Is it just me or is getting a 700 on the GMAT rather difficult? I’ve passed all three CFA exams so I thought I was reasonably intelligent but I’ve been at this GMAT for a couple months now and don’t see a 700 in my future unless i continue for a couple more months. Anyone else have this problem? Also, I’m pretty sick of the comments on the GMAT…“People study for that?” “GMAT is easy.” Yea it’s freaking easy to get a 550, try a 700! AHh.
Dude, a 700 represents the 92nd percentile. The GMAT is not easy unless you’re one of those propeller heads who took Calc IV as a sophomore in ugrad. It’s also certainly much easier for someone coming from an engineering/mathematical background provided English is your native language. I’ve heard that the SAT and GMAT are fairly correlated and one could expect to be able to score within ±30 points. i.e. You scored a 1400 you could hopefully expect a 670-730 with studying. The GMAT, like many other standardized tests, is riddled with questions that have an easy method and a hard method. Knowing the shortcuts and little back of the napkin gimmicks will certainly help boost your score. Look into Manhattan GMAT. I’ve heard good things about their prep materials. I may take the GMAT this fall so I’m sure I will be sharing your misery soon enough.
Same boat… Studied my a$$ off and could only muster 660 while I topped out at 750s in practice. Hiring a tutor and going at it again. It’s like throwing money at a losing stock, lol.
If my younger brother can get a 700, anyone can get a 700. Sorry to my younger bro, but he will agree.
Yeah, I’m a bad standardized test taker. I’m hoping for 650-660. Which is a bummer because by the time I want to get an MBA, the average will probably be about 750 for top schools. The MEDIAN (!) is already 730 at Stanford. Crazy.
I’m already starting in a hole: Male - ding Caucasian - ding I’d probably need a 780 to get into Stanford. I’m smart but not 99.9th percentile smart.
Yeah, but what you should probably realize is that once you get 700+, you’re in good shape and the rest of it comes down to your work experience, leadership, essays, recommendations, and everything else that matters way more than GMAT
took the gmat with only two weeks noticed and got a 690 (probably a fluke). this from someone who bombed the SAT and wasn’t exactly the best student in high school or college. buy the kaplan gmat direct. all of the material is pretty easy. just make sure you know what to expect. if you can pass the these exams, you can do well on the gmat.
numi nailed it. The GMAT is only one data point in your app. If you’re within range (you don’t have to hit the median), it’s not going to raise any flags unless you’re from an oversubscribed demographic and even then there are things you can do to mitigate that. For reference and to give you hope, I got into a couple of top 15 programs with a GPA of 1.8 (yeah this is a 4.0 scale) and a 710 GMAT (I’m Female, Caucasian). Re scoring 700+ on the GMAT, it’s about knowing yourself and being brutally honest about your weaknesses and going relentlessly after them. What is your weak spot, keep track, analyze. Some areas are harder to improve than others (for instance reading comprehension is harder to improve than sentence correction, etc). So it depends on your particular case, no one can tell you if 700+ is hard to get in your case. It is for some and not so much for others.
I understand it’s only a part of the application but I am aiming for Chicago Booth part-time, the rest of my app is fairly good but I am an overly represented applicant. I think I should be able to get in with anything above 660, I think there part-time average is 685. In any case I would like to get that 700 so I can feel a little more comfortable but getting anything less than 640 would put me in some danger of getting in. So I feel like the GMAT is a deal breaker anything under 640 and Chicago is out. I have been studying for a couple months, first with Kaplan and now with Manhattan. I should be able to get there I just think it is going to take some time. I am not from a good calc or math background so that is one of the reason it is taking some time. Plus I have not registered to take the exam so I don’t have that CFA like hard deadline to take the exam so the amount of studying during the week is probably a third of where I was with the CFA. I just can’t get into that CFA, 16 plus hours a wk study mode.
s23dino, I wouldn’t be concerned if your GMAT score is under 700 as long as the rest of your application is solid. With that said, I would highly recommend gmatclub.com as I found it very helpful. Walker wrote an app for Iphone that helps with preparation. Good luck!
CFA + GMAT are different exams. I studied for GMAT for about 3 months to break the barrier. But you’re on the wrong forum. You need: beatthegmat.com and gmatclub.com. Daily practice and really tackling your problem areas are key. When you found a problematic area, learn the approach, then attack with problems…don’t just start doing problems. For SC - learn the rules…I learned the hard way by just trying to memorize, and it still got me. Also, use the official guides for most of your studies. Kaplan sucks. Manhattan SC I hear is great, as is Powerscore for Critical Reasoning. Good luck!
getting 700+ on GMAT is as hard as passing all 3 levels. If you put as many hours in studying for GMAT i am sure you will be in 750+ land
Thanks for the input everyone, I do use GMATClub occasionally but have yet to fully immerse myself in it…it looks like I should.
comp_sci_kid Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > getting 700+ on GMAT is as hard as passing all 3 > levels. If you put as many hours in studying for > GMAT i am sure you will be in 750+ land Thats a little extreme… If someone where to put in a full 6months of studying for the GMAT like they do for CFA2 or 3 with the right materials (ie not Kaplan or other junk) I think you’d be able to clear at least a 650. (Outliers would be few and far between). The problem with CFA takers is that they assume that they can somehow apply the CFA to the GMAT. About the only thing you can and should is your discipline to study.
i agree. when i said “if you can pass these exams, you can do well on the gmat.” I meant that as long as you prepare for the gmat like you prepared for the cfa exams, you will be ready.
comp_sci_kid Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > getting 700+ on GMAT is as hard as passing all 3 > levels. If you put as many hours in studying for > GMAT i am sure you will be in 750+ land I think a lot depends on the background. I didn’t have to study for the GMAT but I did have to study quite a bit for the CFA exams.
I’m of the opinion that you can’t really STUDY your way to a 700. Sure, you can take a few classes, learn some tricks, and go over some practice questions and improve your score a little, but the majority of people just wont get a 700 no matter how much they prep, and some people will get 750 without any prep at all. That’s the nature of the GMAT, unlike the CFA.
“I’m a bad standardized test taker” = “I’m not smart”.
brother bilo Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > “I’m a bad standardized test taker” = “I’m not > smart”. Well, I suppose in a certain sense, that’s actually true. Case in point, my girlfriend scored a 33 on her ACT, while I scored a 25 (that’s cold, zero prep, didn’t even know what ACT stood for mind you). She can dominate me when it comes to answering questions like “what is a if a-b+z-y=-h+zx12”, and just being around her, I can tell, from a raw intelligence standpoint, she is “smarter” than me…but I can still run rings around her when it comes to Jeopardy. There are different kinds of “smarts” I suppose.