Preventing Brain Drain on Quant/Verbal?

[takyle]

Little Background Knowledge: I had 1 month to study for the test, which is for admissions into a masters accounting program.

Skills regarding topics
-Quant material - remembered some, but extremely basic (Hand computation skills were horrid from excessive use of a calculator)

-Verbal material - did not remember much SC but CR and RC did not seem overly difficult. just oddly worded.

GMAT Prep 1 - 530 (no experience, lots of pausing, confusing)
-Went through MGMAT Foundations of Math book

MGMAT Cat 1 - 560 (no Essay or IR, struggled with higher level quant questions, stupid mistakes)
-Did lots of GMAT problems and focused on MGMAT Quant Guides. Tiny bit of Verbal.

MGMAT CAT 2 - didnt finish (Wrote the essay and did IR this exam)

- Quant - answered all the 300-500 correct, 60% of 500-600 and 25% of 600-700. Felt a lot stronger on quant but started to burn out half way through. I am thinking that due to the overabundance of 600-700 level questions I began to take way to much time on the questions.

-Verbal - With the amount of work I have managed to do the last week with verbal, I answered a great deal more SC correct than my previous tests. Felt extremely burnt out after Essay/IR/Quant.

QUESTION: From what I have gathered, most Masters in Accounting admissions departments strongly focus on the Quant/Verbal scores at the moment. This being said, I am thinking of putting forth a lackluster effort on the essay and IR to enable me to increase my performance in Quant/Verbal and decrease my risk of burning out. With the time I have been allotted, I cannot study for IR or the essay, and I have apparently not build up enough stamina for the test. Does anyone have an opinion on the matter?

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Hi takyle,

When is your Official GMAT Test Date?

Based on your post, it sounds like it's coming up soon, so you're looking for short term advice on what to focus on.

Accounting and Finance programs tend to put an emphasis on the Quant Scaled Score, but you still have to consider how competitive the programs can get. All things being equal, the applicant with a strong Quant Score AND a strong Verbal Score will likely get the nod over the applicant with just the high Quant Score. A certain minimal standard is also required in the Essay portion, but the IR section is not likely to factor into the process.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich