490 GMATPrep (Help) 7 Weeks til Test

[2015BSchoolProspect]

Hello,

I have all of my application materials completed for business school except for submitting my official GMAT score. I have a very good relationship with the admissions staff and after reviewing my profile they indicated that if I were to score a 600+ I would likely gain admission into the MBA program.

With that, I am currently enrolled in an Online MGMAT course (we're off this weekend due to Labor Day) and have 5 courses left. I am scheduled to take the GMAT in the latter part of October giving me 7-8 weeks left to prepare.

I took my first CAT today (the one provided by mba.com) and scored a 490.

Q35 (36%) Questions answered in 57/75 minutes; Guessed on several DS
V23 (30%) Questions answered in 46/75 minutes; Guessed on several CR.

As I mentioned, I'm taking the online course so I have all of the course material, OG guides and also have the SC Grail 3rd Ed. However, I haven't opened any of them. I'm writing this now because I have not really been able to start any of the homework and am trying to form a game plan now to execute for the next 7 weeks. We had a baby at the start of class so I've only been able to be a participant in sessions but not able to do much homework. Despite a low number, I feel as though it reflects where I am with no preparation, so I think I can cover a lot of ground by starting to dig into the material and start studying appropriately. Thanks for any insight!

I work full time but can carve out as much time during work or at home to get to where I need to be. I was thinking 1 hour in the AM, 2 hours in the PM, and 4-6 hours Sat and Sun respectively to go through the MGMAT homework aggressively but obviously making to time to review my questions and understand by errors.

This "7 week" timeline is with the intent of applying for the Spring 2015 start. If the feedback is that I would likely need more time, I have no issue taking the GMAT a few weeks beyond the intended 7 and applying for the Fall 2015 start.

[StaceyKoprince]

First, congratulations on your new baby! You must be exhausted (but for a very good reason). :)

Would they be willing to give you a bit more time on the GMAT, given your good relationship with them and the fact that you have a new baby? (So that you can still apply to start in spring?) Tell them that you can turn in everything else on time.

If so, that would let you follow my first proposed path: call up our office, explain the situation, and switch to a new class that's starting next week. Then just start from the beginning, this time doing the homework and following the syllabus.

If not, then you're going to need to prioritize heavily. It's too bad that you've only got the mba.com test because that test doesn't give you any analysis of your strengths and weaknesses, so you're going to have to do some more work to figure out your priorities. (It's a great test - but it's lacking in the data / feedback department.)

Go try to figure out your strengths and weaknesses by broad categories for quant (eg, the 5 book cover titles - algebra, number properties, etc). For verbal, it's good enough for now just to figure out your weaknesses by broad question type (CR, RC, SC).

Next time, take one of our practice tests so that you can get much more detailed data on your strengths and weaknesses.

Then, email your teacher(s). Tell him/her/them the situation (the baby, the current score, the goal score, etc) and also share with them your analysis of the GMATPrep test. Ask for help setting study priorities.

If you like, you can also share that here and we can discuss - I just definitely want you to talk to your teachers because they are working with you every week!