Your first GMAT practise score & how much has it improved?

HWaus - Welcome to the community. I will say that I hope if you are taking a practice test upfront, you are using unofficial (third-party) material. This is because I believe you should treat official questions as a precious commodity, especially the official practice tests through mba.com. Burning through one such practice test and maybe getting a sub-500 score will do little for you in the way of predicting how you might end up with practice. Lack of familiarity with the test may account for a huge drop in score, regardless of your particular strengths in, say, reading comprehension or general mathematics. You have to learn how the test is woven together to unravel it effectively, both in terms of content within the sections and in terms of the question types themselves. If you just want to get your feet wet, do some Princeton Review questions or Kaplan or whatever else, but I would suggest you leave those GMAC™-generated questions alone until after you have gained more exposure. Trust me, you will want those two free practice tests when the time comes, and retaking an earlier exam and earning a much better score may not be an accurate mark of improvement or eventual performance. (You might think you would not remember any of the answers, but you could also recall them unwittingly.)

To answer your question directly, five years ago, I, as a tutor, was asked by my then boss whether I could help someone prepare for the GMAT™. At the time, I had never even looked at the test, but I had taken the GRE®. I said sure, I would give it a go. My boss lent me his copy of the OG, and I took the Diagnostic Test. I scored in the top bracket in each portion of the test except one, Critical Reasoning. Those questions were just too much for my untrained eye. Nine days later, I took a practice test on mba.com and earned a 720. I was devastated that I had missed so many questions. (I was used to near perfection on other tests I taught, such as the ACT and SAT.) Thus began my journey toward self-improvement on the GMAT™. I just wanted to be a better tutor for my potential clients. To be honest, I have no idea where my current set of skills would place me. Around the time I left my job, I took an official practice test and scored a 770 (50Q, 44V, 8IR). By then, I had about three years of full-time tutoring under my belt, although the bulk of my clients were not GMAT™ clients. Now that I am tutoring GMAT™ clients on a regular basis, I know I have gotten better, but how much better is just a guess. Sooner or later, I want to prove myself. In fact, I am relishing that opportunity. But I suspect that three years for 50 points via a here-and-there study schedule is atypical of test-takers. Perhaps others will respond and give you a fuller picture of what to expect, even if their own journeys, like mine, will be at least somewhat unique.

Good luck to you in your studies.

- Andrew