Data Sufficiency

Hi RAM,

Business Schools generally don't care how many times you take the GMAT, so you should not worry about that.

Before you put together a plan to study again, I'd like to know a bit more about how you prepared before:

1) How long did you spend studying before each of your Official GMATs?
2) What materials did you use?
3) What were the Score breakdowns on your GMATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores)?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Hi ram186,

Even though your Verbal Scaled Score dropped (and by extension, your Overall Score), your performance on these 2 GMATs is consistent enough to imply that you performed in essentially the same way on both Tests. The drop in Verbal means that you're either "narrowing it down to 2 and 'guessing'" way too often or/and you have a pacing problem in the Verbal section.

To score 700+, you're going to have to make some significant changes to your approach. Studying for the GMAT is like having a part-time job - it will take up a certain "chunk" of your free time each week and you have to plan your GMAT studies accordingly (and put them into your schedule). Many Test Takers who focus on a book-heavy study plan usually get stuck at a particular scoring level, so you'll likely need to invest in some new computer-based resources to help you take your score to the next level.

When are you planning to apply to Business School?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Hi RAM,

With an early May Test Date, you have plenty of time to continue studying, which is good. DS questions are unique to the GMAT and many Test Takers find them challenging since they're unlike any "math questions" that they've ever had to deal with before. In most cases, these questions are less about "math skills" and more about other skills (organization, accuracy, attention-to-detail, thoroughness, pattern-matching etc.). Once you learn the necessary tactics, you'll find most DS questions to be straight-forward enough to handle.

To that end, there are any number of resources that can help you improve on DS questions. We offer a free trial account (on the main page at www.empowergmat.com) that includes some DS-specific material that I think will help you to "see" (and respond to) DS questions differently (and pick up those missing points!).

As far as your self-diagnosis about needing SC is concerned, it's good that you've identified this "weak spot", so you can put in some extra time and effort to improve. However, the V24 you scored on your last GMAT means that you have problems throughout the Verbal section (including RC and CR) and possibly with your Verbal pacing. To score 700+, you'll need to improve in all 3 areas.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

ram186 wrote:My main problem is pacing.I need practice for that.

When it comes to time management, I suggest that you use the following Milestone Charts to keep you on track:

These times are easily remembered, so you can quickly jot them on your noteboard on test day.

This (and more) is covered in our free GMAT time management video at https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gener ... es?id=1244

Cheers,
Brent

Hi RAM,

Pacing problems don't exist on their own - they're the result of OTHER problems. The approaches that you currently use take too long to implement, so it's possible that....

1) You might not have practiced these approaches enough, so you're still using them slowly. More practice might be exactly what you need.
2) "Your way" of doing things might be the "long way", so you need to practice different, faster tactics to get to the correct answer.
3) You aren't "active" enough in how you approach the work.

The likely answer is that it's a combination of factors (including some things that I didn't list here). Since you admit that you didn't study much and that the studying you did was 'irregular', more practice is definitely a must. However, using your GMAT scores as reference, "your way" of doing things doesn't get you the points that you need to score 700+. Unless you're learning (and practicing) some new tactics while working through those question banks, your results won't necessarily improve.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich