Gmat Prep 640 - Aiming for 730+

Hi Asemonick,

First off, a 640 is a solid first CAT score. To hit your score goal, ou'll still have to make some significant improvements to how you handle BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections, but you appear to have enough time to continue studying and improve. CAT Review should be a part of your overall study plan - knowing WHY you got questions wrong should help you to hone your skills and attack any 'weak areas.' To that end, you DO have a pacing problem - you're moving too quickly and those choices are likely costing you points.

When you reviewed this CAT, how many questions did you get wrong because of a silly/little mistake? If you would have slowed down, taken more notes, done more work 'on the pad', etc., you could have gotten those questions correct. Depending on the number of questions that fit that 'category', your primary area of focus could very well be to be more efficient with the work that you do when answering GMAT questions.

I would suggest that you schedule an actual Test Day. Having that appointment will help keep you focused on the task by imposing a 'deadline.' By not having one, you'll be far more likely to push back your plans (and keep pushing them back).

When it comes to your work experience, I don't see any 'problems'; quite the opposite actually - your background is suitably unique, so you should be able to stand out.

1) When are you planning to apply to Business School?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Rich,

Thank you for your reply. After going through the CAT and looking and my mistakes i couldn't agree with you more about slowing down and becoming more efficient. This issued directly caused me 5 incorrect answers on Quant. As for as Verbal i feel i moved through the RC sections way to fast, resulting in more careless errors. I worry to much about not finishing in time and rush as a result.

As for your question I plan on apply to B-school this fall (fall 2016) Round 1 for most programs. I would like to get my GMAT out of the way by March or April I've been delaying picking a date until i feel ready.

Hi Asemonick,

With your overall timeline, you have plenty of time to improve in all of these areas and hit your score goals. I suggest that you focus on review and accuracy for the next week - don't worry about how fast you're answering questions, just focus on keeping a calm mentality and doing organized work on the pad. With your next CAT, you can afford to slow down (so focus on note-taking and try double-checking your work periodically). On a fundamental level, you would likely score higher overall if you had to guess on the last question in each section (because you used your entire clock and you were out of time) than you currently score (finishing early).

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

8 weeks is a good enough time to achieve your target score.
I would recommend you to take your Verbal preparation along.
Excessive focus on one section might have an adverse impact on the other section. In addition, make sure that you have a set time schedule every day/alternate day in which you can solve Verbal questions and go through the notes.
Usually a good way is to feed the SC concepts in your mind is to go through the notes every alternate day before going to sleep. This can also be done with the Quants notes too.