GMAT Strategy

I am hoping that someone out there can share some words of encouragement. I have been struggling with the GMAT since 2008 and my highest score has been a 400. I have enrolled in prep courses and spent a lot of $$ on preparation for this exam. On my exam in May 2012 I got a 370 but was scoring a mid 500 on my practice exams. I'm slightly stressed as I need to retake my GMAT exam by middle August to be accepted for Fall admission. I really want this so badly & need a high 500 but a 600 woukd be even better. Any advice out there would greatly be appreciated!

For some people, self-study, or prep courses simply do not work well.

With hard work and a good private tutor, your quant score can inprove by 100 points for a month. I had a student with whom I worked for a month - she came to me after a Veritas course with a total score of 430 on the test. When she re-took the test one week ago, her total score jumped from 430 to 560, her verbal didn't improve, was even lower than her first time, which means the quant increased drastically.

She did not work on the verbal because she could not find a good verbal tutor.

If you double the work, best is to take off work, and work HARD both on verbal and quant, it is very probable that you get a similar, even higher score. Working hard means meeting regularly with the tutor(s) and complete the homework they give you. Solving the homework by yourself is the time when you learn what the tutors teach you during the sessions. Without solving problems by yourself, you are not learning anything.

I agree with tutorphd that you would likely benefit from private tutoring. Studying on your own or taking prep classes just doesn't work for everyone. A good tutor could help you target your strengths and weaknesses.

Also, with an official score more than 100 points less than your practice tests, it sounds like you're probably suffering from test day anxiety. Everyone gets nervous/anxious on test day, but such a significant difference between practice and official raises some questions for consideration.

Manhattan's GMAT Roadmap book provides some good feedback on dealing with test day stress; you may want to check it out.

When you were scoring in the mid 500s on your practice tests, were those tests taken under official-like conditions? Were you completing the essay and IR, and limiting yourself to 10 minute breaks?

Were the practice tests official GMATPrep tests or from prep companies?
The prep companies tests are not very predictive of your score on the actual test.

Indeed test anxiety can be detrimental to a score because you will do a lot of reckless mistakes in the begining of the sections, something that is severely penalized by the adaptive scoring algorithm. It 'makes up' its mind of your level on the initial 10-15 questions and if you make a lot of mistakes on those easy questions, in a row, the algorithm will swing towards giving you easier questions later and you wont be able to earn your usual score even if you solve those correctly. If that is the case, working on your accuracy (ability to get the right answer on questions below and at your level) with the tutors will be beneficial.

Just starting to study a week before you have to take the exam isn't going to do you any favors or really help you boost your score that much. Give yourself at least a few months to study slowly and thoroughly before the test day.

I realized something while studying for the GMAT and that is, it becomes your life. In order to completely be successful on this test, some people need to devote a huge amount of time. I recently took the GMAT and scored a very low 400 but that was expected as I only studied the quant a bit and left the verbal section out of my study session. After realizing my stupid mistakes I started studying very hard and now am hitting close to 600 in ever mock test I do.

Take away:

Make the GMAT a habit
Take mock tests ONLY when you feel ready that you have covered all the weak areas
Have confidence when you do the test. Minor attitude defects can lead to a weak score. Trust me

Good luck with your prep!

tisrar02 wrote:I realized something while studying for the GMAT and that is, it becomes your life. In order to completely be successful on this test, some people need to devote a huge amount of time. I recently took the GMAT and scored a very low 400 but that was expected as I only studied the quant a bit and left the verbal section out of my study session. After realizing my stupid mistakes I started studying very hard and now am hitting close to 600 in ever mock test I do.

Take away:

Make the GMAT a habit
Take mock tests ONLY when you feel ready that you have covered all the weak areas
Have confidence when you do the test. Minor attitude defects can lead to a weak score. Trust me

Good luck with your prep!

Have you taken the exam a second time around? what was your score please