600 on MGMAT CAT 1- Is it possible to break 700?

[maliksarmad]

I took the MGMAT first CAT after studing some of the math and verbal books and limited OG practice. I am following the online schedule of your course and have done all material and homework required till session 5. I guess I still have to go through more than 50% of the guide books and actual OG and MGMAT practice questions. I took this test to get a sense on where I stand and how and where I should focus to improve.

The score I got was 600 (Q 44 and V 30). While I randomly selected the last 4 questions on both selections (due to timing constraints) and am still unfamiliar with a few math and verbal concepts, is it possible to break the 700 range on this test with all the MGMAT course material I have left to do (till session 9) and working more on timing issues. Should I develop a renewed focus on any sections since there is considerable possible upside on the Verbal as opposed to the Quant section. Wrong answers on the Verbal section were spread across all three sections.

I will be done with all the material in another 3 weeks and am scheduled to take the test at the end of this month. Any advice at this juncture will be appreciated.

Thank you!

[StaceyKoprince]

Generally speaking, yes, it's possible to move from a 600 to a 700. Also generally speaking, that typically takes more than 3 weeks. Most people study for an additional 2-4 weeks after the end of the course (or more depending upon the goal score and the amount of time people have to study).

Although you have learned the material through session 5 so far, that does not mean you don't need to review that material again (possibly multiple times!). Use this test to determine your very specific strengths and weaknesses. Check the areas you've already covered (thru session 5) and review the things that are still coming out as weaknesses based on your test results.

You also mention that you have done only limited OG practice. It is critical to do the OG practice - this is how you learn to apply the material to GMAT-type questions. It's not enough just to learn the formulas and rules; you do actually have to learn, and practice, how to apply the material to GMAT-format questions.

The difference between your quant and verbal subscore is not quite as big as you think - Q44 is about the 70th percentile and V30 is about the 56th percentile, so there's plenty of room for improvement on both. Make sure you pay attention to the percentile ratings when assessing your performance - don't just compare the quant and verbal subscores. (The scales used for the two subscores are actually different.) Having said that, yes, there's more room for improvement on verbal, so you may want to spend some more time there, but maybe 60/40 - not 80% of your time on verbal.

Re: timing, as you noted, you still have some work to do there. I just want to remind you that no matter how good you get, you will still have to guess on something like 4 to 7 questions in each section.  You don't want to be forced into making those guesses in a row at the end of the section, so choose the 4-7 hardest questions AS YOU SEE THEM throughout the section.  Remind yourself that you CANNOT get to the point where you can answer everything given to you in 2 min - the test will always just give you a harder question.  When they get too hard (and they will!), you have to let them go.

[maliksarmad]

Firstly thanks a lot Stacey for your response and more importantly, thanks to everyone at MGMAT for putting together pretty much the best material out there on this test. I took my GMAT yesterday and got a 690 (46Q, 40V). *88th percentile overall. Great improvement on my verbal from 27V to 40V.

I followed your instructions and finished the complete MGMAT course. This includes all online course sessions, online labs, MGMAT books (chapter end Q&As), question bank questions and worked a lot on the timining when was working on the OG questions. I essentially completed all OG questions in the 11th edition book, Quant book and Verbal book followed by the few GMAT prep questions. However, I could not find time to do many practice tests. Following the MGMAT CAT1 in which I got 600, I took MGMAT CAT2 last week and got 690 (44Q, 39V). I got the timing right on this and the main test so just took a GMAT prep test two days before the real thing and got 660 (49Q 33V). I was surprised with the variation between the raw scores of Q and V between MGMAT and GMATprep but my final test score was more in line with MGMAT CAT. Also, I got higher raw scores in both Q and V from my MGMAT CAT2 but still got the same 690 score. I found that odd.

Anyways, just wanted to give you details on my prep and overall experience. I am still targeting a score in the mid 750 range as I am not sure if this will be good enough for the top 5 schools I am targeting and because I feel that with more hard work I can do even better. How and where do I think I should focus now to improve both my Quant and Verbal scores given I have exhausted OG questions (SC twice). I definitely need to improve SC further and maybe even CR questions. Should I re read the SC guide but where should I find additional questions for these two sections. Also, I feel I need to improve quant as I never get the harder 700-800 questions on MGMAT Cats right. How should I refocus this and get more questions for this section.

