How should I approach my 3rd GMAT attempt? Please advise.

Question

Hello Experts,

Please let me know how I must prepare for my 3rd shot at GMAT?

I have couple of months to prepare - planning to apply in Round 1 (around Sept 2015).

My target score is 730.

On my 4 GMATPrep practice CATS I got above 720.

But here is my real GMAT performance:

2nd GMAT - 690 (Q 49, V 35, IR 7, AWA 6)
1st GMAT - 680 (Q 47, V 37, IR 6, AWA 4.5)

I have improved in all the sections, except verbal which dropped a couple points - quite a shocker as Verbal was my forte.

Now I'm thinking if I can put more effort on Quant and push it to 50 and pull Verbal up to 39/40 I might end up in the 720-740 range.

I've already exhausted my OGs and Manhattan Guides. So in order to pull this off, I've decided to purchase the GMAT Club Tests + e-gmat verbal package. 
Please advise if this is a good strategy.

Thanks!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi rkisho,

At this scoring level, the GMAT becomes really "sensitive" to silly mistakes, so your goals during practice should be two-fold:

1) You need to eliminate every little mistake that occurs (or can occur) - this usually means taking more/better notes and knowing more than one way to answer the various questions that you'll come across on Test Day. If you get just a few questions wrong for silly reasons, you'll miss out on too many points to hit you goal.

2) Make sure that your practice is as 'realistic' as possible. This means that you MUST try to make your CATs "mirror" Test Day in as many ways as possible. You need to take the ENTIRE CAT (including the Essay and IR sections), take it at the same time of day as your Official GMAT, take it away from your home, etc.

Since there are so many GMAT resources to choose from, it's tough to say if any specific resource (or combination of resources) will be a perfect "match" for your sensibilities. Your Official GMAT scores are so close though that you likely "see" (and respond to) the GMAT in a certain way. To earn a big bump up in score, you're going to have to make some adjustments to your processes.

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

jrnymn · Answer

Thanks Rich, for the expert tips, they really help.

I realize the process and approach to solve is more important than the sheer quantity of practice.

My enhanced score report shows the sectional breakups as follows:

Qaunt - 49

PS - 47
DS - 50
Arithmetic - 50
Algebra/Geometry - 48

Verbal - 35

CR - 35
RC - 35
SC - 34

If the above are any indication, I seem to have a "basic" problem on all the verbal sections, because I always scored close to 40 during my practice.

Thanks!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi rkisho,

A V40 is close enough to a V35 and a V37 that the difference is really just a handful of questions. Thus, it might be that you're a little too tired on Test Day to perform better, maybe you're 'narrowing it down and "guessing"' a bit too often or it might be that your practice is somehow unrealistic.

Your scores are solid though, so I wouldn't say that you have any big "problems" - it's the little things now. If you can define them and fix/master them, then you can pick up those missing points. Part of the solution will involve doing more organized work and taking more notes.

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

How should I approach my 3rd GMAT attempt? Please advise.

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