Three weeks to go, Practice exams dropped from 650 to 580

Question

I'm very dissappointed with my most recent GMAT Prep score of 580 (Q37 V33)

I have three weeks to go before I take my second official GMAT attempt.

I've basically been studying since May 2012, while taking month of August and September off. . So all in all I've been studying about 8 or 9 months and having trouble breaking into my target score of 700. I recently read how studying too long can hurt your score but didn't figure that our until recently.

For some reason I scored a 650 on an MGMAT CAT but 580 on GMAT Prep a couple weeks later, and I read that MGMAT CATS are harder than the official exam.

Any final advice as to get the 700 score in three weeks, even though I haven't scored it in practice exams? Very frustrated as I've studied for nearly a year now.

Was planning on focusing on doing error log timed sets, and timed sets from OG13. I also been lurking on this board for a while and feel like reading a lot in addition to studying might help improve my Verbal score.

Right now I put an 1hr per weekday, and 2.5 hours per weekend day.

Here is a summary of my exam scores

Date Source Score Quant Verbal
4/22/2012 MGMAT 1 520 32 30
6/23/2012 MGMAT 2 620 42 33
7/21/2012 MGMAT 3 630 43 33
8/14/12 (official Exam) Official 560 39 28
 
12/29/2012 MGMAT 5 590 36 34
1/19/2013 MGMAT 6 650 44 35
2/23/2013 GMAT Prep 580 37 33

mtt240 · Answer

Hi Scullianscholar,

I think the GMATPrep is a little bit more difficult than the MGMAT practice tests, because GMATPrep will give you questions that you have never seen before and that you must be creative to solve. MGMAT practice guides sort of tell you how to solve the MGMAT practice test questions, although they are more calculation intensive. It seems that your quant is inconsistent, but I'm not sure if it's because of timing or careless mistakes. Have your problem areas been mostly due to knowledge of the concepts? I would advise you to do timed problem sets of 5-10 in PS and then 5-10 in DS every day until you are very comfortable. Make sure to review the questions you get wrong and be ready to redo them until you can finish them under 2-2.5 mins each.

scullianscholar · Answer

Thanks for the reply. My three week plan is to do daily 15-20 question timed sets from GMAT prep and from my error log. I'm going to do one more CAT a week before. From what I've read it seems like all the 700 clubbers really put in a lot of time for the last couple weeks leading to the test, by doing many question timed sets and CAT tests one per week. I think this will help build stamina and sharpen my mind. I also read the post about GMAT fiction so I'm increasing reading during my free time and essentially eliminating TV time until the exam. :-D

arun@crackverbal · Answer

Hi, Sorry if I am sounding a bit pessimistic - but what will change over the next 3 weeks that has not changed in the last 1 year? :eh:

I think instead of focusing on WHAT to do - you should focus on WHAT was done i.e. relook at your performance, analyze it with a microscope, try to work on the areas you need to improve. This will pay you far more dividends than solving more questions at this point. Here are a few ways in which you can analyze your mistakes: https://www.crackverbal.com/nailed-it-mi ... crewed-it/ https://www.crackverbal.com/effective-gmat-prep/ Create a plan accordingly and yes if you can get a personal tutor or a study group, it would help you a lot more than doing this yourself. All the best! Arun

scullianscholar · Answer

Hi all, I thought I'd update my progress in case anyone is interested (and also I dislike seeing boards where the OP never updates whether their strategy worked of didn't work

) After high gearing for the past 8 weeks (15+hours per week of study) and seeing a significant (and frustrating) drop in my CATs I'm taking a break from studying - at least 3 months of not touching GMAT. I think the main reason is I'm burnout from studying from 16 weeks of continuous study and I am no where near my target score. I read that studying too long leads to diminishing returns. My last two GMAT prep scores were: 570 three weeks ago, then 560 today. This is coming off a peak of 650 on a MGMAT CAT. I decided to move my exam date which was supposed to be March 18 to August 12. My goal is to apply for Fall 2014 so as long as I make my target score before October I should be okay. I'm thinking of taking it in August and implementing an 8 week plan prior to that date. But right now I can't stand the though of studying any longer without taking a decent break. -Patrick

johnwesley · Answer

Do not panic and now is when you have to be cold blooded. Keep on doing exams, tracking the total and partial scores, and learning from each of the mistakes. Ensure you can practice without any disruption at least for the entire Quant and Verbal sections.

Whit your track record, I think it can happen that you score more than 650 on the D-Day, and recall that scoring 680 for example is already a very good presentation card for many schools.

If you do not get your desired score, remember you will have to wait 1 month to retake the exam.

Best and good luck!!

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