GMAT Strategy

Hi,

I recently gave a GMAT Prep test and got a score of 710. (Q48, V 40).
I am aiming for a 750 on the final Gmat. On analyzing I realized, though I was able to complete the two sections in time ,I took about 7-10 guesses in each section and they constituted for around 50% of my incorrect answers. For these questions, I did not even read the questions, they were all blind guesses.

I made those guesses at various intervals during the test and made sure I was not skipping any questions in a row. But my main problem lies in the following two areas:

1) DS: I get too slow trying to test every option so I don't miss out on something carelessly.
2) CR and RC: CR takes me a great amonunt of time to solve. I have tried to reduce the time I take, but I need atleast 2 min per question. Same is the case with RC, I guess I am taking longer than I should to read the passage. But it helps me answer the questions quickly.

Because I get too slow doing these questions, I have to make guesses in the exam.
Could you suggest some ways I could improve my speed. My Gmat is less than two weeks away and I really want to cover up that gap in my score.

Thanks!

You can speed up your critical reasoning by focusing properly. On the entire verbal side the theme is "narrow your focus." On the sentence correction you can ignore prepositions, modifiers, extra clauses and so forth. Less than one-half of the sentence really requires your full attention.

On critical reasoning questions narrow your focus means to focus on the evidence and the conclusion and not on the background information. Here is an article that I wrote about focusing on CR questions. https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/02/ ... duncan-way

On the Reading Comprehension side of things you need to read at the right level. I understand that reading slowly can help, but only if it pays off on the questions - if you are able to do the questions much faster. When you are reading remember that you are going for an executive summary so that you can go back to find the answers in the text. If you are reading very slowly and still going back to the text for 75% of the questions, then you might be taking too long. Here is an article on reading comp and how to read the passage. https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/08/ ... prehension

For Data Sufficiency you need to learn to trust your techniques and yourself. You need to have a list in your head that you go through and you need to know when you should actually test the numbers and when you do not need to do so.

For yes/ no type questions there are five number properties.

Positive/ Negative
Odd/Even
Non-integers
Prime Numbers/Factors
Numbers 0 and 1

Take some time now and think about when these would each apply. For example, non-integer is a possibility anytime that you are not told that you have an integer.

Have the list with you and when you do a number properties type of question - often a yes/no question - you should go down the list and consider each. If changing that number property will not change the result of the question then it does not apply. This way you are systematic and efficient.

On other questions where there is a limitation - for example if you are told that x is even - and you want to put in some numbers to be sure make sure that you use consecutive possible numbers (in this case 2, 4, 6) and three numbers is sufficient. You always want to do consecutive possible numbers so that you are not accidentally testing some other property.

There is a balance between careful and efficient You must be both! You have two weeks and I think that you can streamline your process in that amount of time.

Thanks David. That was helpful!