460 GMAT Diagnostic - Is there any hope?
Currently a senior in college going to graduate in a few months and per the suggestion of friends, former colleagues, and many users on here I decided that I wanted to take the GMAT before I start my full time job in June. A few days ago I took a GMATPrep practice test cold through their software and scored a 460 (27Q,27V). Although I haven't prepped at all yet and I am scheduled to start a prep class in February to further prepare for the test, I am concerned because I am starting out at such a low score and I want to get the best score as possible. I was originally planning to sit for the actual exam in May but after looking at my diagnostic I don't know if three months preparation is enough to do well.
With this I was wondering three things: is there any hope for me to get a solid score , how much prep time do you guys recommend overall, and have any of you guys personally went from a bad score from the beginning to a great score when you sat for the exam?
I could really use any feedback, guidance, and suggestions
Had a very close friend get a 480 diagnostic and 710 on actual. He spent nearly 6 months straight taking basically a practice test per day, rolling over the questions he missed from the previous ones.
It is a very learnable test. It just takes time and a lot of discipline.
I would definitely say there is hope. Lots of students start out with scores way below their target score and still end up achieving it. I am a GMAT tutor and have worked with student who have made bigger score improvements, so it is definitely doable! How long it will take you depends on your learning habits and how much time you have to study for the test. I think that you should reassess your test date after you complete the course. In addition, it may be beneficial to reach out to your course provider and ask them if there is anything you can do (ie books to read, etc) before the course starts to make sure you that you make the best use of your time in the course.
Hope this helps and good luck!!
While this might not be very anecdotal, on the PSAT in high school I scored ~1100/1600. Did well on the actual SAT and went to a top LAC (think Swarthmore, Middlebury, Amherst, Williams). So yes, there is hope.
What did you get on your SAT? Where did you go to school and study?
Don't remember exactly but it was in the 1900's (2400 scale). Attending UT Austin - McCombs School of Business.
Yes there is hope. Your quant score is terrible because you probably have never seen data sufficiency before and you may not have brushed up on high school math since...well, high school
Of course it is possible! If you are a native speaker, there is little reason why you should not get between a 38-40 on the verbal after a little bit of studying. That alone would boost your score to ~580 assuming quant remains the same. Plus, as @"TwoThrones" said, you probably are unfamiliar with the format and may have not seen some of these math concepts for a few years.
Either sign up for a course or do independent study. I personally bought the Manhattan GMAT books and paired that with Magoosh (which I highly recommend and worked great for my learning style).
check out gmatquantum.com. Great math course which will help build up your math foundations
If you struggle with quant, I completely agree with that! gmatquantum.com is a really good source & cheap! (less than 100$) Very helpful and understandable video explanations of ALL concepts you need + hard and tricky practice questions
I got a 560 on my first diagnostic GMAT then after studying like crazy for 5.5 months I scored a 760 on the real GMAT in 2013.
Apologies double posting
Whaaaaattt?? 5.5 months of crazy study for GMAT?? I'm looking to have a ~680-700 score in it with a ~1 month (hard) study, do you see it feasible?
Depends on where you're starting from. I studied for a little under a month and got a 730. My experience (and that of my friends) is that if you're someone who reads a lot, the verbal comes very naturally so you can basically spend all your time on quant.
I really wish that were true for me. I read a lot and failed verbal.
Went from 520 on my first diagnostic to a 700 and 720 on my 1st and 2nd respective exam attempts 6 and 9 months later. I would say that my progress was in direct proportion to the time and effort I spent on prep-I gained 180 points before diminishing returns eventually kicked in, so there's plenty of opportunity to increase your proficiency. Just don't expect it to be easy.
Outside of SC (which you can crush by internalizing mgmat SC), I think verbal is hard to learn and improve. The biggest factor on CR/RC is focus and concentration. Figure out what you need to do in order to maximize your ability to focus for the duration of the Verbal section.
Verbal is mad easy. Math is what you probably need to work on. Do you take a lotta math-based courses at school? If not, start doing so. The GMAT is much harder to just get a tutor in the math and wing it than with the SAT. Its geared towards people for whom its second nature.
What do you recommend getting books wise to prep for the Verbal portion. I recently ordered Powerscore CR and MGMAT Sentence Correction books for practice. Any other things to get/routines to start?
mgmat sc and cr are both very good. rc not so much but probably worth reviewing considering your low verbal baseline. for sc just drill the concepts in the mgmat book. i havent used powerscore but i hear its a good resource for CR so id go through that several times.
this may be helpful - https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/2011/01/26/how-to-improve-your-…. you need to train yourself to read for comprehension, this may be tough depending on how much time you have. you're likely going to need more than 2 months to go from a 460 to 650+.
My SAT score improved ~300 points (1600 point scale) between sophomore and junior year
Relax... but don't relax so much that you don't study.
I got a 660 on my first practice test and ended up getting a 740, yes there is hope.
@killaqueeen
Taking the official GMATPrep practice test cold can be a huge shock. Most students that I have worked with end up scoring fairly low if they take the test without any preparation. The reasons could range from not being familiar with the structure of the test(for example: data sufficiency questions), or not paying attention to pacing and getting sucked into hard questions. In general, I recommend students to first brush up on different types of GMAT questions, then practice with the easy questions on all of the different types, and then only take a practice test. In general, taking the first practice cold doesn't really help that much other causing a psychological panic. It is best to hold off on doing a full test once you have a solid sense of what the test is about. This would give you a much better initial baseline.
The prevalence of a low score in an initial sitting is another reason why some test prep outfits will have you take their "free" practice test so that you panic and end up signing up for their courses.
In general one can easily improve anywhere from 100 to 150 points from their initial baseline, going beyond will require extra work. My advice is to first get a good sense of what the test is about, review some of the easy questions on all different question types, then brush up on the basics and take the practice test. From that point onward you can selectively target your areas of weakness and continue to improve your performance. And finally, stick to official GMAT questions because you want to get a handle of the structure and style of the GMAT question types and not some poorly written questions from the numerous test prep outfits.
Best wishes, Dabral
although doing well on both sections is ideal, the verbal section is more important. i've seen scores posted with 45 verbal (98 percentile) and 40 quant (66 percentile) for an overall of 700 (93rd percentile). versus 37 verbal (82 percentile) and 50 quant (97th percentile) for a 670 overall (89 percentile). if you don't have much time to study then make sure you ace the verbal and can manage the quant, learn to make educated guesses and move on quickly from problems you know you can't answer.
I second what davidbob123 said, the overall score is influenced more by the verbal score than the quant. In general the return on investment of spending an hour of effort on verbal is higher than that on the quant section of the GMAT. However, ideally one does need to have a balanced score. For example, Berkeley's Haas admissions folks would tell you that they consider a score of 80th percentile on the quant to be proficient.
also khan academy has some great math refresher lessons, and its all free and easy to understand.
Keep at it and realize what areas on the quant you are weak on. If you see a problem and hesitate, you should probably study a tad bit more.
I got a 540 on the GMAT and am currently enrolled in a full time AACSB accredited MBA program. So I wouldn't sweat it killaqueeen. Just make sure to be realistic in where you choose to apply. Don't be like this guy: http://poetsandquants.com/2015/01/10/the-sting-of-the-ding-what-its-lik…
Study hard. I went from 540 diagnostic to 740. Wasn't easy but was possible. Took a class but also studied on my own
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