GMAT Strategy

Hi,

So as many on this forum I had high aspirations of acquiring a high GMAT score. I started studying in June and probably put in more then 150 hours of studying. The first two months I spent working on concepts and understanding strategy. From August though December I spent working on problems. I predominantly used three sources which included the Official Guide, Magoosh, and Target Test Prep. Collectively, I went through over 1500 problems, and by the end of it was getting 70-90% of questions right (I only practiced medium and hard question) for both quant and verbal. I do admit, I didn't do as many CATs as I should have. Before starting my studies, I installed the GMATPrep Software and took a practice test. I ended up scoring a 610. That was somewhat promising since at that point I haven't put any effort and did not get an "awful" score. Before taking the actual exam in December, I took two more CATs. Scored 700 on one and 680 on the second. I felt I was ready to achieve my goal. Took the test, and to my surprise got an abysmal 560...that was fairly devastating after months of work and never scoring below 600. I ended up canceling the score and rescheduling the test in 3 weeks (given I am applying for round 2 and need an unofficial score before I submit my application). Looking at the analysis of the test, I did poorly on the verbal section, specifically SC but also should have done better on quant. I kind of froze and had a mental block a few times throughout the test.
So I'm looking for any advise on what I can do differently for the next 3 weeks to achieve something in the 660-700 range. I've put in a lot of time and know the material, but feel like my strategy is lacking. Should I hire a tutor or use different material. Any suggestions would be highly appreciated!!

Hi.

Here's my take.

Regarding the test day experience, probably you have not taken enough practice tests for you to get totally comfortable with and good at handling full tests. You could start to remedy that by taking the free test from Manhattan and the free one from Veritas as part of your ongoing preparation. The test prep company tests are not exactly like the real thing, but taking them will give you practice and be a source of insight.

Taking more practice tests will serve multiple purposes. One of them is getting better at handling the test. The other is to generate results that you can use to direct your preparation. You can see what types of questions you find the most challenging and work on those, you can see to what degree you are affected by timing issues and address that, and anything else that you can identify as something you can change in order for you to get a higher score becomes a project you can work on.

Regarding verbal and sentence correction, one's verbal performance can be significantly affected by mindset. Getting verbal questions right can depend on noticing subtle differences in answer choices, and the degree to which one does that successfully can change depending on how you are feeling and your mindset. You have to remember to be really careful and to be determined to find the right answers and to not get tricked into picking the wrong answers.

Also, when people's verbal scores swing around, it's often because the ways the people are handling the questions are not quite tight enough. So during your ongoing preparation, probably you will benefit from doing verbal questions rather slowly and carefully, seeing clearly and logically why every wrong answer is wrong and why every right answer is right. That type of clarity is what you need in order to consistently score high on verbal.

For categorized quant questions, you could go the the GMAT section here, https://bellcurves.com, and set up a practice account.

For more verbal, and quant, questions, you could use the question bank here. https://www.veritasprep.com/gmat-question-bank/

As you take practice tests, see just how clear you can be about what's going on in verbal questions and see how many you can get right and how high you can score. Also, see which quant categories you find the most challenging and work specifically on those until you can handle them easily.

Play the test like a video game and, like a gamer, get so used to playing the test that scoring high feels natural.

Funny, tighten up the way you see and handle verbal, get stronger in some areas of quant,and get more comfortable with the test, and in under three weeks you could go from scoring 560 to scoring 700+.

I kind of froze and had a mental block a few times throughout the test.

Not an uncommon story. Give mindfulness meditation a shot: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archi ... on/275564/