From what you've said your practice scores are significantly higher than your actual scores. Why is this? Do you have issues with test anxiety, are your practice tests not taken in an environment similar to the actual test? You should try to figure out what's going on there, because if it's just test anxiety if you can learn to manage it better might be able to get to that 550+ score you need relatively easily.

Hi Clinton


Juggling between work and studies is tough so you need to define a significant time for your GMAT preparation.

Sometimes taking few days off work for preparing for the GMAT can help a person tremendously. If you have time this may not be a bad idea. Take practise GMAT tests to see how you are doing. If you cannot do that don't worry. What might work instead is to set aside 1-2 hours at night on weekdays and major part of your weekend to study and prepare for GMAT- in this case we will suggest a good 3 months preparation.

However we recommend you to keep taking practise tests to gauge your performance. It will help you in identifying your weak areas and you can focus on them accordingly.

There are various ways you can use to practise for your GMAT. It could be combination of online classes, coaching institutes, practise books and even smart phone applications. Having this combination will be giving you access to different styles and it won't be monotonous for you.
Assuming you are aiming for top schools a score above 700 on the Gmat would be advisable.

It really does seem like you have problems with the actual GMAT rather than your practice tests. Have you practised using GMATPrep? What about the Official Guides? If you haven't, then you certainly aren't doing yourself any favours. They are absolutely essential.

clinton wrote:Hello GMAT World,

I'm in desperate need of help!!! I've tried multiple habits of studying, just to name a few: A local GMAT course from a place called Tutoringzone, a Kaplan GMAT course, and I even followed the beat the GMAT 60 day free course. On practice, I've scored everything from a 400 to 620, with the majority of scores ranging above a 540. I'm ashamed to say it, but I've taken the GMAT four times and the end results have been: 390, 430, 460, and 430!! I'm not sure where to look as I only needed between a 550 and 600 to be accepted in a program that I wanted to get in.

With that being said, does anyone have any suggestions on the next step I should take. I'm aware that taking the GMAT 5 times would suck for my admissions process but I'm at a dead end and don't know what to do.

On the other hand I've scored a 4 and three 5's on the writing section of the GMAT.

Someone please provide some guidance.

Hello There


There are various ways you can use to practise for your GMAT. You might need to change your practise style and try this combination to provide you flexibility and different styles to practise so it doesn't get monotonous.

It could be combination of-

1-Books- Books like- The Official Guide for GMAT Review, The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review, The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review etc could be used.

2-Online Study Guide: Websites like Knewton, Grockit etc provide you with practise questions online.

3-Smart phone applications- Kaplan, Veritas etc offer applications to prepare for GMAT on your smart phones.

Do let us know if there is anything in particular we can help you with, mail us here [email protected]