Need New Strategy?? 540 to 550 6 months later :(

Hey guys,

I just recently took a Manhattan GMAT CAT and scored a 550 after going through all of the MGMAT books. I have to admit I was very disappointed as I took their CAT 1 back in June and got a 540 (prior to studying).

My results were as follows:

CAT1 - 33 Quant / 32 Verbal - 540 score (50%tile)

CAT2 - 37 Quant / 29 Verbal - 550 score (47%tile)

So while my job has been keeping my very busy lately, I typically study 1-2 hours in the morning and 4-6 hours on the weekends although there have been some breaks in my studying due to travel, etc. I wanted to solicit the advice of all of you GMAT geniuses today and see what you may recommend as far as review/study goes. I have attached the MGMAT summary of my results as I thought it may be helpful to explain exactly what is going on.

While some review is certainly needed, does anyone have any advice from when they may have run into similar issues? I plan on reviewing these missed sections within the MGMAT books again, but also am contemplating looking into other testing material. I noticed that my timing for both quant and verbal were off as the clock seemed to tick down and I went through a bit of guessing near the end for both. Anyone have any tips on timing strategies? I've heard that the first 10 questions really determine how you do, so focus strongly on those. Then if time is running out, rather than guessing at 3-4 in a row, guess on one, then attempt to solve the next one until you are finished in order to reserve a higher score.

Unfortunately, I seem to be one of those individuals (based on testing experience for other exams) who learns more through trial and error than just studying the initial material. I have seen a few resources that claim to offer OG type questions for sale by section and/or difficulty which provide a more thorough explanation than the OG does (although I forget the name of the one I am specifically thinking of at the moment )

Any tips/advice/study plans are extremely appreciated!! Due to a job promotion, I am actually moving my family up to NYC early next year and REALLY want to have the GMAT component out of the way so I can focus on applications (and the job)!! By the way, do the gmat club tests provide a strong assessment of your score breakdown (timing per question, weakest section is X, need practice on CR, etc) similar to what MGMAT does? Thinking about new sources for testing may help. Any ideas??

Thanks so much guys!!