First Prep Test- 630 how to prep?

Question

Hi all Gmat fellows out there, you're the bomb.

I just took my first practice test without any preparation and scored a 630 on the GMAT official prep test. As I'm hoping to apply to business schools for 19' fall semester, I hope to achieve a 700+ on my final exam. Some questions: 1) Is this a good starting score? 2) Can anyone give out good tips for a recommended crash course? (thinking of 2 months preparation time) 3) Is it realistic to achieve 700+ in 2 months? I scrolled through all posts that are in the same category as I am but not really any answers as to whether they achieved the final score or not. Score: Total: 630 Quantitative:43; 50 percentile Verbal: 34; 71 percentile Many thanks in advance, and good luck to anyone that's in the same boat as I am:)

GMATPill · Answer

It's absolutely realistic to get solid improvement in 2 months. The key is consistency and religiously reviewing your mistakes with a lookout for patterns of mistakes.

630 is pretty good, especially if that's your first attempt. Most who are able to make the jump over 700 start off in the 600 range. Still, don't put that much weight on any initial test. Make any improvements you can.

In terms of crash courses, well - each takes a different approach. What works for one person may not work for you. So explore around to see which approaches resonate with you.

We take a "thought process" approach - with expert demonstration videos that show the thinking process that goes on in an expert's head as they think through a test question.

Here is a Google Sheet with links to OG SC video explanations:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

As an example, you can try to watch through a few walkthroughs here:
https://www.gmatpill.com/sentencecorrection/og/q007.mp4
https://www.gmatpill.com/sentencecorrection/og/d35.mp4

This is a great resource from which to practice and also hear an expert's perspective thinking through test questions.

We encourage you to explore some of the success stores of GMAT Pill-ers at:

https://www.gmatpill.com/testimonials

---and get additional GMAT Practice at our online question bank, which has 1,000+ practice questions available free. A paid account is required to view all of our excellent video explanations.

Focus, focus, focus,
https://www.gmatpill.com

rohan2345 · Answer

Hi hskcali5, Welcome to GMATCLUB! Yes it's definitely possible. 2 months is good enough to improve your score. It’s a good thing you have taken a GMAT Mock once. You now know your weaknesses and work on them. If you are willing to study dedicatedly for that period, you are sure to achieve your goal. I think you need to solidify you base and adopt a proper technique to answer the questions. 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 can try out free access to EmpowerGMAT, ExamPal 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 easily track your progress in that you can identify your strengths and analyze and improve on your weak areas. You can also try out the MGMAT guides they are phenomenal and cover the entire syllabus really well. MGMAT foundation of GMAT Quant anf foundation of GMAT verbal will particularly help you solidify your base. 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. Please Note, that you should only do GMATCLUB tests once you have covered the base and looking to further enhance your concepts as GMATCLUB tests are a bit more difficult than the actual GMAT. Further taking multiple mocks might help. Apart from the GMATPREP, Manhattan GMAT tests and Veritas Prep Tests in my experience have 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. 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 ... ml?fl=menu 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.

AkshdeepS · Answer

Please go through these links : 1. https://blog.targettestprep.com/how-to- ... -on-gmat/# 2. https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-definiti ... 69705.html Your first test score is perfect. Best thing is your Verbal score is higher than Quant. So, best of luck. Akshdeep

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi hskcali5,

To start, a 630 is a strong initial CAT score (the average score on the Official GMAT hovers around 540-550 most years). By extension, you're likely a fairly strong critical thinker already - which is good. Many Test Takers spend 3 months (or more) of consistent study time before they hit their 'peak' scores, but it's certainly possible that you could improve to a 700+ with 2 months of consistent, guided study (assuming that you are efficient with your studies and learn/practice all of the necessary content and Tactics to earn that type of score).

Before I can offer you the specific advice that you’re looking for, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on your timeline and goals:

1) What study materials do you currently have?
2) Do you have an Official Test Date scheduled yet (and if so, then when is it?)?
3) What Schools are you planning to apply to? Are you planning to apply for Round 1 this year?

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

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi hskcali5,

I’m glad you reached out, and I’m happy to help. Scoring 630 with zero prep is a great start. While it’s possible to raise your score 70+ points in just two months, such an increase is not guaranteed. That being said, since time is of the essence, it’s imperative that you follow a smart, thorough study plan.

Remember, it’s possible to score 630 without fully understanding some topics or refining certain skills. To score 700+, your preparation is going to have to be thorough. So, you have to go through GMAT quant and verbal carefully to find your exact weaknesses, fill gaps in your knowledge, and strengthen your skills. The overall process will be to learn all about how to answer question types with which you currently aren't very comfortable and do dozens of practice questions category by category, basically driving up your score point by point. When you do dozens of questions of the same type one after the other, you learn just what it takes to get questions of that type correct consistently. If you aren't getting close to 90 percent of questions of a certain type correct, go back and seek to better understand how that type of question works, and then do more questions of that type until you get to at least around 90 percent accuracy in your training. If you get 100 percent of some sets correct, even better.

For example, if you find that you are not strong in answering Number Properties questions, carefully review the conceptual underpinnings of how to answer Number Properties questions and practice by answering 50 or more questions just from Number Properties: LCM, GCF, units digit patterns, divisibility, remainders, etc. As you practice, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get right. If you got a remainder question wrong, ask yourself why you got it wrong. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not properly apply the remainder formula? Was there a concept you did not understand in the question? By carefully analyzing your mistakes, you will be able to efficiently fix your weaknesses and in turn improve your GMAT quant skills. Number Properties is just one example; follow this process for all quant topics.
 
You can work on verbal in a similar manner. Let’s say you are reviewing Critical Reasoning. Be sure that you practice a large number of Critical Reasoning questions: strengthen and weaken the argument, resolve the paradox, find the conclusion, must be true, etc. As you go through the questions, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get correct. If you missed a weaken question, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not recognize what the question was asking? Did you skip over a key detail in an answer choice? Getting GMAT verbal questions right is a matter of what you know, what you see, and what you do. So, any time that you don't get one right, you can seek to identify what, if anything, you would have needed to know in order to get the right answer, what you had to see that you didn't see, and what you could have done differently to arrive at the correct answer.

Each time you strengthen your understanding of a topic and your skill in answering questions of a particular type, you increase your odds of hitting your score goal. You know that there are types of questions that you are happy to see and types that you would rather not see, and types of questions that you take a long time to answer correctly. Learn to more effectively answer the types of questions that you would rather not see, and make them into your favorite types. Learn to correctly answer in two minutes or less questions that you currently take five minutes to answer. By finding, say, a dozen weaker quant areas and turning them into strong areas, you will make great progress toward hitting your quant score goal. If a dozen areas turn out not to be enough, strengthen some more areas.
 
So, work on accuracy and generally finding correct answers, work on specific weaker areas one by one to make them strong areas, and when you take a practice GMAT or the real thing, take all the time per question available to do your absolute best to get right answers consistently. The GMAT is essentially a game of seeing how many right answers you can get in the time allotted. Approach the test with that conception in mind, and focus intently on the question in front of you with one goal in mind: getting a CORRECT answer.
 
In order to follow the path described above, you may need some new verbal and quant materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the  best quant  and  verbal courses .
 
You also may find it helpful to read my article for more information regarding
 how to score a 700+ on the GMAT .

Feel free to reach out with further questions.

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