GMAT Strategy

I have been struggling with this test for over a year and have taken multiple practice tests, but cannot seem to break through to the 600's. After sitting down with Anderson and Kellogg, they expressed that the only missing component in my application is the GMAT score as I have 12 years of work experience, am an entrepreneur, work and am heavily involved in non-profits, and am the first in my family to go to college.

I need to figure out my next steps in this process and the GMAT is the only thing holding me back. Can anyone provide some insight as to when it is a good time to seek out a personal tutor? To prepare I have tried:

* Self study
* Test prep course
* Algebra courses at the local community college
My scores have been:

550 (V37) (Q29)
490 (V28) (Q29)
490 (V33) (Q25)

My actual test is scheduled for October 24th.

Hi Alex.

With that relatively high, and increasing, verbal score, you have a platform for scoring rather high on the GMAT overall. Also, if you can see what you have to see in order to score that high on verbal, you have the perceptive skills necessary for totally destroying quant.

So ideally you would get your verbal score to 40+, and you would get your quant score to increase significantly.

Getting a quant score to increase basically takes developing better understanding of the workings of questions in areas in which you are less strong and generally becoming more agile in the way you see and answer the questions. So you could probably increase your quant score by working category by category, becoming expert at getting answers in each category before moving onto the next.

One great source of categorized quant questions is the question bank here, https://bellcurves.com, which you can access by setting up a Free Practice Account.

Another way to work on quant category by category is to use Target Test Prep.

At the same time, I think that another set of eyes, expert eyes, could help you to assess what you have going on and what you need to do in order to increase your score. That's what tutors and coaches do. So maybe hiring someone to help you to get the work done would make sense.

Just to be clear though, given your fairly extensive preparation to date, I doubt that hiring a math focused GMAT tutor is the way to go. You have gone over the math. Some GMAT quant tutors have never taken the GMAT, as a matter of fact, and while someone like them could help you learn how to handle the math, I think you probably would be better off working with someone who understands all the aspects of the GMAT and how to make one's score increase.

By the way, working with a tutor or coach does not, necessarily, have to be a major undertaking. Even a few sessions can bring to light things that you can do to turbocharge your score. I am not saying things would necessarily go that way. I am more saying that you can use a tutor or GMAT performance coach in increments, and see what comes of working that way. While many people do use many hours of coaching, in my experience, even just two to six hours of working with a pro will generally significantly change what a person has going on. So there's another angle to consider.