GMAT Strategy

I'm taking my first of two GMAT tests in two weeks. My goal is to achieve a 650.

Last week, I took the a practice test and scored a 590 (Q38V34), and today, I took it again and scored lower: 560 (Q39V29). Oddly enough, I'm MUCH stronger in verbal, but today I sunk down to a V29. I was a bit tired and zoned out on occasion, but I put forth a lot of effort and still came up short. To make matters worse, my pacing was pretty good (no last-minute rushing), but still ended up with a subpar score.

In any case, I'm really bummed and uncertain what to expect come test day. For the next two weeks, I intend to study some of my weaknesses (ran an assessment summary on Manhattan GMAT), but I don't even know if achieving a 650 is feasible for my test.

Any thoughts or words of encouragement? I'm happy to share my assessment report if anyone feels like they could share some words of wisdom. Thank you.

Hi eQuantEssential

Yes, sharing your assessment report helps others to suggest. By the way, didn't you register for any GMAT courses?

varung79 wrote:Hi eQuantEssential

Yes, sharing your assessment report helps others to suggest. By the way, didn't you register for any GMAT courses?

Thanks varung. I'm currently enrolled in a 9-week course. I went ahead and attached my assessment report. Thanks so much.

eQuant -

Having to put forth a lot of effort on the verbal is not always a good sign. I can tell you from these facts what likely happened:

1) you were tired and zoned out,
2) you put forth alot of effort,
3) you finished on time,
4) you score was still quite low for you

What likely happened is that you were not thinking clearly and not applying proper techniques. Most questions on the verbal section need to be pretty straight-forward if you are going to get a great score. If you find that most of the questions feel very difficult to you then you will likely get a lower score than you could attain.

It could be that you were very tired and could not focus well during this practice test. It could be that you need to look to your techniques.

Remember that verbal is a matter of focusing on the right thing for each question. If you focus on the proper decision points for sentence correction, if you focus on the proper portions of CR, if you read the reading comprehension at the right level then most questions should not feel difficult.

No one can sustain 75 minutes of fighting on each question. If this happens eventually you will begin to choose the "sucker" choices. This is how you likely ended up not running behind, feeling that you worked hard, yet scoring lower.

Look to your methods and techniques, make sure that you are being as efficient as possible. Avoid relying on some sort of heroic effort. The more you can make questions feel "automatic" the better. I call this "recognition and application." Recognize what you are given and apply what you know. Heroic mental efforts (usually) not required! The occasional question may still puzzle you, but 3 out of every 4 need to be very straight-forward if you want to reliably get a high score.

[email protected] wrote:eQuantEssential,

If you can provide some additional information, then I'll be happy to advise:

1) How long have you been studying?
2) What resources are you using to study?
3) You mentioned 2 Official Test Dates; when are they?
4) When you took your practice CATs, did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (including the Essay and IR)?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Rich, thanks for your help.

1) I have been studying for about 9 weeks now--with 2-3 hours per weekday, and 6-8 hours (total) on the weekend, not including the course I take.
2) I'm using Manhattan's 9 strategy guides, OG13, Kaplan Premier (light review), and Kaplan 800.
3) My first test date is July 5. The other one will likely be August 9.
4) My 560 was the entire cat. My 590 included everything EXCEPT the IR.

The good news is that my course is ending very soon, so I can dedicate more time to my weaker areas (as opposed to learning new content).

David@VeritasPrep wrote:eQuant -

Having to put forth a lot of effort on the verbal is not always a good sign. I can tell you from these facts what likely happened:

1) you were tired and zoned out,
2) you put forth alot of effort,
3) you finished on time,
4) you score was still quite low for you

What likely happened is that you were not thinking clearly and not applying proper techniques. Most questions on the verbal section need to be pretty straight-forward if you are going to get a great score. If you find that most of the questions feel very difficult to you then you will likely get a lower score than you could attain.

It could be that you were very tired and could not focus well during this practice test. It could be that you need to look to your techniques.

Remember that verbal is a matter of focusing on the right thing for each question. If you focus on the proper decision points for sentence correction, if you focus on the proper portions of CR, if you read the reading comprehension at the right level then most questions should not feel difficult.

No one can sustain 75 minutes of fighting on each question. If this happens eventually you will begin to choose the "sucker" choices. This is how you likely ended up not running behind, feeling that you worked hard, yet scoring lower.

Look to your methods and techniques, make sure that you are being as efficient as possible. Avoid relying on some sort of heroic effort. The more you can make questions feel "automatic" the better. I call this "recognition and application." Recognize what you are given and apply what you know. Heroic mental efforts (usually) not required! The occasional question may still puzzle you, but 3 out of every 4 need to be very straight-forward if you want to reliably get a high score.

David, thanks so much. I read and re-read your post, which was super helpful.

I'll tell you my process. I don't want to blame my low score on tiredness, but maybe that's the case here. I took my 560 CAT around 2 PM. Prior to that, I had woken up early that day to study, attended a 3-hour class, and had a somewhat heavy lunch. Maybe I should switch to taking the test early in the morning?

And thank you for the verbal analysis. Verbal is certainly my strong suit, but the questions did feel more difficult than normal. I will heed your advice as best as possible and look at greater recognition and application techniques. I'll try to get to the point where 3-out-of-4 are straight-forward. Thank you!