I am writing during my lunch break, while I don't have much email to go through. Today's topic is surrounding the GMAT scoring. I believe that it is possible to attain your goal in the GMAT, if you set aside the proper time to do so. I went in and missed my goal recently because I was so busy that I didn't have time to put the priority on GMAT. So how do you get the grade you want on a GMAT or GRE?
The first thing I would mention is study. Not only do you have to study the tips and tricks, you have to study the content that is going to be on the test. With minimal preparation, depending on the areas that you are generally good at (hopefully it is either math or verbal), you can expect to score around the mean. What this means is that I believe that a mean of the test takers are those of us that either a.) don't study -OR- b.) don't study the proper stuff enough. For me, my weak side is verbal; fooey on sentence structure. Since that was also the hardest for me to study, unfortunately, I did not do better than mean here (I was right at the mean). My suggestion is to prepare harder for the weaker areas, all the while preparing for all of the areas.
The second thing is to prepare for test day. Take the GMAC Practice test several times. While this only gives you an idea of what you will score, it will get you more comfortable with the test and the test layout. Being comfortable on test day is an absolute essential. This test doesn't give real time feedback, so find a book that will help you study questions and may give you real time feedback of what happened when you answered something.
Finally, I would say prioritize (and this may be the most important thing here). Priorities generally determine how we live our life, from all aspects. Priorities could be family, happiness, work, 2nd job and more. If your GMAT Priority is aligned where mine was, you may not get any time to study. Make sure that you plan on that when it is time to schedule your exam. If you have several priorities that are going to outrank your GMAT test, then schedule more time before you take it. On the other hand, if you are in a hurry to get it done, you may have to take off work (or at least if you have a second job) to make sure you have the time to put into what you want to do. If you are in your undergraduate and in a tough class that is taking more time, you may not want to schedule the GMAT during the session so you will have a few weeks of uninterrupted study time. Align your priorities for success, and if you do that, you will be successful. Getting your goal on the GMAT can play a big part in where you will be in your future, prepare.