NEED HELP: 3 Offical Exams and No Improvement - Any advice is welcome!

Hi all,

I have been a long time follower of GMAT Club and have tremendous respect for all that support the community.

I need your help assessing my GMAT exam progress and how I can go from here. I have written both a long overview and a short overview of my situation along with my enhanced score report.

Overview:
I began studying for my exam in February following Magoosh 3 month plan. I was following the plan and understanding what GMAT was all about and the different questions (Quant/Verbal). I knew my verbal was weak so I focused on it a bit more. Used error logs, the OG and everything.

Thinking that I was ready to take the exam, I wrote my very first official GMAT exam and score very poorly, 490 (Q36, V23). When I was writing the exam, I was nervous but also at the same time excited and felt that I was doing well. On my break after finishing the quant section, the exam invigilator forgot to enter her password to log me back into the exam to begin verbal, and I had to put my hand out and wait for her to come in and enter her password. I lost about 2 minutes into the verbal. I didn’t finish the last 3 questions of verbal as I ran out of time. I felt I could have scored a bit higher.

Considering that it was my first attempt and having exhausted the Magoosh resources, one of my friends recommended me to a tutor. The tutor was very good and taught me techniques/shortcuts that I did not know existed. I went for about 6 weeks of tutoring 2/3 times a week for 2 hours and doing self-studying and questions he gave me. This was all in the time while I was submitting my application to a school. The school wanted my GMAT score as soon as possible as I had canceled my first score. After 6 weeks, I felt very confident with my performance. My tutor suggested completing verbal, quant then IR as verbal was my weakest and putting more attention towards it. As I was writing the exam, I felt nervous and felt that I didn’t do too well after finishing the verbal part. As I was doing the quant, all I can think of was my poor performance in verbal and whether I can make get into the school. To my surprise, I had score of 500, (Q36, V23). I was very disappointed that it only increased by 10 points.

I explained my situation to the school and they asked me to rewrite the exam. This time, my tutor and I reviewed my exam performance and put more emphasis on verbal and especially critical reasoning and focusing more on getting problem-solving correctly. After 3 weeks of doing questions and more emphasis on CR, I rewrote the exam as it was cutting close to the school to make the decision. This time I decided to write the exam in the traditional order, with AWA/IR, Quant and Verbal and ended up with a score of 480 (Q33, V20).

I’m still waiting for the school to make a decision but in my heart, I know that I won’t be getting into the school with a dismal score of 500. I’m very confident with my knowledge of quant but I was surprised to see my score drop so much. I was expecting it to be in the 40s as when I had practiced I score Q43. Right now I feel like my tutor is trying to take advantage of my situation and make more money off me. His method doesn’t seem to be working anymore and we have been doing the same questions over and over.


Short Overview:
-I have been studying for about 6 months now
-Through this whole journey, I had applied to business school, writing my essays and filling out an application.
-First 3 months – Followed Magoosh 3 month Plan
-Wrote my first Official GMAT Exam 490 (Q36, V23); ran out of time to finish the last 3 questions in verbal section
-Hired a private tutor from a friend who recommended him
-Went to him 2x/3x per week for 2-hour sessions for 6 weeks
-Re-wrote my second official GMAT exam with new order of [V, Q, IR, AWA] and scored 500 (Q35, V23)
-The school asked me to rewrite the exam again
-Did more practice, focused more on verbal especially CR
-After 3 weeks rewrote the GMAT exam again and got 480 (Q33, V23); canceled the score

I know for a fact that my knowledge and understanding of all the contents in quant and verbal have improved tremendously from the first time I wrote the exam to now but it is not reflective of my score.

I’m not giving up on my goal but I don’t know where to go from here. I need your help in devising a plan on what I can do and how to reach my goal.

https://imgur.com/a/bcLDV