GMAT Strategy

I just took the 2015 OG diagnostic cold and did pretty well on verbal and simply terrible on quant.

On verbal I went:

RC: 16/17
CR: 15/17
SC: 11/17

I knew that SC would be a challenge, but am confident that I can pull that up.

Quant is another matter entirely. I scored an abysmal 7/24 and 7/24 on the two areas. I haven't looked at math in about 10 years, but I am still quite worried about this number...perhaps I should throw in the towel now?

I've scored a 1330 on my SATs with no studying and a 166 on the LSAT (a couple of months studying).

Hi nightrunner19,

As Rich has already pointed out, most test takers give themselves around 3 months to prepare for the GMAT. Although you were able to crack the SAT without any studying, the GMAT is a unique challenge and should not necessarily be treated the same way, especially now that you know where you stand. Have you had a chance to review your practice exam to determine if there are patterns in the mistakes you made? If not, take some time to analyze your mistakes and keep a log of them. You'll be surprised by how much insight you'll gain from reviewing your practice exams, even the ones you're not proud of.

Best,
Rich

[email protected] wrote:Hi nightrunner19,

The Diagnostic Test in the OG is NOT a great way to assess your readiness to face the Official GMAT. For a far more realistic assessment, you should plan to take a FULL-LENGTH CAT (you can download 2 for free from www.mba.com).

Many Test Takers spend 3 months (or more) on their studies to hit their 'peak' scores, so you shouldn't get too upset by any early practice CAT results. Training to score at a high level on the GMAT takes time.

All that having been said, it's important to define your goals and timeline, so you can properly plan out your studies:

1) What is your goal score?
2) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
3) Do you know what Schools you plan to apply to?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

I'm hoping to score above a 700. I'm applying to business school in Ireland (Trinity / UCD / HEC) and maybe Michigan (unrelated reasons). I plan on studying for 3.5 months.

My GPA is a 3.6 undergrad and cum laude from a top 25 law school.

nightrunner19,

The OG diagnostic is on the hard side. The good news is that you are exceptionally strong in the verbal, and that will make it fairly easy to cross the 700 score. The key will be to brush up on the quant systematically and raise your score to the 80th percentile or so, with your high verbal score you will be easily able to hit the 700 mark. You could take the full length official GMATPrep test, although at this stage it may not be a good idea because it is a very challenging test and other factors can influence your score and psychologically impact you. It would be better to do some review for say about two to three weeks, and build up to a full length test. Start with the practice questions in the official guide, in quant start with the earlier ones which are easier than the later ones.

Cheers,
Dabral