620 GMATPrep, how much improvement can I expect?

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I'm new to this forum, so I will give a little background information about myself first.
My name is Anthony, I'm a senior at Oakland University in Rochester, MI. I'm majoring in Accounting and will be applying to a few schools for their Masters of Accounting (MAcc) programs to get my 150 credits in order to sit for the CPA exam.

Overall GPA-3.68
Accounting GPA-3.74 (4.0 Intermediate Accounting)
Interned at regional firm in 2011, interning at Big 4 firm in 2012
Letters of Rec from Intermediate accounting professor, and a Partner at the regional firm I interned at

I DESPERATELY want to go to the University of Michigan (Ross) to complete my MAcc. Their website says the average student is admitted with a GMAT score of 670-680.

I went through "Cracking the GMAT" from Princeton Review in a couple days. I found it relatively easy and learned a few simple basic strategies, but nothing worth writing home about. I've always been a good test taker, so I hoped that I would be a "natural" with the GMAT.

After going through the Princeton book (ordered the Official GMAT prep books but have not started using yet), I took a GMATPrep CAT practice test, and scored a 620. I managed a 44 Quant and a 31 Verbal. I realize I need to heavily practice sentence correction, as this is where I got most of my questions wrong on the Verbal.


Should I expect a lot of improvement? I have only been studying for a few days, so this was a relatively preliminary practice test. I knew I would perform better on the Quantitative section, but I wasn't expecting such a large discrepancy in my scores. Can this be fixed, or is the GMAT a kind of "you get it or you don't" test? I want to apply in 4-6 weeks, and I have a lot of time to study and am willing to put in the hours if that will help me improve. My target score was a 700, so this practice test is obviously a big blow to my confidence. I didn't expect to get a 700 at this stage, obviously, but I didn't expect such a low score.

Am I being too hard on myself? Do most people generally improve a lot throughout the course of their preparation? I think my GPA, experience, and letters of recommendation are very strong, so I'm just hoping I can get that 680 that Ross claims is their average.

Any advice or tips would be great! Wonderful, informative site!
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by akhilsuhag » Sat Aug 27, 2011 1:14 am
620 is a good starting point to reach your goal.
I had the same score to start with and with 1 month prep I scored 690 on my practice test. People have improved from 540 to 700+ as well.

It is not where you come from but where you want to go that matters and the price you are ready to pay to get their. So start working hard and you will be their. Go and check the "I beat the GMAT section" and you will find lots of inspiration and confidence to get to your goals.

I hope my post is helpful!!
Please press "thanks" if you think my post has helped you.. Cheers!!

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by prateek_guy2004 » Sat Aug 27, 2011 9:17 am
Yes akhil is right, Your basics are good , you just need little more practice and strategies to cross 700....Gmat is just a part of application The other things are as important as gmat, LOR, SOP's etc.

Make learning fun..dont make it a stress, Yes you can improve a lot from here.....

Happy studying

Chaw
Don't look for the incorrect things that you have done rather look for remedies....

https://www.beatthegmat.com/motivation-t90253.html

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by ajelias » Mon Aug 29, 2011 3:28 pm
Just wanted to update on this thread...

I purchased the SC guide from MGMAT, which also came with 6 CATs from MGMAT. I took one of those today to see if I have progressed at all...

I got a 690 (Q43 V40)! I'm not sure how accurate MGMAT's scores are compared to GMATPrep, but 690 vs. 620 is obviously a step in the right direction!

HOWEVER, My Quant score actually decreased (previous attempt on GMATPrep was 620-Q44 V31). I got the first question wrong, which I knew right after I confirmed it, so I think that might have set me on the wrong path. Overall, I thought MGMAT's Math section was much harder than GMATPrep's. On the Verbal, as is evidenced by my huge increase, I feel like MGMAT's was slightly easier than GMATPrep's.

I do think, though, that the verbal sections are starting to "click" a little. The SC questions didn't have me completely confused, and I thought I really had a grasp on the CR questions as well as the Reading Comprehension (which for the last 2 passages, looked extremely more difficult than the first 2, so I figured I was doing well on those which would be consistent with my perfect RC score on the OG Diagnostic test).


Sorry to blab! Since I'm still relatively new to the GMAT and each prep company, does anyone know if my huge Verbal increase holds any weight? I seem to be consistent with my Quant (44 GMATPrep, 43 MGMAT) but I'm scared of my huge increase in Verbal (31 GMATPrep 40 MGMAT), I hope someone can confirm that the MGMAT is just that much easier!

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by Gmatism » Thu Sep 01, 2011 6:47 am
If you want to learn how to think like a GMAT quant section requires you to think, MGMAT is the best. However as you already discovered yourself, MGMAT verbal section is much much easier. Many consistently score 10 points lower on the real thing verbal section than on MGMAT.

If you need more practice on verbal, get OG 10 and 11. My advice is not to waste any time on verbal MGMAT material. But if you want to pick up few extra points on quant, I think MGMAT is a way to do it.

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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Thu Sep 01, 2011 7:41 am
If you want to see what kind of score increase one can expect, read some posts in this forum. Here you'll find stories of people increasing their scores by over 300 points).

I'll get you started with this post about a score increase of 560 to 740: https://www.beatthegmat.com/3-yrs-4-atte ... 72531.html

Cheers,
Brent
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