1) Incomplete Answers will cost you

Completing the 37 questions in Quant and 41 questions in Verbal is the key. If you compare making mistakes to an incomplete test attempt, the later will cost you more.

2) All Questions are equally important

“If you don’t get the first 7 questions correct, chances of you crossing 700 is very low” is a famous myth among GMAT test takers. First three questions will be the easiest of the lot and getting incorrect answers in them shows that there is a lack of preparation. Even if you score the first seven questions correctly and your last seven questions are incorrect, you would be penalized in the same way.
      
3) Score 90th percentile with 80+ percentile in Verbal and Quant

Strange as it may seem, you can score in the mid 80 percentile in both verbal and quant and cross the 90th percentile in your total GMAT Score.

4) Don’t obsess with Permutation and combination

The typical mistakes that GMAT test takers, strong in Quant section, make is to ignore other concepts and practice a lot on permutation and combination problems. Ratios and Proportions, Averages, Speed and Distance and percentages are all extremely important too. Although the concepts of these sections are simple to understand, the complexity can be easily increased by tweaking some of the other parameters. So give equal importance to all GMAT Quant topics.

5) Why the choice was eliminated

Contrary to what test prep companies profess about Process of Elimination (POE), you can’t live entirely on POE. Even while you do POE, focus on the reasons why you eliminated the answer choices. You have to develop the skills to spot multiple errors in an answer choice. This way, you would be much prepared to handle two answer choices that might look like the correct one.

6) GMAT Prep companies can’t guarantee 700+ - You can!

GMAT prep companies can give you an amazing foundation for your GMAT exam. But to expect them to take you from 600 to 700 is asking for too much. The toughest score range to cross over is from 600-700 to 700-750. In order to make the transition, you have to work smart, keep log of your mistakes and approach your GMAT preparation with complete focus and determination. There is no room for complacency if you are targeting 700+.

7) Not enough scratch paper
          
Don’t worry about practicing GMAT exam with fewer scratch papers. You jut have to raise your hand and the proctor will give you extra papers, this will cost you at the max 35 seconds. It is always better to ask for more paper and do your calculation in a way that you can understand. However, the GMAT Noteboard is a little different from normal paper. If you have any anxiety about the noteboard, buy GMAT noteboard and practice two full GMAT test using it. The noteboard is erasable, so you can reuse it for your practice tests.

8)  Know when to guess

Our instincts are good. We know when we are on a roll and when we are stuck. At the most, spend two minutes on each question. For reading comprehension, allot time keeping in mind the time taken for reading the passage and the time spent for taking notes. I am not suggesting guessing even on the slightest tricky question. Keep in mind that 5-8 questions will be “Experimental”, so guessing in itself might not be a bad idea. However, guess for questions where you instinctively know that the path to the right solution is 4-5 minutes away. It is not worth your time to spend 5 minutes on a single question.

9)  Science passages are a pain

I agree. Science passages are the toughest one to summarize, especially when you feel that you need domain knowledge to summarize it. Don’t bother to understand each and every details. Get an outline of what the passage suggests. When you read the question, 75% of the time you have to go back to the passage, so don’t spend too long understanding complex science theories.

10) Fast calculation

Even in F1GMAT, Fast calculation is one of the most read posts under GMAT tutorials. It is true that fast calculation can be useful when you are solving problems in factors and multiples, but most of the time, you just have to insert simple numbers or you can even use an approximate. It never hurts to know a little bit of Vedic Math. However, if you are 1 month away from GMAT, do not bother learning Vedic Math. It takes some time to move away from normal math calculations to Math shortcuts and Vedic Math.

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