Ask the Test Maker

I started my GMAT journey in late July by enrolling in a Veritas class. I was devastated when I took my first CAT Prep and scored a 380. I wasn't familiar with the format of the exam or it's grading. I continued attending my course, doing some of the homework and every few weeks taking a practice exam. I realized every time I took a practice exam my motivation level would completely fall into pieces. Each time I was devastated and somewhat in denial that I couldn't be scoring so LOW!

CAT 1 - 380
CAT 2 - 330
CAT 3 - 350
CAT 4 - 550 (I had some repeats on this one since I decided to re-take the GMAT Prep right before my first scheduled date for the actual GMAT. Which is why I think this is not truly reflective of my score)
Actual Test (Oct 26) - 340

I wasn't shocked walking out of the test center as much as I was fearful of never getting into business school. After a week off from the GMAT, decided to really get back to my basics. I came to realize it wasn't the format or my lack of understanding of the overall exam, it was really that I needed to buckle down and master the basics. I needed to re-learn everything and my main focus was going to be math even though I did slightly better on math than verbal on most CATs. All along I felt I wasn't stronger in one than the other.

I studied from mid Nov to end of Jan covering every Veritas book in detail. With A LOT of focus on Math and some focus on Verbal. The only question type I was somewhat decent in was Critical Reasoning (one of my earlier CATs I actually scored an 80% on CR). It was actually one of my favorites because it was logic based. I started to focus on Verbal a little more the first week of Feb mainly focusing on SC and RC as those seemed to be my weakness.

I finally decided to sit down and give another Practice Test. Throughout the past couple of months I wanted to stay away from taking a practice exam in fear of still being in the "300s". To my surprise I scored a 600 (Q38, V30). I was surprised, expecting in the low 500s but hoping for 600s.

My target score is 640. The school I would like to apply to has an average of 600-610. The question I have is - what do I need to do next to make sure I stay above this 600 line? I plan to take a practice exam every weekend for at least the next month to six weeks. I would like to ideally sit for the exam either the first or second week of April. If I'm preforming well on my practice exam I would like to schedule a little earlier (maybe end of March). I would like to take two more Practice Exams before scheduling again. Any recommendations for what I should do next?

I plan to cover the OG. I have already done all SC and PS in the book from my first round of preparations. I would like to re-do all PS problems for sure in the OG though. I've gotten a lot better at DS throughout the course of the last few months.

I appreciate any feedback that you can provide me. It's been a long journey and I would hate to not focus on the right material towards the end of the my preparations.

Thank you.

Hello, Spatel. It sounds like you have done a lot of preparation, and have pinpointed your areas of improvement. That is great news! You may want to try posting this in one of the main forum threads. This thread is to pose questions to the makers of the GMAT exam and we cannot provide you with specific study strategies. Others on the board may be able to help you with a study plan. Good luck!

I apologize. I will re-post on the appropriate forum. Thank you!