Beat The GMAT a GMAT & MBA community

The plan I usually recommend is:

1) Regular untimed practice every day, even if it's only 15 minutes. Your weakest areas should be studied more often.

2) Regular full-length exams, followed by a full review of every question (including ones you got right) within 24 hours

3) An error log, including a record of questions that you narrowed down to two answers (again, whether your final choice was right or not)

The untimed practice (focusing on weak points) gives you ample time to get better at doing things the "right" way, while the full-length exams give you regular timed practice and also keep your skills up in your strengths.

Let me suggest something a little bit counter intuitive. Since you have a defined goal of 550 (which is close to the average score) you just need to get a reasonable number of questions right. There is no need for you to fear missing some questions - you can miss 50% of the questions on the Quant and usually get the 50th percentile or greater. On the verbal side you can afford to miss lots of questions as well.

I have had more than one student with a similar goal of anything above 550. I am thinking of one particular student and the strategy we come up with was for him. He had a problem on the Quant with trying to do whatever question came up and so spent most of his time on questions that he struggled with (you can see how this would work, questions he was comfortable with did not take nearly as long). This made the test long, unpleasant and low-scoring. I told him that he had to "skip" - meaning quickly guess at - at least 5 questions on the quant section. Obviously these would be questions that he had no chance of getting correct within 3 minutes. I then told him to focus and not to rush when he found a question that he was confident in completing. The results were better than he could have hoped. This method allowed him to at least see most of the 37 questions and to choose which ones he was best at. Remember he only needed to get something like half of the questions right in order to reach his goal.

This changed the way that we studied as well. Instead of focusing on the types of questions he was not good at, we focused on those that he was pretty good at and worked to make those into real strengths that he could rely on on test day. By getting these question types down cold he had the confidence to make it happen on test day.

So that is something you might try...study the things that you are good at or can become good at and make these into things you can rely on under pressure. If there are question types that you are hopelessly bad at then these might be the questions that you guess at on test day.

And, hey, this might make your studying and even test day a little more enjoyable, not to mention successful.

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David Newland, JD, MA, MAE
GMAT Instructor, Tutor, and Author
Veritas Prep

My next online course starts Monday June 17th and is Monday- Wednesday from 7PM to 10PM Eastern Time.

An online course might yet turn out to be necessary -- but if you have the time you can try it yourself first. Of course there are many people here to help you as well so you are not really going it alone!

I have just posted a collection of articles and posts at http://www.beatthegmat.com/the-best-from-david-newland-s-first-1000-posts-t101075.html#439950

Why not try reading these first and see if they give you some insight? Then you can come back and let us know what materials you have and what you think your strengths and weaknesses are.

You may very well be able to save the piggy bank yet!

_________________
David Newland, JD, MA, MAE
GMAT Instructor, Tutor, and Author
Veritas Prep

My next online course starts Monday June 17th and is Monday- Wednesday from 7PM to 10PM Eastern Time.

29 on the Quant is a scaled score that equates to the 25th percentile.

Was this the GMATPrep or some other practice test?

Oh, and, You can get all of the information about the Veritas Prep courses by going to the GMAT Courses Tab at the top of the page and then selecting Veritas Prep.

David

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David Newland, JD, MA, MAE
GMAT Instructor, Tutor, and Author
Veritas Prep

My next online course starts Monday June 17th and is Monday- Wednesday from 7PM to 10PM Eastern Time.

I think this question was sent my way...

That Veritas Prep Simulator can be tough - especially on the Quant side. But yes, that score is in the neighborhood of what you scored on your last test.

I think that you do need some additional studying - strategy can take you some of the way but I think that you need to actually get some of the material down. Several companies have an "on-demand" course (we have one at Veritas as well.) These are usually the lowest cost option.

Whatever you decide - as long as you study hard and use some strategy and you will make your goal!

_________________
David Newland, JD, MA, MAE
GMAT Instructor, Tutor, and Author
Veritas Prep

My next online course starts Monday June 17th and is Monday- Wednesday from 7PM to 10PM Eastern Time.