Manhattan Prep Instructor
Joined: 22 Mar 2011
Posts: 2668
Given Kudos: 56
GMAT 2: 780 Q50 V50
Re: taken gmat 4 times and always landed around 600.wht to do?
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25 Jan 2013, 22:58
Okay, now that I've seen your exams I can provide some more specifics.
*First and foremost, you need to fix your quant timing. You are allowing yourself to take 3-4 minutes or more on some problems. Eventually, you end up falling behind by 15 minutes or so and then crashing at the end. This is absolutely deadly for your score! You can't allow yourself to fall behind by more than 2 minutes or you are very unlikely to catch up. Practice doing sets of 5 fairly tough problems in 10 minutes. Do not give yourself one extra second, and aim to get as many correct as possible. You'll find that to maximize your performance, you may need to drop the occasional problem, just like you might drop a losing investment. Once you get used to this, try another CAT and check in every 10 minutes (or even more often). If you're behind the pace of 5 problems every 10 minutes, you'll need to make sure to drop a problem pretty soon to catch back up. This is *much* better for your score than having that big slide at the end.
*Your quant is also very uneven. Your problem solving is strong, but your data sufficiency is really low. Work specifically on this, making sure you are catching the initial rephrase, if there is one. Also, don't settle for "This statement is insufficient." If a statement is insufficient, ask yourself what information it *does* provide. That will prepare you better to decide between C and E, if necessary, and sometimes it will lead you to realize that the statement is sufficient after all. Also, you are getting hit hard in straight algebra--go back over the algebra problems from your tests and see what's getting you. Given your strength elsewhere, it's probably not basic mechanics, but something is not working there.
*In verbal, you are missing a lot of inference-based questions: CR conclusions, RC inference, and RC specific detail. You need to work on your approach here. Make sure you are going back and finding specific support for these. Although an inference (as opposed to one of the specific details) won't be stated outright, there should still be some part of the text you can point to and say "Because of X here, I also know Y." I have an article on the subject of inference in our GMAT Roadmap book, page 69.
*Note that you also have a little room to *slow down* on verbal, particularly RC. Take advantage of it. Make sure you have a strong grasp of the structure and the overall point of the passage, and always support your answer choices. When you're studying, go back and do every verbal problem again untimed, making sure you know why each choice is right or wrong. This process will strengthen your instincts and give you good habits that you can put to use on the test.
I hope this helps!