Too soon to take official mocks?

Question

Hi,

My GMAT is scheduled for the 2nd of August. I've taken the following tests :
Manhattan Free (q44, V35)
Official Mock 1 (q47)
Official Mock 2 (q48, v34)  
Kaplan free (q48)
Veritas free (q48)

My plan is to buy Manhattan tests and the Official 3,4,5,6.
I wanted to take an official mock today to gauge where I'm really at.  
Shall I take a manhattan instead? Because I have only 4 official ones remaining; shall I save them for the next month, given that my exam is in August?

AnirudhaS · Answer

space them out nicely. make the plan now and stick to it. You can reset 3-6 once, so essentially if you give a gap of a few weeks you can take them again. Also if you just want to gauge your verbal level, manhattan is good for that. Manhattan's quant is a bit lengthy and in my opinion not GMAT like. But verbal is very much like the GMAT. Hope this helps.

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

4 Official Mocks over 4 weeks is not too bad.

jn0r · Answer

The best advice you would get is probably to take some time to learn the basics and fundamentals of quant and verbal before taking Mocks. Mocks do not significantly improve your scores, they just indicate where are you at the time of the mock. Instead, this 3 hour study time may be devoted to more useful activities such as improving your weak areas or working on verbal.
With regard to mocks, it is best to keep official mocks to the end and do Manhattan at the beginning. Good luck with your studies

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Karan911,

A CAT is really a 'measuring device' - when used correctly, it will give you a realistic score and help define your strengths and weaknesses, but it will NOT help you to fix any of those weaknesses. To raise your scores, you have to learn the necessary Tactics and put in the proper practice and repetitions. The CAT will show you whether your studies are helping you to improve or not. In addition, the process of taking (and reviewing) a CAT requires a significant amount of energy and effort - and takes time to 'recover' from. This is one of the reasons why you typically should not take more than 1 CAT per week - and your last CAT should be taken about 1 week before Test Day. Going forward, you really shouldn't take more than 1 FULL CAT per week.

If your Official Test Date is still August 2nd, then that leaves you approximately 5 weeks of study time, so a reasonable plan would be to take 5 CATs (taking 10 would be far too many - and you would greatly increase your risk of 'burning out' before Test Day, which is something that we want to avoid).

1) On what dates (or approximate dates) did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks so far?
2) Are you planning to take the At-home GMAT or are you planning to take your GMAT at a Test Facility?
3) Going forward, how many hours do you think you can consistently study each week?

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

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Karan911,

You've taken a pretty good number of practice tests thus far. I think you'd be fine waiting and taking the 4 official practice exams on the back end of your prep.

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