Started today with a 680... Looking for prep advice!

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First off, hello to everyone on the forum!

I am a newbie here and have spent the last day reading a lot of different things on the site, as well as researching MBA schools. I found a CFA forum similar to this that I read every once in a while but never really contributed to but thought I would break the mold by saying hi, and asking for advice right away!

So a quick bio... I am a 23 year old from Canada and graduated with a bachelors in finance in 2008, worked for 2 years... felt I needed a change in direction around Christmas, so I wrote Level 1 CFA then Level 2 in June... then I stopped working and went to Europe for a month... and now am back trying to decide what to do.

My dad suggested getting my MBA the other day, so yesterday I did a lot of research on it (don't know why I never did before :) ), created a profile on mba.com and looked around a bit. Anyways, I couldn't sleep very well last night (lots of thinking!) so I just decided to do one of the two free GMATPREP tests on the mba.com software early this morning. I know, call me silly, but I wanted to see where I was at - I realize you only get two practices!! I am generally good at standardized testing so I wanted to see where I would start at.

ADVICE TIME (from all of you!) ... hopefully :)

So I wrote the first GMATPREP at 6:00 this morning and scored 680... with 47 quant and 35 verbal.


From the research I had done in the last day, I know this is a very good starting point for never seeing any questions like that before... but I really want to score into the mid 700s, and think this is do-able in a few months of hard studying.

But i would like your advice on where to start. I have read that a lot of the prep material is geared for people aiming for a 650 and that it might not be the best way to spend valuable studying time if you are hoping to get a bit higher.

My HUGE weakness is sentence completion- I think I got all 9 of my verbal questions wrong in this category with the other two categories perfect (I never would have thought I would see questions like these again after high school :)) Where should I start with this section?

I think math I am just a little rusty because 3 of the 9 I got wrong I just misread the question (positive, negative, etc haha) and another 3 of the 9 I know how to do I have just been out of the game for a while! A few I didn't recognize but after looking at them they weren't too difficult.

Anyways. Where do i start! Can some of you that have already been there please shed some light on me! I am looking for some mentors to guide me to a 750 :)...

Thanks in advance for all your help!

Target751
Source: — GMAT Strategy |

Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
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by target751 » Sun Jul 25, 2010 5:26 am
Hi again guys.... I know there is a ton of knowledge here and I hope that someone who has already done this route can help me... I think I am going to write the gmat in a month and a half... What should I do to move from a 680 to a mid700... Thanks so much in advance!!

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by InkyBinky » Sun Jul 25, 2010 8:59 am
I think moving from a cold 680 to the mid-700's is a very realistic goal. I scored a cold 650 on GMAT Prep Test 1 a month ago. About a week later, without studying (just familiarizing myself with how the test actually works), I scored 710 on Manhattan GMAT's free practice, which is generally regarded as more difficult. Using Manhattan GMAT's diagnostics, I identified my weak points, bought a few MGMAT books and have been studying to improve them for the past month. I think they're very helpful and since sentence correction is your weak point, I suggest buying it. As long as you don't get the Kindle version, you'll also get access to their 6 practice tests and some online practice questions. The MGMAT SC book suggests some very good strategies, covers the types of errors that the GMAT tests and offers a relevant grammar review. They have a variety of other books that can target other weak areas if you need them.