Efficient Study Strategies for 770+ on First Try?

Question

First time poster here, thanks in advance for any responses....really appreciate it!

I want to open with the fact that I don't have a lot of time to study - I have a lot of work and real life commitments that prevent me from doing courses or the intense work that I've seen some people doing here. I would love to be able to do so, but unfortunately my situation does not allow me to.

I've probably done 10-15 hrs worth of doing some random practice problems here and there and finally got around to taking an official practice CAT from GMATPrep. I went into the test thinking it would be easy, but I ended up getting more wrong than anticipated and got a 720 (49Q, 38V) combined.

I noticed a few problems I had:

-I started to really feel the mental fatigue, even just a few questions into the quant section.
-For almost all of the problems I got wrong, I was able to do pretty handily in an isolated situations
-On the verbal section, I had to read and re-read some paragraph sections multiple times...likely due to mental fatigue
-I made some poor decisions on problems where I narrowed the choice down to 2 answers....not sure on how to better strategize for these cases

I've scheduled the GMAT for 1.5 months from now, but may not have time to do more CAT tests. Do any of you have any efficient study strategies (that do not take large chunks of time) that can help me raise my score to the 770 range? I realize that there may not be a viable way to simulate mental fatigue without going through another CAT...which is a huge problem for me.

Thanks a bunch again.

HiLine · Answer

I would get a tutor if you're so short on time that you won't even have time to do a full-length practice exam. General strategies work for people that can put aside significant amounts of time to study. You need a customized approach.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi riceman89,

To start, a 720 is an outstanding first CAT score, so you clearly are a strong logical thinker and Test Taker.

Test Day is a rather specific 'event' - the details are specific and they matter, so you have to train as best as you can for all of them. The more realistic you can make your CATs, the more likely the score results are to be accurate. The more you deviate, the more "inflated" your scores can become. Endurance is one of the various facets of Test Day that most Test Takers have to train for. Over the course of the Exam, most GMATers get tired and the only real way to build up your 'resistance' to that fatigue is to take CATs at regular intervals and work on the physical/mental/psychological things that you can do to fight that fatigue.

By your own admission, you have a relatively short study window and you don't think that you can take many more CATs (if any). Under these conditions, you're making it rather difficult to raise your score to a 770.

1) Why do you think that you won't be able to take any more CATs? If your schedule is so busy, then how are you going to find the time to take the Official GMAT?

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

ccooley · Answer

The answer depends on why you didn't get a 770 on your first CAT. If the only thing stopping you was a lack of familiarity with the test, or uncertainty about how fast you needed to work / how precise you needed to be about your answers, then what you're proposing might be possible. But if there's any GMAT content at all that you don't know, getting a 770 without putting the time in is going to be tough. After the 720 level or so, in my experience, more and more of the problems are very tough unless you've seen something similar to them before. You can definitely get a 700 without having seen every single trick, but beyond that level, more and more problems will really require that you ID a few 'tricks' or 'strategies' that you're probably not going to figure out on your own without seeing them once or twice.

In general, I'd recommend making some more time for your GMAT process - not even having enough time for practice tests doesn't bode well. But if you're stuck, then I'd recommend that you start by analyzing that practice test in depth. If your time is very limited, you don't want to spend it studying material that you don't need to. So, go through the practice test question by question. Redo every single problem, and ID exactly what was going on. Develop a list of strategies you need to learn, rules you need to study, content areas to work on, etc. And once you've got that list, that's when you start thinking about how to study those specific items most effectively... I'd recommend picking up a couple of the MPrep strategy guides, although I'm obviously biased

riceman89 · Answer

Thanks for all of the responses - they are very helpful for me to understand just how much work obtaining a good score will take.

Judging from the comments, it seems that I might need to take more CAT tests to get used to the test length and rigor. If I can set aside 2 more blocks of time for 2 more CAT tests, which ones would you all recommend? I can keep taking the official ones from GMATPrep or use ones from Manhattan Gmat.

As far as problem solving strategy for the hardest problems goes, how would you guys recommend tackling this? I've purchased the official GMAT prep guides and done most of the hard problems in the online question bank...any other suggestions to supplement this?

Lastly, I know this may seem like a silly question, but how do you guys prepare for mental fatigue? I tend to get headaches/migraines pretty easily, and am wondering if you guys have any dietary / lifestyle recommendations for test week to minimize "brain fog."

Thanks again!

HiLine · Answer

You should take only practice tests from GMAC. Practice tests from test prep companies are written very differently.

You minimize mental fatigue by anticipating it and by preparing yourself physically and mentally for it. Keep taking full length practice exams under real-test conditions and follow a regular exercise regime. Also build up your speed and confidence through practice problems.

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