How to Score in the 600-700 range ????

[rahulgoud46]

Hello well to start of with I have taken the MGMAT cat 1 and I scored 390 ( Q26 V14). And recently I have taken the GMAT prep and I scored 330 ( Q18 V 17). I am feeling the heat at the moment as I have just got one month of time left with me before I take the real GMAT exam and my target score is to score in the 600-700 range. My scheduled date for the real GMAT exam is on May 9 2012. Could you please help me out in how to achieve my target score. I have finished doing the OG 12 edition and the OG supplements. The fault in me is that I get too excited at the end of the Verbal section to see my score so I am unable to concentrate properly on the final 10 questions of the Verbal section. By the way I am able to complete the Exam under timed conditions there is no problem of timing, the problem is with accuracy. In order to get a score of 600+ how many questions do I need to get right in both the Quant and Verbal sections ??? I am willing to put all my effort and I am willing to sacrifice all my leisure time for GMAT. At any cost I want to score well in my first attempt itself. Please guide me how should my one month study plan be ??? How many more Cat codes should I take. I have got more 5 MGMAT cat codes and practice test 2 in GMAT prep. I am planning to take more 3-4 cat's as I personally feel it's not how many cat codes you have taken but how much you have learnt from the mistakes and where does your weakness lie in. Waiting for your reply Thank you !!

[omkar.nadgauda]

To begin with, It would be nice to know what material you are following. Are you using MGMAT material or just OG.

Not to be rude, but I dont think you are looking at the timing aspect correctly. You write that you dont have any timing issues and you complete exam in timely manner. But the fall out may be, you are sacrificing accuracy and getting tons of problems wrong. So you need to look into why you are getting those problems wrong. IS it because you rush or is it because you don't know the concept. Then you can decide where to concentrate your efforts.

Good news is, you have immense opportunity to improve. Bad news is time remaining. If I were you, I will concentrate on quant for a week. Number properties and word problems. (I think this is bulk of questions in GMAT. I got this info from various debriefs of people who have taken a GMAT). The following week, pick up two verbal types eg RC and SC or CR and RC etc, and work on them. Then I will give one MGMAT. That result will guide me to some areas to work on or build on. I will give gmatprep a week or so before real exam and then relax a little bit. This is to control your anxiety.

I would like to end this post by saying that I am not an expert, I have not given a GMAT yet. But I think some points I mention might help you.

Best of luck.

[jnelson0612]

Hi Rahul,
Thank you for your message. I don't want to discourage you, but you are in a very tough position if you are trying to attain a 600+ score in less than one month. That is an over 200 point improvement and such an improvement generally takes most students several hours of study weekly over a period of months. I think that the best way to think about this is that you are going to do your best on this upcoming test and that you can always take the test again after more preparation.

Have you analyzed your practice test? That would be a very good start. Please read this link and do report back on what you discover: http://www.beatthegmat.com/a/2009/09/23 ... tice-tests

Wishing you the best in your preparations!

[rahulgoud46]

Hello Jamie Nelson is it that tough to improve 200 points within a short span of time ??? Is it impossible to achieve 600+ from where I stand as of now, I am really feeling the heat, the problem is I am done with my materials and I have just got the practice tests. After Evaluating my first practice test I have learnt that I rushed up in some Quant questions because I didn't know how to solve the problem so I felt rather than wasting time it's better to guess and move on. But after viewing the results I got to Know that if you get 5-6 questions wrong consecutively, the percentile decreases tremendously and you cannot recover from it. It was the same case with Verbal I need to improve on SC. "At ANY COST I want to get a 600+ in my first attempt itself & I am willing to sacrifice my leisure time too". By the way I have no issues with the timing, So I just want to know how many more CAT codes should I take before the real GMAT. Could you please tell me how my study plan should be from now onwards because I have got 23 days left with me. Also I would like to mention my semester is going to end on April 25 from April 26 to MAY 8 I have holidays so
I can completely spend time for the GMAT I can study day in and day out !! Please help me out with my target score(600+). How many questions should I get right in quant & Verbal section in order to get a 600+ score ??

[StaceyKoprince]

It is very unusual to improve by 200+ points in 4 weeks, yes. I'll never say that anything is impossible, but most people would not be able to improve that amount in that length of time.

the problem is I am done with my materials and I have just got the practice tests.

You may have gone through your materials already, but you are not done with them if you do not yet have the score that you want. You haven't learned what you needed to learn from them.

By the way I have no issues with the timing

I have met maybe 10 people in 15 years who truly had no timing issues. I have worked with thousands of students. Maybe you really are one of the very few without timing problems... but you're going to have to prove it to me. :) Simply finishing the test on time does not mean that you have no timing problems - you can have quite severe timing problems and still finish the test on time.

Use this article to analyze your most recent CAT:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/

Then come back here to tell us what you've discovered. (Note: please do not simply post all of the data. Tell us your analysis - what you think the data means. It's important to be able to do this kind of analysis for yourself.)

So I just want to know how many more CAT codes should I take before the real GMAT.

CAT exams are really good for (a) figuring out where you're scoring right now, (b) practicing stamina, and (c) analyzing your strengths and weaknesses. The actual act of just taking the exam is NOT so useful for improving. It's what you do with the test results / between tests that helps you to improve.

So how many more CATs should you take? First, there's no standard answer to that question and, second, that question is mostly irrelevant to the goal of trying to improve your score. :)

How many questions should I get right in quant & Verbal section in order to get a 600+ score ??

For any score from about 35% percentile to 80th percentile or so, you will answer about 60% of the questions correctly. The test is not scored based upon percentage correct.

From the questions that you ask, I can tell that you don't know enough yet about how the test is constructed and scored. That would make it very difficult to set up a study plan for yourself. So, first, read our e-book The GMAT Uncovered and pay particular attention to the Scoring section. Also read this article:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... to-win-it/

Next, you can use this article to develop a study plan for yourself and you can share that plan with us and ask us what we think. Note, though, that you'll need to give us data on your strengths and weaknesses in order for us to evaluate your study plan - use that article I linked above for analyzing your practice tests.

http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... tudy-plan/

You may also want to read the below; it contains many of the same links as the previous article, but it also contains some different links:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -the-gmat/