GMAT Strategy

Received a PM asking me to respond. Good advice already, above.

First, really great job - you showed fantastic improvement already. I know you want more, but I also want to congratulate you for what you've already accomplished!

Re: your test scores, your MGMAT scores would definitely have been inflated if you were seeing repeated questions because the tests were reset. So we do have to discount those. GMATPrep is the best indicator, in any event, and it was fairly close to your official test score. The quant stayed the same but the verbal dropped a bit.

Did you do the essays on your practice tests? If not (or not often), then you may not have been fully prepared, stamina-wise, for the full length of the test, which can cause your verbal score to drop a little (since verbal's the last section). Alternatively, did you take practice tests very close to the real thing? When you take tests too closely together (and less than a week is too close), you risk burning yourself out, which can also cause your score to drop, especially in the last section (verbal!).

Also, Dana's right about the tests - you're taking too many and you're taking them too frequently. You don't learn much while in the act of taking tests or doing practice problems - you're just doing. You learn by reviewing and analyzing your work.

It will be challenging to improve by 70 points in only a month. I'm not saying it can't be done, but that would be more than typical. You should still go for it, but you may have to make a decision at some point to either (a) postpone your test, or (b) lower your goal. Just be aware of that possibility.

Take a look at the article I just posted today (if you check today, it'll be on the home page of BTG). It's called "Evaluating Your Practice Tests" and it's about, well, how to analyze your tests. (It's actually the first half of a two-part article, but it will get you going - then check back next week for the second half.) This will help you to figure out where, exactly, you need to be spending your time, and what to do (again, part of this will come in next week's article).

You can still take both GMATPrep and MGMAT CATs with repeats as long as you follow a few guidelines to minimize the chance of artificially inflating your score via question repeats. First, anytime you see a problem that you remember (and this means: I know the answer or I'm pretty sure I remember the answer, not just "hmm, this looks familiar..."), immediately look at the timer and make yourself sit there for the full length of time for that question type. This way, you don't artificially give yourself more time than you should have. Second, think about whether you got this problem right the last time. If you did, get it right again this time. If you didn't, get it wrong again. If you *completely honestly* think that you would get it right this time around if it were a new question (even though you got it wrong last time) because you've studied that area and improved, then get it right this time.

By the way, I totally agree with Dana that nothing is better than the official questions. And if you aren't yet scoring where you want to be, then you aren't done with the official questions - even if you've done them and know the answers and etc. You're not done unless / until you can answer these questions for EVERY problem (even the ones you get right):

Was I able to CATEGORIZE this question by topic and subtopic? By process / technique?
Did I make a CONNECTION to previous experience? Or did I have to do it all from scratch?
Did I COMPREHEND the symbols, text, questions, statements, and answer choices?
Did I understand the CONTENT being tested?
Did I choose the best APPROACH?
Did I have the SKILLS to follow through?
Am I comfortable with OTHER STRATEGIES that would have worked, at least partially? How should I have made an educated guess?
Do I understand every TRAP & TRICK that the writer built into the question, including wrong answers?
Have I MASTERED this problem? Could I explain every aspect, fully, to someone else?
How will I RECOGNIZE similar problems in the future?

Also, be careful about how you choose the problems you're reviewing. You said you're doing the "all of the hard" problems from OG10. What do you mean by "hard"? If you mean, "I'm not doing the first 30 or 40 problems because they're too easy," that's fine. If you mean, "I'm only doing the last 30 or 40 - the hardest problems in the book," then that's not fine. You actually have to lift yourself to that point. Learning how to do 700+ questions doesn't help if you are getting too many sub-700 level questions wrong - you'll never even see the 700+ questions on the real test!