GMAT Strategy

Hi everyone I am new to this forum. I took the lsat in June and got a 160. Plan on retaking in December when apps are out but also want to pursue a JD/MBA route. I took the first gmat preptest from mba to get a cold diagnostic score and got a 640 (V:38, Q:40) I thought that my verbal was going to need some work and was surprised to see that it was a good score and my math skills apparently need impprovement. What should I do from here? what score can I expect to improve to by 9/19 which is my tentative test date. Haven't scheduled yet.

Also in each section I felt like I flew by them. In quant I just didnt know some and spent a minute or so and guessed but still had 10 mins left over when done. On the verbal I was down to 14 mins left with 2 questions to go and didn't feel rushed at all. So I'm assuming timing isn't an issue. Didn't feel rushed at all compared to lsat. Any help and guidance is appreciated. O and I already have the OG guide 11th edition and ordered kapalan gmat 2004 with cdrom.

My opinion is that unless you're scoring 99th percentile, you shouldn't have time left. Spend that time being more careful and checking your work, and your score will likely increase. As you study, you'll probably start slowing down anyway since you'll see things in problems that you missed before.

As for what improvement you might expect, the typical improvement from a Veritas class is about 110 points. If you're self studying you might get less than that, but some people self study just fine. I'd say that with a fair bit of work you could be looking at a 700ish score.

Good luck!

VP_Jim wrote:My opinion is that unless you're scoring 99th percentile, you shouldn't have time left. Spend that time being more careful and checking your work, and your score will likely increase. As you study, you'll probably start slowing down anyway since you'll see things in problems that you missed before.

As for what improvement you might expect, the typical improvement from a Veritas class is about 110 points. If you're self studying you might get less than that, but some people self study just fine. I'd say that with a fair bit of work you could be looking at a 700ish score.

Good luck!

I think it might have been becuase it was the first time I went through. I am used to testing at lsat speed and usually have 1 min and 15 secs per question. Have to learn to slow down. Do you have any idea how I can extract the questions I got wrong out of the gmat prep. I accidentally closed the window and cant find that. Am I sol and have to take it over?

Yeah... slow down. If you have 10 mins left in quant you are probably thinking some questions are easier than they seem. And the GMAT is notorious for traps and red herrings that make questions seem easier.

Once you close GMAT Prep you lose the questions. So you have to go over the test as soon as you are done. I read someehrre that you can print pages off the GMAT Prep but I can't remember where.