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[vipul_ohri]

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[StaceyKoprince]

First, I'm not sure what practice tests you've been taking, but the quant score pretty much tops out at 51, so I'm not sure why the test you took gave you a score of 55. That's odd.

You mention taking tests for the past 15-20 days. How many have you taken and how frequently? CAT exams are really good for (a) figuring out where you're scoring right now, (b) practicing stamina, and (c) analyzing your strengths and weaknesses. The actual act of just taking the exam is NOT so useful for improving. It's what you do with the test results / between tests that helps you to improve.

So if you take a test, don't like your score, and then just take another test... well, your score should stay about the same, because you haven't done much to improve. And simply taking another test is not how you improve. If you want to improve, then you have to study - a lot - before you take another test.

What materials have you been using to learn how to do verbal problems? (Not books that just give you practice problems, such as OG - those don't teach you how to do the problems.

The big red flag right now is that you mention running out of time and having to guess on the last RC passage plus 3-4 problems at the end of the test.

No matter how good you get, you will still have to guess on something like 4 to 7 questions in the math section.  You don't want to be forced into making those guesses in a row at the end of the section, so choose the 4-7 hardest questions AS YOU SEE THEM throughout the section.  Remind yourself that you CANNOT get to the point where you can answer everything given to you in the expected timeframe - that's just not how the test works.  You have to let some of the questions go. (Even people scoring 750+ have to do this sometimes, though we may not have to do it on as many questions.)

This will alleviate the strings of wrong answers that you're experiencing as a result of your timing problems; you'll be able to answer at least one or two of those correctly if you can spend adequate time. You'll also be spreading out your wrong answers and you'll be doing this on the hardest questions - which you're probably getting wrong anyway, even when you spend extra time. So you're not sacrificing anything, AND you're giving yourself the potential to gain some extra points.

Think of this as a tennis match, not a test. You're going to win some points and the other guy is going to win some points; you're not going to win them all, right? Your goal is to put yourself into position to win the LAST point. Translated, that means you have to put yourself in position to answer the last question - you have to have time to address it. Otherwise, you've lost the last point, and by extension the match. When the other guy hits a winner, don't go running after it so fast that you hit the fence and injure yourself, thereby hurting your chances on the later points. (Translation: don't go way over when the problem is too hard.)

Most people answer approximately 60% of the questions correctly. At 750+ levels, we're answering maybe 75% to 90% of the questions correctly (depending upon the final score) - in other words, we're still getting a lot wrong, even though we're scoring in the 99th percentile!