Target of 760

[rajat.arora]

Hi

I thought of taking a shot at GMAT last September but kept going back and forth, had to therefore postpone the GMAT exam twice. Finally, forgot to postpone and wrote the test in Feb 2011, with a score of 640 (46/34). Before this test, I had studied Princeton and OG 12 (only quant portion in OG). In June 2011, I decided that I would seriously go for it and registered for August end. Started studying from 20th June, did Kaplan Premier, Manhattan CR, SC, and scored 640 in CAT #1 of GMAT Prep. On analysing, I came to conclusion that I need more of exam temperament than concepts. Went through OG 12 (Quant portion) and then gave Manhattan CAT #1 with a score of 720 (49/39). Wanted to check how does it look like till now and steps I should take to reach 760 with next 20 days in hand.

Regards

Rajat

[StaceyKoprince]

Sorry for the delay in response; we've been short-staffed here.

760 is an extraordinarily high score - I can't tell anyone "Oh, just do this and you'll get a 760." :) So I'll tell you some things, but there's no way to say that you just need this much time or you just need to do these things to hit that score.

Read this article:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/7 ... erence.cfm

After you've read it, you'll have a pretty good idea why it's so hard to go from 700 or so to 760. You may be able to get there, but you can't know ahead of time how much time it will take - it could take quite some time.

Is there a particular reason you're going for such a high score? The only school out there that requires a 760 is... MGMAT. :)

Seriously, the GMAT is what we call a "threshold" issue for admissions. You have to hit a certain threshold to be considered (maybe one school wants you to have at least a 650, for example). But the schools don't decide to admit you based primarily on your GMAT score - they use other parts of your application to decide whether to admit you.

Have you been taking your practice tests under 100% official conditions, including essays, length of breaks, etc? If not, then your score might be inflated (particularly if you skipped the essays - that makes the test an hour shorter!). If you haven't been doing things under 100% official conditions, make sure you are from now on.

The next thing to do is to analyze your most recent CAT using this article:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/

That will help you figure out where you're falling short and what you need to do, along with the general goal of learning how to recognize things (as discussed in that 700 --> 760 article). If you'd like, you can post your test analysis here and we can then give you more detailed advice about what to do.

[rajat.arora]

Thanks for the reply Stacey. It was really informative and helpful.

I went through the link you sent and I guess I am a little far from my target :(.

Well, the major reason why I am targeting a high score in because my acads have been very average till now and GMAT is probably one way I can show my academic strength.

I have written mock tests under official conditions but without essays, which I would start writing from next test onwards. Would post the analysis once I do a couple of tests.

Regards

Rajat

[StaceyKoprince]

That sounds good. You may also want to talk to some admissions consultants and do some research into the programs you want to attend. For the most part (but I'm not an admissions consultant!), I think once people hit very high scores (730+), the schools pretty much ignore the GMAT after that and focus on other parts of your application in order to decide whether to admit you. So, from what I understand, hitting 760+ isn't necessary anywhere. But, again, talk to an admissions consultant about that.