GMAT Strategy

I am looking at T-6 days before deadline now.

While I lost about 3 weeks of studying recently due to work, business trips, a cold, and general mayhem at home, I am going ahead with my planned test date of June 7th at 8:00AM. (this decision was only partially related to the fact that there are no reschedule dates available at my testing site for at least a month without trying to take off work).

I just completed GMATPrep2 and it seems to correspond to how I feel that I am ready for the test (a big 760, with a couple of questions that could have gone either way).

So far, my practice tests are:

GMATPrep1 - 710 (48Q, 40V) 2/24/08
GMATPrep1 (2) - 710 (44VQ, 42V) - 3/8/08
MGMAT1 - 740 (47Q, 45V) 4/12/08
Kaplan1 - 600 (37Q, 36V) 5/4/08 - bad test all around. ran out of time in everything, even in verbal (that I have never otherwise had time problems in).
MGMAT2 - 700 (44Q, 41V) 5/10/08
GMATPrep2 - 760 (50Q, 44V) 6/1/08

The last couple weeks of studying have been real and I think that the advancements in my score will stick with me.

Some interesting observations from my last GMATPrep -
Quant -
1) I am terrified on time management in Quant. As a capable engineer, I could solve every question, but even on some of the 'easier' ones, I am a little too systematic and take time. I am doing everything possible to break free. This one I actually had the full 2:30 minutes I wanted for the last problem, unlike some other tests I have taken so far.
2) I missed 7 questions, six of which were data sufficiency. Not sure what I can learn from that, but I get caught in a lot of the tricks.
3) I missed question 21 early on, and then after that all my misses were in a row between 29-34. I actually thought I was getting these right, but huge bad streak at the end, even with the time. Overall, I still got a 50, which as you can see was my best score.
4) I was very disappointed to see at least 4 problems on this test that I have seen on this forum. I say this because I knowingly avoid any questions that said they were from GMATPrep2, as I didn't want to influence my score. However, I knew that I had solved these four on this forum without knowing their source. I still did the work, but I had a good idea of the right answer. I hope these didn't prop up my verbal score too badly (and now I can't remember if I would have gotten them right or wrong originally).


Verbal -
1) I actually am pretty good at the verbal section. In this case, I only missed 5 questions, mixed in throughout the section (although more in the middle where I got 1 right, 1 wrong, 1 right, 1 wrong, and then all right up to the end). Probably honing in at some level at this point.
2) As I have seen before, I missed no Critical Reasoning.
3) I did miss 2 Reading Comprehension questions. I vascillated back and forth between the right answer and the wrong one that I chose. Not sure what I could learn from these mistakes though.
4) Missed 3 sentence correction. This was the one portion that I studied like crazy (thank you Manhattan GMAT SC Guide). I know most of the GMAT errors and rules pretty well. Even these three were some less common error types (or actually correct sentences) that I am not sure how much will I learn from them, other than to not reject sentences so easily, as 2 of the 3 were correct.

Focusing my time now until next week is:
1) Timing on the Quant section. I still see this as one of the greatest risks come test day.
2) Reviewing notes on sentence correction - make sure I know all those rules inside and out
3) More Quant (and Data Sufficiency specifically) practice and review those notes.
4) Relax and be ready for next Saturday

I may have done well in quant today, but I still feel like that is where I could fail in the end. And I have come to trust myself pretty well in Verbal that I feel the score will be good.

If I can review my notes (thank you Eric for your note cards - I used all the books up to now - but review time is much easier with your work), I think I can enter Saturday's test in a pretty good state.

Now I have to keep me from psyching myself out. I think the score I want is there, I just need to not screw it up.

Thanks everyone! I will be on all this week to keep my mind up.



Long post, I know.. just rambling after putting all my mind into that test : )

looking at your prep test scores, you'll do just fine on the real one as long as you're not a really bad test taker (nerves, etc)

don't worry so much about the quant section, the questions are meant to get harder and harder/trickier and tricker until its impossible for you to solve all of them correctly within the 2 min per question construct.
Getting a 50 on the quant is about as good as you can get, even if you get a 51 your actual score won't change much, maybe from a 760 to a 770, which won't make ANY difference to any bschools as far as I can tell.
I may suggest taking the GMATprep test 1 quant section again just to see what you get (skip the verbal if you'd like). If you get ~48+ raw, then be confident that you'll likely get between a 48-51 on quant.

