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Need advice - Using empowerGMAT but not making progress

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Need advice - Using empowerGMAT but not making progress

by michaeld911 » Tue Aug 18, 2015 11:47 am
Hi all,

I'm really down on myself because I am taking a course with empowerGMAT, and after roughly 2.5 months of studying, I am still stuck at a 600. I have previously taken the GMAT and scored a 550, so I have improved, but just a little.

I have my exam scheduled for September 3rd and I don't know what to do.

I have also followed the 3-month study plan provided by empowerGMAT to a tee, and yet I still am not where I would like to be. I have made notes throughout the course, answered all questions assigned, revisited old CATs, etc., but still no improvement. Here is how my CAT exam breakdowns have been:

mba.com CAT 1 (May 22): 600 Q38 V35
MGMAT CAT 1 (June 10): 570 Q37 V31
MGMAT CAT 2 (July 5): 600 Q39 V34
MGMAT CAT 3 (July 31): 580 Q40 V33
MGMAT CAT 4 (August 10): 600 Q41 V32
MGMAT CAT 5 (August 18): 600 Q43 V31

I have no idea what to do, and I was so excited to be taking empowerGMAT because of all the positive reviews I read. I am absolutely stuck now and feel like the 700+ score is a dream and not a reality.
Last edited by michaeld911 on Tue Aug 18, 2015 6:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by MartyMurray » Tue Aug 18, 2015 4:31 pm
First of all, getting down on yourself gets you nowhere, except possibly down. So don't bother doing that any more.

Meanwhile, you quant score has been going up, but you verbal score has being going down, if anything. So basically there is something about GMAT verbal that you just don't get.

Obviously, without knowing more about how you approach GMAT verbal I will have a difficult time telling you what you could be doing differently, but I can say that people often have trouble with GMAT verbal because rather than being out of the box, they try to boil success on GMAT verbal down to learning a bunch of rules and cookie cutter strategies.

I do have one specific question though, because there is another thing that people do, and when they do this they can prepare for months without making much progress. What they do is practice questions on a timed basis all the time, and leave them after a two or three minutes. Then if they don't get the answer, they just go to the explanations. So I am wondering whether you slow down and fight questions for as long as it takes to get right answers or you have basically always been just giving yourself a few minutes per question. If the latter is the case, then that would explain a lot, and you would have one clue to what you need to do to increase your score.

700+ is obviously doable for you, but in order for that to happen, something about the way you see the test and about how you are preparing has to change.
Marty Murray
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by michaeld911 » Tue Aug 18, 2015 6:39 pm
I appreciate that you took the time to reply Marty.

In regards to the verbal portion, I have been following empowerGMAT's lessons. On some modules, the questions are timed, while in others, they're not. I have just been following all of the advice that's in the course, but obviously something has to change and I'm not sure how to proceed from here.
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by [email protected] » Tue Aug 18, 2015 6:42 pm
Hi michaeld911,

If you ever have questions or concerns, then you should feel free to reach out to me (via email or PM) or to the Support Team (at [email protected]).

If you would like to discuss your situation publicly, then that's fine, but if you would prefer to do this privately then just let me know. I'll be happy to offer some suggestions either way.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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by MartyMurray » Tue Aug 18, 2015 11:18 pm
Michael,

Everyone is different and any of a variety of things could be going on with your GMAT prep experience.

Sometimes a person just gets the wrong impression of the test and what it's testing. For instance one person I have worked with is about as facile with language as anyone I have ever met. He also took a course with a major prep company that has a great reputation. So you would think that he would be totally rocking the verbal section of the GMAT, but no, he was definitely not, because somewhere along the way he had gotten the wrong impression of how to handle the questions, and the way he was preparing somehow was not addressing that.

Other times a person more has some kind of psychological block and, wow, the person can pretty well understand how to answer GMAT questions and still somehow not score high. A person who does not realize this can find the GMAT surprisingly challenging and not be clear as to why.

Whatever the case may be, a good next move for you could be having a conversation with Rich, one in which you go into some detail regarding your experience. Not only is it likely that he can help you get on track to a higher score, but also, by finding out about what is going on with you he can gain information that he can use in his ongoing refinement of the empowerGMAT system. There's always a new possible scenario to take into account...
Marty Murray
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by vickysan » Wed Aug 19, 2015 12:10 am
Hi, I just wanted to chime in here. I'm also prepping with EMPOWERgmat and have been for some time as well. At first my scores just improved a little bit, but since then both my verbal and quant scores have gone up quite a bit. I think I know what made the difference.

Earlier on I think I was treating the GMAT more like a normal academic test that you need to study for, but things started to really shift for me when I approach it more like something I need to train for. Similar to what Marty was describing.

I have a feeling that the reason why you've only improved 50 points so far is that you might be going through the motions without really making the changes you need to make. Also, use the mistake trackers. You'll see patterns in your mistakes that you'll be able to target.

You still have about 2 weeks left, but if you're not ready you can reschedule.
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