Barely improved

Dear mathiaskeul,
I'm very sorry to hear about your situation, and I'm happy to help.

It sounds as if you are using the Magoosh product quite diligently, and I commend you for that. As much as you can, keep up this fine work.

If you were not watching any Magoosh lessons, or not watching the video explanations of questions you got wrong, then I might have occasion to say that you were not getting the most from Magoosh. Instead, what you are doing is admirable, and it certainly has the potential to help you.

From what you say, I believe there may be a paradox at work here. You are feeling a lot of pressure and this internal pressure is preventing you from doing your best. Your intense focus on the outcome is detrimental to achieving that same outcome. I am going to recommend a series of blog articles that I want you to read and consider:
1) Getting a Good GMAT Score
2) Overcome GMAT Exam Anxiety: Breathe!
3) Beating GMAT Stress
4) The GMAT, Business School, and You: The Big Picture
5) Zen Boot Camp for the GMAT

If you incorporate this recommendations and continue the conscientious work with the Magoosh material, I have high hopes for your success.

Does all this make sense?
Mike

This may actually be the case. Without the practice exams, I hit a score of 70% even getting very hard questions right. I am going to read the articles and keep studying the material. Doing the test again today after yesterday's dissapointment wasn't the best strategy either I think the mere fact that I can spot my errors when doing the wrong exercises again reiterates how big the difference is between these two. Of course, mixture problems will always be one of my biggest problems

Dear mathiaskeul,
Best of luck to you, my friend. For mixture problems, you may find this blog helpful:
GMAT Solution and Mixing Problems
Mike

One thing I have to say. Is there like a way to know which formulas to use with which questions apart from the videos? I rarely know where to start.

Also I keep making stupid mistakes by not reading the question correctly or doing one small error in the calculation....

For instance

In the xy-coordinate system, points (2, 9) and (-1, 0) lie on line k. If the point (n, 21) lies on line k, what is the value of n?

I think I have to find the equation y=mx+b, but with a slope of 9/3 i get the answer 7 while it should be 6. so my reasoning always seems to be a bit off and no matter how many exercises i make it just seems so freagin hopeless...

Dear mathiaskeul,
I'm happy to respond.

First of all, using formulas correctly is about 5% of what you need to know and understand for GMAT math. Folks get really attached to formulas and don't realize that, after a very basic level, the attachment to formulas can hinder them.

Formulas are like tools in a tool box. It's good to have a functioning tool box, but that's not the whole story. The poor workman always wants to use his tools. The master craftsman knows when to use his tools and when to work with his hands. Mastering GMAT math is like being that master craftsman with respect to the formulas: knowing when to set the formulas aside and knowing when to employ them skillfully.

For example, in that math problem you quoted, I think it's a mistake to get the slope purely relying on the "slope formula." That's asking for trouble. What I recommend in the Magoosh videos is to visualize the slope, sketching out a slope triangle.

You don't understand slope unless you understand it visually. Since rise = 9 and run = 3, we get slope = (rise)/(run) = 9/3 = 3.

Now, we could use a formula, but let's boycott formulas for this solution. What does a slope of m = 3 mean? Among other things, it means "move to the right one unit and move up three units." Let's start at (2, 9) and move that way.

(2, 9) --> (3, 12) --> (4, 15) --> (5, 18) --> (6, 21)

There's our answer, without any formula. I think you are limiting yourself by over-reliance on formulas. Use of formulas is a very small part of what you need to understand for GMAT math. What I have shown here, thinking about the coordinate plane visually, is much more important.

Here's a blog article that might interest you:
Careless Mistakes on GMAT Math
You will notice that in the links I posted a couple days ago, those articles are about stress reduction, but the mindfulness techniques also build focus. Practice seeing every detail in your environment, and this will support you in seeing carefully every detail of a GMAT problem. Pay attention to all the small details as if your life depended on it, because the truth is, if your life is going by and you don't see any of the details, you don't really own your own life.

Does all this make sense?
Mike

Another day... but what's so frustrating is that your adaptive test keeps feeding me hard questions even when I get the previous ones wrong. It's destroying my confidence and my morale... is something broken that it just keeps feeding me these unsolvable questions? Because that's not how adaptive is supposed to be i think?

What's also frustrating is that my score progrnosis is just plummeting by the day, while it's supposed to go up.

I had 47% of my questions correct today. But over 3/4 of those questions were hard... made 47 q. How am I supposed to master something if I can't get some basic sense through easier questions?

Edit: Just hit a new low. 60 questions and 43%. I've absolutely lost it. My entire motivation is down the drain, while I'm usually the most positive and tenacious person alive.

How did you end up doing on the actual GMAT? Please share your experience if you don't mind.
I took my exam about 10 days ago and did not get my desired score either and my practice exams had indicated that too during my study.

Today, I registered for another re-take 5 weeks from now.

My gmat's due in 9 days. I took two days off to reset my brain and will now start again on monday to tackle problem areas. Last time i took the gmat, i got a 530 with a lot less studying.