Hello fellow GMATers

Hi Rich,

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I appreciate your feedback on my study planning. Your recommendations make sense and I plan on adjusting my schedule accordingly to get more of a quant/verbal mix. Thanks for informing me about the CAT. I am pretty fresh to the GMAT planning process, so I am unfamiliar with the CAT other than its the computer adaptive testing format the GMAT uses to serve test takers questions. Are these full-length CAT exams you reference available in the GMAT TestPrep software/on the GMAT site? I have currently purchased the Official GMAT Guide Review and the supplemental Official GMAT Quant and Verbal test prep books from Wiley for 2016. I am in the process of taking the Diagnostic Test the book recommends you take before getting into the "meat" of the studying. Is this much different from the CAT test you're referencing? I believe that the Diagnostic Test is supposed to serve as an gauge of areas to focus for studying.

To answer your questions:

1)I am still unsure of what a realistic test score is for me, (I've always struggled with the Math portion of these types of exams/Math in general), but I would like to get above a 600 , if possible. But just taking some of the Quant portion of the Diagnostic review, I know I have a long way to go in 5 months.

2) I plan on applying to grad school over the summer of 2016 and potentially attending as soon as September 2016.

I look forward to your feedback!

Thanks again,

Tim

Hi Janielle,

Thanks so much for the feedback. I will look into these CAT exams that both you and Rich have recommended. Thanks again!

Tim

Hi Tim,

Unfortunately, the Diagnostic Test at the beginning of the OG is not a great way to get a realistic assessment of an Official GMAT score. Relative to the Official GMAT, that Test does not have the same number of questions, the same ratio of questions, it doesn't adapt, it's missing the Essay and IR sections, etc. While it can help to define some of the areas that you need to work on, if your goal is to have a realistic assessment of how you might score on the Official GMAT, then the only way to get that result is to take a FULL-LENGTH CAT under realistic conditions.

The most realistic CATs on the market are the 4 GMAC CATs (the 2 free ones and the additional 2 that can be purchased from www.mba.com). While there are other CATs that are 'close-enough', the reality of that initial CAT is important - since that score result provides a baseline and defines your initial strengths and weaknesses. In that way, having the MOST accurate initial assessment is important. To that end, you should also plan to take the FULL CAT (including the Essay and IR sections), so that we can see how you handle the endurance/fatigue 'challenges' of the Full Exam.

Some Test Takers become overly concerned about 'wasting' one of the GMAC CATs on the first attempt, but there are 3 other GMAC CATs and a variety of 3rd party CATs that you can use during the course of your studies, so that concern seems more emotional than practical.

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