New Member, Some expert guidance

Question

Hi I took the official GMAT practice test and scored 620, 49Q and 23V and 6IR,

Working with JPM currently and haven't studied for past 5 years since graduation.

Target tier-1 institutes that may compliment my existing profile.

and hopefully give exam by July end or August

akela · Answer

Welcome  Ag3009 ,

You have a great Q score for the start. I guess you need to improve verbal section to get a decent score.

Here are some threads that might help:

GMAT study plan 
 GMAT Study plan for verbal 
 How to go to V40 from V30 
 How to improve Quant 
 All you need for quant

Hope this helps!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Ag3009,

To start, a 620/Q49 is a strong initial CAT Score (the average score on the Official GMAT hovers around 540-550 most years), so you clearly have strong critical thinking skills for the Quant section. With 3 months of potential study time, you could potentially improve a great deal. 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:

1) What study materials do you currently have?
2) What is your goal score?
3) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
4) Do you have an idea of which Schools you plan to apply to (and if so, then which Schools are you considering?)?

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

AkshdeepS · Answer

Hi, Follow these links: 1. To know how GMAT club can be used effectively : https://gmatclub.com/forum/topic257054.html#p1993468 2. Quant : https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-math-qu ... 7/?fl=menu 3. Verbal : https://gmatclub.com/forum/verbal-gmat- ... 1/?fl=menu 4. Timing Strategies : https://gmatclub.com/forum/timing-strat ... ml?fl=menu 5. Free Stuff : https://gmatclub.com/marketplace/free-stuff?fl=menu 6. GC Math Book : https://gmatclub.com/forum/topic130609.html#p1073182 7. GC Grammar Book : https://gmatclub.com/grammar QZ.

rohan2345 · Answer

Hi Ag3009, 3 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 3 months, you are sure to achieve your goal. 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 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. 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 ... 68383.html 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.

Ag3009 · Answer

EMPOWERgmatRichC

Hi Ag3009,

To start, a 620/Q49 is a strong initial CAT Score (the average score on the Official GMAT hovers around 540-550 most years), so you clearly have strong critical thinking skills for the Quant section. With 3 months of potential study time, you could potentially improve a great deal. 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:

A few issues which have nothing to do with studying is that i'm a bad procrastinator, given my work profile i really find it difficult to take out ore than an hour on weekdays.
Friends who have already got in B-schools suggest me that my undergrad CGPA (7.9/10) is way too low to get in any top B-schools even if i work for JPMorgan and have good working relationship with seniors in my firm.

1) What study materials do you currently have?

-OG 2018, Kaplan Prep Plus 2018, Manhattan SC 5th Edition

2) What is your goal score?
~750

3) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
September'18

4) Do you have an idea of which Schools you plan to apply to (and if so, then which Schools are you considering?)?

-I want to target these Schools but i know it wont be easy to get in Wharton, INSEAD, BOOTH, HAAS

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Ag3009,

When it comes to Admissions questions, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile and application plans (as opposed to taking advice from your co-worers, who are almost certainly NOT Admissions Experts). There's a Forum full of those Experts here:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/ask-admission ... tants-124/

In addition, the 750+ score is about the 98th percentile - meaning that 98% of Test Takers never score that high (regardless of how long they study or the number of times that they take the GMAT). Thankfully, NO Business School actually requires a score that high - so it's important to realize that the score that you "want" and the score that you "need" are not the same thing.

With that Score Goal in mind though, you'll have to commit to a consistent, guided study routine and make significant improvements to how you handle the overall Verbal section AND you'll likely have squeeze out some extra points in the Quant section. You would likely find it beneficial to invest in a GMAT Course of some type (either Guided Self-Study or instructor-led), so you should plan to look into the available options.

1) Going forward, how many hours do you think you can consistently study each week?

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

Ag3009 · Answer

EMPOWERgmatRichC

1) Going forward, how many hours do you think you can consistently study each week?
-2hrs weekdays and around 4hrs on weekends

souvonik2k · Answer

Hi
A score of 620 on first practice test is very good. Your score breakup indicates that you have good Quant skills but need to work on Verbal. Analyze the test and start working on your weak topics. I would suggest to study from the MGMAT guides for Verbal. They are comprehensive and cover all topics of the Gmat. Then you can start practicing from the OG. Subsequently, you can take another practice test and see your progress.

GMATPill · Answer

Looks like you can make some significant improvement on verbal.

We recommend starting off with focused effort just on Sentence Correction (SC). Improving your ability to spot sentence structures and comprehend them quickly will translate over to the more complex CR and RC questions.

As you go through OG material, follow along with our video explanations on this Google Drive folder here:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1f_ckd ... H1HmTgctJI

If you like these thought process based videos, we encourage you to learn more about us at

www.gmatpill.com/testimonials

But develop a plan - focus on specific sections -- don't study everything at all once. Step by step - and always review what you supposedly "learned" the day before. Incremental progress over time, will lead to tremendous progress.

Hope that helps.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Ag3009,

You've given yourself plenty of time to study - which is good - but you will have to commit to a consistent study routine (and learn and practice the proper Tactics) to hit your Score Goal.
Many Test Takers who use a 'book heavy' study approach end up getting 'stuck' at a particular score level - and since your current study materials are all books, it's possible that this could happen to you. There's no harm in starting off with those practice materials though, so I suggest that you study as you choose for the next 2 weeks, then take a new, FULL-LENGTH CAT (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 here, we can discuss the results and any adjustments you might make to your studies.

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

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