GMAT Strategy

Received a PM asking me to respond.

Good advice from Jim above, already. Agree with him that there's no reason you can't improve if you put the work on... you just have to put the work in.

The first thing I would do if I were you is take a practice CAT. As Jim said, you won't get any data about your strengths and weaknesses from the real test, so you've got to find out some other way. Don't use GMATPrep for this purpose - it doesn't give you any data about your strengths and weaknesses. Because you just bought some of our books, you actually now have access to our CAT exams. As soon as you get the books, create an account on our web site and enter the codes; that will give you access to the tests (as well as some other material). Then, just set aside 4 hours in your schedule and take a test!

Mimic the real test as much as possible, so that your results are as close to the real thing as possible. (So, do the essays, take two 10-min breaks, etc.) Then run the assessment reports and use the data to set up a study plan. Don't forget to pay attention to timing and difficulty level, not just what you got right or wrong. For instance, if you got something wrong but it was a 700+ question, that's not such a problem. If you got something right but took 3.5min to do so, that is a problem.

On the verbal side, you may need something more than just SC, but wait and see how you do on the practice test. It is the case that CR is fairly significantly different on the LSAT. The RC passages tend to be somewhat easier, in my opinion, on the GMAT because they know we're reading on a screen (which is harder when reading than a paper-based test such as the LSAT), but it really depends upon the passages you get. I've seen some science ones on the GMAT that are pretty dense.

Also, the first 10 questions are not any more important than the last 10 questions - that's a myth. It is true that the "swings" in difficulty level can be higher earlier in the test, but there are also significant penalties for running out of time at the end of the test and either leaving questions blank or having a string of wrong answers in a row. It's not a big deal if you run out of time and have to guess on one or two questions, but if you have to rush and/or guess on more than 3 questions, you're most likely losing more points at the end than you gained in the beginning. (Even when just rushing - that increases the chances of making a careless mistake. And when do you feel most pressured to rush besides the end of the test? When you think the question is "easy" so you feel you can save a little time on it. But it's more detrimental to your score to get an easier question wrong than a harder one!)

On verbal, I agree with Jim - just want to emphasize. If you're moving through that quickly, then you are leaving points on the table due to careless mistakes caused by speed. This is your strength! Don't leave any points on the table.

Anyway, because you said you didn't prep much, you're in a pretty good position. You're already pretty close to your goal score. Now it's just a matter of figuring out where you're falling short (use the practice test to gauge that) and doing the work to shore up those weaker areas! Good luck - let us know how it goes.

Jim's right. Also, it's not a good idea to take "a long time to finish exceptionally tough questions and then compensate by blowing through the easy questions in 30 seconds or so."

First, the questions are designed to be done in 2 min - maybe 2.5 on the outside. Someone knows how to do the question in that amount of time, even if you don't. So if you take 4 or 5 min to do a question, what that's mostly indicating is just that you don't really know how to do that problem. And studies have been done showing that the longer we go over about 2m40sec, the more our odds of getting it wrong increase.

Second, you're not going to get that many 30-sec questions (assuming you're doing as well as you can!). If you're doing well, you're going to feel pressed on almost every question.

Third, if you do something in 30 sec, you vastly increase your chances of making a careless mistake. It is far worse to your score to get an easier question wrong than a harder one. In fact, get enough of those easier ones wrong and you won't even get the harder ones in the first place.

Let's say you're going for a 700. The test gives you a 710 level question and you get it wrong. Will that prevent you from scoring a 700? No. Same deal if it's only a 680 question - as long as you don't get all of the questions in the 650-700 range wrong, it's okay to get a few wrong and still get that 700.

But let's say the test gives you a 600 level question and you get it wrong. One question wrong won't prevent you from scoring a 700, but if you get a few of these wrong because you're trying to do them in 30 sec, that may prevent you from getting up to 700 territory.

Bottom line: balance your time. Work steadily through the test. You will get stuff wrong - you can't avoid that. Just don't spend so much time getting those really hard ones wrong that you also get other ones wrong that you could've gotten right!