GMAT Strategy

shreerajp99 wrote:Hi Experts,

i purchased access again to Manhattan exams after it had expired.I don't remember any questions that i had faced earlier which is a great thing
I have given 3 tests as follows:

18/02- 590 Q38,V34
23/02- 640 Q43,V35
02/03- 660 Q45,V35 IR 3.73

Good thing here is that my quant seems to be improving(i hope so).Manhattan quant is really tough i feel;i had to use every ounce of my energy to solve these questions

When i solve mixed sets from gmatprep question pack,i get 23-25/37 correct.I dont know if thats a good hit rate.

My target score is anything above 680.Now the catch here is i have submitted applications to 6 colleges but havent submitted my GMAT score.Now the admissions committee is asking me by when i am taking GMAT.I need to take it up soon else they will push my application to last round which will mean almost no chance of getting an admit.
Can you help me decide by when approximately i should take GMAT? 2 weeks from today,do u think i can get the score i want?

Thanks,
Shreeraj

I typically suggest that students achieve their target score on at least 2 practices tests before they take the official test.

Have you taken an official GMATPrep test (https://www.mba.com/the-gmat/download-fr ... tware.aspx)? This will provide the best evaluation of your skills to date. Once you take an official practice test, you'll have a much better idea of how long it will take to achieve your target score.

Cheers,
Brent

shreerajp99 wrote:Yes i had taken those tests with repeats when i attempted gmat on 28th december and got just 630(Q39,V37). Should i keep retaking them?

Yes, I think it's worthwhile retaking those tests. You will see some duplicate questions, but you may have forgotten the answers to many of them.
For more info, please see an article I wrote for BTG on this topic: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/03/ ... iple-times

Cheers,
Brent

shreerajp99 wrote:Hi Brent,
I have been practicing from Veritas question bank and the questions seem quite tricky.I do sets of 37 questions in 75 mins and my problem is that i do well in the beginning 25 questions,getting around 20/25 or so and later on just seem to go downhill.I eventually score something like 25/26 out of 37 and i am sure that wont help me nail the quant part.I do not seem to have timing problem as such and make educated guesses if i am not getting a solution.What do u think ails me and how to raise my quant score,what approach should i take in the final 10-15 questions?
I have been facing this problem in other timed sets as well(Gmatprep question pack).

Thanks,
Shreeraj

Knowing that you're correctly answering 25 or 26 questions (out of 37) doesn't help me determine what you need to work on, since your final scores are not based on how many questions you answer correctly; they're based on the level of difficulty of the questions you answer correctly.

To illustrate this, I'll share an experiment I performed. A while back, I took GMATPrep Practice Test #1 four times, and each time I answered every second question correctly (I did this for the quant section only). Given that I correctly answered exactly half of the questions each time, you'd expect my quant scores to be roughly the same for all 4 tests.

My 4 scaled scores were: 19, 23, 26 and 42

This represents a percentile range from approximately 8th percentile to the 63rd percentile.

To get a better idea of what you need to work on, you need to analyze your practice tests and identify commonalities among the questions you answered incorrectly. For example, perhaps you struggle with probability questions, or perhaps you struggle with algebraic manipulations, etc.

Once you've identified your weaknesses, you'll be more apt to strengthen them.

Cheers,
Brent