GMAT Strategy

I think I'm going to throw up. I just scheduled my test. I've been working on math theory and short cuts for the past two months. I keep thinking I'm close to being ready and then I'll go for a few days without studying and get scared and push back my plans. I was talking with my wife yesterday and said, "I'm never go to get ready for this test, I'm close now, but not ready and I'm so sick of thinking about it". She said, "Just schedule the test".

So I did, and now I feel sick. I took it two years ago and scored a 580. I had been scoring in the mid 600 on all my practice tests. I think nerves and lack of sleep got the best of me on the test day (scheduled for a 12:15PM test this time). Now I'm back. I think I've gotten a better grip on the material, math is my weak point, but I'm still scoring in the mid 600's. On my last MGMAT test I scored a 640. I'm worried that I really am a 600 level student.

I need to push through that 700 barrier. I would have waited until I got a 700+ score on a practice to schedule the test, but I need some motivation, but now I have to make some concrete changes to my approach. I'm going to spend the next 2 weeks doing 78 problems per night, timed, trying to achieve a 1.5 to 2 minutes per question. Then assess the trouble areas and try to master them in the last two weeks. I've completed the Quantiative Review and 3 of the MGMAT math books. I also have MGMAT SC that I will be working to better my SC. CR and RC are never a problem. I'm hoping the timed drill will increase my confidence and problem recognition. I just have to stick to the schedule. If I don't see a 700+ score on a practice in the next two weeks I'll probably postpone. I was hoping to have a month to get applications done.

Let me know if you have any other suggestions.

I understand where you're coming from with the timed drill - at the same time, that might be a little dangerous. In my experience, students who do that are neglecting the actual study and analysis that must take place in order to improve. Just doing a bunch of questions won't help.

I might amend the approach to do, let's say, 10-15 timed questions, then 30-35 questions where you give yourself unlimited time to analyze. That would bring you up to 50 questions per day, well over the amount you'd have to do to finish the OG and supplements in two months.

Just my two cents!

All the best buddy !!
Just PUSH HARD

I'll be right behind you on November 25th I'm feeling the pressure too, but it's better than risking a burnout.

Good Luck!

nov 27 here. Lets give a hi5 and go on to crack the gmat like it's some walnut or something. :mrgreen:

Took GMATprep this weekend. Bombed it. got a 590. Q36, V34. I'd been scoring 630 and 640 on MGMAT tests, untimed. I could feel myself running out of steam on both sections. Timing was an issue on both. I was able to read all the questions but could see I was getting behind at about the 20th question on. I'm falling apart here. I've got exactly 3 weeks left and not sure I can get into a rythm that will inspire confidence. If I don't seea 700+ score before the exam, I may postpone. I need to know that I can do it in practice before I attempt to do it for real.

first of all, there's no1 called a 600 level student. It's just one's performance at a given circumstance. i feel the more u practise, the better u get. get ur strategies in place n working.
i presume we are facing the same problem. I scored 640 on two consecutive GmatPrep tests while the following week i have been scoring much more on Kaptests. i feel, both Mgmat and Kaplan (or anything other than OG for that matter) start at the same basics level as OG (or GMATprep) does but travel in different directions as the difficulty level keeps increasing; eventually, none of the commercial brands stand any close to the exact GMAT experience as they intend to prepare us for tougher than the actual GMAT experience and lose track therefrom.
What best i can suggest is pls stick to commercial material and finish off all the tests till about 3-4 days b4 ur exam. U must be having about 10 tests i suppose. Pace up. And use GmATPrep only as a tool to focus on what the real GMAT questions will be like. so last 3 days and the software shd come handy. i hope u know that u can use the software for more than twice per test cos the question pool is huge. this will give u an exhaustive idea about GMAT q's.
follow copper-plate strategies like - not more than 2-3 mins on any RC passage as u read the content. start answering RC questions with the info u hv just acquired thru this first-reading. by n large, u shd be able to answer most q's. in case of Sentence correction, i hope u r able to answer them in less than 75 seconds. thats one area to save time in. CR should tentatively take u 90 secs. Try to pace sectional tests for 80 mins. take the questions from various material and make sure u crack 40 math problems in 80min n 45 Verbal q's in 80mins.
In DS, learn a few tricks like - if no. of (independent)equations n no. of variables r same, u can solve the prob. So this way, u save on the few seconds on each DS question choice. And, as u see a DS question, pls bring it to a form that best matches with at least one of the answer choices so that u can immediately check. This can amount to a valuable two mins at least that can help u solve a PS question.With PS, all i can say is, as n wn u read the q, get ur hand to note down the data, no matter how illegible it might be. Get all the formulae at ur fingertips.
Maybe if u post ur weak areas in particular, we can work out strategies that will work.

Sure, plenty of weak areas to discuss:

Quant:

Inequalities
Probability
DS in general
Timing

Verbal:
SC
The problems seem a lot harder after doing math for 75 minutes.

I've been drilling using the OG for the past 3 nights. 78 problems per night, 20 PS, 17 DS, 10 RC, 20 CR and 11 SC. Trying to keep it under 2 minutes per question. I've managed to keep it under an hour per section most of the way. I'm getting deeper into the question sets, and they seem to take longer the higher the number, i.e. question 1 took much less time than question 60. Last test took me 72 minutes to finish the Quant section. I'm pretty consistent on timing for the verbal..The first night I missed every other SC question, now I'm only missing one or two per test.

The past couple of days have made a big difference in my confidence. I think my brain is just getting used to the way the problems are presented. I feel more comfortable with the rythm. I'll take another GMATprep test on Saturday, at a liabrary. I have 4 kids and it's hard to get anything done while they are awake, so I've been up till 2 or 3 in the morning all week. I'm hoping that putting myself through this will make me that much stronger on G day when I'm rested and had a day off. Kind of like an athlete. Train hard, rest, go all out on race day.

Any suggestions for other strategies would be appreciated.