Fellow members,
After studying (only quant) for ~40 hours, I took my first GMAC practice CAT in May and scored a 650 (39Q, 40V). I was in China all of June and have been studying quant ~4 hours/day for the past 2.5 weeks. I just took two more practice CATS and was extremely disappointed. My second GMAC CAT gave me a 570 (33Q 35V) and my Manhattan CAT gave me a 500 (26Q 33V).
The 70 so hours I've spent studying this month have gone to 1) reading Manhattan Quant books, and 2) Solving OG problems while timed. Then reviewing answers for 1-2 minutes. The huge drop wasn't expected and I feel it's because of two things:
1) Over 60% of the verbal problems I miss are SC. I have never been good at grammar and despite reading the Aristotle SC Grail & part of Manhattan, I cannot improve. I understand the basics but I cannot apply them in all the sentience structures the GMAT uses.
2) My math skills have definitely improved. However, it seems like there are endless ways to test different concepts and I can't master them well enough to carry over from problem to problem. I think I might be moving too fast and not completely understanding a topic before moving on. I have kind of been jumping around topics.
Any feedback on the above? I've read a lot, including this forum, and I've heard time and time again that practicing problems won't get you anywhere. I've heard that you have to dissect each problem and get to know how the GMAT makers think. How does one go about doing that?
EDIT: I started using an
error log yesterday, and I'm starting to go through previous OG questions I answered to populate it.
Thanks for any help!