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20 days left and no progress has been made.... Frustrated

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20 days left and no progress has been made.... Frustrated

by iburnedmyrice » Tue Jul 21, 2015 8:25 am
Hello,

I am getting extra frustrated now. I have been studying for about 2 months and I am taking the test in 20 days. However, I have not made any progress. My test scores:

06/06/15 GmatPrep 1: 660 (Q48/V34)
06/20/15 Kaplan : 660 (Q50/V27)
06/25/15 GmatPrep 2: 660 (Q49/V31)
07/07/15 MGmat 1: 690 (Q48/V36) no IR
07/18/15 MGmat 2: 670 (Q47/V34)
07/21/15 MGmat 3: 680 (Q48/V34) untimed, no IR

Most of these tests are taken under test-like condition. I haven't done any with the AWA part yet but I did most of them with the IR except for the 690 and 680 one.

After studying for 2 months I feel like I understand the questions more and I actually go through the steps like reading through the entire passages, take notes, summarize for RC; find P and C for RC,....

When I first did the GMatPrep, I was guessing everything even the Quan part. Now I know all the concepts and understand stuff but I don't know why I am not making any progress.

I thought it was because I got so nervous when the clock ticks so I decided to do one test without even timing it and the result is the same.

I don't know what I am doing wrong. I would really appreciate it if somebody can help me out. I taking the test in 20 days and I desperately wanted to get 730. Now my goal is just to beat the 700.

Thank you very much.
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Tue Jul 21, 2015 8:32 am
iburnedmyrice wrote:
When I first did the GMatPrep, I was guessing everything even the Quan part. Now I know all the concepts and understand stuff but I don't know why I am not making any progress.
If you were, indeed, guess everything on the first practice test, it's possible that you got extremely lucky and made A LOT of good guesses, which inflated your score. Perhaps your first score should have been 600 (or less).
If that's the case, then your score trajectory isn't so off.

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by iburnedmyrice » Tue Jul 21, 2015 8:47 am
Thanks for the quick response.

I am sorry I might have said it wrong. I didnt just make wild guesses but I read the questions and answered them based on what I know without any GMAT knowledge, no strategies really. I think the 660 might be a little inflated then because i felt really comfortable since I thought I had a lot of time to practice but I dont think it would go anywhere below 640.

Now what makes me so frustrated is the fact that I have made no improvements, while I studied quite a lot.

Is there any other reason you can think of? I am a very quick student at school. I usually improve very fast.
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Tue Jul 21, 2015 9:29 am
To answer that question, you really need to analyze your practice tests.
I suspect that you may be making careless errors, so that, despite having a solid grasp of the materials, your score is a result of the same careless errors.

I address this in the following article: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/articles/avo ... teaks-gmat

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by Jim@StratusPrep » Tue Jul 21, 2015 9:40 am
My advice to people in this scenario is to focus on the easiest problems that you either 1) got wrong or 2) spent too much time on. Solidifying the easier topics, not going after the really tricky stuff, is what will bump up your score.
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by iburnedmyrice » Tue Jul 21, 2015 10:39 am
Thank you Jim and Brent. I think that is the answer to problem. With Quantitative I constantly make silly mistakes after i figure out the hard part I always mess up by miscalculating little things like 7/3=4 @@...

I am not sure whether it is the same with Verbal but I will try to be more careful with both and see how my next CAT goes. I am planning to do the GMATPrep 3 on the 25th.

Hopefully there will be some signs of progress.

Again, thanks so much!!! There is nothing worse than not knowing what you are doing wrong.
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by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Tue Jul 21, 2015 12:12 pm
An important thing to consider: you haven't taken a GMATPrep test in a month! Those are the most accurate indicators of where you stand. Other tests can, at times, artificially deflate your score, and if this is the case, you could very well be in excellent shape. My advice: pick up two more GMATPrep tests: https://www.mba.com/us/store/store-catal ... ack-1.aspx
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by iburnedmyrice » Tue Jul 21, 2015 3:11 pm
Hi David,

Thanks a lot, I feel a little better know. I am planning to do some more carefully reviewing and then take the GmatPrep 3 very soon. Crossing my fingers and hoping that my score is not improving because I am doing the MGmat instead of the Gmatpreo.

WIll keep you posted!

Again, thanks a lot!!!
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by [email protected] » Tue Jul 21, 2015 7:00 pm
Hi iburnedmyrice,

Your scores are remarkably consistent, which means that you're likely responding to each CAT in the same general way. You could very easily have scored 700+ on any of these CATs, but since you didn't, I'm concerned that you might have developed some 'bad habits' that are consistently impacting your performance. As such, you might need more than 20 days to 'fix' this issue.

With your remaining CATs, you really MUST put an emphasis on making your CATs as realistic and test-like as possible (so you should take the FULL CAT, away from your home, at the same time of day as your Official GMAT, etc.). If you're not comfortable with how you're performing, then you might want to consider pushing back your Test Date.

