Stuck at 580. Not moving one step forward

Question

I took the GMAT 5 weeks ago and scored a 580.
Since then I have invested at least 100 hours of study time and took several MGMAT. I made 580 at all of them with the exact same score in quantitative and verbal as on the real test.
Since I have my next GMAT attempt scheduled for the 11th of this month I thought I would get my hands on the exam packs 1 & 2 to get a better idea of where I stand.
YEP! Same exact result. 580, with a slightly better verbal and slightly lower math score.

Well, I am definitely rescheduling my exam now. It makes no sense to take it if I can't even get above 600. I am totally clueless on where to go from here. I have invested so much energy and financial resources into this and I have not moved one step forward.

:cry:

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Silviax,

I'm fairly sure that we've discussed some (or all) of these points before, but the consistency in your performances means that you're responding to the Test in the same general ways over-and-over. You do certain things consistently well, but you're making the same consistent mistakes. On a fundamental level, we have to 'break you out' of this routine. It's worth noting that you don't have to answer ANY of the hard/weird questions correct to score 600+, but you do have to minimize the number of silly/little mistakes that you make.

After reviewing this last CAT, how many questions did you get wrong....
1) Because of a silly/little mistake?
2) Because the question was too hard?
3) Because you were low on time and had to rush through questions at the end of the section?

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

Silviax · Answer

Hi Rich,

I am still in the process of reviewing the questions I got wrong but from what I can tell so far: unfortunately most of the questions were NOT silly mistakes. I simply did not know how to approach them such as the question I posted in the PS sub-forum.
I had absolutely no clue how to even get started. I tried "test it" because I saw variables in the answer choices but that was most definitely the WRONG method for this problem. After wasting a whole 3 minutes on some "wild calculations" I ended up guessing.
Yes I felt stressed out too because I was short on time and I also had problems with the exam because I obviously didn't have the updated version of Gmat prep on my laptop.
I still think the 580 was a relatively accurate reflection of where I stand. Last week I scored a 530 on an MGMAT exam but I am writing that off as "not realistic testing conditions" I was interrupted by pets and a ringing phone several times.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Silviax,

The only question that you're recently posted in the PS Forum is the one linked below:

a-certain-list-consists-of-21-different-numbers-if-n-is-in-103995-20.html#p1692560

It can be solved rather easily by TESTing VALUES (and I've provided a solution that shows how to use that approach). With your Quant Scaled Scores, you're not using that approach nearly enough though. You should absolutely continue to post your questions in the Forums (or Google them, since they've likely been discussed online) - you're in position to pick up some big points, but you still have some adjustments to make.

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

ccooley · Answer

I recently had a tutoring student in the same position: despite putting the time and effort into tutoring, he kept getting the same score on one practice test after another, within +/- 10 points. It's a frustrating situation to be in, especially because I knew that this student was 'doing everything right' (and there may very well be ways in which you're studying or taking the test inefficiently, that I don't know about!) What eventually 'broke him out of it' - and I agree with Rich, that's what needs to happen here - was going back through everything he'd studied since Day 1 and writing it up on his own in a particular format. He created a document where he listed every Quant problem type he could think of, then all of the problems that he'd done on that topic, and all of the tips and tricks he could think of for each topic. Then he went back through and redid the list of problems for each topic. If he needed any tricks that he hadn't already listed, he added them to the document. In the end, he had a list of every way to approach i.e. rates & work problems that he'd seen so far. He also added sections on 'how to know which of these approaches to use' and 'what mistakes am I most likely to make?'. This process took a couple of weeks, but after months of identical scores, his score on the first practice test he did afterwards suddenly jumped by almost 100 points.

I'm not going to claim it'll work for everyone, but that's what worked for this student, and he's now scoring above his goal on practice tests! You should give it a try. The idea is that it'll force you to think about problems more intellectually and actually identify issues you're having rather than just glossing over them and moving on to the next problem...

