GMAT 530, Need 700, please help

[nitin1009]

All, I'm posting my situation to everyone (had is posted earlier as a reply to another thread)

I took MGMAT's in person course didn't finish through all the homework and practice questions because of full time work load. I took my first official GMAT on April 14th and scored 530. Verbal 27, Quant 36 AWA 5.5
I finished on time, didn't leave any questions blank, had good timing strategy.

My MGMAT practice 1 (pre-course) was 480 (35Q/22V),
practice 2 (during course) was 550 (41Q/25V)
practice 3 (towards the end) was 590 (37Q/34V).

When I took the MBA.com official practice exam on April 8th I bombed it, got a 310 and wanted to reschedule. At that point it was too late since I was within one week and had to pay the full fee to reschedule so I thought I will just take it.

I really need to retake the exam and get over 700. When I study I tend to spend 1-2 hours early morning before work, an hour at lunch at an hour in the evening before bed (on average 3 hours) during weekdays. I have too many summer plans and weekends are booked.

I am planning to retake it May 26th before the June 5th exam change. Is that a good idea? Should I be scheduling the exam end of summer? Practice strategies to increase my score. Everyone's advice is appreciated.

[dav35]

to score 700+, you are going to need to spend time mastering the basics. IMO, it would be difficult to improve that much inside of 1 month. it's not impossible, but it is more likely to happen when you have very strong in one area and very weak in another (so you can devote all of your time to your one weak area).

I would suggest taking the new format. I would study for 2 solid months. I would stay away from practice exams until you are 1 months away from taking the exam. study your mistakes. find out where you are weak and drill those areas.

practice test scores are not important. the only score that matters is the actual GMAT score. practice exams are useful in that they provide you with valuable information (i.e., what areas you need to focus on). You can improve leaps and bounds by simply understanding where you're most likely to make mistakes and by learning how to solve quant problems with fewer steps (check your solutions vs OG to find shortcuts that you are missing).

there are three components to the exam: mastery of material, timing strategy, and stress
good path to follow:

study the material
timed OG problems (10-20 problems per day).. study solutions and mistakes (work on time cutting strategies)
Official GMAT PREP CATs (Study the mistakes!!!!! spend 1-2 hours on each CAT)
work on strategy. you need to know when to move on!

study how long it takes you on average to answer questions you get incorrect. You will likely find that if you havent solved it (correctly) in less than 2 minutes, then you likely answered it incorrectly. everyone needs a "cutoff" point where they guess (educated guess) and move on. having good timing removes stress

[nitin1009]

Dav35
Thank you so much for your tips. I think studying 10-20 questions a day sounds like a very reasonable strategy. I plan to start it first thing tomorrow morning.

I usually work better if I have a test date. Is it better to schedule now end of July early August? I have lot of summer plans including a 2 week trip end of June but weekdays I can wake up early and study regularly at least 2-3 hours a day.

I still have access to MGMAT's guides, and online tools. My timing strategy has always been good but I will look closely on the timings of the questions I get incorrect.

Thanks again

[ankur@gmat]

nitin, I really believe that scheduling before you have achieved some significant improvement in your performance is not a good idea. It will unnecessarily put a burden on you. The very first thing that I would suggest is that, you should work on your weak points. This may really take a major chunk of your preparation time. Only when you have developed confidence in your weak areas, you should consider taking gmat appointment. A 170+ point improvement is a hilarious task.