HELP!!! - Can't seem to get past 530/540

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HELP!!! - Can't seem to get past 530/540

by smock » Sun Oct 09, 2011 10:51 pm
Hello,

I took the gmat in September despite the fact that I didn't really study much over the summer...Bad idea! I got a 530. That was a waste of $250 but an eye-opener nonetheless. I have since picked up my studying habits. I'm decent in both Quant and Verbal. I'm an engineer and I'm good at math. I learned a few strategies and began doing practice questions from the OG. So far, I have done about 600 of over 800 questions in the book and I have got most of it right. I missed a handful of questions in the OG and my biggest weakness in the verbal was CR.

I was fairly confident and decided to take a practice test and to my shock got about 540. I don't know what it is...my practice questions before the real gmat ranged from 470 to 590 and now after studying for about a month or so...no improvements! I look at my errors afterwards and realize that I made silly mistakes here and there. I'm getting really frustrated. The GMAT is the only thing holding me back from applying to B schools...every other aspect of my app seems to be intact.

Please help me. I know i'm not stupid..I just can't figure out what's wrong.

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by Geva@EconomistGMAT » Sun Oct 09, 2011 11:40 pm
smock wrote:Hello,

I took the gmat in September despite the fact that I didn't really study much over the summer...Bad idea! I got a 530. That was a waste of $250 but an eye-opener nonetheless. I have since picked up my studying habits. I'm decent in both Quant and Verbal. I'm an engineer and I'm good at math. I learned a few strategies and began doing practice questions from the OG. So far, I have done about 600 of over 800 questions in the book and I have got most of it right. I missed a handful of questions in the OG and my biggest weakness in the verbal was CR.

I was fairly confident and decided to take a practice test and to my shock got about 540. I don't know what it is...my practice questions before the real gmat ranged from 470 to 590 and now after studying for about a month or so...no improvements! I look at my errors afterwards and realize that I made silly mistakes here and there. I'm getting really frustrated. The GMAT is the only thing holding me back from applying to B schools...every other aspect of my app seems to be intact.

Please help me. I know i'm not stupid..I just can't figure out what's wrong.
If the problem isn't content, it's probably time management on each section. How are you faring there? Do you finish the sections ahead of time / on time / guess a few questions at the end?
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