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understanding how to get a 700

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by resilient » Tue Apr 08, 2008 12:40 am
In order to get a 700, do I have to know every nook and cranny of this exam? After reviewing a multitude of success stories, I am guessing that success is not a perfect understanding of the exam but a healthy grip on all the havily tested topics.

Pros please chime in!
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by Prasanna » Tue Apr 08, 2008 7:29 am
I would agree. It is almost impossible to master the exam in every respect. You need to be comfortable in all the areas tested and need to know what to expect on the test.
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by mayonnai5e » Tue Apr 08, 2008 2:41 pm
I agree with your statement. You'll notice that there are certain topics that are heavily concentrated on on the GMAT (e.g. number properties). Since they appear very often, it is a very very good idea to focus heavily on them because you will be able to nail them as they come. This means more correct answers and if you're lucky (or just extremely well prepared), more correct answers consecutively. I feel that I got very lucky on my exam in that I had a lot of number property questions and I had a very strong mastery of them. The ones that the GMAT threw at me were so easy to me that I actually that I was doing terribly (think 400-500 range).

If you have a weakness on a heavily tested topic, imagine how you would score:

Hit, hit, miss (weakness on heavily tested topic), hit, hit, miss (same topic), hit, hit, hit, miss (same topic).

Furthermore, I do not now whether the algorithm also tracks the difficulty bin by specific topics. If it does, then your score drops even further - imagine you miss a 600-650 num prop question then the algorithm gives you a 575-625 num prop and you miss that also then it gives you a 525-575 and you finally get it right. Again, I am not sure if that is how the algorithm tracks the scores, but do you want to take the chance?
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by Stacey Koprince » Tue Apr 08, 2008 5:27 pm
The algorithm doesn't track within content area or question type - just across quant and across verbal in general

And, yes, use the 80/20 rule (which is more like 90/10 on this test). Focus on the most commonly tested stuff.

Also, remember that because of the way the test is scored, you'll only get half of the questions right. Theoretically, if you get every question below a 700 level right and every question above a 700 level wrong, you'll get a 700 - even if you only got half the questions right. (Of course, it's unlikely things would work out so perfectly that we get every single sub-700 Q right and every single harder question wrong - but you get the idea.)
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