Best Strategy for ~730 (Q 90%; V70-80%) with 2-3 weeks left

[tobias-m.schulz]

Hi,

As the topic says what is the best strategy for me to come to that level? Also said that it would be better for me to be in the 80% range in verbal.
I did 4 MGMAT tests without too much MGMAT Strategy guides and score always arounf 47 (80%) in the Quant section and between 30-36 (59-72%) in the verbal section.
Since than I read through many MGMAT Quant guides (only geometry and 50% of WT left) and feel that I improve my Q-skill quite good since than.
So I'm intending to fast focus on the Verbal section. In CR I'm quite okay. RC seems to be my biggest problem area (acc to test score) although I feel quite comfortable with it, but somehow I'm still not that good. I'm especially struggling with complex topics with many difficult words (I'm non-native speaker). For SC, I'm feeling that there is the most work to do, as I don't know the "GMAT gramma" to much.
BTW, I am pretty much preparing full-time and thus have several hours per day to learn.
Is it realistic at all? How should I best attack these areas? I guess I should read the MGMAT guides and practice as much as I can!? Also, the high difficulty RC essays seems quite tough to me... I heard that MGMAT is often more difficult than the real GMAT? is this the case for RC as well?

Thanks a lot!
Tobias

[StaceyKoprince]

Okay, so you've been scoring around 80th percentile on quant. Your verbal score has a pretty big range. Did you start out at the lower end and end up at the higher end on your last test? (That is, have you been improving in general?) Or have the scores been up and down? What was the score on your most recent test?

Did you take the tests under official conditions? (essays, only two 8-min breaks, all in one sitting, no use of the pause button, etc) If not, how did you deviate from the official conditions? (Depending on how you deviated, your scores might be inflated - you'd want to know if that's the case.)

If you haven't taken a test that's at least close to the official conditions, then it would be a good idea to do that now (especially if you haven't taken a practice test in more than 3 weeks or so - I can't tell from your post). In particular, if you skipped the essays, if you used the pause button, or if you took breaks that are much longer than allowed, then you should take another test under FULL official conditions in order to get a more accurate assessment of your current scoring level.

Then, your next task is to get a more specific understanding of your strengths and weaknesses. For that, you can do the analysis described in this article:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/a/2009/09/23/evaluating-your-practice-tests

Once you've done the analysis, come back here to post and we'll help to figure out what, specifically, you should be doing.

In terms of whether it's realistic to hit your goal in your time frame - yes, it's possible, but you may also need more time. If you're currently around the 80th percentile in quant and the 70th percentile in verbal (under official conditions), then you don't have super far to go to hit your goal, so a few weeks may be enough time. If your current level is actually a bit lower, then obviously that will take more time. I will say that RC tends to take a bit longer than other areas to improve, so if that is a big problem area for you, then you may need a bit more time.

Re: our practice tests, my students usually tell me that they think our quant is harder than the real quant but that our verbal is fairly similar. I have talked to students who felt differently though - who thought that the official quant was harder or our verbal was harder or easier. A lot of it depends upon your specific strengths and weaknesses, as well as what specific questions you happen to get when you take tests.