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Hi rmadmit,

To start, you would likely receive a larger response if you posted this in the Shared Experience sub-forum as well:

share-gmat-experience-8/

I'd like to know a bit more about how you took your practice CATs:

1) Did you take them at home?
2) Did you take them at the same time of day as your Official GMAT?
3) Did you ever do ANYTHING during your CATs that you couldn't do on Test Day (pause the CAT, skip sections, take longer breaks, etc.)?
4) Did you ever take a CAT more than once? Had you seen any of the questions BEFORE?

Based on your Official Score, you should not be spending any time on "advanced" questions right now. There are clearly too many 'bigger' areas that you need to work on. Based on what you described, you tended to focus on the subjects that you got the most incorrect answers on, but you didn't do enough analysis of your results to hone ALL of your skills. As an example, if it takes you 3 minutes to correctly answer a question, but that ends up causing a pacing issue, then you have to consider how "your way" of approaching that question impacts your overall performance. Most GMAT questions are written so that they can be solved using 2-3 different approach. If your approach is the 'long approach', then that's an issue that you need to spend considerable time fixing.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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EMPOWERgmatRichC
Hi rmadmit,

To start, you would likely receive a larger response if you posted this in the Shared Experience sub-forum as well:

share-gmat-experience-8/

I'd like to know a bit more about how you took your practice CATs:

1) Did you take them at home?
2) Did you take them at the same time of day as your Official GMAT?
3) Did you ever do ANYTHING during your CATs that you couldn't do on Test Day (pause the CAT, skip sections, take longer breaks, etc.)?
4) Did you ever take a CAT more than once? Had you seen any of the questions BEFORE?

Based on your Official Score, you should not be spending any time on "advanced" questions right now. There are clearly too many 'bigger' areas that you need to work on. Based on what you described, you tended to focus on the subjects that you got the most incorrect answers on, but you didn't do enough analysis of your results to hone ALL of your skills. As an example, if it takes you 3 minutes to correctly answer a question, but that ends up causing a pacing issue, then you have to consider how "your way" of approaching that question impacts your overall performance. Most GMAT questions are written so that they can be solved using 2-3 different approach. If your approach is the 'long approach', then that's an issue that you need to spend considerable time fixing.

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


Thanks Rich!

Here are my responses-

1.Yes, all the tests that I have taken have been at home.
2.Yes,took all of them at the same time with accurate breaks of 8 mins each
3.No, I kept the same conditions throughout without any deviation from the test conditions.
4.No, I have not taken the same CAT more than once. All of them were new. In fact, 2 qs in CR I had already practiced it earlier.

Would be glad if you could suggest something that I can incorporate in my study strategy. Thank you !
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Hi rmadmit,

Given everything that you've described, it sounds like you've been doing lots of practice questions without working to build up specific strategic skills. The latest CAT score was likely just a 'bad day', but your prior performances were all 'clustered' around the mid-500s to high-500s. To score 700+, you're going to have to make some significant changes to how you handle BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections. This will require that you restructure your studies and learn/practice some new Tactics. By extension, you'll likely need to invest in some new, non-book practice resources.

1) Do you know the specific Round 2 application deadlines for the Schools that you're considering?

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

Given everything that you've described, it sounds like you've been doing lots of practice questions without working to build up specific strategic skills. The latest CAT score was likely just a 'bad day', but your prior performances were all 'clustered' around the mid-500s to high-500s. To score 700+, you're going to have to make some significant changes to how you handle BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections. This will require that you restructure your studies and learn/practice some new Tactics. By extension, you'll likely need to invest in some new, non-book practice resources.

1) Do you know the specific Round 2 application deadlines for the Schools that you're considering?

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

Yes,I am aware of most of the colleges. They would be probably in December end. When you talk about specific skill improvement do you mean how to solve the question within 2 mins and that too with the right approach? Do you think this skill can be developed by practicing more sectional timed tests
and then analyzing them to see whether the approach was apt or not?

Thanks!
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Hi rmadmit,

It's important to realize that taking lots of CATs will NOT make you a better Test Taker. A CAT is really a 'measuring device' - when used correctly, it will give you a realistic score and help define your strengths and weaknesses, but it will NOT help you to fix any of those weaknesses. To raise your scores, you have to put in the necessary practice and repetitions. The CAT will show you whether your studies are helping you to improve or not. This is one of the reasons why you really shouldn't take more than 1 FULL CAT per week.

At this point, you would likely find it beneficial to invest in a GMAT Course of some type (either Guided Self-Study or instructor-led). Based on everything that you’ve described, I think that you would find the EMPOWERgmat Total Score Booster to be quite helpful. Most of our clients complete that Study Plan in well under 2 months, so the time commitment wouldn't be that bad. We have a variety of free resources on our site (www.empowergmat.com), so you can 'test out' the Course before setting up an Account.

If you have any additional questions, then you can feel free to contact me directly.

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

It seems like you lack basic math skills. we highly recommend for you to follow the instructions below:
study 30 pages of Math Review of Official Guide
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Happy Studying!

Jin
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