Okay, we're going to go for it for round 2!
If it's the case that you don't get the score that you want, you could also push admissions for a year. Get the GMAT done this winter and then hit round 1 or 2 next year. (Maybe not what you want—to wait a year—but, hey, most things in life don't happen exactly when / how we first planned. Not a disaster. Just life.) But don't need to think about that now. Let's go for it.
I'm impressed that you were able to keep your verbal score up at 36 even with the rough quant section. I'd say your goal here is to get yourself to 40+ by the real test.
Your quant score was significantly deflated just due to your timing problems—as you said, there were questions you could have answered but couldn't because you were so stressed and you were having to rush so much.
Let's start with the stress / panic as the clock is ticking. (And, hey, this will help with all of the other stressors in life, too!)
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... mat-score/The above article links to some free resources from UCLA. There's also this program:
http://www.10percenthappier.com/mindful ... he-basics/It has a free 1-week trial and is then paid, but I've had several students who have really liked it, so that's another option.
what if the majority or all feel too hard and then I'm guessing my way through the exam?
When you guess / get a few wrong, the test will respond by giving you easier questions. So the way the test works literally means that you are *not* going to keep seeing "too-hard" questions!
Ideally, this is what you want to happen:
– I'm not making careless mistakes, and I'm getting the points that I know how to get.
– The test says, oh yeah, can you do this?
– Nope, I can't. That one's too hard. I guess and move on.
– The test moves me back into the level that I can do.
– It keeps doing the above cycle.
– I don't massively mess up my timing by getting sucked into stuff that I can't do or that I can't do in a reasonable amount of time, so I'm able to maintain my "level" through the end of the section.
– I get the score that I want.
In other words, you
want to keep bumping up against that ceiling—you want the test to give you stuff that you can't do. That's how you know you're performing at your peak. And then you want to react appropriately: back away from that peak and spend that time and mental energy elsewhere.
how do I know which questions are too hard?
You study this just like you study everything else.
Go back over that test you just did. Which ones did you miss just because you messed up the timing or made a careless mistake? Prioritize those.
Which ones did you legitimately miss, but they're fine for you now—either you've figured it out or you've looked at the solution and it makes total sense? Practice those.
Which ones did you legitimately miss, and the explanation seems like gobbledy-gook? Or maybe you sort of understand it but it would take really long or you're not sure you could remember or execute on that solution? These are the ones that are too hard for you. Start keeping a list of the characteristics that signal "too hard" for you.
On quant, prioritize these things:
(1) Things that are more commonly tested.
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... 24222.html(2) Things that are easier for you to learn. Figure this out from your test analyses.
Use this article to help you analyze your CAT in (great) detail:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... ts-part-1/Prioritize bucket 2. (You'll understand what that means after you read the above.)
Note: For your non-bucket-1 items, do NOT put almost everything in bucket 2 and almost nothing in bucket 3. Think of this as a 2-week timeframe: What things do you want to prioritize
first, in the next 2 weeks? What is most likely to pay off in a short timeframe? Put those in bucket 2. Put everything else in bucket 3.
Then, come back here and tell me what your bucket 2 categories are.
Given the timeframe that we're discussing, I do think you need more timed, adaptive practice on quant, but taking a full test every week may not be the most efficient way to accomplish that. You may want to buy GMAC's GMAT Focus product (at mba.com), which is a 24-question, adaptive, quant-only test section. If you get the 3-pack, you can do this 3 times over the next 2 weeks, iterating / learning after each take, then take another full CAT. (And I agree: try V first next time.)
Also, remember that you are still trying to lift V, too—so don't neglect that side of things. When you are getting sick of quant / every few days, do some V instead.
And when you get to the last 7 days, acknowledge that your skills and scoring level are what they are and won't change a ton in that last 7 days. Your goal at that point is just to peak within your current skill level (vs. trying to cram like crazy, tiring yourself out and tanking your performance on test day).
Use this to help make that happen:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2016/09/ ... mat-part-1Let me know on your buckets, etc!
) adding to my stress & time constraints.