Happytrojan wrote:
Hi!
I just did my first complete practice test, one of the free tests from MBA dot com. I scored a 710! Im very excited, because I expected to get something in the low 600s. Those intensive english (english is not my first language) and math classes I took in college really paid off!
I have about 2 months until my GMAT appoint, and was wondering how much improvment I can expect? Im in law school in Sweden now (yeah I know, I study a lot) and I was thinking Im not going to study much for the current class and instead focus on the gmat. So I will pretty much have all these coming 8 weeks to the GMAT. I have a lot of experience with standardized tests, and even scored in the 99.2th percentile on the swedish SATS (got a 2.0/2.0 for those of you familiar with the scoring. The math questions on that test were all information sufficiency questions), and I guess Im planning to put in at least 100 hours or so into preparing for the gmat. Have already ordered most of the materials recommended here. I was wondering, how much improvement can I expect to see until d-day?
Also, how accurate representations of the real tests are the free tests on MBA dot com? Is a 710 score one of those test representative for what I would have achieved on a regular test?
Thanks in advance for answering my questions. And yeah, I went to USC for an undergrad in business. Hence the name.
if you took this diagnostic cold [with no studying] then there is room to improve and actually get in to the 99 percentile. gmat is very learn-able and all you have to do is better you strategy and approach to each question type. on the other hand if you studied first and then took the test, you will still be able to improve your score but not as much as the preceding case i presented [this is just a probability].
one thing you should do is do enough questions that you can develop a pattern recognition understanding of questions while taking the test. this will only happen if you have done a lot of question types and familiar with every type of complexity that could be piled on a basic subject in each section.
to get into the deep 99 percentile you have to go beyond what typical gmat prep materials provide you, and master each subject and all the complexities it could present you. for example one method is to go through all the questions that you have done, despite you answered them correct or incorrect, figure why the correct answer is correct and why the incorrect answers are incorrect[this is very useful specially in the verbal section]. it is at this point that you will start to develop pattern recognition technique, and will kick some gmat ass...
more question you do and more accurate shortcut techniques you have developed to deal with each type of complexity that could be presented to you, the better you will do on the actual test...
the last part is the mental attitude. to score in deep 99 percentile you have to have the right mental attitude and toughness and never give up learning new techniques...
good luck to you and hope you do even better on your actual test