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29 Aug 2017, 13:49
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hello, I am new to forum but will probably be a regular on here for the coming months...
BG info:
2:1, Masters in Chemical Engineering (Imperial, UK). Graduate 2017.
Looking to do 2018 Finance programs. (GMAT recommended to strengthen application)
My Target:
720 GMat
10 weeks prep
So I have a few 'specific to me' questions for you seasoned veterans out there:
I took the GMat practise CAT test 1 under test conditions, without any prep yesterday and scored 580 just to benchmark myself... I was a bit surprised I was that bad but hey ho.. My questions are as follows then.
1) Is it realistic to go from 580 to 700+ in 10 weeks. I am not working at the moment and plan on doing 5/6 hours a day.
I did an 'error log' as suggested on here and found the following:
Quant: (54 percentile)
70% of the quant incorrect answers I managed to re-correct afterwards as they were dumb mistakes.
20% was me not seeing what to do straight away and skipping due to time but after, under no contraights I could do them easily (on average about 3 mins per q).
10% I genuinely didn't have a clue. Most of them being Geometry. (Will look at Geometry questions)
Verbal (54 percentile)
60% of the incorrect answers were SC.
40% were a mix of the others.
2) How best to approach quant? Like I said, 90% on the concepts I am happy with, I am just making dumb mistakes. Is it still worth looking at guides? Or shall I just practise massive volumes of questions to get rid of those mistakes?
3) SC is clearly a major issue for me. As a native, I just played everything by ear. I clearly have no real idea of grammatical structures etc. What is the best approach of fixing this? Any specific guides you would recommend / posts on here to read.
4) Any other tips?
Thanks in advance.
BG info:
2:1, Masters in Chemical Engineering (Imperial, UK). Graduate 2017.
Looking to do 2018 Finance programs. (GMAT recommended to strengthen application)
My Target:
720 GMat
10 weeks prep
So I have a few 'specific to me' questions for you seasoned veterans out there:
I took the GMat practise CAT test 1 under test conditions, without any prep yesterday and scored 580 just to benchmark myself... I was a bit surprised I was that bad but hey ho.. My questions are as follows then.
1) Is it realistic to go from 580 to 700+ in 10 weeks. I am not working at the moment and plan on doing 5/6 hours a day.
I did an 'error log' as suggested on here and found the following:
Quant: (54 percentile)
70% of the quant incorrect answers I managed to re-correct afterwards as they were dumb mistakes.
20% was me not seeing what to do straight away and skipping due to time but after, under no contraights I could do them easily (on average about 3 mins per q).
10% I genuinely didn't have a clue. Most of them being Geometry. (Will look at Geometry questions)
Verbal (54 percentile)
60% of the incorrect answers were SC.
40% were a mix of the others.
2) How best to approach quant? Like I said, 90% on the concepts I am happy with, I am just making dumb mistakes. Is it still worth looking at guides? Or shall I just practise massive volumes of questions to get rid of those mistakes?
3) SC is clearly a major issue for me. As a native, I just played everything by ear. I clearly have no real idea of grammatical structures etc. What is the best approach of fixing this? Any specific guides you would recommend / posts on here to read.
4) Any other tips?
Thanks in advance.
29 Aug 2017, 14:35
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi BrexitBojo,
To start, a 580 is a strong 'baseline' score (the average score on the Official GMAT hovers around 540-550 most years). Many Test Takers spend 3 months (or more) of consistent study time before they hit their 'peak' scores. In addition, the 720+ score is above the 90th percentile, meaning that 90% of Test Takers never score that high regardless of how long they study or the number of times that they take the GMAT... so whether 10 weeks will be enough for you to hit 720+ or not is something that nobody can answer just yet.
While it's certainly possible that you could brute-force your way through lots of practice questions and hit your goal, many Test Takers who study in that way end up getting 'stuck' at a particular score level (and end up inadvertently 'wasting' a lot of practice material). Since you appear to have plenty of potential study time in the next 10 weeks, you would likely find it beneficial to invest in a GMAT Course of some kind (either Guided Self-Study or instructor-led).
1) What were the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores on this 1st CAT?
2) When are you planning to apply to School?
3) What Schools are you planning to apply to?
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
To start, a 580 is a strong 'baseline' score (the average score on the Official GMAT hovers around 540-550 most years). Many Test Takers spend 3 months (or more) of consistent study time before they hit their 'peak' scores. In addition, the 720+ score is above the 90th percentile, meaning that 90% of Test Takers never score that high regardless of how long they study or the number of times that they take the GMAT... so whether 10 weeks will be enough for you to hit 720+ or not is something that nobody can answer just yet.
While it's certainly possible that you could brute-force your way through lots of practice questions and hit your goal, many Test Takers who study in that way end up getting 'stuck' at a particular score level (and end up inadvertently 'wasting' a lot of practice material). Since you appear to have plenty of potential study time in the next 10 weeks, you would likely find it beneficial to invest in a GMAT Course of some kind (either Guided Self-Study or instructor-led).
1) What were the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores on this 1st CAT?
2) When are you planning to apply to School?
3) What Schools are you planning to apply to?
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
29 Aug 2017, 17:11
Kudos
Bookmarks
EMPOWERgmatRichC
Hi BrexitBojo,
To start, a 580 is a strong 'baseline' score (the average score on the Official GMAT hovers around 540-550 most years). Many Test Takers spend 3 months (or more) of consistent study time before they hit their 'peak' scores. In addition, the 720+ score is above the 90th percentile, meaning that 90% of Test Takers never score that high regardless of how long they study or the number of times that they take the GMAT... so whether 10 weeks will be enough for you to hit 720+ or not is something that nobody can answer just yet.
While it's certainly possible that you could brute-force your way through lots of practice questions and hit your goal, many Test Takers who study in that way end up getting 'stuck' at a particular score level (and end up inadvertently 'wasting' a lot of practice material). Since you appear to have plenty of potential study time in the next 10 weeks, you would likely find it beneficial to invest in a GMAT Course of some kind (either Guided Self-Study or instructor-led).
1) What were the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores on this 1st CAT?
2) When are you planning to apply to School?
3) What Schools are you planning to apply to?
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
To start, a 580 is a strong 'baseline' score (the average score on the Official GMAT hovers around 540-550 most years). Many Test Takers spend 3 months (or more) of consistent study time before they hit their 'peak' scores. In addition, the 720+ score is above the 90th percentile, meaning that 90% of Test Takers never score that high regardless of how long they study or the number of times that they take the GMAT... so whether 10 weeks will be enough for you to hit 720+ or not is something that nobody can answer just yet.
While it's certainly possible that you could brute-force your way through lots of practice questions and hit your goal, many Test Takers who study in that way end up getting 'stuck' at a particular score level (and end up inadvertently 'wasting' a lot of practice material). Since you appear to have plenty of potential study time in the next 10 weeks, you would likely find it beneficial to invest in a GMAT Course of some kind (either Guided Self-Study or instructor-led).
1) What were the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores on this 1st CAT?
2) When are you planning to apply to School?
3) What Schools are you planning to apply to?
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Thanks for the advice.
I have ordered the OG guide+ verbal +Quant but those are mainly for questions. Quant, I am pretty happy with. I just need to iron out dumb mistakes. However, I feel like I definitely need to put some sort of Qualitative strategy in place. Any strategies (+guides) you would recommend to help improve my score?
1) Not sure what you mean by this?
2) Early Novemember
3) MSc Finance at: Imperial College, London School of Economics and University College London.
