Scored a 400 on my first attempt...

Question

All my life I've been horrible at standardized testing, but never have I done so bad before. With the SAT and ACT, I scored around the 50th percentile, which isn't great, but enough for me to get into a decent undergrad. I guess I made a huge mistake in thinking that I would score around average on the GMAT as well (550ish), but what a huge overestimation. Depressed right now and don't know what to do as I only have about 3 weeks left before test day. I can prep every day for 12 hours but I don't know how much that will help and I'm scared it won't even help at all. My top choice program has an average GMAT score of around 620, so my target score was 650. Not sure where to go from here...

Is it even possible to go from a 400 (without any preparation) to a 650 with 3 weeks of just breathing/living/studying for the GMAT?

I purchased Magoosh's premium account and saw several introductory videos and some tips here and there but have yet to tackle any of their practice questions. I'm thinking of skipping all of their lesson videos and just doing the practice questions.

Any tips/advice is greatly appreciated!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi hopelessgrad,

The 'short' answer to your immediate question is NO - it is unlikely that you'll improve 250 points in 3 weeks. The 'long' answer is that you CAN improve 250 points over 3 months, IF you are diligent with your studies and IF you use the right resources. As such, you're going to have to change your timeline/plans to achieve your goals; this will mean pushing back your Official Test Date. While it's understandable that this change in plans is probably not going to make you happy, you have to remember the *real* goals: get that high GMAT score and get into your first choice Business School. Right now, your current situation isn't going to accomplish either of those goals, so you have to make the necessary adjustments and keep studying.

Before I offer any suggestions, I'd like to know a bit more about how you've been studying so far:

1) How long have you been studying?
2) What resources have you been using?
3) What were your Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores on this CAT?

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

hopelessgrad · Answer

Hey Rich, thanks for the reply. I have to take the test on Jan 14th in order to meet the school's application deadline.

1) How long have you been studying?  I have not studied at all for the test. Purchased Magoosh's premium account but have only seen a few introductory videos. Just decided to take a practice test today from the GMAT website to see where I stand.
 2) What resources have you been using?   Magoosh. Again, I have not practiced any of their problems. My plan was to use Magoosh's question bank as my only resource, aside from the two practice tests from the official GMAT website.
 3) What were your Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores on this CAT?   My Q is 25 and V is 21. I don't even want to talk about IR. What a ridiculous section.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi hopelessgrad,

From your prior post, I assume that you mean that you have to take the Test by February 14th to make the admissions deadline. You can take your GMAT as planned, but you haven't given yourself enough time to properly study, so it's unlikely that you're going to hit your score goal by then. Is there a later deadline that you can apply to?

This is meant to be nothing more than informative - you need to come up with a better, more realistic plan because this current plan is not going to work. You can make the application deadline, but your GMAT score is likely going to be too low for you to be considered a competitive applicant. If you have a strong OVERALL application, then the School might overlook a low GMAT score, but that's not the subject of this post. The issue right now is 'what do you need to do to improve 250 points' and there's no practical solution that involves a 3-week time period.

The dream is not over though. You CAN improve this score given the right amount of time, effort and resources. And you can apply to (and get accepted to) Business School. These things are just going to have to happen at a different time.

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

hopelessgrad · Answer

Thanks for the input. There's actually another deadline in mid-April, but the ideal deadline to apply would be in Feb. because that is also the scholarship priority deadline. I just sent the admissions adviser a quick email explaining my situation and asked her whether I should wait for the April deadline or go ahead and apply in Feb. with less than desirable scores. Don't know if I should have sent that email, but I was feeling desperate and needed some answers. I'm still in shock with the scores, I feel like I can definitely improve my verbal scores as I looked over the test and saw several silly mistakes I made in the sentence correction questions and several other questions I just guessed and didn't even read the passage because I was burnt out. The quantitative section is more of a concern for me because a lot of the concepts I have forgotten as it has been years since I've taken a math course. I originally planned on taking the GRE but opted for the GMAT because I felt better tackling grammar questions instead of vocabs. I still feel good about this decision since I'm horrible with vocabs, but there's always that "what if" feeling. I rather just focus on the GMAT now than dwell on a test I've already foregone (is that even a word)?

And don't worry about offending me, the score is horrible, I know.

sarahrs · Answer

Hey,
There are month long study plans out there. Magoosh does them as does GMAT pill. 
Should be fairly possible to pull your score up in three weeks, though how much I don't know. I would say if business school is important do you really need to apply this year? Might worthwhile delaying so you can get a proper crack at the test.

Three basics things you need to do:
Understand how quant section works as GMAT has a funny question type. So read the strategy elements. 
Learning priority is: times tables, percentages, ratios and number properties. Also learn the distance, time, speed formula. That should give your score a quick boost.
Timings and GMAT strategy: GMAT Manhattan has some good posts on timing strategy and and other general GMAT strategies. 
Verbal: do the videos on basic critical reasoning and comp strategies. Should help with verbal score. And give yourself a basic refresh on grammar for sentance correction. 
If you risk a low quant score: spend some time on the intergrated reasoning section; it's not yet adaptive and possible to get high score easily by understanding timing strategies. GMAT Manhattan also very good for this.
Four do one practice a week. Use that to guide your prep.

Ps I used magoosh for my GMAT study.

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Scored a 400 on my first attempt...

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