310 to 410 Practice Test

Question

I am trying to get in a state school and only need around 500 to 550 to get in. I took 2 practice tests (about 2 weeks apart) and got 310 and 410. I have about 2 weeks until the actual test day. Do you think I have a chance to get 500-550 on test day?

BrentGMATPrepNow · Answer

100 points is a significant gain, congrats! The next 100 points might be a little tougher. If you absolutely MUST take the GMAT in 2 weeks, I suggest that you focus on concepts that have the greatest return on investment (ROI). These are concepts that are tested frequently and require the least amount of time to learn. In my opinion, these concepts are: - Sentence Correction - Data Sufficiency strategies - Percent - Integer Properties - Powers/roots - Algebra - Geometry I say all of this because I often see students spending a lot of time agonizing over concepts like Probability and Counting, when these concepts are not tested nearly as much as concepts like integer properties and geometry. CR and RC questions probably have the lowest ROI. I'm not saying that you shouldn't prepare for them; I'm just saying that improvements take a long time, especially for non-native English speakers. For CR, be sure you understand the various question types. Finally, take at least 2 more practice tests in order to perfect your time management skills and build your endurance. If you're interested, we have a free GMAT time management video at https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gener ... video/1244 Cheers, Brent

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi hossmanTK,

Since you haven't clearly defined how you've been studying, and 2 weeks is not a lot of additional study time, it's tough to say what you might be capable of on the Official GMAT.

1) What is the application deadline for the School you're planning to apply to?
2) Can you push back your Test Date?

3) What were your Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores on each of these CATs?

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

99Colleges · Answer

Agree that you should focus on those parts where RoI is likely to be more, especially when you don't have much time to go. Sometimes, intangibles such as your mindset during the test hours can easily make the entire difference, and even things such as are you in good state physically (which indirectly affects you mentally). There may not seem to be an obvious correlation, but I've personally benefited (in tests) from being a regular in physical exercise, more so in weeks leading to the test day.

hossmanTK · Answer

Thanks for all of the replies. I will definitely focus on concepts in these last two weeks. I can't push the date back unfortunately so I have to grind this out. I actually got a 420 on my latest practice test and I felt like I was guessing on a lot of the quantitative questions. I am going to review the questions I feel are coming up more often than not. I need to be able to get the easy questions right in order to get a 500.

Thanks for your help and comments. Do any of you have a link to another set of free cat tests? The official gmat tests seem to be the same questions?

Thanks

Thanks for your help and comments. Do any of you have a link to another set of free cat tests? The official gmat tests seem to be the same questions?

Thanks

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi hossmanTK,

Right now, taking lots of additional CATs is NOT the solution to your issues. I'll be happy to advise, but you're going to have to provide more information about your timeline and studies than you have so far:

1) What is the application deadline for the School you're planning to apply to? Is that the ONLY deadline?
2) What were your Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores on each of these CATs?
3) If you don't score 500 in 2 weeks time, what will you do then?

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

hossmanTK · Answer

Thanks for the feedback again. I have some more updates.

I emailed the adviser for the school I want to attend (the same school I got my undergraduate from) and he said that to get accepted, the minimum percentile you can get is a 0% in quantitative and 5% in verbal. The kicker is that in order to get some classes waived, I need to get above the 25th percentile in quantitative and above the 20th percentile in verbal.

My latest practice test from the GMAt Prep software was a 420. 20th percentile quantitative and 20th percentile verbal.

The adviser also said that I can attend school in January if I take the test as scheduled on December 5th. I can report to him my unofficial scores and still be ok for acceptance (depending on how I do).

My studying thus far has been practice problems on the GMAT Club website and practice problems in the Official GMAT Guide for 2015.

Thanks!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi hossmanTK,

If the School's GMAT Score requirements are that 'modest', then you should be able to focus on the 'gettable' questions and 'dump' everything else (the questions that are too hard, weird, complex, long, etc.). To that end, on your last CAT how many questions do you think that you COULD have gotten correct, but didn't because of a silly/little mistake or because you were low on time? THOSE are the questions that you need to get correct to hit these percentile goals.

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

hossmanTK · Answer

I went back through my 420 score test and looked at the wrong answers. I made some stupid mistakes on both sections. If I took my time a little more and paid attention to the details, I would have gotten a handful more right. Do you think getting a few more questions right on each section would improve my score that much?

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi hossmanTK,

The specific details matter here - if it's just 1 or 2 silly mistakes, then the increase in score (by NOT making those mistakes) wouldn't likely get you the 100+ points you're looking for. But how many silly/little mistakes did you actually make? Beyond those mistakes, how many questions COULD you have gotten correct, but didn't? The more often you end up thinking "I could/should have gotten that question correct..." then the more easy points you let slip away.

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

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