Prospective students often wonder how long it would take them to prepare for the GMAT. If you are looking to take the test, just know that there aren’t any shortcuts to achieving a 700+ score, and you will have to put in the time and effort to make it possible.

The amount of time it will take a student to prepare for a 700+ GMAT score varies from person to person. However, we can form some rough estimates, thanks to statistical data provided by the folks who conduct the test. In this article, we will explore the approximate time it would take students to prepare for a 700+ GMAT score.

How long would it take me to prepare for a 700+ score?

Right off the bat, I will caution you that attaining a high 700+ score on the GMAT is an uphill task for the majority of the students. Like any standardized test, GMAT requires that not only you learn the basic concepts but also spend considerable time practising questions, taking mock exams, revising what you learn and reviewing your shortcomings.

Now that the reality-check is out of the way let’s talk about the numbers. According to the data provided by the Prospective Students Survey from GMAC for the year 2014, almost 60% of the students spend at least 50 hours preparing for the exam.

Assuming that you study 2 hours a day for 5 days a weeks, 50 hours would translate to at least 6 weeks of prep time. In my years of experience teaching the GMAT, the majority of the GMAT aspirants are not able to spend more than 10 hours per week on the GMAT because they have to juggle their prep with their arduous jobs.

But hold your horses because this number rises quite a bit if you want to score 700+ on the GMAT. Following are the findings of the survey in regards to prep time and score.

• Students who studied for an average of less than 70 hours scored less than 400
• Students who studied for an average of 90 hours scored 400-490
• Students who studied for 100 hours scored 500-590
• Students who studied for 110 hours scored 600-690
• Students who studied for 120 hours scored 700 or higher

You can see that there is a positive relation between hours spent studying and the score achieved.

Of all the students who answered the survey, 30% spent between 50 and 100 hours on studying. Another 30% spent more than 100 hours to attain a score of 600 or more.

In short, the higher your target score, the more hours you will need to spend on your study.

For a 700+ score you are looking at around 120 hours of prep time, which is around 16 weeks or 4 months of prep time with 10-15 hours of study time every week.

So, does this mean that you are guaranteed to achieve a 700+ score if you spend 120+ hours on studying?

Of course not. It’s not the number of hours that matter. What matters is the quality of time that you spend on your prep. And of course, most important of all, the quality of materials that you use for your GMAT prep. You could end up spending 200+ hours on the wrong GMAT study materials, which would not even get you a 550 on the exam.

You see, while these numbers are good for a rough estimate, they leave out a lot of factors. Nevertheless, if you use the right materials for your prep and utilize your time productively, more often than not you will be able to score 700+ on the actual exam.

Can anyone get a 700+ GMAT score?

Less than 10% of all the GMAT test takers get a 700+ score. That doesn’t mean that 90% of the test takers cannot get a 700+ score. What it means is that not everyone wants a 700+ score. The vast majority of the test takers only want an average GMAT score, which is around 570-640.

Only a fraction of the GMAT test takers are applying to the top 10-20 Business schools, which require a 700+ GMAT score.

On the other hand, the bulk of the GMAT test takers are not even applying to the top notch B schools and hence they don’t require nor do they aim for such a high score.

Therefore, my suggestion would be to first determine your target score based on your business school goals.

What is my GMAT target score?

This is the first step to determine how much time it will take you to score your desired score. However, this does take a bit of work as you would need to do some research. For starters, your target score should correlate with the average GMAT score of the business school you are interested in.

Let’s say you are applying to Harvard and you want to determine the average GMAT score for MBA applicants. Thanks to the data available on sites such as U.S. News, you can easily look this information up and determine Harvard’s average GMAT scores.

Moreover, if your school’s average GMAT score doesn’t come up on U.S. news, you can try looking up the admissions page of the school.

Or if that information is not available on the admissions page, then you can always write an email to the school and directly ask them for it. Most schools are happy to share their target GMAT scores.

But this is the important part, whatever the average GMAT score is, you should add 20-30 points to it, which would then be your target GMAT score.

What is my GMAT base-level score?

One of the best things any student can do starting out their GMAT journey is to take a couple of free mock exams. A mock test is a full-length GMAT test that gives you an idea of your current level (base-level score). Knowing where you stand at the beginning will give you important insights on how much time you need to spend to get to your target score.

The best way to do this is to access the 2 free GMAT prep mock exams that replicate real test-taking conditions. Don’t take any help or don’t pause while solving the exams as that would defeat the whole purpose of the test.

Make sure that you take only 1 mock exam in a given day. Then take 2-3 days off before taking the second mock exam.

Once you have completed the two diagnostic tests, note down your scores and average them out and move onto the next step.

How much time do I need to dedicate to my prep to meet my target Score?

Now that you have your average base level score, compare it to your target score and figure out how many points you need to gain by subtracting your base score from your target score. Then, use the following estimates to figure out the hours needed for said improvement:

• If you score less than 600 on your diagnostic, you should keep in mind that it takes 120+ hours on average to improve your score by 100 points.
• If you score between 600-650 on your diagnostic, it takes 80+ hours to touch and surpass 700.
• If you score between 650-700 on your diagnostic, it takes 40+ hours to surpass 700.
• If you score between 700-750 on your diagnostic, it takes 20+ hours of effort and a LOT of LUCK to cross 750.

Keep in mind that these are rough estimates and may vary from person to person.

Also, I highly recommend GMAT test takers who are also working full-time not to spend more than 15 hours per week on your GMAT prep or else you will burn out very quickly. 10-15 hours per week of GMAT study alongwith 40-50 hours per week of professional full-time work will take a lot of toll on your mental and physical prowess. Therefore, do not stretch yourself beyond that.

Now all that is left is to start studying by purchasing high-quality books or registering for an online course. As you make progress, it is best to take the diagnostic test a second time to see if you are on the right track.

Conclusion

According to data released by GMAC, a student would need to study for approximately 120+ hours to score 700+. However, a more important consideration is what your target score should be and how to determine it.

Your target score should be dictated by the school you are applying to. Each school has a different average GMAT score which can be found by digging around the internet. Once you find the score, add 30 points to it, and that should be your target score.

However, a target score alone won’t tell you the number of hours you need to spend. To calculate that, it is important to guage your starting-out score by taking a mock test. Once you have your base level score, subtract that number from your target score, and you will have the number of points you need to improve.

After that, all that is left is to compare the difference of your base and target score to the point-improvement estimates provided in the article to calculate the number of hours required to cover the spread.