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Practice Exam before beginning studies or later?

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Practice Exam before beginning studies or later?

by newera » Thu Jun 19, 2008 8:49 am
Hi,

I'm new on here and so far finding this forum to be an amazing resource. I am about to start studying for the GMAT this weekend but have a quick question to ask.

Do you recommend initially taking a pracitce exam before studying or taking an exam when I feel more confident with the material? I have never taken the GMAT before (glanced over the sections and did a couple problems in my head) but I already know that verbal will pose more of a problem than math as math has always been my "savior" in these types of standardized tests. While part of me feels that it would be best to do a practice from the beginning, I am really nervous to see what my score would be and feel like it would kill my enthusiasm (yes, I am that freaked out by standardized tests). But at the same time, seeing the improvement in the before/after score would be uplifting...i'm clearly torn here.

I am also hoping that 2 months of intense studying (4 hrs per day) should suffice to attain a 700+ score.

Any comments would help. Thanks a lot!
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by Ian Stewart » Thu Jun 19, 2008 9:42 am
I normally recommend that people do one of the official GMATPrep diagnostic tests (from mba.com) very early in their preparations- soon after you familiarize yourself with each question type (particularly Data Sufficiency questions, which can seem mysterious the first time you see them).

Doing a diagnostic can be very helpful for a few reasons. Among others:

-it puts all your learning in context. You know what kinds of questions to expect on the test, and how the concepts you're learning may be tested;

-it does help you to discover your weak and strong points. If one of your scores (Verbal/Quant) is much lower than the other, you will learn where to focus your time while studying. That said, do invest some time preparing for both sections, regardless;

-many find GMAT math much trickier than they anticipate. You'll find out if that's true for you;

-you'll discover whether you need to work on speed or on conceptual understanding (or both);

-it will give you an idea of how much work you'll need to invest to achieve your target score.

All of that said, do *not* become discouraged by a low score. With good preparation, you'll make significant improvements. And, as you point out, it can be very rewarding to see your improvement by doing diagnostic tests periodically. Because the GMATPrep tests are computer adaptive, you'll see harder (i.e. new) questions if you improve, so you can take the same test more than once.

This is just my opinion, of course; hopefully other GMAT teachers and test-takers will offer advice as well, and you can make a decision based on the input of several people with GMAT prep experience.
For online GMAT math tutoring, or to buy my higher-level Quant books and problem sets, contact me at ianstewartgmat at gmail.com

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by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Thu Jun 19, 2008 12:01 pm
Kaplan starts all of our courses (for just about every standardaized exam) with a Diagnostic test. The sole purpose of the diagnostic is to see where you are now and help you focus your study.

We actually use a pencil and paper exam for our GMAT diagnostic, so that our students get a clear picture of their content-based strengths and weaknesses without factoring in the difficulties associated with the CAT format. All of our other full length practice is with CATs, of course.

So, to answer your question, yes - do a practice test. Don't worry about your score, other than to get a feel for how far away you are from your goal so you can set a realistic study schedule and test date.

Also, remember that the purpose of every practice test you write (except maybe for the week before your actual GMAT) is to diagnose your progress so you can prescribe what to do next. Many people mistakingly use all their practice tests as predictive tools, when in fact the tests' greatest value is as prescriptive ones.
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by newera » Fri Jun 20, 2008 3:05 pm
Thank you both so much for taking the time to reply to my concerns.

I really appreciative the thought you put into your responses and will bite the bullet and go ahead with taking the dreaded practice exams before starting my studies. You both presented and argued very valid points.

Thanks again :0)
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