GMAT Strategy

Hi Everyone,

It's now about 1.5 months to the big day and I'm trying reassess my study strategy. I've hit a roadblock...

My achilles heel is definitely Quant. I'm scoring low - around 48-50 percentile (average 30-35 questions right). My verbal is much better, averaging around 78-80 percentile (average 36-39 right).

I completed the MGMAT series around March, and have been studying on my own for about 1.5 months. Because of the nature of my timing, I was only able to complete 3 of the MGMAT Cats with dismal scores (580, 490, 500)before my access ran out. I realized in assessing my scores that my pacing was COMPLETELY off - I was using 3-5 minutes for some of the questions. I've since worked on moving on and I think it paid off...somewhat.

I recently bought the full set of MGMAT CATs (so i could take the last couple) and got a 610 on CAT1. Granted i did see some of the same problems over, but I really didn't remember any of them. I was also very puzzled by the EIV question bank - they looked like they were written in alien language and seemed so much harder than what I saw on the CATs.

I know I really need to attack quant - I've been studying the flashcards provided by BTG and just signed up for the practice problems here on the site and am planning on completing the question banks at Manhattan. However, I feel like when I take the CATs that it takes me an unnecessarily long time to actually even comprehend what the question is asking me. It's not uncommon that by the time i really have read and felt like i know what they are asking on the question, it's already 2 mins and time is up -- this creates total panic for me...

Do you guys recommend just going through the MGMAT quant books again and really try to nail down the concepts? Should i just do a ton of practice problems? I've even considered private tutoring, which from what I hear is pretty expensive and may not be the most practical (financially) for me...but...i've spent all this time and effort preparing for this test - if it's what i need, then i'll do it...

do you guys have any suggestions? thank you all and thank god this site is here!

Before I say anything, 30-35 right and 36-39 right isonly fetching u 50 and 80 percentile respectively? That is impossible. You might be scoring better.

I recommend going through the MGMAT guides once again. This time, make it a revision. See if u remember the concepts. If not learn them.

One important thing I learnt this week from my experience of solving problems is that we should have a takeaway from each problem you solve. Maybe some concepts you learn can be applied to similar problems when you encounter them.

I heard this works really well for SC. Each of the OG SC questions has something new. Note them down and you will learn a lot.

And finally, analyze your practice tests. See why you made the mistakes u made. Very important and very useful.