HELP! GMATPrep math vs actual math

I hope I am not too late, but I would postpone the test. If you are aiming for a 740+ and you can't get to the last 13 quant questions, there's a major problem.

I think he shoudl retake a practice first and concentrate on his timing before he postpones - it sounds like he just messed up his timing which as you know is a critical part of GMAT success.

If it happens again, then postpone.

740+ is a pretty tough task if he doesn't have timing down by now. Also, I wouldn't want to waste the other GMATPrep on a timing practice. I took my GMATPreps as if they were actual gmat's, only doing them when I was fully prepared.

Thank you kidderek for your reply.

I have retaken GMAT Prep 2 (Q 49, V 38, 710) but I ran out of time and had to guess the last 4 math probs and last 2 verbal probs.
(got 27/37 in math and 30/41 in verbal )

I'm not satisfied with my timing (and performance in both math and verbal... ).

Thought I was pretty much ready when I scored 770 in GMATPrep 1 (Q50 V44) a month ago but like I said, I felt I was lucky on some of the math questions... This shouldn't be happening if I'm to aim 740+...

I'm disappointed at myself and I just rescheduled my test to the first week of May. Sufficient time to improve on time management and my weak areas in math (number properties arrgh!) and verbal I hope.

NO slacking off from now on, will prepare HARD for D-45 days!!

Thanks to OasisNYK and kidderek.
Without you guys, I wouldn't have rescheduled in time to pay only $50 (it was close!) and perhaps I'll have just sat for the exam on 27th relying pretty much on luck that I'd see questions I'm comfortable with...

If taking the test soon is not an issue, then you're doing a good job by delaying the test. You need to get all the kinks out before you go in there.

You don't necessarily have to take a GMATPrep to practice timing. You can just do an exercise of 10 questions for 20 minutes or 20 questions for 40 minutes.

There are two things I would like to comment on. First, although the test questions are random, it is very likely that for each person he or she would feel one test easier than another, because of different strengths and weaknesses of different people. You need to be prepared for a hard test, even though you may hope for an easy one. When you get a hard test, first you need to make sure you don't panic and still stick on your time line. Try to solve each question under 2 minutes. If you can't, make an educated guess and move on. Taking too much time in the begining and making continued guesses in the end will result in very bad scores.

Second, you seem to have a misconception regarding CATs. Remember that the questions being random means it will not steadily increase from easy to hard. It is as likely as not that you'll get a very hard question in your third question. Each questions have two parameters attached to it. One is it's difficulty level, the other is its specificity level, ie. how narrow it could pin down people's ability. If you didn't make your third question it will not substantially affect your score. It is only when you have contineously wronged that the higher end of your score range will be greatly reduced. If you are at this point, it will be true that you only get easy questions, because the test questions are always chosen within your estimated range of ability. In other words, you should treat all questions the same. Spending too much time on a hard question to the extent that you don't have time to finish the whole section is going to be a very very costly strategy.

Thank you HongHu for your insightful comments.

I'm planning on doing the challenges to make myself more comfortable with harder problems and to work on time management.