I already took the GMAT and have a respectable score, but I need to re-take it for the schools I am aiming for. I was planning on taking level I next June, study GMAT during the summer and take it in late August/early September before round 1 application deadlines. A lot of people are saying though that it’s pushing it, and I should take the GMAT before June. Is it possible to successfully study for gmat and cfa level I at the same time? Has anyone here done this?
Don’t do it at the same time. If you’re dead set on doing both, start GMAT preparations the week after you sit for the CFA. That will give you 3 solid months of GMAT prep which should should be sufficient.
SlaveII Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Don’t do it at the same time. If you’re dead set > on doing both, start GMAT preparations the week > after you sit for the CFA. That will give you 3 > solid months of GMAT prep which should should be > sufficient. This is what I was thinking as well. I already have a respectable score, so I probably won’t need a full 3 months for studying. Having said that however, I’m thinking of hiring an admissions consultant, and they said that it will be tough to study for the GMAT during the summer and then write high quality essays for round 1 deadline.
Sorry to hijack here, but are you looking at Stacy Blackman’s services? I’m interested to hear any opinions from folks who’ve used this or similar services. As far as studying for both, I probably wouldn’t recommend it. Both require a significant amount of effort to prepare.
bpdulog Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Sorry to hijack here, but are you looking at Stacy > Blackman’s services? I’m interested to hear any > opinions from folks who’ve used this or similar > services. > > As far as studying for both, I probably wouldn’t > recommend it. Both require a significant amount of > effort to prepare. I used stacy blackman when i first applied a few years ago. I do NOT recommend it at all. I’m thinking about using aringo this time.
Look, Level I is not that hard. If you put in the time you can pass no problem. That being said, the GMAT and Level I have virtually zero overlap. You really have nothing to gain by studying for both at the same time, but the scoring is different for Level I. A pass is a pass whereas for the GMAT your personal “passing” score is dependent upon you own situation. Some people are ecstatic with a 650 while others may feel like that is a failing grade. Do it now. Crush the GMAT books from now until January and take the exam. Start studying for Level I in February and kill it in June. No reason not to get after it.
well the obvious gain you get would be time. if you can pull off both, you are ahead of the pack
Chuckrox8 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > Do it now. Crush the GMAT books from now until > January and take the exam. Start studying for > Level I in February and kill it in June. No > reason not to get after it. Agree with this. I think I did GMAT a few months before L1 as well. If you’ve already taken it, you shouldn’t need more than a couple months max to improve your score. And 4-5 months is plenty for L1.
GMAT is a joke, if you can’t get a 700+ on 3 weeks prep it ain’t gonna happen. Level I is significantly tougher you want to set aside 3-4 months for that.
MissCleo Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > GMAT is a joke, if you can’t get a 700+ on 3 weeks > prep it ain’t gonna happen. Level I is > significantly tougher you want to set aside 3-4 > months for that. That’s like saying if you can’t score 80 on Schweser practice exams after 3 months it ain’t gonna happen. Good job.
MissCleo Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > GMAT is a joke, if you can’t get a 700+ on 3 weeks > prep it ain’t gonna happen. Level I is > significantly tougher you want to set aside 3-4 > months for that. According to you, I will give up on applying for a top MBA program.
VOBA Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Chuckrox8 Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > > > Do it now. Crush the GMAT books from now until > > January and take the exam. Start studying for > > Level I in February and kill it in June. No > > reason not to get after it. > > Agree with this. I think I did GMAT a few months > before L1 as well. If you’ve already taken it, you > shouldn’t need more than a couple months max to > improve your score. And 4-5 months is plenty for > L1. VOBA, people usually recommend around 6 months of studying for level I, with an average of 1.5 hours/day. Is 4-5 months really sufficient? Regarding the GMAT, I already have a 700 but want to improve my quant score and get around 740-750.
MissCleo Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > GMAT is a joke, if you can’t get a 700+ on 3 weeks It’s true that achieving a 700 (90th percentile) or 710 (92nd percentile) GMAT is not really that difficult for many candidates, with a few weeks of preparation. And a score like that is often entirely adequate for a *gal* to get into to a top-ranked US MBA program. But if you suckas happen to be a guy, don’t be mislead by the fact that Columbia’s “average” GMAT is 712. If you’re a white guy, a chinese guy, or an indian guy, you’re almost always going to need a GMAT score much much higher than this. Think 750 (98th percentile) or 760 (99th percentile) in order to be competitive. GMAT scores like this are exponentially more difficult to achieve than a 700.
^^ Yes. The GMAT isn’t that difficult up until a certain point. I think most of the AF community could score a 700 if we were all given a month to study. As you said 750+ becomes exponentially more difficult to reach mostly due to the CAT nature of the GMAT. I completely agree. Truth be told you really just can’t miss that many questions. KSC, a 700 is a great score, but that is going to place you right in the middle of the pack at most top schools. If you could crank that up to a 750 you would be much more competitive.
Chuckrox8 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > KSC, a 700 is a great score, but that is going to > place you right in the middle of the pack at most > top schools. Numerically that may be true. But if KSC is, say, an asian male, a 700 GMAT would place him at the very very bottom of the pack of other asian males that he is going to be benchmarked against.
This seems right. Asian-American men are held to a MUCH higher standard than other demographic groups.