What am i doing wrong?

Question

Hi! I´ve been a member of the club for a couple of months now, and this is the first time i´m posting here. I´ve read lots of stories about the Gmat and the time, effort and frustration involved. So i´m gonna tell you my story to see if i can get a little help. I am a 30 year old, peruvian female, economist, currently working at a canadian bank in Peru.
I started to really prepare for the Gmat on August 2014, took a 2 month course and by November I felt ready to start with the real stuff. First I downloaded the Gmat Prep free software, practice half of the questions and then bought the 400 question bank (70% solved). Then I took the 2 free mocks, with 590 as the highest score. After that I bought the Gmat Prep exam pack 1 with a 680 as the highest score, although i have to admitt that i already knew the answers to various questions, as I took the exams 2 times each. I did a total of 6 mock tests, which I reviewed to understand my mistakes.
On December, I jumped in to the pool and took the real test. I felt really confident with the AWA, but when I got to quant, things changed. I tried to do my best but I didn´t managed the time well enough so I rushed and answered randomly for the last 10 questions. My verbal has always been my strenght, so i thought I would increase my score with that part, which never happened, mainly because I knew I blew up in quant, so I could concéntrate. The results, a terrible 530 (Q:34, V:28).
I was devastated, I was feeling confident in my mocks so I thought i would get at least 620 or so, but 530...unexpected. At the same time I took the TOEFL and got a great 107, for me this score is good enough for a 10 day preparation.
After the holidays I started studying again, did all the Kaplan software practices and now I am taking the Manhattan Gmat CATs. So far my scores are:

Jan 18 : 590 (Q:38, V: 34) reviewed the hole exam
Jan 21: 600 (Q:37, V: 35) reviewed 50% of the exam
Jan 23 540 (Q: 34, V: 31)

To this point I´m getting really tired and bored of studying everyday, with no good results. I missed R2 and was really focused on retaking the GMAT, get a min 680 score and go for R3, but something tells me this might not happen. I will be working full time at the bank till May 31st, then I have decided to focus on the admission process to get into a top 10 BS. I thought I would get there this year but, with the GMAT obstacle, it seems 2015 will not happen for me. I haven´t started with my essays or recommendation letters yet, because all the free time I have after work is for the GMAT.

Sorry I made this a little bit tragic but maybe I had to take this frustration out of my system.
Does anybody feel the same?
What am I doing wrong?
Plese help!

Thanks

To this point I´m getting really tired and bored of studying everyday, with no good results. I missed R2 and was really focused on retaking the GMAT, get a min 680 score and go for R3, but something tells me this might not happen. I will be working full time at the bank till May 31st, then I have decided to focus on the admission process to get into a top 10 BS. I thought I would get there this year but, with the GMAT obstacle, it seems 2015 will not happen for me. I haven´t started with my essays or recommendation letters yet, because all the free time I have after work is for the GMAT. Sorry I made this a little bit tragic but maybe I had to take this frustration out of my system. Does anybody feel the same? What am I doing wrong? Plese help! Thanks

vroom2386 · Answer

Hi Mariale.... :oops:

I am preparing for GMAT for last one year and still m not able to get above 600 score. :2gunfire:

I have solved Manhattan, Kaplan, Manhattan Test, OG13 (twice), OG10 :war

This GMAT exam made me feel down like hell :twisted:

. I have gave my all time to this exam after working in shift job, in which i don't have same schedule time to study. :???

Even I have joined class thrice, but still i am not able to crack it. My target is atleast 720 to get into my dream college :punk

. I have tried lot many online study material, but still failed failed failed. :wall

Now GMAT is not only an exam for me, it's a challenge which I have taken it personally and have

to achieve it at any cost, no matter how much time it will take I want to break it like iron rod. :stab

What else could be more worst than, when my Love(Girl Friend) :angel:

got exhausted because of my GMAT challenge . She is too much angry and even not talked to me for last 3 months. Whenver she got to know that I am not booking my date, she just get mad. :snipersmile:

Because of this I don'tgive her time. And main thing is i am not giving time for Marriage Plan. :bouncer2

Now even my friends also making fun of my GMAT exam preparation. I feel so embarrassing and frustrated that I can't express in words. :rocket

So in this way, I am down from all sides, but I and still preparing for GMAT with same passion as I started on first day. :yes

So dear if have fire in your belly then keep going on. :fyi

first crack exam then plan for applying, because if u don't have good score then it just waste of time and every possible you gave for it. :war

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Mariale24,

It's likely that studying for 2 Tests at the same time affected your ability to do well on both.

