GMAT Strategy

Just completed another Kaplan CAT which I haven't reviewed in depth yet.

Q:40
V:39

Total 650

I was really surprised I even did that well in Quant, I thought I had really struggled with it. At first glance it does look like I got a lot of answers wrong in that section. Looking even further it looks I totally bombed the geometry questions.

I felt pretty comfortable with the Verbal section although I was expecting to do a little bit better.

CAREY33 wrote:Just completed another Kaplan CAT which I haven't reviewed in depth yet.

Q:40
V:39

Total 650

Nice job pushing up that verbal score. Now go back over those verbal questions and not looking at the explanations at first, seek to determine what you needed to see more clearly or do differently in order to get right the ones that you didn't get.

Do a similar analysis of the quant questions.

At this point by getting stronger in some quant areas, such as geometry and some other areas in which your hit rates were low, and by becoming a bit more skilled in handling verbal questions, you could drive your expected score to between 660 and 720, or higher of course, by your test date. A verbal score in the 40's can be a great foundation for a 700+ score, in case you care to achieve one.

You are jamming. This is sweet. Remain aggressive. Make those weaker areas into stronger areas. Notice what kinds of silly mistakes you tend to make, if any, and work on catching yourself before you make them.

You just have less than two weeks to go. Keep driving this thing, partly to see how high you can go by your test date and partly to make sure that you do score 650+.

Also, taking another official GMAT Prep test before your test date probably make sense.

Enjoy the GAME!!!

Took another GMAT practice today

Q:29
V:40
Total 570

Haven't reviewed the Quant yet but no ideal how I got a 29, pretty discouraging. I felt the questions were a little too easy while taking the exam.

Nice job continuing to push that verbal score UP! Wow, a verbal point or two more and you will be positioned to really rock the test. Even as it is you are lookin' good.

Regarding quant, it is possible that you have used up all of the hard quant questions in the Kaplan question bank, and so scoring high has become impossible. I am not saying that that is what happened - you can better tell by going over the test - but I have seen that type of thing happen before.

In any case, be discouraged by nothing. Just keep training until you get the results you want.

I am so curious about how you would score on a GMAT Prep test at this point.

Sorry if I didn't specify but this was a GMAT Prep test, not a Kaplan test

CAREY33 wrote:Sorry if I didn't specify but this was a GMAT Prep test, not a Kaplan test

OHHHHHHH Now I see what you were saying. Smoked!!!

Eh whatever, right? Another play in the game. You'll bounce back up.

Remember what I said a while back about using test prep company tests and not being accustomed to official questions?

Official questions seem easy, but they are tricky, and I bet accuracy issues and getting tricked explain much of your score drop.

Figure out what you need to work on. I bet one thing you have to work on is tricky DS questions.

Also, probably you should buy some more official tests. Maybe it's tough to kick out $50 for a couple of tests, but maybe you better.

As an update, I took a Kaplan CAT on Tuesday and another one today.

Tuesday:
Q:40
V:37
Total: 630

Today
Q:45
V:40
Total:690

I haven't reviewed today's CAT yet but I sure hope it isn't fool's gold. I take my official GMAT on Monday.

Hmm. Interesting.

Keep hitting it tomorrow and Sunday. Maybe slow down a little on Sunday to give yourself some rest, but there is no reason why you can't be even better at the GMAT by Monday.

On Saturday you could be figuring out how you could have gotten more right on the last two tests and working on a couple of weaker areas. A nice offense is a great defense.

On Sunday you could do some more on those same topics and do some other stuff too, maybe not a lot, but some, partly so you go into Monday's game in game mode.

Even on Monday, doing some questions before you head to the test can get you warmed up, and can make the test seem as if it is an extension of a practice session, which appearance can be good for your psychology.

I'll second Marty's advice here with one added suggestion: take a few minutes to click through all of your old practice tests (particularly the official ones), but rather than re-solving questions, play the pattern recognition game. "This question involved multiples/large numbers, so I should have taken the prime factorization; this question involved painful algebra and percents, so I should have picked 100; this question could have been solved easily using a Rate*Time = Distance chart; etc." The process doesn't take long, won't require much mental exertion, and will help keep you focused on the most important themes that are likely to arise on test day.