If you were unable to complete the quant section, the first thing you need to focus on is your timing. Leaving questions unanswered at the end will always demolish your score. You need to make a commitment to yourself that you will *never* time out again. This is a very realistic commitment to make, because you can control how much time you spend on each problem. The key to finishing on time is to identify the "killer" problems that are going to waste your time, and then drop those problems (by guessing randomly or making an educated guess/estimate). It's importatnt to understand that even at the 700 level, you should expect to miss about 40% of the problems. Don't get stuck on the craziest problems--just say "this is one of the problems I'm going to miss" and move on.
The next step is to make sure that you are solid in all your fundamentals. Although it is certainly important to practice with some difficult problems, you should put most of your attention into problems below the 700 level. This is where you need to be very strong and accurate. Make sure that for each problem type, you are able to quickly identify what you are being asked to do, and then follow up with an appropriate strategy. The harder the problem, the more likely it is that there will be some kind of trick or complication. If your underlying technique is strong, you will be able to devote some attention to these kinds of details.
If you have a reliable approach for each problem type, this will allow you to move a little faster. If you also make sure to let the hardest problems go, your timing should even out without increasing the number of problems you miss. In that case, you might easily make a large improvement in your quant score in a short time.
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Dmitry Farber | Manhattan GMAT Instructor | New York
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