1) What resources have you been studying with?
2) When are you planning to apply to Business School?

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by Rich@EconomistGMAT » Wed Jul 22, 2015 5:37 am
Hi iburnedmyrice,

The good news is that students enrolled in Economist GMAT Tutor see scores between any given test fluctuate +/- 30 points, so you are in striking distance of a 700. However, you might want to look into some additional resources that will help you train for specific events on the GMAT, rather than just focusing on learning concepts and sets of practice questions. Here's a link to try GMAT Tutor for 7-days, which you'll find useful for its adaptive technology that customizes a study plan specifically geared towards your needs: https://bit.ly/1bPAHuW

Best,
Rich
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by iburnedmyrice » Fri Jul 24, 2015 4:31 am
[email protected] wrote:Hi iburnedmyrice,

Your scores are remarkably consistent, which means that you're likely responding to each CAT in the same general way. You could very easily have scored 700+ on any of these CATs, but since you didn't, I'm concerned that you might have developed some 'bad habits' that are consistently impacting your performance. As such, you might need more than 20 days to 'fix' this issue.

With your remaining CATs, you really MUST put an emphasis on making your CATs as realistic and test-like as possible (so you should take the FULL CAT, away from your home, at the same time of day as your Official GMAT, etc.). If you're not comfortable with how you're performing, then you might want to consider pushing back your Test Date.

1) What resources have you been studying with?
2) When are you planning to apply to Business School?

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

Hi,

Do you know how I can figure out what those bad habits are? I do feel like "bad habits" are part of the reason why I am not making progress; I just cant figure out what they are. With Verbal I do get so exhausted toward the end that I feel like looking at a blank screen so I have to take more notes than usual, but other than that I can't really think of any bad habit.

1) I used the Manhanttan Books, veritas question bank, OG verbal, and now I am half way through the OG. I did read Cracking the GMAT PV but I thought it was useless.
2) I will be a senior in college next year so I have time until winter. But I am not good at multitasking so I really want to finish the GMAT before schools starts so it wont hurt my GPA. Plus I have a lot on my plate for next semester.

Thanks
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by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Fri Jul 24, 2015 9:21 am
With Verbal I do get so exhausted toward the end that I feel like looking at a blank screen so I have to take more notes than usual, but other than that I can't really think of any bad habit.
Here is where I sing the praises of mindfulness meditation. Helpful For these kinds of issues: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archi ... on/275564/
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by iburnedmyrice » Sat Jul 25, 2015 9:14 am
Just did the GMATPrep 3 and got 710 (Q50, V36)

I did it under test condition Saturday morning at 9:45 exactly same time with the real test I will take. I didnt do the AWA though.

SOME PROGRESS!!!!!!!!!!!

I worked on the careless mistakes on the Quan part this is the first time i got only 6 questions wrong. usually it's >10 and 90% of the wrong answers are careless mistakes.

With Verbal i thought I did really bad. I was running out of time and skimming though the last 15 questions....

Will keep you guys posted.

woohooo
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by [email protected] » Sat Jul 25, 2015 9:20 am
Hi iburnedmyrice,

That's great news about this recent CAT. Skipping the AWA section is NOT realistic though - taking a shorter, easier CAT decreases the various 'stresses' that you'll face on the Full GMAT, so this score might be a little 'inflated.' That having been said, you've come to realize the value of 'precision' - by keeping the little mistakes to a minimum, you were able to earn a nice bump-up in score. THAT is something that you have to embrace. Whatever extra work you did in the Quant and Verbal sections on this CAT is the same type of work that you must demand of yourself going forward.

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by iburnedmyrice » Fri Aug 07, 2015 11:10 am
Hi everybody,

I have one week left until the real GMAT and did the GMATPrep 4 today. Test condition, I did AWA and IR, took 5- minute breaks after the first hour and after Quan. I did the test in the library.

Supprisingly, I got 690 (Q49, V34) with 5 wrong Quan and 10 wrong Verbal. For the GMATPrep 3 I got 710(Q50, V36) however I got 6 Quan wrong and 12 Verbal wrong.....

Not sure how to get my Quan up to 51 now. The questions were easy and I had plenty extra time. I got 660 for GMATprep 2 and Q49 but with 12 questons wrong. Now I am down to 5 and still 49.... Same with Verbal 34 for 10 questions wrong and 34 for 17 questions wrong.

I am so confused with this scoring system right now it drives me crazy. Since there is no way to understand the system, I decided to work on getting less questions wrong. This latest test I only got 5 and 10 wrong (the best I did so far) but the score is going down.....

Can anybody explain this?

I only have one week left. Even though my goal of getting 730 is quite far away now, I really dont wanna end up anywhere below 700.

Thanks!
Last edited by iburnedmyrice on Fri Aug 07, 2015 12:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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