When should you feel ready?

[tzohrabyan]

I have been studying for GMAT for some time now. Everyday I find new things: new strategies, practice questions, and other useful stuff. It is great and makes me glad to get as much as possible, but want to ask if there is ever a time when someone taking a GMAT test feels ready and can take it with certain confidence? (if there is, what is the timeline generally? - i know it is person specific, but ON AVERAGE, how long will be it?)

Thanks in advance!!!
T

[StaceyKoprince]

Great question. I don't think anybody ever feels 100% ready because, as you say, you feel like there's always one more thing you could learn.

So here's what you need to do: pick a goal score. (You can do this by looking at the average scores of people admitted to the schools to which you would like to apply.) Take a practice CAT under 100% official conditions including essays and see where you are. Study to try to improve; after a while, take another CAT to see whether you've improved, etc.

When your practice CATs (under 100% official conditions!) are in the range of your goal score (ideally, at or above the goal score), then you're ready to take the real test. Ideally, you want to have gotten your goal score on GMATPrep and our test, just to make sure that one test wasn't a fluke.