When using practice CAT scores to measure your abilities, you MUST take the CATs in a realistic way (take the ENTIRE CAT, at the same time as your Official GMAT, in a test-like environment, don't retake a CAT, etc.). When you don't make the CATs realistic, then the results are usually "inflated." Your scores seem to place you in the 500s, so your GMAT score was not a surprise (it's at the low end of your range).

Since you've been studying for some time now, you've probably developed some "bad habits."; it's possible that some of the things that you did while studying for the TOEFL don't actually help you when you study for the GMAT. To score 680+, you're going to have to eliminate those bad habits and learn some new tactics (and "good habits").

You have an interesting overall profile, so I suggest that you talk to an Admissions Expert (there's a Forum full of them on this site) and ask them what they think about your situation and the GMAT score that you would need to be considered a competitive applicant. If that score is something that you can achieve before Round 3, then you can plan for that deadline. If you need more time, then you can plan for Round 1 in the fall.

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

m3equals333 · Answer

hi, I wouldn't fret about the MGMAT scores....IMO their tests are purposely made hard (more to raise your ability level, presuming you take the time to understand the underlying concepts and solutions, versus perfectly gauge your GMAT scoring level). The fact that you are scoring so much higher on MGMAT CATs vs your 1st GMAT is a good sign though! Keep chipping away at it, you will get there.

mises · Answer

for Verbal a thorough review of theMGMAT guides should suffice. Read them over and over and practice what they teach with official questions until exhaustion.

for math you should go through each and every official question in the OG and math OG. Whenever there's a question in front of you that you could not nail in less than two minutes go back to it later and do it over and over. Whenever you reach a point that you're comfortable with the official questions, jump to the GMAT club tests to get hard 700+ questions.

the most important advice of all: find the topic with the 700 pledge of a GMAT test taker. Read it carefully, print a copy and sign it.

Deal with the fact that you will sacrifice your social life and peace of mind for a few months. Everybody knows someone who nailed a 750+ with little study, but that's not for everyone. Deal with it. Once you get into the right track your confidence will grow and it will be easier to get your dream score. Believe me, it will feel good.

joshnsit · Answer

Mariale24, I have been an examination Acer throughout life, but GMAT has been an exception. It was such a huge setback to my own dignity that it took me 3 weeks to come out of the shock of my first score of 560 seven years back. I can literally empathize the word FRUSTRATION in your post, but that frustration will just keep you away from what you want as of now. I moved on and ultimately ended up trying different things and I am now going to join a full time MBA from one of best B-Schools in my country with not-so-impressive score of 670. But, the point is that I never considered stopping. You just need to push harder and keep improving. You need to analyze your sections one by one and you have to do this iteratively.

1) Pick the section where you have done the worst.
2) Do the practice for a period(one week to one month) with section oriented test.
3) Give a full blown test and check the improvement in the section.
4) MOST IMPORTANT: Revise the full test. Keep this revision either just after the test or on the next day of test.

If no improvement, double the practice period and again give a full blown test.

For most of people, RC is the nemesis. The best advice I have got is to do it so much that you start recognizing the patterns in the paragraphs. Do it till death to boredom. Take LSAT RCs and do them in 4 hour slots. RC is most critical section as per my gut feeling because it remained the only section which stopped me crossing the barrier of 700. It is most error prone at the 4th hour of the test when you need maximum concentration. So, practicing RC for 4 hours till you reach an accuracy of atleast 80% in LSAT RCs should definitely help. Don't worry about the timing initially, it will fall in place after some practice. But finish every LSAT RC available till you reach a good accuracy.
For CR, the best book out is Powerscore Bible. I know that it is much more than recommended for GMAT. But, nothing outside Powerscore can come in CR on GMAT. It takes atleast 2-3 months to master this book. I did this book at least 3 times to fully grasp the content.
For SC, do the OGs from OG10 to OG15 till you are sure why each and every option is wrong or right. After that, practice the concepts from some other course(eGMAT or Magoosh or SC1000 depending on your budget). I did each of OGs and SC1000 untill I reached the accuracy of 90% in each.

For Quant, Bunuel posts are legendary. Look for his answers for each of question on gmatclub tests. Search for them and crack them for the tricks.

Buy the extra packs from GMAC and solve each of them thrice.

A big part of Admission process is your profile and you can polish it over a timeframe to hide your not-so-good GMAT. So keep working on that as well day and night.

HTH and Best of Luck

dontquixote · Answer

Sign up for magoosh and watch all their math videos and do the math. Sign up for egmat verbal. I think they helped me the most.

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