Got 760 in first practice test - should I do the real GMAT now?

Question

I am very new to GMAT - started preparing yesterday.

I did the Diagnostic test at the start of the GMAT Official Guide book 2016 (I think that's what's called OG16 here?) yesterday and then today went on to do one of the official GMATPrep practice tests to find out where I am starting from.

I was expecting to be unpleasantly surprised because on the diagnostic test I only got 1 section (CR) in the Excellent range, and the remaining sections in the higher sections of the Above Average range. But reviewing the answers I picked up something generally useful things like Parallelism for SC (SC was my weakest because I am used to almost instantaneously converting text to semantic meaning even if the text has grammatical and other language problems; plus I am non-native English speaker).

In the actual GMATPrep test I got 760 (Q 49 and V 46), IR was 8. It's especially surprising as I was expecting to lose points on the Verbal due to my SC problems above. Quantitative part looks like it could do with further improvement as I answered 16 out of the 37 questions incorrect, compared to 4 out of 41 for Verbal.

So I am thinking, given I'd be happy with 760 in the real exam, whether to just go ahead and do it? What would be the reasons against doing this and how strong would they be?

I would be especially interested in views from people who were in a similar situations and what they did afterwards.

Thanks

OptimusPrepJanielle · Answer

Hi jk451,

That is an excellent first practice exam score. Not many people can do this.
However, I would still encourage you to study for a few week, so that you can improve your understanding of the concepts tested on the GMAT and try to increase your Quants score too.

I would recommend you to buy the Exam Pack1 also and solve atleast all the 4 official mock CATs

Did you take the full CAT or you skipped the AWA section?
Skipping a section does not gives you realistic result as the GMAT is a marathon and you need to train your body for those 4 hours.

Things to do:
1. Buy the Exam pack1
2. Strengthen the Quants portion
3. Solve full length mock CATs and the OG
4. Take the GMAT

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi jk451,

A 760 on a practice CAT is an exceptional performance (even moreso because it's your first CAT). Before you rush in to take the Official GMAT though, it's important to try to define how realistic this practice CAT result was, so here are a few questions about this CAT:

1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT (including the Essay and IR sections)?
2) Did you take it at home?
3) Did you do ANYTHING during this CAT that you can't do on Test Day (pause the CAT, skip sections, take longer breaks, etc.)? 
4) Were there any questions on this CAT that you had seen before?

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

jk451 · Answer

Thanks for the replies Rich and Janielle.

With regards to whether I did anything differently from the real test:
1) I did the IR section (score indicated above), though I skipped the AWA. I will obviously practice the writing before, but given the AWA section is half an hour I don't think it's that massive advantage compared to reality?

2) Yes I took it at home (is that good or bad?)

3) Not really - I never paused the test, only took toilet break when it said there would be an official break in the exam and ensured that the break would be shorter than that allowed in the exam. Apart from the AWA above I didn't skip anything.

4) There was a single verbal question I had seen the day before in the OG16 diagnostic test, though I got it correct even in the diagnostic test (newspaper marketing department got restructured and the sales then increased. What would help in determining whether the increase in sales can be attributed to the restructuring).

So I think apart from the AWA skipping I didn't do anything more leniently than on real exam.

My worry is how much variance there is from this practice score to the real thing, i.e. maybe I just got lucky? I could take the second practice test to confirm though that would exhaust what looks like the best source of test there is...

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi jk451,

Test Day is a rather specific 'event' that you can train for. With what you've described though, you didn't face all of the fatigue and endurance 'tests' that you'll face on the Official GMAT. While I'm sure that you won't have any trouble writing an essay, the fact is that you have to spend the first 30 minutes of Test Day on the AWA (thinking, working, expending energy, etc.); by extension, you don't actually see your first Verbal question until almost 3 hours have gone by. Neither of those things happened during this CAT though.

I don't think that you 'lucked' into a 760 - you clearly have the critical thinking skills to perform at a high level. The questions now are 'how high can you actually score?' and 'how well do you perform when you get a bit tired?'

All things being equal, if you wanted to take the GMAT this week, then I think you'd have a really good shot at scoring 700+. However, expecting a 760 score just isn't realistic yet.

1) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
2) Do you know which Schools you plan to apply to?

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

AjiteshArun · Answer

There is no reason not to take the exam. The only thing at stake here is the money involved in scheduling another GMAT appointment. If I were you, I'd just take it. There is no way to "luck" your way to a 760 on the GMATPrep. There is measurement error involved, but you're almost certain to get a good score. Whether that will happen on the first attempt itself isn't guaranteed, but it's still just the 250$ and nothing else on the line. Committing yourself to maybe a month or two of preparation seems to be the greater risk here. That time is likely to be very, very valuable time, and you could be doing a lot of other things that'll end up helping you get into your target school(s). And yes, The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 2016 is the same thing as the OG2016

AjiteshArun · Answer

What I really want to check after reading this is whether you finished the verbal early. Skipping AWA is clearly not ideal, but if you finished the exam early, you could find yourself in a different situation on exam day. For example, you could end up taking more time on each question than you did on your GMATPrep because you felt that you had to get a good score on the real thing. That could affect your ability to perform at a high level because the actual exam is going to be around 4 hours (not counting some of the time spent waiting/choosing programs).

Again, given that you hadn't seen the questions before taking the GMATPrep, there is no way you got a 760 by luck. Take a few more practice tests if you want more data points on your side.

jk451 · Answer

Thanks for all the responses.

Here is the additional information asked:

1) I finished both Quant and Verbal on time (I paced it so).

2) For clarity, before starting the exam, although I skipped half an hour of AWA, I actually spent a whole hour before solving Quant problems in the OG16 book (because I didn't manage to do them the previous day), so I don't think exhaustion would be a big problem here.

I think I will try to get a bit better in quant, brush up on SC a bit, do a couple more tests and then give it a go.

I am still a bit worried about the randomness so I will definitely do a couple more tests before I do the real thing (also to practice the AWA).

AjiteshArun · Answer

Good plan, and good to see that you're already pacing yourself. Taking a few more tests is also a good thing to do.

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