study strategy after scoring a 580 and 650 on diagnostic tes

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need700: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 1; Joined: Thu Jun 21, 2007 6:50 pm

by need700 » Fri Jun 22, 2007 2:28 pm

Hey everyone,

I just found a program im interested in, Msc Risk and Asset Management, and decided to give my hand a try at the GMAT. The course requires a min score of 650. I downloaded GMATPREP a couple days ago and read the review for about half an hour or so and then took the tests. I scored 580 on the first one and the next day scored 650 on the second one.

The 580 had me really stressed out but the 650 gave me a little more reassurance. I have yet to study any materials or review guides. However, what is bugging me is that I am doing relatively poorly on the verbal section. I scored in the 35-36 range with 14-15 wrong on both the prep tests and I am native to english..... I really need to improve this as I suuuuck at geometry and some of the quantitative stuff and feel as. I have some 200-300 gmatplus quant questions and i signed up for 800score.com just for the 5 cat tests for the future. What do you think is the best way to increase my score in a relatively short period of time? I am studying for the CFA test as well so I dont wanna go nuts on GMAT...just want to get around 685 690 to be comfortable above the admin requirements.

Thanks

need 700....neeeeeeeeed it, I suck right now.

Source: Beat The GMAT — GMAT Strategy | Fri Jun 22, 2007 2:28 pm

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beatthegmat: Site Admin; Posts: 6778; Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2006 8:30 amFollowed by: 994 members; Location: Los Angeles, CA; Thanked: 1249 times

by beatthegmat » Fri Jun 22, 2007 3:37 pm

There are strategies for preparing for the GMAT in a time crunch. Go to the GMAT Resource Wiki, https://www.beatthegmat.com/wiki/ and take a look at the 'Resources' section. There should be a few materials there that should help you.

Best of luck!

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drhomler: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 141; Joined: Thu May 03, 2007 1:15 pm

by drhomler » Fri Jun 22, 2007 4:56 pm

A 580 cold going for a 650 should definitely be doable. Im guessing in the Verbal your weakness is the SC, you should be able to improve rapidly in that topic area by learning the test and studying the material, supposedly it is the easiest part to improve upon. Its all about knwing the rules. One detriment to us native english speakers is we generally do not converse in grammatically correct English so we have to drop alot of preconceived notions. IE "everyone take out their notebook" vs "everyone take out his notebook" if you were talking and you said either one I wouldnt correct you or question what you were saying but one is wrong and the other is right.

If your taking the CFA in Dec. you should have plenty of time to do both. I studied for level I in 6weeks, and I passed. I guess it all depends on how busy you are with work and how well you know the material, but if you spent the summer prepping fro gmat and then started on CFA in Sept you should be ok.

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Stacey Koprince: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2228; Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:28 pmFollowed by: 694 members; Location: Montreal, Canada; Thanked: 639 times; GMAT Score:780

by Stacey Koprince » Tue Jun 26, 2007 1:03 pm

FYI - first thing, learn how the test algorithm works and how different it is from a paper-based test. Your post gave away the fact that you haven't started studying yet when you mentioned # of questions wrong.

It seems bizarre - but everybody gets lots of questions wrong and you shouldn't expect that stat to change all that much. As your score improves, it's because you are answering harder questions - not because you're getting more questions right.

It's really critical to understand this kind of stuff before you take the real thing b/c it has important implications for pacing and strategy.

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