrow I will retake and hopefully be a bit more calm. The only good thing to come out of today is that my verbal is close to where I want it to be but I can't believe what happened today in quant...unreal.

If someone can help me out, I would really appreciate it!

Not that anyone cares, but I wanted to give an update.

Took my 2nd GMAT Prep today and hit a 630 (43Q 34V) which is close to my goal score. I take the test tomorrow and hopefully hit close to my target score of 680, but I will be happy with a 630 because I think I have a pretty strong application(hopefully).

I will give an update tomorrow after the test.

Stay around mid 30's on V and try to boost your M score to 40+.

How is your timing ?

Timing is still a big issue, guessed on the final 5 quant. questions...but know that if you just pick C there is a good chance that I will get a few right.

On Verbal, I finished but had to hurry through the final 5. I think that I can keep my verbal around the same score and I really need to get my quant. up a little. My problem is that I know that I can solve every problem so I have a hard time giving up and making an educated guess when I am down to 2 answers. Tomorrow I will make sure to focus on the first 20 questions...but after that I will have to make a few guesses that might get me to the next level.

Verbal, improving is probably not going to happen. I have never been a Verbal guy so I doubt that I am going to change that. If I can get around a 35V tomorrow I will be very happy and hopefully I kill it in quant.

Again, I will update tomorrow after the test and hopefully I will have great news to give the forum.

As a side note, I find the GMAT Prep harder then Kaplan, Princeton Review, and MGMAT...combined. I may have scored my best score today on GMAT Prep, but it is a lot more difficult than I ever thought. This forum has helped me tremendously and if I get close to my target score I plan on pimping this website to everyone I know(actually, I already do).

OK, time to do a little quant review and then off the bed. Hopefully I get some sleep tonight!!!!

Well, I have bad news to report.

Actual GMAT score 460 (31Q 24V)...I am completly lost now and after 6 months of studying I think I could have scored the exact same without putting in all the hours of studying.

I have one month before my next test so I am going to hit it real hard to make sure I know the the CONCEPTS!!!! I am not going to give up but I am in need of some serious advice on how to improve.

Timing was an issue and I had to guess on the final 10 in both sections. AWA was fine and I am sure that I scored 5 or above.

I am going to map out a new strategy tonight...but would like the advice of the experts on the board on how to move forward.

I have done most of the OG 11, studied the MGMAT SC guide pretty throughly and also had a private tutor through Princeton Review. I guess I need to put in at least 2 hours a day on the weekdays and 6 hours a day on the weekend, good thing it is the holiday season so I won't have many work obligations this next month. Ugh!!!!

^^
im feeling sorry for you ..
this happened with me too ..
in my gmat test prep 1 i scored 620 and
in gmat test prepcat 2 :640..
my target was anything above 600..
i also give princeton review 5 cats n in them i scored arnd 580- 620
I was conistently scoring 48-50 in quant and in 28-30 verbal

in actual gmat i messed up everything. i scored 470 (q42 , v14)

V14 i never imagined i would score this low ..

i couldnt understand most of the rc's

before the test whenever i used to practice i used to get most of the sentence correction and criticle reasoning questions Correct ..

utgolfer wrote:Well, I have bad news to report.

Actual GMAT score 460 (31Q 24V)...I am completly lost now and after 6 months of studying I think I could have scored the exact same without putting in all the hours of studying.

I have one month before my next test so I am going to hit it real hard to make sure I know the the CONCEPTS!!!! I am not going to give up but I am in need of some serious advice on how to improve.

Timing was an issue and I had to guess on the final 10 in both sections. AWA was fine and I am sure that I scored 5 or above.

I am going to map out a new strategy tonight...but would like the advice of the experts on the board on how to move forward.

I have done most of the OG 11, studied the MGMAT SC guide pretty throughly and also had a private tutor through Princeton Review. I guess I need to put in at least 2 hours a day on the weekdays and 6 hours a day on the weekend, good thing it is the holiday season so I won't have many work obligations this next month. Ugh!!!!

Am no expert, but after reading through ur posts I feel like u might have lost ur concentration in the main exam. Getting a 630-640 on MGMAT and the like and getting 460 on the actual exam is totally out of whack. Have u tried something to boost your concentration - like meditation ? Have u looked at ur food habits .. what have u been eating - and if you've been eating nutritious food. These might be totally unrelated to studies - but doesn't hurt to pay some attention to.

Also - the number of hours u put in to your studies does not guarantee you results. It's what you assimilate in that amount of time, that counts.

So may be you should take a second look at your study methodology, have a baseline and improve gradually. I'm sure you'll crack 650.

- pradeep

Hello,

New to the forum. I have studied for over two years to improve my GMAT score. (I want in a highly competitive PH. D. program.)

To get the gist of my background-- full-time job, full-time family(with 2 children), full-time grad student to May 08 (3.5 GPA), and studying for GMAT even in sleep.

Anyway... I know how you feel. I average 690 (on bad days) to 740 (on best days) and got the following scores....

May 08- 500
August 08- 530
December 08- 550 (Q44; 23V) I don't know what happen on verbal.

I don't understand why I choke on the actual exam, but it stinks. Royally.
I'm not giving up. And, I hope you don't either.

Moving forward, you should relax a day or two before the test. Looks like you crammed in two CAT's the day before the actual exam.....not a good idea.