Need Help with a strategy

pimpp1184 · Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 11:38 am Post subject: Need Help with a strategy

Hi. I had taken my GMAT about less than a month ago and I did very poorly.
I had studied for almost 1-2 months before I had taken my GMAT and on the practice tests I got between 530 to 600 but on my real GMAT I scored a very low score of 350. I was very appauled when I got the score that I did not want to take it again for a long time but I had made a plan to go back to school to get my MBA part time and work full time.
I was wondering if there is any specific strategy's that people had created for themselves that had gotten them a higher score.
I had used the kaplan and offical guide book to prepare initially but I guess I'm just wondering is anyone has any hints for me to succeed of getting a score of 550 or above.
Thank you.

beatthegmat · Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 3:31 pm Post subject: Re: Need Help with a strategy

Stacey Koprince · Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 5:51 pm Post subject:

Did you possibly run out of time on the real test with questions left to answer? That often explains a big drop between practice scores and the real thing. Every question you don't answer is marked wrong, so if you run out of time with, say 7 questions to go, that will be 7 in a row marked wrong.

Overall, you can expect to get about half of the questions wrong, but the key is to avoid having long strings of wrong answers - that kills your score, and that's exactly what happens if you run out of time.

pimpp1184 · Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 6:05 am Post subject:

Stacey,

No, I did not run out of time answering the questions but I was very close in doing so. In each of the sections except for th essays sections, I had approx. 30 seconds left before I finished the last question.
I was just dumbfounded that I did well/decently on the practice tests and did horribly on the real test.
I am planning to take the test again at the middle or end of June and I am just going to practice the same questions from the OG Edition 11 book which I had used previously.
I had bought flashcards which might helpful in having me remember basic facts that can assist me in the GMAT.
Would anyone happen to know any good book / site that contains alot of practice tests as I think that would help me (hopefully)?
Or any other suggestions as to what else I can do to prepare myself better for the 2nd time around taking the GMAT?

Thank you for your help.

Stacey Koprince · Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 1:46 pm Post subject:

Did you feel like you had to rush much more at the end of the sections than you did on the practice tests? Or were you working at a comfortable pace?

Also, just be sure that whatever source you do use, you make sure it's a legitimate one - from a company that has the money to conduct R&D to make sure the questions mimic the real test. Don't use online-only sources you've never heard of before - some are fine, but some are not, and it can REALLY hurt you to use questions that are not indicative of the actual test.

pimpp1184 · Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 4:14 am Post subject:

As a matter of fact, I did feel that I was being rushed more on the real test than on the practice test. On the practice test I had finished the each section with 5+ minutes to spare.
It could have been the whole testing environment for the real GMAT that got me jittery. I'm not really sure.
Would you think that getting "Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review" as well as "Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review' be helpful, as I currently do not have these books?
Currently I have the following books:
1) Kaplan GMAT 2005 with CD-ROM (Kaplan GMAT (Book & CD-Rom)) by Kaplan Publishing
2) The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 11th Edition
3) Kaplan GMAT 800, 2006-2007 (Kaplan Gmat 800)

I also recently bought this book: "Cracking the GMAT, 2007 Edition by Princeton" which I later found out is not really a good book to be referring to as the questions don't really resemble the questions on the actual GMAT. Thus I am going to return it.
Is there any other book that you think might be helpful for me on top of the ones that I already have?
Thanks

Stacey Koprince · Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 11:50 am Post subject:

Everyone feels more jittery on the real thing and it affects everyone's performance - some more than others. If you were working right up until the last 30 seconds, and felt you were forced to work more quickly than you'd like, then you definitely left lots of points on the table b/c you made mistakes that you weren't making on practice tests (on which you could work at a more comfortable pace), etc. That can have a big downward impact on your score.

Those books should be a good start. The verbal and quant reviews provide you additional official questions, but there are 800 questions in OG 11, so that is more than enough if you are studying effectively.

The key is not to just do bunches and bunches of questions. You need to learn something (and ideally 10 things) from every question you do - from the most effective way to approach that question, to alternate ways if the most effective way doesn't work, to educated guessing strategies (which includes how to know the wrong answers are wrong - process of elimination is sometimes how you get the right answer). And don't forget the actual content, pacing, etc. You can spend 10-20 minutes studying just one problem.