Giving up on GMAT

Question

I have been studying for the GMAT for several years now - on and off in the past, but very consistently over the last few months. I practice every single day and have done so for the past three to four months without a break.

The last three official GMAT exams I took all resulted in a 515 FE. Today, after putting in months of daily effort, I took an official GMAT mock and once again scored 515.
I am honestly devastated and demotivated. I am not someone who gives up easily - by nature, I don’t quit - but right now, every part of me feels exhausted. I have already taken well‐known prep courses and private tuition, and at this point I do not want to spend another dollar on preparation without a clear direction. Right now, I feel drained, confused, and discouraged, despite giving this everything I have (or may be the energy spent was not in the right direction).

What I’m really looking for is genuine guidance - not another course recommendation - but an honest perspective on what might be holding me back and how to break through this plateau. I want to move forward intelligently, not blindly.

If anyone has been through something similar or can offer real insight, I would truly appreciate your help.

ExpertsGlobal · Answer

Hello  ZaraBee ,

Here is a structured, step-by-step approach to help you push through:

1. Consolidate your concepts
Revisit all the conceptual material you’ve covered so far and work on strengthening it. If you're still struggling with certain topics, consider investing in a solid prep course. Keep in mind: while the official material is excellent for practice, it’s not designed for teaching concepts from scratch.

2. Re-attempt all previously incorrect questions
Review your mistakes from earlier practice. Understand why you got them wrong and how to avoid those errors going forward.

3. Practice with a new set of high-difficulty questions
Use either official sources or reliable third-party material to build deeper familiarity with challenging questions.

4. Practice consistently over the next few weeks
Every couple of weeks, go back and re-attempt your earlier incorrect questions. Continue revisiting weak areas in your conceptual understanding along the way.

By diligently following these four steps over a few focused weeks, you’ll likely find yourself performing at a significantly higher level.

All the best!

Experts’ Global Team

KRKfan · Answer

In a similar boat as you. Scored really bad in my 1st official mock yesterday, in the 400s. Can understand your situation...

I had never practiced using time constraint before. Analysed the test report, my score took massive hits in all the three sections due to 3-4 missing questions. There were questions where I had spent more than 3-4 minutes, and in some sections I spent more than 5 minutes! Even though, 60-70% of the questions I had answered were right.

Edskore · Answer

This is rough to read, honestly. Three official attempts at 515 after months of daily work — I know how gutting that feels, and I won't give you a cheerful list of steps.

But here's what I'd actually push back on: daily practice for months without improvement almost always means the practice itself has a problem. Not the effort. The direction.

From what you described, my guess is one of two things (maybe both): you're drilling questions without deeply understanding why you got them wrong, or your error analysis isn't actually changing how you approach future questions.

What worked for me — I went through a stretch where I was stuck at 620 for weeks. What broke it open was treating wrong answers like crime scenes. I'd pick one mistake, spend 20 minutes understanding every branch of why I got it wrong, write it down in a dedicated notebook, and then deliberately seek out the same concept pattern the next day. Not a fresh batch of questions. The same pattern again.

On Data Insights specifically (DI is where scores get held back a lot right now in GMAT Focus Edition), I'd look hard at whether you're losing time on Multi-Source Reasoning or Two-Part Analysis. Those question types eat up people who try to read everything before answering. Learning to be selective about what you read there is worth more than grinding more practice questions.

You said you don't want to spend more money, which makes sense. The Official GMAT Practice Questions plus a solid error log honestly goes very far if used deliberately.

