GMAT Strategy

I took a practice gmat using the gmatprep software a few months back and scored a 510. My quant score was around a 17, but my verbal score was a 41. I need at minimum a 580 to get into my target schools. I bought the mgmat 8 pack set of books and also bought about 500/1800 jeff sackmann problem sets. His problem sets are fantastic and they helped me raise my quant score from 17 to 43. I first took a mgmat test untimed (660, 45 quant, 35 verbal), and a few days later a timed test (43 quant, 30 verbal). I also took a gmatprep test this week (43 quant, 30 verbal). It took me roughly 6 weeks to raise my quant score and I was getting ready to take the test in 3-4 weeks, my confidence was very high because of my earlier verbal prep score. I am not working at the moment and therefore have plenty of time to study.

So the question is if I am not working how long will it take to raise my qualitative score up to 35? BTW I feel most uneasy when answering sentence correction questions but actually my critical reasoning/reading comp needs the most work. I have the mgmat sc guide and I hear its fantastic I just don't know if one month is enough time to fully comprehend the material.

I should add that after analyzing my mgmat cat exams I noticed that sentence correction is my strength, yet the degree of difficulty at which I answer questions correctly is all over the place. Same thing goes for critical reasoning, reading comprehension I consistently get the easier questions right and usually the harder ones too. Anyway I am looking for the most "bang for the buck," in the limited time I have so I think realistically I can get very good at one or two areas. I figure if you study sentence correction then you will consistently get harder ones right, very quickly allowing you to focus more on the CR and RC questions. I am consistently scoring around 30 verbal, hopefully if I only get a few SC questions wrong I can make it to 34? Thanks again guys.

I believe you have the ability to reach the 600 scoring range given the time left. One of the biggest mistakes a lot of people make that I have seen is aiming for the stars, in another words, they try to learn as many concepts and new ideas as possible without sufficient time to actually master them.

My suggestion to you is to practice what you already know to the point of mastering them. For example, algebra, know everything there is to know about algebra and master all of the short-cuts without any struggle. Sentence Correction, be very familiar with all of the common tested subjects: parallelism, subject-verb agreement and etc... Make sure that you would never get caught off guard on a subject you're very familiar with. Critical Reasoning, understand what is being tested and the common types of wrong answers, as well as different types of correct answers.

Bottom line, master what you already know, learn some new concepts, and work toward mastering them as well. There is no point reading and trying to learn combinatorics when you are struggling with more basic math concepts, and when you know you don't have the sufficient time to actually master combinatorics.

Good luck.