How much more effort should I put into GMAT?

Question

I am a university student, planning to apply to MiM programmes this year which require a GMAT score. I started preparing for the GMAT last week and went through most of the verbal online question banks in the OG guide (my Quant is good) in order to familiarise myself with the material. I took the first Official Practice Test today under exam conditions as a benchmark and obtained a score of 750 (Q50, V41). Given I have significant other commitments this summer, how much more effort should I put into the GMAT from now on? I feel like bringing my score up from a 740-750 to a 780-790 would require significant prep without much merit given 750 is already a high score. I am planning to take the real exam by the end of Sep/ beginning of Oct just before the start of the university term.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Any advice would be appreciated!

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

It's probably worthwhile to work on some weaker areas of quant to lock in your scoring Q50 when you take the actual test. Also, you could end up scoring Q51 if you get down answering whatever types of questions you didn't get on that practice test.

Regarding verbal, people often get surprised by verbal and score a bit lower than they did on their practice tests. So, some, not a lot, more verbal work to strengthen your skills could make sense.

Also, you could take another practice test and see how you do.

By the way, intensity is key. You may be able to score even a bit higher than you did with more intensity. Also, don't finish a section early unless you are sure that you have gotten every question correct.

Short answer - probably not much more.

Russ19 · Answer

Take a test from manhattan prep as well, and taking some tests from good material will reflect how consistent your scores are, a way to plan a befitting strategy.

Arpit22 · Answer

I suggest take gmat official mock test from and see if your score is consistant, 740-750 is great score.

CustardBuns · Answer

The first test from Manhattan Prep is free right?

CustardBuns · Answer

Thank you so much for your response! Yeah definitely I need to consolidate my quant. I was surprised I didn't get Q51 given I have a very strong quantitative background (+ plenty of Sciences/Maths Olympiads with good rankings which had similar style questions). I had a look at the breakdown and a few silly mistakes on the easier questions cost the Q51 (I got 4 out of 6 incorrect answers within the first 10 questions) I do need to primarily work on the verbal as English is not my native language and I struggle with grammar a lot. Timing is also an issue as I finished the verbal section with 24 minutes to spare. This is my first practice test so I rushed a bit too much. Would you recommend the advanced OG questions? Since I bought the OG set I have a discount code for it

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

Yes, those Advanced Questions are pretty good, though some of the verbal ones are difficult mainly because they are not that well written.

Get the e version and use the online question bank.

Paper Books = Tree Chopping = Bad News/Bad Karma

Toffelfabriken · Answer

That's a great first score. It sounds to me like you know the basics pretty well.

It might be worth at least doing some more practice exams up until exam day, while trying to find things that may mess you up on the real exam. For example, you may discover that you need better ways to recover from running low on time, or that you're simply unfamiliar with a certain type of question. It's much better to discover these things on a mock test than on the actual exam.

Also, since you have about 1 + 1/2 month left until your exam, even if you decide not to focus more on the GMAT until then, you may want to pick it back up 1-2 weeks before the exam. Otherwise you risk being out of practice by exam day and getting distracted by things not feeling familiar.

That being said, I don't think you'll need a higher score. Focus instead at making sure you're well acquainted with how the test works so there are no surprises on exam day.

Russ19 · Answer

:

Yeah, the first one is free, but second to six tests give you the savor of the original test. The first one is a bit easier I think.

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How much more effort should I put into GMAT?

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