490 on first mock MGMAT CAT...

Your score breakdowns don't provide much information regarding what's needed to increase your score.

You need to carefully analyze each test to identify SPECIFIC weaknesses. While analyzing your practice tests, there are four main types of weakness to watch out for:
1. specific Quant skills/concepts (e.g., algebra, standard deviation, etc.)
2. specific Verbal skills/concepts (e.g., verb tenses, assumption CR questions, etc.)
3. test-taking skills (time management, endurance, anxiety etc.)
4. silly mistakes

For the first two weaknesses, the fix is pretty straightforward. Learn the concept/skill and find some practice questions to strengthen that weakness. To focus on one topic at a time, you can use BTG's tagging feature to isolate one concept. For example, here are all of the questions tagged as statistics questions: https://www.beatthegmat.com/forums/tags/ ... statistics
See the left side of that linked page for more tag options.

If your test-taking skills are holding you back, then you need to work on these. For example, we have a free GMAT time management video at https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gener ... es?id=1244.

Finally, if silly mistakes are hurting your score, then it's important that you identify and categorize these mistakes so that, during tests, you can easily spot situations in which you're prone to making errors. I write about this and other strategies in the following article for BTG: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/09/ ... n-the-gmat

Cheers,
Brent

Hi jmichele,

If you're justing starting out, then this score isn't too bad (the average on the Official GMAT is right around 540-550 most years). It's important to define your goals and general plans, so that we can put together an appropriate study plan, so I'm hoping that you can answer a few questions:

1) What is your goal score?
2) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
3) Have you thought about what Business Schools you're planning to apply to?
4) What GMAT resources have you acquired so far?

To help you establish your expectations about this process, you should know that most Test Takers spend 3 months (or more) studying for the GMAT; during that time, it's common to spend 10-15 hours per week on the process. The GMAT is a predictable, standardized Test, so you CAN train to score at a high level - it just takes the right mix of time, energy and the right resources.

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