GMAT Strategy

Hi sgraves,

How have you scored on your last few CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores)? And on what dates did you take each of those CATs?

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

Hi sgraves,

Even though there are some fluctuations in the individual Scaled Scores, they're close enough to one another (right around Q35/V27), that you're performing in the same general ways right now as you were two months ago (+/- a few correct answers to specific questions). Since these performances are relatively similar, we really have to take a good look at WHY you're getting questions wrong (since it's almost certainly not because of content knowledge).

After reviewing this CAT, how many questions did you get wrong....
1) Because of a silly/little mistake?
2) Because there was some math/verbal that you just didn't know how to do?
3) Because the question was too hard?
4) Because you narrowed the question down to 2 choices, then 'guessed' wrong?

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

Hi sgraves,

Those 7 silly mistakes are significant and might be enough on their own to get you to 650 (remember, there are only 78 questions in total between the Quant and Verbal sections). As such, working to eliminate the little mistakes should be a priority right now. Most little mistakes occur because you didn't take enough notes (or organized notes). You can get every hard question wrong and still score 650+, BUT you really have to nail the 'gettable' questions. This is an issue that likely needs to be 'drilled' out of you. I suggest that you redo EVERY question that you get wrong because of a little mistake. Don't just look them - redo each one, step-by-step, on the pad. Do NOTHING in your head. Demand 'precision' of yourself and your work. In the Verbal section, narrowing down the answer choices, but still getting the question wrong, means that you ALMOST got the question correct but you missed something. You should make a physical list of the little things that make the correct answer right and the incorrect answer wrong - those details could show up again on Test Day.

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

sgraves wrote:I'm seeking some advice. My test date is coming up soon (June 4th) and Im not ready so I'm going to change my test date. My goal is a 650+ and my last CAT was a 540. I'm trying to figure out how far I should push my test date from. Should it be sometime in August?

There's a danger of giving yourself either too much time, which might cause you to procrastinate your studies, or giving yourself insufficient time. For a 100-point increase, I suggest you give yourself at least another 50 - 100 hours of study time.

Also, if silly mistakes are hurting your score, then it's important that you identify and categorize these mistakes so that, during tests, you can easily spot situations in which you're prone to making errors. I write about this and other strategies in the following article: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/articles/avo ... teaks-gmat

Cheers,
Brent