I'm not going to claim it'll work for everyone, but that's what worked for this student, and he's now scoring above his goal on practice tests! You should give it a try. The idea is that it'll force you to think about problems more intellectually and actually identify issues you're having rather than just glossing over them and moving on to the next problem...

HiLine · Answer

Honestly, I think you should hire one of the guys above as a tutor. Not sure how much they charge - perhaps $200/hour? I am willing to bet that $1,000 spent on their customized services is going to bear better results than the 100 hours and whatever you've paid for during that time. These guys know what they're doing.

Posted from my mobile device

Posted from my mobile device

SamirAbrahao · Answer

This sounds like a very good idea. Silvia, if you were used to taking notes during your academic studies, I think this might just help you a lot!

Silviax · Answer

Sadly, this is exactly what I am not good at SamirAbrahao.
I was the lousiest note-taker in College. Never took any notes or if I did I just scribbled down some random stuff I never really used.
I didn't have to take notes to be good. I was a big book-person. I liked reading text books and memorized everything I needed for my tests.... dumped my memorized knowledge on the paper exam and walked away with an A. This worked 99% of the time for me and it's obviously not the way to go on the GMAT.

For many quant problems I wouldn't even know how to take notes. Word problems are probably the easiest because they can be classified very easily into distance/rate, work rate, mixing problems etc.

Some of the other stuff.... I don't even know what category they would fall under.... and this is what frustrates me too because I worked through most of the Manhattan books and I really understand EVERYHING that is written in the strategy guides... but that's not how the GMAT test concepts. Rest assured the GMAT throws some extra curve balls at you that makes you wonder whether you have ever seen anything like this before.

Today there was this problem on the Veritas test:

The function P~ can be expressed as 2P-2 for all values of P. What is the value of (7~)~?

And I remember thinking: what in the world? What is this (7~)~? I mean, I never could have guessed that this simply means go through the function twice. Who in the world thinks about weird stuff like that?
:roll:

And this happens to me a lot when I just don't understand the way the questions are phrased. No study book or online course phrases questions in a weird way like that.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Silviax,

With this post, are you saying that you essentially studied, took CATs and took the Official GMAT without taking many (if any) notes?

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

Silviax · Answer

I started taking notes about 1 month ago AFTER I took the real GMAT at the end of April, but at the beginning of my studies I didn't. What I am saying is that I am not very good at taking notes.

SamirAbrahao · Answer

Silvia,

I wouldnt have solved that problem myself even if you gave me a hundred years, because I have never seen a "tilt" signal being used in that context. If that featured in the veritas question bank, dump it. For me, not a day goes by without learning of a new reason to mistrust these 3rd party question banks.

As to the REAL GMAT questions, I know for a fact that there is a finite number of different questions that can be formulated out of the theoretical knowledge on which the test is based. Sure, it may be a large number of different questions, but eventually you'll have gone through them all several times if you keep practicing, but you have to choose the right resources - which is no small task. I would particularly avoid question banks such as veritas because they are not frequently mentioned on debriefs from what I've seen. When I'm done with Manhattan's I'm gonna be VERY cautious as to what question bank I'm gonna practice with.

Another thing to note is that I'm on the second manhattan book so far (the one about fractions) and, from what I've read,  I wouldn't call them strategy books at all ! They are more like "method" books: They'll teach you efficient techniques on how modify and work with information provided by the questions, but you have to do the heavy lifting of correctly identifying all the information, how are they related to each other and how they must be used to get to the answer all by yourself. Developing these skills is not simply a matter of mere practice. I'm no expert on this subject, but I'd say this comes from being used to problem solving in general. In my case, this stems from having worked for almost a decade with troubleshooting IT-related incidents.

From the things you write, and the way you write them, it appears to me that you're a very intelligent and capable person - but the fact that you used to memorize information from books as a means to acquire knowledge may have led you to develop some bad habits with your learning process that you now have to overcome. This does not necessarily mean you should take notes. Avoid any methods you are not confortable with!!

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Stuck at 580. Not moving one step forward

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