GMAT Strategy

Received a PM asking me to respond. I agree with Dana on multiple points - nice job on the verbal improvement! And you do need some work on the verbal side of things in order to hit your goal.

One thing stands out for me in your posts: timing. For example, in your discussion of quant, you said:

I felt panicky when I take more than 3 mins

The test is always going to give you things that would take you more than 3 minutes, because the test can always give you something harder, no matter how good you get. When the test does give you something that's too hard, your task is to recognize that within the first 30-60 seconds, make an educated guess, and move on at or before the 2min mark.

If you need 3+ minutes, then that's just an indication that you don't really know how to do this problem, because there is a 2 min solution to this problem. You just don't know what it is. And if you don't really know how to do it, then the longer you spend, the more likely you are to have to guess anyway. So guess at or before the 2min mark - at least the guess won't hurt you on other questions later in the section (when you have to start rushing because you used up too much time earlier).

Ditto on the verbal. In fact, overall if you don't fix this timing problem, you are not going to hit 700+. You need to do two things here: change your mindset and know how long 1 min is without looking at a clock.

First, your mindset: you still think that you need to get everything right, even if you know intellectually, during calm moments, that you do NOT have to get everything right. (And, in fact, you're going to get many questions wrong - that's just how the test works).

Start thinking of this as a tennis match, not a test. You're going to win some points and the other guy is going to win some points; you're not going to win them all, right? Your goal is to put yourself into position to win the LAST point. Translated, that means you have to put yourself in position to answer the last question - you have to have time to address it. Otherwise, you've lost the last point, and by extension the match. When the other guy hits a winner, don't go running after it so fast that you hit the fence and injure yourself, thereby hurting your chances on the later points. (Translation: don't go way over when the problem is too hard.)

Next: learn about how long one minute is without looking at a watch or stopwatch. If you don't have one already, buy yourself a stopwatch with lap timing capability. When you go to do a set of problems, start the stopwatch but turn it over so you can't see the time. Every time you think one minute has gone by, push the lap button. When you're done, see how good you were - and whether you tend to over or underestimate. Get yourself to the point where you're within 15 seconds either way on a regular basis (that is, you can generally predict between 45 sec and 1min 15 sec).

Now, how do you use that when doing problems? If you're not on track by one minute, make an educated guess and move on. (The general idea is that if you're not on track by the halfway mark, you're unlikely to figure out what's holding you back AND have time to do the whole problem in the 1 min you have left.)

* For SC, 1min is well beyond the half-way mark (we're supposed to average about 1m15s here), but you can almost always eliminate at least some choices on SC in that timeframe. Once you've got that "I'm around the 1min mark and I'm struggling" feeling, go through any remaining choices ONCE more. Pick one. Move on.

I've been traveling - sorry I haven't replied in so long! Nice improvement!

Low performance under pressure - I get tensed when I see 8 questions left and 8 mins to go.

Everybody would be extremely tense in this situation. The fix is not to let yourself get into that situation in the first place! I will repeat something I said in my last post:

The test is always going to give you things that would take you more than 3 minutes, because the test can always give you something harder, no matter how good you get. When the test does give you something that's too hard, your task is to recognize that within the first 30-60 seconds, make an educated guess, and move on at or before the 2min mark.

Again, you are ALWAYS going to have to guess. Your only choice is to decide WHEN to guess. You can pick the hardest questions as you see them throughout the section, or you can not do anything and then you'll be forced to guess on a bunch in a row at the end. Obviously, that's not a good "choice" - you'd rather choose the hardest questions as you see them throughout the section.

Next, you also have to recognize that something is too hard for you before the time is up for questions of that type. The goal is to make the guess without losing any time on that question. Getting it right doesn't matter (in fact, I'd argue that you kind of want to get it wrong - if it's already that hard, you don't really want a harder one next!).

Regression & lack of comprehension - I reread the question in case if I do not comprehend the question/stimulus/passage. This is a main indicator that I will run short of time.

This is also a potential indicator that the question is just too hard for you. Pay attention!

As I mentioned in my last post, you need to (a) learn how long 1 min is without looking at the clock and (b) change your behavior re: time spent on questions (let it go when you can't answer it in the expected timeframe). If you do not change that mindset, then you are going to find it very difficult to achieve your goal.

GMATPrep does not give you per-question timing data, so you will have to time yourself while you take those tests. You can still take both GMATPrep and MGMAT CATs with repeats as long as you follow a few guidelines to minimize the chance of artificially inflating your score via question repeats. First, anytime you see a problem that you remember (and this means: I know the answer or I'm pretty sure I remember the answer, not just "hmm, this looks familiar..."), immediately look at the timer and make yourself sit there for the full length of time for that question type. This way, you don't artificially give yourself more time than you should have. Second, think about whether you got this problem right the last time. If you did, get it right again this time. If you didn't, get it wrong again. If you *completely honestly* think that you would get it right this time around if it were a new question (even though you got it wrong last time) because you've studied that area and improved, then get it right this time.

You asked whether your above plan would get you to the score you want. I'll repeat something else I said in my last post: if you do not fix your timing and guessing strategies, you will not get the score that you want. So start there. Once you fix those areas, we'll see where you are and what you need to do. (I'll also say that, given that you had to guess on 5+ questions in a row at the end of your verbal section, your scoring ability is already probably a decent amount higher than what you actually scored on the verbal section - so just fixing the timing problems will help a great deal!)