From 530 to 600+ is it possible??

Question

Hello!!

What I think you need to know is:

- I've done the free CAT exam from Manhattan, which I got a 530 score.

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- I've been studying since last year; however, I had to do a two moth break because I went to Peru.

- last year after I spent one mont or two studying 2 hours top per day I got 540 on the Economist free CAT exam.

- My official GMAT exam will happen on April 13th

I don't realy know if I should focus in studying theory or doing exercises or both. I'm currently not working so I have plenty of leisure time, but I do need to study for the TOEFL too (not much though).

How do you advise me to follow the next weeks of study? I've found an one month study plan from magoosh that seems good, but I think it migh be too hardcore. It's pretty much 90 - 100 exercises per day + video lessons.

Thanks for any advice.

rohan2345 · Answer

Hi Krebs01, You should dedicate around 3 months to Improve your Score. It's a good thing you have taken GMAT PREP practice test. You now know your weaknesses and can work on them. If you are willing to study dedicatedly for that period, you are sure to achieve your goal. Before taking a lot of practice tests I would encourage you to solidfy your base first. Only after you feel you are at a certain level you can start doing practice test. 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 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 and they are both within your budget. 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 well. 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 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

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Krebs01,

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 how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) Can you go into a bit more detail about your study routine over the last couple of months (in 2018)?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) How have you scored on EACH of your CATs ini 2018 (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
4) Is your goal score a 600 or something else?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
6) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

mvictor · Answer

It is possible. I got from 550 to 650. You need to prepare a good study plan though...

Krebs01 · Answer

I've started studying last year in december after I sis my first CAT (economist), which I got 540. I don't know my Quant and Verbal Score from my first CAT and I cannot checked, since It's been deleted; however, I do think I got between 33-37(Q) and between 22-25 (V). During the month of December I was using magoosh's 3 month study plan and using the material recomended by them, which are OG, OG Review (Verbal and Quant), Nova's GMAT Math Prep Course and Manhattan's GMAT Advanced Quant.

Now talking about 2018, from January to February 25th I wasn't really able to study anything due to the fact that I was living in Peru as part of an exchange program and the house were I was living was really crowd. At the end of february I started to study again from were I left of (Magoosh's 3 month study plan), but I realized that I was not gonna be able to finish the study plan, so I decided to do a new CAT (Manhattan) and go for the magoosh's one month study plan. In this last CAT I got 36(Q) and 28(V).

Of the ones that I'm applying only two ask for the GMAT and both of them ask for at least an 600 score. My official GMAT Test is going to be on April 13th.

The thing is that if it's not possible to achieve this score in one month, I would cancel or reschedule my official gmat test and only apply for one of the 2 Schools that ask for the GMAT, since I would probably have lost the application deadline to one of them. However, if there is a possibility to achieve at least 600 than I wanna try it.

ps: sorry for any grammar mistake.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Krebs01,

Raising a 530 to a 600+ in the next 4 weeks is certainly possible - and you could pick up all of the missing points that you're looking for in either just the Quant section, just the Verbal section or a mix of the two. It's also worth noting that - to hit your Score Goal - you do NOT need to correctly answer ANY questions that you think are too hard or too weird. If it's really been about 2 weeks since you last took a CAT, then you should plan to take a new, FULL-LENGTH CAT sometime soon - and make sure to take it in a realistic fashion (take the FULL CAT - with the Essay and IR sections, take it away from your home, at the same time of day as when you'll take the Official GMAT, etc.). Once you have that score, you should report back and we can discuss how best to proceed.

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

Krebs01 · Answer

I must say that I was thinking that it would be in possible to get there in one month so these last 7 days and haven't study much, so I doubt that my score will change something.

Posted from my mobile device

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Krebs01,

If you cannot commit to a consistent study routine (taking a week, multiple weeks or months 'off' from your studies seems to hint that that might be the case), then you will find it difficult to improve. In that same way, I'm not sure if you've been taking your CATs in a realistic fashion, so there's some question as to how accurate these practice CAT Scores really are. As such, it would still be useful for you to take that next CAT as advised (and make sure to take it in a realistic fashion). I'd also like to see if you can incorporate the advice that I gave you - to hit your Goal Score, you don't have to correctly answer ANY questions that you think are too hard or too weird... so what will you do when one of those questions shows up? (hint: you should quickly guess and move past it).

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

Krebs01 · Answer

Hi, so I've just done the GMAT Prep CAT and I got 45(Q),22(V). The night before the CAT, I went to sleep at 9:00pm after taking valerina (a natural medicine to help sleep) and the morning before the CAT, I woke up 5:30am, which is the same time that I will have to wake up on the test day, and started the CAT at 8:00am.

I've changed my test day to the last week of April due to that I will have two more weeks to study.

I had to guess 6 questions in the Verbal section and 11 questions in the Quantitative section. I managed to get 4 questions right from my guess in the Verbal section and 5 questions right from my guess in the Quant section. Additionally, I did 6 stupid mistakes in Quant and 4 stupid mistakes in Verbal.

I've changed my test day to the last week of April so that I could have two more weeks of study.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Krebs01,

To clarify, when you say that you "had to guess on 6 questions in the Verbal section" do you mean that you CHOSE to quickly guess on them because you thought they were hard OR do you mean that you ran out of time at the end and had to guess because you had no choice?

With a Goal Score of 600, you have to keep the little mistakes to a minimum. You admit to getting 10 questions wrong because of silly/little mistakes (there are only 78 total questions between the Quant and Verbal sections though), so what would you do differently to make sure that you DON'T make those same mistakes again? I suggest that you rework ALL of those questions step-by-step (on your pad, NOT "in your head"). Your Goal is achievable, but it requires a certain amount of 'precision' in your work.

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

Krebs01 · Answer

I had to guess them because I was running out of time.

I will do those exercises again (the ones I got wrong due to silly mistakes).

Thanks for the help

Posted from my mobile device

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Krebs01,

By having to 'rush' through so many questions at the end of each section, you clearly 'overcommit' to certain questions (and likely work in inefficient ways throughout each section). There's also the question of whether you attempted to follow my prior advice or not; how many questions did you quickly 'dump' because you thought they were too difficult? Considering the number of questions you had to rush through, I have to assume that you spent far too much time on the toughest questions that you faced. Working in that way will almost certainly keep you from hitting your Score Goal.

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

Krebs01 · Answer

There a some, I don't remeber how many, questions that I thought they were easy, but they end up being kind of hard. I did lost too much time on them. However, there were a few questions (I think 3) that I guessed because I had know idea how to solve them.

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From 530 to 600+ is it possible??

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