GMAT Strategy

Hi Carli,

To start, taking this first CAT was not a 'waste' - it's important to take a CAT early on in your studies so that we can get a sense of your skills, strengths and weaknesses. A 640 is a really strong initial score (the average score on the Official GMAT hovers around 540-550 most years), so I'd say that you have a very good chance to hit your score goal. While you could pick up all of the missing points that you're looking for in the Verbal section, you would likely find it easier to pick up points in BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections. By extension, you should shift your studies a bit to include some Quant and some Verbal each week (as opposed to an "all of one, then all of the other" approach).

I have a few questions about how you took this CAT:

1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT (including the Essay section)?
2) Did you take it at home?
3) Did you take it at the same time of day as your Official GMAT?
4) Did you ever do ANYTHING during your CAT that you couldn't do on Test Day (pause the CAT, skip sections, take longer breaks, etc.)?
5) Had you seen any of the questions BEFORE?

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

Hi Carli,

After reviewing each CAT, it's important to try to determine WHY you got questions wrong. While the overall review process is layered, the basic idea comes down to how often you got a question wrong because of a silly/little mistake, because of a content issue (meaning that there was a rule/concept that you could not remember) or because you thought it was too hard. In which categories did you get the most questions wrong? With a V31, you likely had at least one Verbal category in which you missed a bunch of questions.

For future reference, to have the most accurate assessment possible, it's important to take the FULL CAT (with the Essay and IR sections) each time.

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

Hi Carli,

Taking a CAT was actually a great way to start your prep. Now you know your current GMAT score and how far away you are from your score goal. As far as your study routine, you may consider doing some more granular learning of each GMAT quant and verbal topic as opposed to a general overview of problem solving, data sufficiency, etc.

For example, if you are learning about Number Properties, you should learn everything possible about that topic, e.g., LCM, GCF, units digit patterns, divisibility, remainders, etc. After that, be sure that you practice with a lot of questions (50 or more) just on Number Properties. The results of that practice will help you to determine how well you have truly mastered that topic.

For verbal you will want to follow a similar study routine; focus on learning one section at a time: reading comprehension, sentence correction, or critical reasoning. For example, when learning about critical reasoning, you want to be able to cover all aspects of critical reasoning: strengthen and weaken the conclusion, resolve the paradox, find the conclusion, must be true, etc. Follow up your learning with focused critical reasoning practice so you can determine your specific weaknesses within that topic. You should follow a similar routine for sentence correction and reading comprehension.

To allow for such focused learning and practice, you may consider using a self-study course rather than a book. In comparison to GMAT prep books, self-study courses typically provide detailed study plans and have granular analytics, so you can easily track your progress as you move through the course. By being able to track your progress, you will remain more engaged, and you'll be able to more accurately forecast when you are ready to take your real GMAT. If you would like to learn more about what online resources are available, check out the verified course reviews here or on Beat The GMAT. After doing some research you should be able to find a course that is a good fit for you.

Once you reach the halfway point in your prep, you may want to take another practice exam to help track your progress. After that, you could hold off on taking any additional practice exams until you have sufficiently learned the necessary GMAT quant and verbal topics. I recommend taking the tests from MBA.com, as those exams provide the most accurate exam experience and use the most accurate scoring algorithm. You can start with the 2nd of the [two free exams](https://www.mba.com/us/the-gmat-exam/pre ... tware.aspx). After that you can purchase [exam pack 1](https://www.mba.com/us/store/store-catal ... ack-1.aspx) and [exam pack 2](https://www.mba.com/us/store/store-catal ... ack-2.aspx).

Lastly, feel free to read my article that provides some actionable steps that you can follow to achieve your GMAT score goal.

If you have any further questions, feel free to reach out. Good luck!