GMAT Strategy

I understand that the GMAT is a test of reasoning and critical thinking skills, applied in both the verbal and math areas. I've been studying for the last few months quite diligently, starting from the fundamentals and managed to raise my score from a starting point of 540 to 670. The verbal is my strong suite, consistently scoring in the 90's percentile. The quant section is my weak point. My range in quant has been 32 to 42 so far. I have been working to improve my accuracy level by level - I'm at the point where 300-500 and 500-600 questions are no problem, but at the 600-700 is where I start to fall apart and answer approximately half of them correctly.

I've been spending time analyzing why I'm unable to arrive at the correct answer on my own at that level and beyond. (Reading these forums has helped a lot!) I don't feel that its always an issue of not understanding the logic, because after I read the explanations I understand the reasoning most of the time. Even for 700-800 level questions, I can understand (and sometimes answer correctly!) the logic. I know that at the higher levels, rote memorization is not going to be the only tool to help you - it is understanding the problem and figuring out which strategy to apply to solve it. Sometimes its been my own fault of reading too quickly and misunderstanding what the question asks, other times it is a careless miscalculation. But I've noticed a pattern with myself, which is that often times, I simply fail to understand what the question is asking for, and thus, don't know which strategy to use.

When I don't understand what the question is asking of me (word translations give me a lot of trouble, go figure!), I flounder to find a strategy and waste time in figuring out what to do to solve the problem. I feel as if I am a bloodhound in search of the right scent and for the harder questions, I am just sniffing without any clue as to where to even start. Once you set me on the right path though, I can arrive at the answer.

My question to the 700-level scorers is this: is there a way to intuitively grasp the math concepts presented in the question quickly? The same way I grasp verbal reasoning instinctively, I want to apply that to my quantitative reasoning as well. One strategy presented in the MGMAT Advanced Quant guide that helped a bit is noticing key words in the question stem. If I see words like "averages" or "median" I know that Statistics will probably apply. If I see "how many," it's most likely some sort of combinatorics problem. But I still am nowhere near the rate of a 700-level quant scorer who can grasp all the different concepts in a problem. When you see a problem, especially a difficult one that might be a hybrid of various mathematical concepts, how do you know which strategy to apply?

I intend to keep practicing and reading up on math concepts, as I've been doing so far, but just wanted to know if there was a quicker way to understand all of this. Any tips would be helpful, thanks!

Neither am an expert nor took GMAT, so take my advice at your own risk

* Confidence plays a major role in math section. How you are approaching the question etc. Some people call it active test taking.
* I don't think it is a good idea to recognize the question type by looking at the keywords. I don't think GMAT questions work that way. When you read a question, note down exactly what is asked, what is already given, and what is required to find out what is asked. Don't be in a rush to solve the question. Analyze the question a bit before start solving to find out the LOGIC behind the question. I saw too many question in the GMAT prep that can stump the test taker, if he or she rushes to answer the question. One such example is an isosceles triangle question. And most importantly just before answering, make sure you are answering what is ASKED.

All the best.

Thanks, I do think you are right and that it might be hard to generalize a question by putting it into a question type bucket. I've noticed that with verbal, I note very small details in the wording and am very specific when choosing an answer that will fit exactly what the statement is requesting. I need to apply the same to the quant, it seems. Perhaps I really just need a lot more practice and more memorization of concepts and fundamentals.

The biggest recommendation I can offer is to focus on what you do know. Often people focus on the thing that is confusing them in harder problems and that blocks them from seeing the strategy necessary. Instead take a step back and look at the concepts you do understand and build from there. As you get to the more difficult problems the test combines several concepts whose relationship is not so obvious or they ask a concept in an unfamiliar way. if you can find something that you know then the next step is to focus on what the GMAT tests and how that could be used on the current problem.