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jellysupida
Hi, everyone

I have been preparing for Gmat test for almost 2 months now (Starting on the 1st of January) and took the real GMAT first time on February 14th and scored 590 Q42 V29. Although I have improved tremendously from my first CAT mock test, I still could not reach my goal score of 650. I plan to retake the test again on 20th of March to meet my dream school's 4th round application deadline on 7th of April. Sadly, I feel like I am stuck at the same score range of +/- 600 over and over again.

Here are my CAT score results for the past 2 months

1st of January : GMATPREP 360 Q13 V27 IR 3
I was shocked by the low score. My problem is that, as a non-native, I could not translate most of the quantitative problem while my background in humanities may help with my verbal part ( I graduated with English literature degree from Thailand ). However, V27 is still very low and my weakness is RC (I initially thought it was my strength :( )

21st of January : MANHATTAN 580 Q37 V32 IR 3
After going through Manhattan Foundation of math book, solving about 20% of OG 2017 and enrolling in KAPLAN live course in Bangkok (The quant tutor is very good!), I was very happy with this score because at least I am a bit closer to my target score. After that I have religiously solved problems on OG 2017 specifically on the quant part and keep an error log (without much review which I know is really bad)

28th of January : KAPLAN 620 Q42 V34 IR 4
I was extremely happy with the score and gained more confidence. Doing Gmat quant questions has become my habit. I solve some problems before and after work everyday. I know that it sounds weird but I enjoyed it very much. However, I neglected the verbal part completely because I found it very boring especially the RC.

4th of February : MANHATTAN 590 Q39 V31 IR 1
This is when I started to feel uneasy about my score. After putting so much effort, I improve very little in quant. My mistake is that I completely ignored the harder topic such as probability or permutation because I thought that it would appear only in the higher range. I also forgot some basic rules in number properties and algebra. For verbal, I realized that I have consistently scored really bad in RC and SC and for CR although my score is relatively good, a good portion of it comes from lucky guess. I put my final effort in cramming Manhattan algebra and Sentence correction book in about a week because I thought both of them are the easiest topic that I could improve in short amount of time.

14th of February : OFFICIAL GMAT 590 Q42 V29 IR 5
3 days prior to the test day I focused solely on solving OG 2017 problems. I did it all day and started to really pay attention to my error log. On the day before the test I solved only couple of questions on GMATprep to familiar myself with the screen. On the test day I felt rather calm. My AWA was quite straightforward. IR was sooo much easier than any mock. Quant was easier than Manhattan test but still hard for me at some point. Verbal was a disaster!CR was on the same level as the mock but I could not solve the SC at all! It was so much different from the mock test. I waas running out of time when I encountered really long 4th article and randomly guessed 4 RC questions straight away only to guess a couple more on the last couple CR and SC to finish it time.

I left the test center feeling a mixture of relief and frustration. I was happy that my quant is at its best but only if my verbal is better at least I could reach 600. After the test, I took a rest and feel really burned out for a week. I picked myself up last week and enroll in E-GMAT sentence correction course, review Powerscore CR Bible and solve RC problem in OG 2017 again.

26th of February : GMATPREP 2 610 Q41 V34 IR 3
I have a feeling that my CR and SC score didn't come from lucky guess as much as it was before though I guess couple of them. E-GMAT and CR Bible help me to tackle the problem systematically but I guess I need more practice to make a noticeable improvement in score. However RC is still very bad. My hit rate was only around 40%. For quant, I feel like I am getting worse although the score is not that different from the real score on Feb 14th, my gut feeling is telling me that I started to lose my ability to understand and solve certain problems.

Here comes my question, I have only about 3 weeks left to reach around 640-650. What should I focus on? Improving quant or verbal. Personally I think that improving verbal is much harder than quant especially in RC in which you need time to build a strong foundation but pushing 41-42 to something like 45 in quant is also very challenging for me now that I am running out of time. Any suggestion or study plan for my last 3 weeks ?

Thank you very much for your time and looking forward to hear any of your thoughts

Hi jellysupida ,
You can aim to score 650 by scoring a few points more in either Quant or Verbal . You should analyze your strong and weak areas within Quant and Verbal
- SC is relatively easier to improve while RC is the most difficult
-To improve in Quant - you should refresh your basics on Geometry , Statistics , word problems , overlapping sets and Coordinate geometry .
-Number theory , Permutations and Combinations , Probability are relatively difficult to improve
- Make an error logs - Focus on your weak areas
- Try to solve questions in Bunuel's signature for Quant

Hope this helps!! :)
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Hi jellysupida,

To start, raising a 360 to a 590 is a significant accomplishment. Taking your recent Official Score up to a 650+ will require that you change how you 'see' (and respond to) the Test though. GMAC has publicly stated that the Official Score that you earn on Test Day is within +/- 30 points of actual ability. Assuming a similar 'swing' in how your CATs function, your CAT score results show that you essentially performed the same way each time (+/- a few points). This means that you do certain things consistently well, but you also make certain consistent mistakes. As such, you should do a full review of this most recent CAT and try to define WHY you're getting questions wrong. In real simple terms:

After reviewing each section, how many questions did you get wrong....
1) Because of a silly/little mistake?
2) Because there was some math/verbal that you just could not remember how to do?
3) Because the question was too hard?
4) Because you were low on time and had to guess?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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Hi vishalkumar4mba,

Thank you so much for your advice. It feels so much better to know that it is possible to improve quant.

Hi, Skywalker18

I agree with you than SC is the easiest now I am about to finish E-GMAT SC and will soon work on the quant part. I bought Manhattan number properties book because after review closely I missed most of the DS question about number properties so I need to really work on that area. Thank you so much.

Hi, Rich
Thank you very much for your keen observation. I have the feeling too that I consistently perform at the same level which will never get me to 650 range. After review some of my CATs as you suggested I found that most of the question that I got wrong comes from number 2) Because there was some math/verbal that you just could not remember how to do? So I plan to wrap up my E-Gmat SC and CR Bible that I'm currently reviewed and switch back to quant part especially the number properties.

I will not give up. I believe that after improving 230 point in 1.5 month, if I try a bit harder and smarter I could reach my score goal!
Thank you very much again for sharing your words of wisdom and will update to you all soon.
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I think your verbal score is quite consistent and you need fair bit of improvement in Quants.

In these 3 weeks, I suggest you take GMAT Club quant tests. Analyse your weaker sections and improve your accuracy. These tests are really helpful and GMAT alike.

Wish you all the very best for your exam!
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