Strategy advice??

[sashasoro]

Hi guys,

Thank you, Eric, for this forum, it is very helpful and loaded with resources. I'm hoping to get some tips from the wonderful contributors about where to put my study time - quant or verbal.

I just took my first GMATPrep test and scored 720, 48Q and 41V. Now I know the score sounds good, but I didn't do the AWA (so an hour less exhausted) and I get super nervous in test rooms (took the GRE 3 times, I would know!).

At first it looked to me like my Quant was stronger because of the higher "raw" score, but when I looked up the percentiles, it says 48Q is 83rd percentile and 41V is 92nd percentile. So does that mean my verbal is actually stronger?? Which area should I concentrate in to get the biggest score increase for my time?

During the test, the math seemed quite difficult and I had to guess at the end whereas I finished the verbal with 15 minutes remaining. In quant, it was the concept mixtures that threw me for a loop; in verbal I had a thoroughly bad time with RC, though got some SC wrong as well. So there are many things I can improve in, but I'm afraid to exhaust myself. Where would you recommend to focus?

Thanks for any ideas!

[DanaJ]

A 720 is a great score... You are definitely on the right track to success.

Indeed, the percentile rankings of the two scores are "reversed". Since it's these percentile rankings that ultimately count, I think you should probably focus on quant. This is especially true since you had 15 minutes to spare at the end of verbal, which means that you could probably slow down a bit, but focus better on the task and get a better score.

[sashasoro]

Hi Dana,

Really appreciate the help. I find the scoring extremely fuzzy and misleading at times, so thank very much for clarifying it.

Thank you,
sashasoro