I have worked with several students who have been granted extended time do to a diagnosis of ADD/ ADHD. I do not know you whole situation but I do know that these students generally went through a pretty rigorous process to get the extended time. We are talking at least a couple of months in a couple of cases it took calling GMAC everyday for weeks to finally get the extended time approved. Also, these were students who had been granted accommodations as far back as the SAT and were granted extra time by their colleges as well.

This is certainly not to discourage you from applying for the extra time. It is only to let you know that the process is generally not easy and will almost certainly not be completed by 32 days from now. Of course different circumstances mean different results and perhaps you will have extended time approved very quickly.

What I am saying, and what I have said to all of my students who have had approvals pending, is to study as if you will not get the extended time. If you do have the time granted then you will suddenly have anywhere from 37 minutes or more per section. So that will be a sudden gift, whereas if you plan on the extra time and do not get it it will be a big let down.

So study with the idea that you will have the normal time limits of 75 minutes.

With that said, the difference between a 480 and 590 is a matter of a getting a few additional questions right in each section. You have already pointed out some things that you will do differently and those should help!

Next let me address how you can improve your score relative to problems with attention. This is for anyone with any level of distractedness - which is just about everyone these days.

Two recent articles that I have appeared on Beat the GMAT are to the point in terms of attention and timing. They are "stop multitasking now" link https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/02/ ... asking-now and "why federer would beat nadal on the gmat" link https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/01/ ... n-the-gmat

Let me say that I believe that the same strategies that work for people with attention issues are the same strategies that will work for most people. For example in reading comprehension the simple strategy of stopping at the end of each paragraph to refocus yourself and integrate what you have read, rather than pushing straight through or - worst of all skimming - has helped thousands of people on the GMAT achieve better reading comprehension scores, perhaps especially people who tend to get distracted.

Even more important is this, everyone should have a standard procedure to start each problem. The more likely you are to get distracted the more important this is. Do you know what your first steps are for every major problem type (CR, RC, SC, DS, PS)? If you first 30 to 45 seconds on each problem are automatic then you are less likely to get hung up. Also, your procedures should be ones that allow you to refocus if you need to in the middle of a problem.

Take Data Sufficiency, now here is the perfect opportunity to get hung up and either take way too long on a problem or get confused. An effective methodology that you repeat every time is crucial to accuracy and efficiency. I recommend that you begin each problem by identifying whether it is a yes/no question or a specific number question and write a symbol for that on your note board. Next write down the question that you are attempting to answer. These two simple steps will make it so that you are not relying on your memory to keep these things front and center for 3 minutes. Next write down any facts in the question stem, such as "x is an integer" or "xy > 0." Again, by taking a few seconds to write down these facts you are in a position to refocus is when working the question you get a little turned around. Also have some way of keeping track of the whether or not each statement is suff. or not sufficient. I write a little "S" or "NS" next to the statement on my note board. All of these things are designed to keep you focused and allow you to refocus.

I hope it helps you to think of things this way.

Wow, thank you so much for your help. I'm going to seriously be focusing on the GMAT. I have finals for my last semester coming up, and honestly my grades are fine. I just need to get into Grad School. I think my main priority is going to be the GMAT.

Thanks for your help. Seriously, I needed that encouragement. I'm going to take the test without accommodations, primarily because It'll take longer then I thought.

i just got my AWA essay grade back, I received a 5.5/6.

Seriously based on my Quant and Verbal, I don't know how easy it is to get a 5.5/6 so I'm not too excited about that. Now I also heard that the essay doesn't mean anything.

5.5/ 6/0 is a very good score on the AWA. It does not mean as much of course as the other scores but it is a sign that you can focus in that test environment.

The latest score chart in the GMAT Official Quant Review puts a 5.5 at the 80% percentile so that is not easy to achieve.

Have you been able to study much since your last post?

thanks, it gives me a little brink of hope.

and no not at all, i haven't been able to study for GMATs. I'm starting officially tomorrow morning, Its hard to juggle everything since its my last semester and I have about 4 finals this upcoming week. =\

DELETE PLEASE

Did you get the time extension? I had no clue that there was a time extension allowed on the GMAT.

Anyways, achieving a higher score on the GMAT isn't literally where you put in X amount of hours and you'll get a Y score; you need to learn the concepts and master the content correctly. Gaining 100 points on the GMAT isn't impossible, but it definitely takes more than a month.

For me personally I started @500 in my very first diagnostic test, and it took me around 3 months to get to an official GMAT score of 660. I then "studied"(read: did gmat all the time in my spare time learning a ton of stupid crap, all of which was probably counter-productive) for another 3 months and took the test again; my score dropped to 640 (Goal was 760....my head is in the clouds!). After that I realized I must have been doing something wrong and looked into taking a class and/or private tutoring, and I ended up doing both. From the class and private tutoring I've definitely had to relearn a lot of my techniques in terms of SC and Quant.

In short, it's possible, don't get down; you just need to make sure you're studying in an efficient and smart way. Another set of eyes definitely helps, whether that's a fellow student or private tutor. Study smarter, not harder! Don't make the mistake I did of doing GMAT all the time; you'll get burnt out. Good luck, you still have plenty of time before apps!!

no sir, no time extension. I didnt even bother applying for it since it was within a month. I didnt think I would get it in time. But when I take it again, Ill definately get the time extension and prepare the documentation ahead of time.