Not sure if you need additional information to help answer these questions but any help will be appreciated. I am giving my second attempt in exactly a month.

Again, thank you all for brilliant work.

[mazhar.hussain]

Congratsss boss!!! Very well done!!!

I am here sitting in Pakistan, just developed a relation with Manhattan and looking to join 700 club in November.

I know the target is high, but the example set by you can do a lot for me.

Congrats again & cheers!!!

[StaceyKoprince]

Excellent - nice job!

Also, I got higher raw scores in both Q and V from my MGMAT CAT2 but still got the same 690 score. I found that odd.

Can you check what you posted above? According to what you posted, your Q went down a little on the real test (46 to 44), but your V actually went UP one point (from 39 to 40). So it actually makes sense that you'd get the same (or a very similar) overall score.

Re: improving from a 690 to mid-700s, at this point, I wouldn't worry about getting a ton of new questions to do. What you need to do is pick apart all of the questions you already have, to the point that you could teach them to someone else and almost even write one yourself! (This is if you want to get a mid-700s score.)

Having said that, you can get some new official questions via OG12 (just published a few months ago) and GMAT Focus (quant only and online only). But don't start with those - save those for a couple of weeks from now.

Go back to problems you've done already (all of them, whether you got them right or wrong) and ask yourself:

Was I able to CATEGORIZE this question by topic and subtopic? By process / technique?
Did I make a CONNECTION to previous experience? Or did I have to do it all from scratch?
Did I COMPREHEND the symbols, text, questions, statements, and answer choices?
Did I understand the CONTENT being tested?
Did I choose the best APPROACH? On quant especially, there are almost always better / more efficient ways if we study the problem!
Did I have the SKILLS to follow through?
Am I comfortable with OTHER STRATEGIES that would have worked, at least partially? How should I have made an educated guess?
Do I understand every TRAP & TRICK that the writer built into the question, including wrong answers?
Have I MASTERED this problem? Could I explain every aspect, fully, to someone else?
How will I RECOGNIZE similar problems in the future?

On ALL verbal questions, ask yourself:
- why was the wrong answer so tempting? why did it look like it might be right? (be as explicit as possible)
- why was it actually wrong? what specific words indicate that it is wrong and how did I overlook those clues the first time?
- why did the right answer seem wrong? what made it so tempting to cross off the right answer? why were those things actually okay - what was my error in thinking that they were wrong?
- why was it actually right?

If you're studying a problem you got right, then pick the most tempting wrong answer and answer the questions above accordingly.

After you start getting really good at understanding / doing all of the above, then start testing yourself with new official questions. :)

[maliksarmad]

Thank you. I will start working on those questions and try to increase my comprehension in both quant and verbal.

On your question about the score. Both my quant and verbal went up in the real test from the MGMAT CAT but the score was still 690. On the MGMAT CAT I got 690 (44Q and 39V) and on the real GMAT I got 690 (46Q and 40V). I hope this helps.

I took a weeks break and will get started on my GMAT prep again today. Lets see how much higher I will go. In any case, thanks a lot for your help. I think 690 is also competitive for many good schools.

[StaceyKoprince]

I see. It isn't necessarily the case that a different 2-digit score will automatically result in a different 3-digit score. Some 2-digit score combos will result in the same 3-digit score.

[maliksarmad]

Thank you for all the help. I took the GMAT yesterday and afters tons of hardwork got 760 (99 percentile). Breakdown was 51Q and 42V. Used a couple of other resources towards the end but MGMAT was very very useful. Thanks!

[StaceyKoprince]

Wow - that's fantastic! Congratulations! I hope you celebrated after. :)

Good luck with apps - let us know how it goes!

[ajafari]

Congrats!! It looks like you made this improvement with 2 months of studying. Can you give a debrief on what you did these last 2 months in terms of resources and study methods used, as well as how much time you spent versus the first 2 months leading up to your first exam?

[StaceyKoprince]

Seconded - if you have the time and can give some advice to your fellow students, we'd all appreciate it!