Don't quit yet. The plateau you're at is breakable — it just needs a different approach, not more volume.

gchandana · Answer

Hi ZaraBee , I am sorry for how you feel. You should know that you are not alone in how you feel right now. Do not worry. Maybe you could first take a break for a couple of days or weeks, depending on your needs. Once you're back, a few things to consider: 1. You may want to start by checking whether there are any conceptual gaps, such as whether there are any concepts that you don't have full clarity on, or that you find hard. Then you check out posts or resources in the GMAT Club Forum, or check out the YouTube videos from the GMAT Club page. Many tutors are explaining the concepts; you can check them out and focus on those that work for you. Or reach out to them for doubts. 2. If it isn't a conceptual gap, then maybe you aren't able to apply the concepts consistently and solve them accurately. This could happen for two reasons, one being that you rushed through the phase of untimed practice, where you take all the time you need to practice and even think of multiple ways to approach it. And the second one has to do with your mental calmness. If you feel anxious or stressed, it could block your mind from thinking/processing to its full potential. 3. If not the above two, it could maybe be time management. As your accuracy improves from untimed practice, your speed improves too. Practicing timed can help you see where you are taking more time and why, and how you could be faster, where to guess questions, and more. So you would have to analyze what the issue is, you would have to analyze your mistakes, categorise them (say, careless errors, conceptual gap, or time management). You can then work towards fixing them. As bb usually says, we have to ask ourselves daily, Am I improving? If not, what needs to be changed? So, when using an approach, strategy, or practice method, you have to check whether it is working for you; if not, change it. Go with only what works for you . You can definitely break the plateau; you just have to analyze your current approach, analyze at every step. Please feel free to reach out to anyone here. Hope this helps! You got this!

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi ZaraBee,

The frustration in your post is completely understandable, and I want to give you the honest analysis you asked for, not reassurance, not a product pitch.

Here's the thing: scoring exactly 515 four times in a row isn't just demoralizing. It's actually the most informative piece of data you have.

A consistent score on an adaptive exam isn't random. The algorithm is repeatedly placing you at the same level because your current performance profile (how you answer questions under real exam conditions) is reliably producing the same result. That means something structural is holding you there. Structural problems have structural solutions. The work now is figuring out what that structure is.

Let me share a few hypotheses, and then ask you something specific.

1. Volume vs. quality of review 
This is the single most common cause of plateaus I've seen in students who are clearly putting in serious effort. Most people practice questions, check the answer, read the explanation, feel like they understand it, and move on. That loop, repeated thousands of times, produces exactly the kind of plateau you're describing. It produces familiarity without mastery.

Deep review looks different. Before you read the explanation, you should be able to explain precisely  where  your reasoning went wrong, not just what the right answer is, but why your approach failed and what the correct principle is. If your review time per wrong answer is under five minutes, it's almost certainly too shallow. The learning happens in the review, not in the practice.
 
2. Practicing to confirm vs. practicing to identify 
After months of daily work, it's very easy to start practicing in a way that leans on your strengths. You do a mixed set, get 65% right, feel reasonably okay about it, and move on. But the 35% that's wrong is exactly where the ceiling lives. I'd ask yourself honestly: how much of your daily practice is genuinely targeting your weakest areas, versus mixed work that lets your better topics carry the session?

3. The section breakdown matters enormously 
A total score of 515 can look completely different underneath. Quant pulling you down while Verbal is solid is a different problem (with a different fix) than the reverse. Without knowing your section-level scores, any advice is somewhat generic. If you haven't been drilling into which specific subsections are costing you the most points, that alone could explain the plateau.

4. On the "every day without a break" piece — I'll be direct 
Rest isn't optional in cognitive skill development. The brain consolidates and automates what it's learning during rest, not during practice. If you've been grinding daily for 3–4 months without real breaks, your returns on each study session may have diminished significantly without you realizing it. This isn't a soft observation. Students who take 3–5 days completely off before a fresh mock sometimes see measurable improvements, precisely because the fatigue had been suppressing performance. The grind itself can become part of the obstacle.

The question I'd ask you: 
Describe your review process for a wrong answer in your most recent practice session. What did you actually do after you got it wrong? How long did you spend on it? What specifically did you learn?
If the answer is "I read the explanation and moved on," that's probably the thread worth pulling. Not more content delivery, not more questions, but a fundamentally different approach to what happens after you get something wrong.

You've clearly put in the effort. The next step isn't more effort in the same direction, it's a clear-eyed audit of where the hours have actually been going.

bb · Answer

Sorry about the journey and where you have ended up. I would say this is not healthy and nobody would be able to continue with this process. You need to make changes so that you can see and feel improvement weekly and potentially daily.

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