All after session 9 + first CAT 500!!!!!!!! Help

[HaelimH335]

Hi

I know I shouldn’t have skipped CATs till now but I wanted to focus on contents and strategies first Anyways I tried my first CATs today in official setting and got 500! Yes I am talking about 500 all after 1.5 months of study and lessons. My goal is 650 in next month. Also I got 0 on last quant quiz (session 9 lesson. Is it all because of my axiety? Anything I can do to be on track? I study 4-5 hours daily after my work. My application deadline is oct 1 and I am lost now. Just for your information I have strong academic history( good GPA and very high score/percentile in CPA and FRM). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[StaceyKoprince]

Chances are good that your actual ability level is higher than a 500—it takes time and practice to be able to build up your skills to do well over a 3-hour period on a full test. For instance, most people mess up the timing on the first test. If you mess up the timing enough, your score is going to drop significantly. And the only way to really get better at the complete set of decisions you have to make in a full test is to practice everything on a test. (This is all exactly why we have you start taking practice tests right away. So for anyone reading this who is in the earlier stages of study...follow your syllabus and take practice tests when they're assigned!)

But here we are now—we can't go back in time to change that. It's possible that you may be able to get yourself into the 650 range in a month, but most people would need more time. So one thing to explore is deadlines. Is that a first round deadline? You may need to be prepared to push back to second round. It used to be the case that submitting your application in the first round conferred some distinct advantages, but those advantages have eroded over time. For most schools now, there's not much of a difference between submitting first round and second round.

You don't have to make this decision right now, though. Let's still go for the Oct 1st deadline—but just keep in the back of your mind that you may need to decide later to delay. You can reschedule an official exam for a $60 fee as long as you do so more than 7 days in advance of the test date. (Or you could decide to take the exam before Oct 1st no matter what—if you're not ready to get your goal score yet, you can use that first test as a "dry run" to get more comfortable with the testing center environment.)

So let's analyze your practice test to figure out what you need to do next.
First, read these two articles:
http://tinyurl.com/executivereasoning
http://tinyurl.com/2ndlevelofgmat

Think about how what you've been doing does and doesn't match up with that and how you may need to change your approach accordingly.
Then, use the below to analyze your most recent MPrep CATs (this should take you a minimum of 1 hour):
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2018/05 ... ats-part-1

Based on all of that, figure out your strengths and weaknesses as well as any ideas you have for what you think you should do. Then come back here and tell us; we'll tell you whether we agree and advise you further. (Note: do share an analysis with us, not just the raw data. Your analysis should include a discussion of your buckets—you'll understand what that means when you read the 4th part of the 4-part series linked above. Part of getting better is developing your ability to analyze your result—figure out what they mean and what you think you should do about them!)

[HaelimH335]

Hi Stacey,

Thank you so much for your encouraging words. I postponed my application round to Nov but i booked Oct 9 for my first exam. Also I just completed my third CATs (I just noticed that I shouldn't take it within 2~3 days from your article..another mistake) and my score is now 550. Is it true that the score of real test is approx. 10% lower than the practice one? I have serious issue with timing and that's something I am focusing on right now. Now I know the purpose of GMAT is to see my time management and decision making. I will analyze my assessment and will soon post my results. By the way, can i purchase additional CATs??

[StaceyKoprince]

See, you're already doing better.

It is not the case that everyone does 10% worse or better on the real thing, no. Some people have higher scores on the real thing and some people have lower scores. On average / across all of our test takers who report their official scores to us, the average "skew" is less than 10 points from last practice test to official test and a majority of people are within 50 points (in either direction). But some are going up and some are going down.

Overall, you're moving in the right direction. Plan to take about two more practice CATs before your Oct 9th test so that you're gaining experience under official test conditions.

Access to our CATs is technically for a period of time, not for a certain number of tests. Your first 6 tests are guaranteed to have no repeated questions (so that's why we market it as 6 tests)—but you can take more than 6 if you like. Starting with test 7, though, you may start to see questions you've seen before.

There are also two free official practice tests on the mba.com website (where you sign up for the official test). I like to use those as practice tests taken about 1 week before an official test. They're basically your "dry run."

Your first official test is 5 weeks from today, so perhaps plan to take another of our practice tests in about 2 weeks and then one of the official practice tests two weeks after that (one week before your official test).

Let me know your conclusions after you've analyzed your test results!