Took my first practice exam, where do I stand with my goal?

Question

Hey all, I just took the free practice exam that Manhattan Prep offers. This was my first CAT. I got a 630. This partially concerns me since I would like a 740+ on the GMAT. I plan to take the exam in 2.5 months (can be delayed if seen needed). My preparation thus far includes doing about 150 questions of quant (100 done about 4 months ago and 50 done this week), 125 questions of verbal (90 done 4 months ago and 35 done this week), and 20 questions of IR (all done this week). No AW. These questions were from the official GMAT guide and I did about 25% timed and the other 75% untimed. Where do I go from here to achieve my goal. I can study about 4-5 hours each weekday and full time during the weekends. Do I need to postpone my exam a couple weeks to study more? How should I study? I found my time management was poor on my first CAT, so for sure from now and on, I will be practicing in a timed matter.

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dranfoz · Answer

Have you actually studied content? Or only practiced with questions?

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ramlala · Answer

It seems that you have gone through only problems. What about concepts?
Are your concepts clear, and only practice the problems?
What is your strategy, please elaborate.

Time is not a matter, you can appear in 1 month or 1 year, it's depending your readyness.

hassan233 · Answer

In terms of content, about 4 months ago I read the official guides verbal content in relatively fine detail as well as the official guides quant content (skimmed through it). This week, I just skimmed through the quant content once again from the official guide. Occasionally I’ll watch a YouTube video on some quant concepts. Other than that, it’s just been practicing with questions.

hassan233 · Answer

I’ve been relatively weak on reviewing on concepts, I made the assumption that I’ll learn the concepts as I practice (since for each question I get wrong while practicing, I do a deep dive into why I got it wrong and how I can get it right next time, so I suppose practicing includes learning concepts). My strategy was to simply keep doing practicing problems and practicing exams, while reviewing what questions I am getting wrong in deep detail.

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hykhan · Answer

Learning concepts is critical to success in quant. I would say that you have two solid options to improve your quant score

1) take a course - many are promoted and reviewed here so read the reviews and pick one of the popular courses

2) If you don't want to invest in a course, I would say that you input the OG practice questions for quant into GMATClub and learn how to solve these questions in at least 2 if not 3 different ways. Also, access the free GMATCLUB math book to help you understand concepts better.

Finally, the Manhattan Prep exam (as with many other exams) are good for practice but will not get as close to the real thing as a GMATPrep exam will. There are two available for free from mba.com and you can buy 4 more. You should probably take a free GMATPrep exam to get a better idea, but I would actually recommend you brush up on your concepts a bit more before attempting the test.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi hassan233,

A 630 is a great initial CAT score (the average score on the Official GMAT hovers around 550 most years). Depending on your Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores - and assuming that you took this CAT in a realistic fashion that matches-up with how you will take the Official GMAT - you are likely a strong critical thinker (which is great!). Many GMATers face pacing issues in the Quant section, the Verbal section or both – so you are not alone. However, it's important to remember that pacing problems do NOT exist on their own - they're the results of OTHER problems. In addition, you will have to hone some really specific skills to get to the point that you can consistently score 740+.

The OG books are great sources for practice questions, but they're not designed to teach you Tactics, patterns or the little 'secrets' behind the GMAT - for those, you'll need Course-oriented materials.

In addition, you have to be careful about confusing "quantity" of study with "quality" of study. I've never asked anyone to study 30+ hours a week - and while it sounds like you might have the available time to study that much, with that number of study hours, you would run the risk of 'burning out' before Test Day (and that is something that we want to avoid). If you are going to try to study that much, then I suggest that you take one hour "off" for every two hours of study. For example, you could study for 2 hours, then stop for an hour, then study for another 2 hours, then take an hour off, etc.

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 access to?
2) What were the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for this CAT/mock?
3) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

760+: What GMAT Assassins Do to Score at the Highest Levels

dranfoz · Answer

hassan233  think about the GMAT like this. It's a sand tower. To get higher, you need more sand (content - study), and you need to mold the sand (practice with questions).

Studying only from the OG is not a good way to get more sand. You need to do a more thorough study, following books (ex. manhattan prep) or a course (ex. e-gmat). With more sand, your molding exercise will be much more efficient - so then you can focus on studying.

Always have that mindset! In each topic: should I focus on having more sand? or on molding the sand I have?

Best,

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MathRevolution · Answer

Hi hassan233,

A score of 630 in the GMAT mock test tells the entire story about how well prepared you are for the GMAT official test and how to change the gear now to meet the target score in reality.

With my GMAT tutoring, guidance, and counseling experience, we have to accept the fact with a pinch of salt that diagnostic/ mock test scores are above then what one should expect in a real test. There is often dropping in the score. Some students have even experienced a drop of 100 pointers. It is one of the realities, and your preparation should not sideline this fact.

You can schedule a comprehensive counseling session for 30 mins with one of our experts: https://calendly.com/mathrevolution/1-on-1-session for detailed advice on your current study plans.

A couple of things that can be a noticeable barrier to your scores would be some or all of the below.

• Inefficiency by using time-consuming Conventional method to tackle DS and PS questions still
• No expert support (maybe) who can tutor, analyze, and guide you during your learning especially on hard level questions while stably hitting middle-level questions.
• Lack of many updated questions and practice in the recent exam trend
• Not well aligned with time to solve questions.

Since we are a math expert, we will recommend you go through our post on the GMAT club: Breakdown of GMAT math questions and types: https://gmatclub.com/forum/overview-of- ... l#p1641411

We recommend that you must learn the Variable Approach for solving DS questions and the IVY approach for solving PS questions in order to improve your accuracy and save time while solving the question types.

Register with MathRevolution https://www.mathrevolution.com/member/signup to get access to our 7-day full on-demand course (27 topics, 490 subtopics, and 1,500 questions) for free trial lessons.

700+ level questions https://www.mathrevolution.com/gmat/questionbank are separately available, too. Start with the learning of the concepts. Make a habit of taking notes during the initial learning of the concepts.

The day regular mock tests show the consistent score of Q48+ with V37+, then it will reflect the positive change in the score, and hence, your confidence will boost up. Gradually, with the help of mock tests, you will be able to compete with time and therefore, will be able to learn time-management.

We appreciate your time and patience in reading this reply.

Should you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected]

Success is within your reach.
Good luck!

Math Revolution Team

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