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How can I improve my overall score

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How can I improve my overall score

by shely » Wed Aug 08, 2007 9:39 am
Hi, I would apreciate any advice. This is my story:

I took the Kaplan course and have been studying by my self for 3 months. In my Kaplan CAT test I scored 500. I already took the GMAT for the first time and felt very confident during the exam but the results were not good, I scored 400.
My first lenguage is not english . My first lenguage is Spanish and have a social science background (havent seen math since highschool 1999)
I feel I have control over almost all the math type questions and can recognize what type of question is from the beggining but when cheking my answers I have a stupid mistake, not related with knowing the strategy just a n algebra or arithmetic mistake.
I also have a problem with timing. I can solve must of the problems, some less than 2 min. but the majority in more than 2 min.
I am aiming at the 600-650 score . So my question would be do you think it is doable taking in to consideration my scores in real and practice test? and what actions should I take considering I can study every day after 6pm because I work?
Thanks a lot for your advice!
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by Stacey Koprince » Wed Aug 08, 2007 12:17 pm
Hi, Shely

I already gave you some advice via PM, but I'll add some additional info here.

First, I believe Kaplan has been advertising a guarantee that if you don't score as well on your official test as you did on your first Kaplan test, you get something - your money back or a free course or something. If you qualify, you should explore that, because you will likely need outside assistance to move from a 400 to a 600-650.

You ask whether such an improvement is doable. Some people have done it but I would not say it is very common. So it is doable but it is going to take a lot of work.

I am going to have to make some assumptions here based upon your 400 score, since I don't have any detail about what went well and what went poorly on the test. Given the score improvement you seek and your starting point, you are essentially going to need to start from the beginning. You need to make sure you master both the content and the techniques for the different question types as well as overall pacing and test-taking strategies for the entire test. You may already be okay in some areas, but a 400 score is evidence that there are significant holes in your foundation.

You need to take a practice test in which you can get extremely detailed data about the categories and difficulty levels of the questions you answer, as well as your timing on the individiual questions. I'm not familiar with Kaplan's testing format, so I don't know how much analysis you get in your score reports. You can get this analysis from my company's tests, though, and if you attend one of our free Open House information sessions right now, you get access to our tests for free for one month. If we don't have offices in your city, we also hold these Open House sessions on our virtual web conferencing platform, so you can attend from anywhere in the world as long as you have a broadband Internet connection.

Once you get that data, use the wiki here to help craft a study plan and ask for advice from the experts and your peers here in the forums too (make sure to provide the relevant data in your posts).
Please note: I do not use the Private Messaging system! I will not see any PMs that you send to me!!

Stacey Koprince
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Manhattan GMAT

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