Cold Score of 490.

Question

Hello Everyone,

My cold score with no preparations in the GMATPrep software was 490(V16, Q42, IR4). I have 3 months and I am aiming 740 which might sound unrealistic but I am willing to put my heart and soul into it. I have a full-time job. Please help me out with suggestions. I need a real confidence booster from experts.

snehal88 · Answer

I guess 3 months are sufficient for improving. All the best.

rohan2345 · Answer

Hi uls880, 3 months should be good enough to achieve your dream score. It’s a good thing you have taken your GMAT Mock once. You now know your weaknesses and work on them. If you are willing to study dedicatedly for three months, you are sure to achieve your goal. I believe you may benefit from taking a GMATPREP course. If you are willing, there are some great GMAT prep companies that can help you with your preparation. In order to make an informed decision I would highly encourage you to go to their websites and try on their free trial and decide for yourself which one do you like better. You try out free access to EmpowerGMAT, Magoosh and Optimus Prep as they have great reviews on GMATCLUB. Also for verbal, I would highly encourage you to consider e-gmat verbal online or the e-gmat verbal live course. They are both amazing courses especially designed for non-natives. They offer almost 25% of their courses for free so you can try out their free trial to decide which one you want to go for. Plus the e-gmat Scholaranium which is included in both the courses is one of the best verbal practice tools in the market. You can also try out the MGMAT guides they are phenomenal and cover the entire syllabus really well. Just by going through these guides and solving the OG will help you reach 600+. I must add that if you are particularly looking to discover and improve on your weak areas in quant; a subscription to GMATCLUB tests is the best way to do that. They are indeed phenomenal and will not only pinpoint your weak areas but also help you improve on them. Further taking multiple mocks might help. Apart from the GMATPREP, Manhattan GMAT tests and Veritas Prep Tests in my experience have a good verbal and Quant section and will certainly help you point out and improve your weak areas. Further another advantage of taking many mocks is to build up your stamina. Apart from the GMATPREP tests, taking practise tests of any major GMATPREP company ought to do that. Further,I would also encourage you to purchase the latest version of OG and the verbal review for some great additional practice. Here is a link that will help you with your decision. https://gmatclub.com/forum/best-gmat-ve ... 68383.html Lastly, you can check out a very interesting article by Mike McGarry from Magoosh detailing a 3 month study plan https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/3-month-g ... -students/. You will find it very helpful as it gives out a study plan as per your needs. Hope this helps. All the best.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi uls880,

A 490 is a decent initial CAT score (the average score on the Official GMAT hovers around 540-550 most years). Raising a 490 to a 740+ will a lot of work - and you'll have to make significant improvements to how you handle BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections. You will likely need at least another 3 months of consistent, guided study - although it's possible that you'll need significantly more than that.

Thankfully, you can potentially accomplish a great deal in 3 months. You would likely it beneficial to invest in a GMAT Course of some type (either Guided Self-Study or instructor-led), so you should plan to look into the available options.

1) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
2) What Schools are you planning to apply to?
3) Going forward, how many hours do you think you can consistently study each week?

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

souvonik2k · Answer

A score of 490 on Gmatprep test without any preparation is good. However, you need to improve on both Quant and Verbal for a score of 740.
I suggest to study from the MGMAT guides. They cover all the topics of the Gmat. For practice, I would suggest the OG and the Quant and Verbal review guides.
Alternatively, you can go through the Ultimate Quant Megathread of the Gmatclub. It covers all Quant theory required for Gmat.

SIMONexamPAL · Answer

Hi,

Raising your score from a 490 to 740 is definitely possible. Yes, It would take some hard work, concentration, but it is definitely possible. We actually wrote a blog on how to crush the GMAT in 3 months time.

https://exampal.com/gmat/blog/how-to-pre ... -3-months/

Good Luck!

pramodpkmp · Answer

Thanks everyone for sharing good inputs. your valuable feedback will help me as well

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