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Gmatnewbiegal
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Study time references...PLEASE! 17 Jun 2006, 19:57
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Hi,
I am a senior in college (Economics major/3.7 GPA/student athlete/ for context) and have a crazy year ahead; I am applying for two academic grants and will be conducting my senior thesis. I would like to take the GMAT before I graduate but do not know if it's even worth it (after reading how long some of the members here have studied), because I don't think I'm going to have time to adequately study. I am a bright student, but average standardized test taker- timed tests are just especially hard for me. I was thinking of studying all Winter Break (approx 1 month) to take a Spring test, but am doubting that will be sufficient. Could some people please tell me how long they took to successfully prepare for this test (reasonable time frames would be good...if you're talking two years...uh...I won't have that sort of time) Your insight would be much appreciated.
Thanks!
GMATNewbieGal

Ps. I would like to attend business schools such as Jones at Rice, Tepper at Carnegie Mellon or Fuqua at Duke in about 3-4 years with a goal score of 690-710.
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rhyme
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Study time references...PLEASE! 18 Jun 2006, 07:46
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Hey Gal,

Its a near impossible question to answer unfortunately. I have one friend who studied ON THE TRAIN to the exam and scored a 720. I have another friend who didn't even know what was on the exam and got a 780, taking it "just for fun". I have another friend who studied 1 month and got a 640, studied 1 more month and got a 720. Another friend who did exactly the same thing got a 610 both times despite studying much harder (she says) than her husband who pulled the 640/720 combo in the same period. One friend I have studied six months, got a 530. Studied 3 more months, got a 550. Then he studied six more months and scored 620. Three more months of study he scored a 640. (Thats 18 months!). Another friend of mine studied 3 months got a 540, then studied 1 more month and pulled a 680. I studied 3 months got a 640. Studied another month got a 730. One girl I know studied five months got a 720.

It's just very very dependent on the individual...

In short, my advice would be this: Try taking a full length practice exam, including the essays (people who skip these underestimate what an extra hour can do to your stamina by the time you hit verbal), see how you score on that. If you are scoring reasonably near to your target, 1 month may be enough if you can quickly hone in on your weaknesses. If you are off by more than 50 points, I'd venture a month will not be enough.

Offhand... gut instinct... I'd say 1 month is going to be a little tough. I'd venture MOST people I know that pull 700's (excluding those who are just naturals at this) do so with "100-200 hours" of study. Thats more of a two month timeline (at best).
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Gmatnewbiegal
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Study time references...PLEASE! 18 Jun 2006, 15:37
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Thanks for your words of advice. I knew that it would vary to some extent...but wow...not that much. I figured on studying about 100-150 hours for it (Winter Break = 4 weeks x 40 hours/week= 160 hours of studying - 1 day to enjoy Christmas haha). But maybe I'll hold off a little bit. Thanks much for your suggestions.

Ps. Do they average your scores if you take the GMAT more than once (I plan only to take it once, but just in case...)?
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Study time references...PLEASE! 18 Jun 2006, 17:30
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Gmatnewbiegal
Thanks for your words of advice. I knew that it would vary to some extent...but wow...not that much. I figured on studying about 100-150 hours for it (Winter Break = 4 weeks x 40 hours/week= 160 hours of studying - 1 day to enjoy Christmas haha). But maybe I'll hold off a little bit. Thanks much for your suggestions.

Ps. Do they average your scores if you take the GMAT more than once (I plan only to take it once, but just in case...)?
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100-150 hours may put you in the 700 range. You may ALREADY be in the 700 range. Some people are just better at standardized tests than others. I'd suggest you study for a few days, maybe 2-3 days just to familiarize yourself with the concepts at a very high level, then take a practice exam. You will likely NOT do very well, but it is a good indicator of where you are baseline skills are and may help you adjust your target score.

When I first decided to do the GMAT, I'd heard that "600 or better" was basically the cutoff for having any chance in (!@#!. I knew 700's was where I wanted to be, but I had no expectations of doing so. I said "600 or better" and I'll be happy. My first practice exam I got a 610. So I said, ok, well, if I can get a 610 without knowing much of anything then I should aim higher. I set my target at 640. I started scoring this, then I came here and started reading stories of people who pulled 700s. Despite scoring a 640 a week later, a score which I had originally said was "good enough", I decided I wanted a 700. The point is: You may be aiming 690ish now, but if you score in that range on your first exam, be prepared to readjust those expectations up. If on the other hand, you score a 490, be prepared to adjust those expecatations down (or face quite a bit of study).

Another word of advice: Don't put too much weight in your first practice exams. They can go either way. If for example, you cannot recall a single geometry formula and you get 8 geo problems, your score may look quite different from the exam in which you got none. This brings me to another point: The GMAT is really composed of four parts in my mind

(1) What you already know
(2) Topics that you dont know and that you don't know are on the exam.
(3) Topics that you dont know but know that are on the exam.
(4) Your nerves and stamina

Get it? A practice exam will show you part of (1), (3) and to some extent (4) - but will not show you (2). In other words, 37 math questions will only test a subset of material (in all likelyhood) that could be tested. Therefore, your first practice exam will NOT be totally accurate. There are many subjects to cover, not all of which may show up more than a few times in the 37 questions. I'm not making my point very well here, but what I'm trying to say is this: The first exam may give you an idea of your score, but it may be high or it may be low depending on the kinds of questions you get. You may be lucky and get questions on subjects you are comfortable and score higher than you might on average, or you may be unlucky get questions of average difficulty but in a subject you dont remember and end up scoring lower than you might on average.

In other words, don't just rely on that first exam to gauge your final score. Take several practice exams. Don't just rely on what you got wrong in the practice exams either. Also, take your practice exams FULL LENGTH. Do NOT skip the first two essays. People do this and then take the real deal and find themselves exhausted by the time they hit verbal. Do not make this mistake. Get used to the 4 hours or so each exam takes.

Also, as for "averaging"... A few things to note about the GMAT:

1. You recieve a Quant raw score and a Verbal raw score. These are between 0 and 50. Each raw score has a percentile associated with it.

2. You will recieve a score of 0-6.0 for your two essays. These are graded by 1 computer and 1 human, and then averaged. If the computer and human grader differ by more than 1 point, another human grades and the two human grades are averaged. This score does NOT affect your overall 0-800 score, but is still important. (4.0 or better I would suggest)

3. You will receive a combined score of 0-800, also with a percentage.

The MOST important one:

4. ALL GMAT SCORES ARE REPORTED. This is not like the SAT (at least when I was taking it) where ONLY your best score was reported. If you score a 400, it is there, on your record. Schools will look at your highest score. But, buyer beware, if they see you score 650, 630, 620, 640, 650 ... it will start to look like you cannot improve. Similarly, scores of 400, 450, 470, 480, 730 will look strange.

The rule of thumb I have heard - and actually read on some application somewhere, though who the heck remembers where - do not take more than 3 times unless necessary.

Also, another major important point. Although several schools consider GMAT scores valid for up to 5 years, not all schools do. Be sure to research this before you bother with the GMAT - the last thing you want to do is find out 4 years from now that your GMAT is not valid.
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Gmatnewbiegal
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Study time references...PLEASE! 20 Jun 2006, 00:03
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Thank you so much. I appreciate that you took the time to write this...it's very helpful...and in that case yes, I should check how long my scores are good for...
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