Lakshyamanchester
Last week I took a Veritas Prep CAT, I scored a 650 after a month of preparation. Also my verbal topics were not done especially RC and CR.
I have seen my quant mistakes and have been working on them for the past 1 week and I'm planning to give my next CAT after 2 weeks.
But is 650 a good score to start? Also, I'm due to give my GMAT in late march.
Posted from my mobile device
650 is a great starting score. If you haven't started with your RC and CR prep and you committed a substantial number of mistakes in these two question types in the test, it is very likely that you will see a further increase soon enough.
That said, keep two points in mind:
1. After 650, every 10 point increase takes a lot more effort. This is when your concepts are in good shape and advanced application is what matters. Hence, it does take more hours to go up the curve which continues to become steeper.
2. Focus on the weaknesses the tests help you identify. No practice test, not even the official GMAT practice test can give you the actual score you will get on your test. Though Veritas prep tests do a pretty good job of it since they employ Item Response Theory (IRT), the same system underlying the real GMAT. Unlike more basic approaches that simply count correct and incorrect responses and then generate a score, IRT recognizes that no two GMAT questions are exactly the same. What question you receive at any given point on a test will be dictated by how well you have performed up to that point, and how you answer that question will impact your ability estimate and help determine which question you see next. The system also takes “content balancing” into account, ensuring that you see a mix of question types that are representative of what you will see on the real GMAT, all while gathering as much information about your ability level as possible. That said, the incredible value of practice tests lies in the fact that they help you identify the areas in which you stumble and that should be your biggest takeaway.