GMAT Strategy

So, I have two more days of studying before my Monday morning 8am exam. I'm really hoping to score 720+, but will be satisfied with anything over 700. I feel like I still have so much more I could improve upon, but this thing has consumed enough of my life for the past few months that I just need to be done with it.

My strategy this week has been to review OG11 and OG Quant problems for the most part. I took two MGMAT exams last weekend, which left 4 more to take this weekend. I took #4 yesterday and #5 today. Here are my score breakouts:

MGMAT#2: 700 (Q43, V41)
MGMAT#3: 730 (Q45, V45)
MGMAT#4: 710 (Q44, V43)
MGMAT#5: 700 (Q47, V39)

I was definitely feeling a bit burned out during my exam today and found it hard to concentrate, especially on the Verbal section. And the Quant, I have no idea how I scored so much higher today than the other days. I felt like the problems were generally easier, and, upon reviewing my question breakdown, I got very few 700-800 questions throughout the test.

Hopefully, it will hold true for me that I can score approximately 30 to 40 points higher on the real exam due to the challenging problems presented in the MGMAT series. A lot of other folks have said that, but I have come across a few people that have scored lower on their real exams than their MGMAT tests.

The last time I took GMAT Prep 1, I scored a 700 (Q47, V40) and I plan to take GMAT Prep #2 on Sunday morning. Hopefully, my score will be reflective of my improvements over the past several weeks.

I'll be sure to update everyone with a full recap within a couple days of finishing my real exam. Until then, any last minute tips or pointers would be greatly appreciated!

I suggest not to take any more MGMAT tests rather take the GMATPrep test a couple of times.

Hi Chipjet,

If you're testing on Monday, I really think you need to stay away from full length tests this weekend. It sounds like they are already burning you out, and I think further ones will just exacerbate that effect. Too often, practice tests right before the actual one burn you out, mess with your confidence (either make you over or under confident), and make you go through the actual test more like a zombie than an alert, on-your-toes test taker.

For the weekend before the test, you should spend the majority of your time relaxing. Not sure how the weather is where you live, but get outside and get some exercise (relieves stress, gets your blood flowing... helps me be able to concentrate better). Then, cook yourself a good dinner or take yourself out to your favorite restaurant. I've seen too many people get mentally cruel to themselves around test time, and it seems to have only negative results. At the risk of sounding cheesy, you really need to be good to yourself and keep up your self esteem. You need to get in the frame of mind that no matter what happens on the test, you're still an awesome person who is going to be very successful with whatever you do.

Spend just 2-3 hours a day tops reviewing strategies and looking over the answers to some problems that stumped you earlier.

Take it easy... don't over stress... don't psyche yourself out... and take good care of yourself mentally and physically.

Tatiana

I have been fixing my schedule of sleep cycles except on saturday. I am getting up super early and making my mind get into that mood specific to my hours. I finally am getting some improvements on my exams but it comes down to chilling out so i can see the problem in front of me. I do notice that I am getting nervous and worrying about the exam day. Need to fix that. Great thread folks.

Netigen - I took your advice today and did the GMAT Prep 2 and scored a 760 (Q-49, V-44)!

I'm just going to review some concepts tomorrow and relax.

very nice score. I am wondering what I should do? Should i take a gmat prep exam or an mgmat exam? ALso what are the benefits. I think the gmat prep exam will set me up better to get ready for the language spoken in the real thing.