Hello all experts,
I have no better place to go other than here as I have learned a lot good things in the GMAT Club.
I want to tell you my story and sincerely ask you to comment and help.
I scored 640(Q47,V32), AWA 5.0 last year on September 09, 2013. I applied for some schools. I got rejected and decided to retake the GMAT exam and targeted 730+.
So I did some research and decided to buy
Magoosh GMAT Premium and started using the course in mid-May 2014. During the 5-month preparation period, I had some difficulties (my fiance dumped me in July), and I moved to another city in late July.
I took the GMAT exam on October 20th (after 5 months) and scored 590(Q45,V25), which was extremely surprising.
I am going to give you some details so you can help me.
Materials I used:1.
Magoosh Premium which I still have.
2. GMAT OG13 and Verbal and Quantitative 2nd Edition.
3.
MGMAT Online Practice CAT Exams & Question Banks.
4. GMATPrep Question Pack 1 and Exam Pack 1.
5.
MGMAT RC.
How I studied:I studied at least 5 hours a day and at most 10 hours. I took some Sundays off; I took at least one day off every 7-10 days.
For Quant, I have no difficulties.
For Verbal, I have some problems obviously!
To improve my reading skills, I read a lot of articles online. I read 1 book and many GMAT readings.
I watched every video of
Magoosh at least three times and now that I am writing this, I can assure you that I know the content of all videos by heart. I watched every question's explanation video (wrongs and rights). I investigated the wrong questions precisely. I took more than 50 pages of notes and reviewed them in my spare time. I went through all the questions twice and did much better the second time. Even though some questions looked familiar, I did not remember the answers for almost 99% of the questions.
When I noticed improvements, I decided to review the materials to get even better. But I could not improve further.
So I decided to slow down and not to push harder and just took mock tests to practice time management. I know that I am terrible at time management! I am really slow and I cannot solve the questions in 110 seconds. But I answer them correct in 150-180 seconds.(which is awful) But unfortunately the scores were really disappointing compared to previous mock tests.
I have no idea what happened that I started to become worse! Even in SC section that was once my strength, I became weak and slow for some mysterious reasons!
How I scored on my mock tests:GMAT Prep:
09/03 Exam 1 =
680 (Q47, V35) /Verbal = (CR40, RC27, SC41)
09/29 Exam 2 =
660 (Q49, V31) /Verbal = (CR28, RC28, SC36)
I reset Exam 1 and 2 and took them again.
10/06 Exam 1 =
670 (Q49, V33) /Verbal = (CR30, RC32, SC37)
10/10 Exam 2 =
720 (Q50, V38) /Verbal = (CR42, RC29, SC42)
ran out of time and missed 1 Verbal question.then I purchased Exam pack 1:
10/15 Exam 3 =
640 (Q49, V28) /Verbal = (CR34, RC31, SC19)
10/17 Exam 4 =
640 (Q49, V28) /Verbal = (CR15, RC33, SC34)
MGMAT:
07/10 =
610(Q44, V31)
07/21 =
620(Q46, V30)
08/08 =
630(Q44, V32)
08/22 =
600(Q44, V30)
10/09 =
640(Q42, V36)
10/11 =
680(Q45, V37)
And then of course it was the D-Day and I scored
590(Q45, V25). I was broke! but happily I cancelled the exam score as I had the option after I saw my score.
deadlines are as soon as January 1st, 2014 and I am applying to PhD programs in business. I need to score 700+ and I will take my chance another time no matter what. But I want to take the most out of my next 2 months.
So please tell me what I did wrong and how should I improve myself.
Should I study another 60 days or should I take the exam earlier? should I buy any courses?
what should I do please help me.
Thank you all.