GMAT Strategy

Hi guys,

two weeks ago two universities offered to extend their deadlines for me to retake the GMAT, so I thought even though theres not much time for improvement, lets do this! Id regret it if I didnt try. So the day after tomorrow is the big day.
I already took the GMAT back in December, scored 530, big disappointment, need to crack the 600 to be considered for admission. Last time I only had about 6 weeks to prepare, 2 hours weekdays, a couple of hours weekends.
I did feel that these last 2 weeks of preparation have improved my confidence and quant section, which was/is definitely my weakness. Timing is still a problem though, and I guess one of my biggest. I took the free Kaplan prep test and scored 590. Is that representative?

Anyhow my question is now, what could I do tonight that would still have an effect? I realize theres not much to do anymore by now, but maybe you have some useful tips that can improve anything within 3 hours tonight .
Tomorrow is my last day before the test and I plan to do nothing and relax. Unfortunately I need to get up at 5 already on wednesday to go to berlin for the test, hope ill still be rested.

Let me know if you got any ideas for my last prep hours! Thank you!

Lina

(1) The biggest thing you can do to improve on the GMAT is ... take an official GMAT. Congrats, you have already done this. I would expect a score bump simply from having more experience.

(2) Also, remember that there is a natural variability in scores. Simply giving it another go gives you an additional opportunity to score at the higher end of your potential. Already another win without doing anything.

(3) What to *NOT do in the mean time: try to learn new and challenging material. You are where you are, you aren't going to change that in the next day.

(4) But, what you can do is improve the way you deploy what you *DO know already. Review old questions that you have already answered. This exercise should be more relaxing than fresh problems allowing you to do more work without emotionally exhausting yourself. What strategies are you already doing that you could codify more formally?

(5) How is your timing? Setting a new timing policy is something that can really help your score. It takes about a week to really set a new timing policy because a practice test is needed. But, I can confidently say that if you are spending more than 5 minutes on any problem, it could safely be skipped yielding a score improvement. I would implement this policy the following way. If you cross the 2-minute mark on any one problem, ask yourself this: Do I know exactly how I'm going to get to the answer of this problem? If there answer isn't a clear, resounding YES, then you should be taking an educated guess in the next 10 seconds.

Enjoy,