Over 1 year stuck at 480 +/- 30. Need Help from everyone.

Hi GMAT Club members,


I have been studying GMAT over a year from August 2018 until now and I have been really struggling with it. It has been really tough since I have been stuck at 480 for a long time. I typically study about 15 hours a week.

The study materials I have used so far are all Manhattan 10 books and e-gmat for SC and RC. I am currently using powerscore for CR and I may buy powerscore for RC.

I took all 6 Manhattan prep tests twice (12 in total) and I took all GMAT practice tests 1 to 6. I also took the first two twice. I took the real GMAT four times so far. The list below shows my scores along with their splits.

Manhattan Prep:

CAT 5A Completed 5/5/2019 550 (Q35, V31)
CAT 4A Completed 4/14/2019 550 (Q35, V31)
CAT 3A Completed 4/7/2019 570 (Q37, V31)
CAT 2A Completed 3/10/2019 580 (Q38, V31)
CAT 1A Completed 3/4/2019 580 (Q39, V31)
CAT 6 Completed 2/17/2019 440 (Q28, V24)
CAT 5 Completed 12/23/2018 500 (Q39, V20)
CAT 4 Completed 11/11/2018 510 (Q38, V22)
CAT 3 Completed 10/28/2018 500 (Q38, V21)
CAT 2 Completed 10/7/2018 550 (Q37, V29)
CAT 1 Completed 8/19/2018 530 (Q38 ,V25)

GMAC Practice tests:

GMAC practice test 1 Completed Aug 11 2018 340 (Q25, V12)
GMAC practice test 1 Completed Jul 21 2019 480 (Q37, V20) (second time)
GMAC practice test 2 Completed Jun 07 2019 460 (Q34, V20)
GMAC practice test 2 Completed Jun 15 2019 570 (Q45, V23) (second time)
GMAC practice test 3 Completed Sep 01 2019 550 (Q40, V25)
GMAC practice test 4 Completed Sep 21 2019 490 (Q31, V26)
GMAC practice test 5 Completed Oct 05 2019 460 (Q35, V18)
GMAC practice test 6 Completed Oct 19 2019 470 (Q35, V20)


Real GMAT:

GMAT Completed Nov 11 2018 Cancelled but score was under 400
GMAT Completed Jul 03 2019 460 (Q39, V16)
GMAT Completed Jul 31 2019 470 (Q35, V20)
GMAT Completed Nov 04 2019 480 (Q37, V19)


My goal is to get at least 650. I have 4 months to accomplish this.

I think there are multiple reasons why my score has not improved. I think I did not extract all the possible lessons from all the practice questions I solved whether I answered them correctly or not. So my method was quantity over quality and it should be the reverse. I just noticed that I have a time management problem in the verbal section. RC consumes so much time from me during the test and that makes me rush through the last 10 questions in verbal. I also did not take my review log seriously. I mean I typed in all the questions I was not able to answer correctly under 2 min, but I never reviewed the log. It is like I created something that I did not know how to use it. hahah

I believe I need to change my study behavior to increase my GMAT score.

I have some questions below:
1. Do you think I should buy RC powerscore book?
2. Since I used all GMAT practice tests (1 to 6), what should I use next for best score prediction?

Rich from EMPOWERgmat has started to help me, but I would like to see what others have to say about my current situation so that I can hit the road again to improve my score to at least 650.

GMAT club community members- your help will be greatly appreciated as this GMAT journey has turned out harder than I had expected. I look forward to your responses.


Thank you in advance,
Yazed