GMAT Strategy

I'm taking the GMAT in a week. I've taken a few times practice CAT tests, and haven't been improving my score as much as I've liked. I'm pretty gifted in math, but my score wasn't reflecting it, I was missing 90% of the 700+ level questions so I figured I need more practice on the difficult ones.

So, I took one of the tests not timed to see if it was my actual skills holding me back, or if it was being pressed for time. Before, I was hitting around 75%ile in quat. This time I got above 95! While I did take alot more time on the questions double checking and whatnot, other than a few questions, I don't think I spent a great deal of time on them individually. So, that boosts my confidence on the quant section...

Now, the verbal. I've scored in the 72%ile on the verbal on EVERY one of the 3 tests thus far! That includes the non timed one!

Not sure what that means. I guess my skills in verbal are not subject to time, rather my own ability.

Who knows.

/rant

Keep in mind that GMAT doesn't reward you for knowing how to answer a question, it only rewards you for knowing how to answer a question within allotted time. So if you have problem with timing and that is affecting your accuracy, then you might want to work on improving your approaches.

Agreed. I know that some people will draw a time chart on their test boards and keep track of their timing as they go through the test. If a question is going to take you 4 minutes to solve and you can't eliminate the answers and have no clue how to approach it; it can be better to just skip the question and give yourself more time on other questions.

You can miss questions and still get an 800. But if you're constantly pressed for time and barely making it; it can affect your focus on the test and end up screwing up easy questions that the GMAT thinks you shouldn't miss.

Yeah, this was more for practicing the 700-800 level questions. After doing this with being timed, I feel much more confident on those questions, and have a better understanding on how to do them. Obviously I know the real test is timed, which makes it more difficult. Before on my other tests, I was getting maybe 10 or so 700+ questions. This time, all the questions except for maybe 5, were 700+. Seeing as how I get about 70% on the 6-7 level and 95% below that, I just needed more practice on the hard ones.

No matter how much time I have, my verbal score stays the same... oh well!