1. They don’t choke on test day It might surprise many of you to find out how many people actually score worse on test day than on many of their practice tests. This is most likely due to test day anxiety, fatigue, or flat out bad or incorrect preparation. On the other hand there is also a group of people that score significantly higher under the pressure of test day. There are many 700 clubbers who get their wings in this fashion. For instance, I only scored a 690 on my highest practice test, but 710 on test day. How many stories have you heard of people with all 700 practice test scores but a 650 on test day? All that matters is getting that 700+ on G-day. I followed these 10-tips to make sure that I could go into the testing center as confident and prepared as possible:
10-tips-to-improve-your-score-app-with-no-extra-studying-124393.html These tips have the ability to take your score to the next level. Don’t let factors YOU can control not let you reach your potential.
2. They work their butts off!We’ve all come across the “2 days of studying - 790 score” post. Well let me tell you, these stories are very very rare, and personally I don’t believe them much. That’s great that they KILLED the test with NO studying, but it is not realistic for 99.99% of people. Not to mention, we will never know how long they studied for the SAT’s, GRE’s, MCAT’s, etc… Most of the time this person has put the time into studying somewhere else in their life. Don’t let these people get you down or make you forgot how tough this test really is. Most people have to study 100-300 hours for a 700+ or to even reach their goal. I personally studied for about 200 hours over 11 weeks and brought my score up from a 570 diagnostic to a 710 on test day. This is almost 1.5 hours of studying PER point increase. This is not a sprint, but a marathon, and you have to put the time and effort in to kill this test. Slow and steady wins the race.
3. They learn everything there is to know about the GMAT test and strategyYou don’t have to learn every topic, every question type, or get every single question right on test day, but you do need to know about the test and the strategies. In fact, you can score well over 700 with just getting 70-75% of the questions right. How can this be you say? Well, obviously the better you are doing, the tougher questions you get, so you don’t have to answer every questions right. If you get them all right, you are the 800 test taker, and this is reserved from 1 in every 100,000 people. For us regular test takers, we must know when we’re beat. We must move past, and make educated guesses when necessary, and make sure that we get to see every question we can get right. There are going to be a certain amount of questions on test day that you know, and those are the questions you MUST get right. Learn everything about the test, how it’s administered, and how you can take every advantage there is. Every time you make a solid choice, you move ahead of 1000s of other people who forgot about these key points. Read the 10 tips again from above, and apply them in your practicing and on test day. Also, look around the forums and learn about tips and tricks that are available. Also, if you are looking for a company that offers great test taking strategy, I would recommend Kaplan as they are known for their strategies.
4. They have the timing downThe timing in each section is crucial! If you don’t reach the last 5 questions you are easily throwing 50 points away. Also, if you only have 5 minutes for the last 5 questions you are throwing points away. Of on the other side, if you have 15 minutes left at the end of the section, you are throwing points away. You had the opportunity to go back and recheck answers, and get a few more right. Timing is key. Make sure that once you have all the knowledge down that you give timing a lot of thought. It’s so important, and sometimes skipping questions or rechecking answers will put you on track. As a rule of thumb I NEVER went over 3 minutes on any questions, and this was only when I knew that I was going to get the right answers. If you don’t, then you are wasting valuable time for questions at the end that you could have gotten right. If you timing is your issue, read this post front to back:
timing-strategies-on-the-gmat-80176.html 5. And finally, they get involved in the GMATclub.So you’ve been reading around the forums and see that there are lots of people with 700s. Well, just remember, if you are seeing them, they are active members of the GMATclub community.
So, how do you get involved? Well if you are just starting you GMAT journey
FIRST sign up for a GMATclub account. There are so many benefits, and this is the first place to come when you have a question and no one to turn to. There is so much support here, and a great community feeling.
SECOND start here to start on your GMAT journey. This will tell you everything you need to know about what is out there to help you with your studying:
new-to-the-gmat-club-start-here-130870.htmlFINALLY come back and learn what these forums have to offer. Look around, post questions or tips, and learn what everyone here has to offer. Come back, and contribute to the community. Sometimes teaching is the best way of learning. If you could absorb every piece of knowledge here, an 800 would be in your future.
If you follow these tips you just might be able to join the 700 club too. Good luck to everyone on test day! If anyone has any other ideas for what all our 700 clubbers have in common, please add!
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15 Dec 2011, 11:52
