470 to 700+ - possible in 2 weeks?

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470 to 700+ - possible in 2 weeks?

by KAS1 » Mon Feb 27, 2012 11:04 am
I have been studying for 2 months about 2 hours a day and maybe 5-6 hours on weekends. I took a Kaplan practice test and 2 GMAT exams that I downloaded off mba.com.

Scores:
Kaplan - 470
GMAT Practice - 470 (Q - 7 questions unanswered; V - about 3)
GMAT Practice2 - 430 (Q - 3 questions unanswered; V - about 10)

I have noticed that timing is HUGE issue for me. For the GMAT practice tests, when I noticed that I had only a few minutes left to do the last few problems, I started guessing just to finish the exam. I didn't even get a chance to guess on the last 2-3 questions because the test just ended. And as you all can guess, all of those questions were all wrong.

My exam is scheduled for March 10th. Could you please share some strategies as to how I can raise my score? I've read some phenomenal stories on the forum where people with 470 on practice exams have scored over 700, so I am hoping I can do the same.

Thanks!
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by VivianKerr » Mon Feb 27, 2012 11:09 am
Hi Kas1,

I don't want to discourage you, but with so many unanswered questions, you're just not going to be able to break 700 by March 10th.

I think if you can work on your pacing and comfortably finish each section, you're probably at best going to make it to 500-550. I suspect your challenge with pacing is that you don't know the content as well as you think you do, so you're having a hard time moving quickly through the Q's since you're not super-confident in your approach.

If you really want to break 700, I'd consider pushing back your exam date to April, or think of the March 10th date as a practice run.
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by KAS1 » Mon Feb 27, 2012 2:31 pm
Thanks for your response, VivianKerr.

What do you think is the best way to study in this case - without thinking about the final score at all? I've always been taught that practice makes perfect, so I guess I should continue doing all the problems in the OG, right?

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by IWillSurvive » Tue Mar 13, 2012 2:04 pm
Hi Vivian,

Do you think it is possible for someone to go from a 530 to a 700 in three months?

I have a severe issue with test anxiety, and I usually do a great deal better on some practice CATs. However, my Quant is still very rough.

I wanted to contact you about tutoring. Do you work with people on strategy and study plan formation, as well as pacing?

Please let me know. I tried to send you a private message, but messages keep getting hung up in my inbox. Apologies all around. Thanks.

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by JanM » Wed Mar 14, 2012 7:15 am
Hello KAS1,
Like Vivian said: I do not think this will be possible to accomplish in this short ammount of time.

To tell you how you should move further on you should analyse you situation. Do you know how to answer all the questions when you have all the timne that you want? If yes its a good sign because you now how to solve the question and you just need to get up to speed. From hat I heard in you post you seem to have a time managment problem. If you can see yourselve in the situation described above: yes, practice makes perfect. You should try to solve as many questions as possible and start timing yourself all the time. With this you will get a feeling of how long you need to solve specific question types. Try making practice test while timing yourself and so on. With this approach you will learn how to tackle certain questions and raise your score significantly.

hope it helps a bit

Jan