Your verbal looks consistently fine, so you'll likely get a 42-44

meaning... my prediction for your GMAT score is between a 740-770

reviews some concepts this week to keep them refresh on your mind and you'll be fine, gl!

I'm at T-4 days before deadline...similar boat as you!

I'm an engineer and don't really have a problem with the underlying principles of the quant section. I get stuck on problems I know I can solve but don't necessarily remember the trick to solving it quickly. Most of my problems are stupid mistakes from overconfidence of being familiar with math.

I'm lucky because I have the week off and a test time of 12:15pm.

Anyway, this is my plan for the last week. OG tomorrow (starting from last questions going backwards)/ review SC, reinstall GMATPrep and take Test 1 on wed, review SC and problems I missed on Thursday.

Here is my test progression:
680: GMATprep 1 (49/36) 4/26/08
670: Kaplan Paper (48/40) 5/02/08
640: Kaplan Online (42/39) 5/09/08
700: MGMAT CAT 1 (46/39) 5/14/08
700: MGMAT CAT 2 (48/37) 5/18/08
710: GMATprep 2 (47/44) 5/24/08
680: MGMAT CAT 3 (46/36) 6/02/08

So, my math has generally slipped which is kinda stupid and sucks. I can really do better. My verbal has generally improved and I'm more confident...but it is also really spotty.

I figure I'll be able to pull at least a 680 on the test but I'm really hoping for 700+. Hopefully with these days off to relax and prepare I'll be able to put myself in the zone to really make it happen.

Specific things for me to focus on: combinations and sentance correction

GOOD LUCK!!!

Hi Zachary,

Best wishes to you! It's possible that your math slipped if you have been spending more time recently focusing on verbal, but overconfidence is also certainly a possibility. Perhaps it may be a good idea to focus on very challenging math problems to help humble yourself. ; ) It will also be necessary to be familiar with these types of problems to score the 700+ that you'd like.

SC trips up a lot of people. The best recommendation I can give is to understand what the mistake is in each sentence, even if you got the answer right. If you rely too much on the "it just sounds right" strategy, you risk psyching yourself out in the test as you won't have a concrete way to convince yourself of the right answer.

Good luck,

Tatiana

Thanks, guys. Trying to keep my nerves while staying real. I like your suggestion, Tatiana. Going to try to keep my expectations real on the quant by really challenging myself.

Good luck, Saber - I hope to hear good news from you first!

T-2 Update!!!

I took GMATprep 1 again today. I saw a couple of repeat problems but since it had been so long they were mostly new.

770: GMATprep 1 (51/42) (06/04/08)

This is a really nice boost to my confidence. Especially since I maintain focus during the test by assuming that I'm failing =p It helps me to not care if I got the last problem wrong.

Anyway, I'm also not letting this get to my head. I plan to do some more OG tonight and tomorrow. tomorrow will be mostly review of incorrect answers and notes I've taken in the OG. Otherwise just relaxing.

It's the final stretch!

Today's your day, saber.... Good Luck!

Keep calm and let us know how it went.

Hey man, thanks for remembering and the well wishes.

I, in fact, did not keep calm but it still went just fine!

720 Q49 V38
.95 .89 .84

Things I did right: Pacing was good on both sections.

Problem with the verbal: being worse than my math, coming at the end, and not being able to get a good handle on nerves really killed my score. In addition, I think I had a bad day. Finally, I think I took the day before TOO easy and didn't review enough SC stuff.

Annnnyway, the score is still fantastic and I'm happy with it. It was what I was targeting from the beginning anyway. It is also more than enough to be competitive at the top schools.

Good luck zachary!!!!!!

Done and done.. moving some comments over to the "I JUST BEAT THE GMAT" section... but here is a preview as prepare to write a debrief -

760 - 99 %
Q50/V42 (95%,95%)

!!!! Thanks guys!