I'm applying to IE Business School and have my iegat exam scheduled in exactly 4 weeks. I've done one full practice test and scored 58%, which I know isn't great. I'm putting in about 90 minutes a day during the week and planning full 3-hour sessions on Saturdays. Is 4 weeks enough time to make a meaningful improvement?
My weak spots are quantitative reasoning and abstract reasoning - I got 51% on quant and 47% on abstract. The verbal reasoning section was actually fine at 71%. I'm not sure whether to double down on my weak areas or try to push my verbal score even higher to compensate.
From what I've read, IE evaluates the exam alongside GPA and essays, so it's not the only thing that matters. But I've also seen people say a strong score can offset a lower GPA, and my GPA is solid at 3.7, so I'm not sure how much pressure to put on myself here.
Has anyone gone from sub-60% to passing range in 4 weeks? I'd find it really useful to hear what kind of score improvement is actually realistic with focused prep.
A 3.7 GPA is a real asset at IE. I'd say aim to get above 65% on the test and let your GPA and essays do the rest of the work - that's a realistic 4-week target from 58%.
The quantitative section for this exam is more data interpretation than pure math. If you're struggling, try practicing with chart and table interpretation problems specifically rather than algebra - that's what the actual questions look like.
I went from 54% to 69% in 5 weeks, so 4 weeks is doable if your prep is structured. The abstract reasoning section responds really well to targeted practice - I did 20 pattern problems every morning and jumped from 49% to 68% in that section alone.
Focus on the weak sections, not the strong ones. Going from 71% to 78% in verbal gives you less than going from 51% to 65% in quant - the floor gains are bigger than ceiling gains at this point in your prep.
Honestly I almost quit after week two. My scores weren't moving and I kept thinking maybe I just wasn't smart enough for this test. But I pushed through and passed, so here's what I'd tell you: 4 weeks is enough if you stop doing random practice questions and actually fix your weak spots first. I wasted almost 10 days just retaking full tests and wondering why nothing changed.
Your 90 minute weekday sessions are fine but don't spread them across everything. Pick the section killing you most and drill just that for like the first two weeks. Quantitative reasoning was my nightmare so I spent basically all of week one on it. The Saturday long sessions helped me with pacing more than anything else. You're not that far from where you need to be at 58%, it's more about consistency than cramming everything at once.
Four weeks is totally doable from where you're starting, especially with your schedule. I was in a similar spot last year — full-time job, studying nights and weekends — and ended up going from mid-50s to just over 70 in about five weeks. The Saturday sessions were honestly my lifesaver. I'd spend the first hour reviewing whatever tripped me up during the week, then do a timed section or two, then use the last hour to go over mistakes. One thing that helped me a ton was drilling from a iegat practice test pdf I printed out so I could mark it up by hand — something about writing on paper made the patterns stick better than staring at a screen after a long workday.
For your weeknight sessions, don't try to do full tests. Ninety minutes isn't enough to recover from a long day AND stay focused through a complete exam, so you'll just burn yourself out. Focus on one skill area per session — verbal one night, quantitative the next — and really dig into why you're getting things wrong, not just what the right answer is. The score gains come fast once you stop guessing and start recognizing the patterns they're testing. You've got time, just stay consistent and don't skip the Saturday deep dives.
Four weeks is honestly enough if you're smart about it. I was in almost the exact same spot last year, scored a 61% on my first practice test and panicked. What actually moved the needle for me wasn't grinding more practice tests — it was spending the first two weeks drilling just the question types I kept getting wrong and understanding WHY I missed them, not just checking the answer key and moving on.
The thing that made the biggest difference was timed sectional practice rather than full tests. I'd do 20-question blocks against the clock, because the real ieGAT isn't hard because it's tricky, it's hard because you're rushing. Save your full 3-hour Saturdays for full simulated tests, but your weekday 90 minutes should be focused work on weak spots. By week three I was consistently hitting 72-75% and I ended up passing comfortably. You've got this.