GMAT Strategy

Dear all, my story have started 7 months ago, exactly in february, when I have decided to prepare for the best climbing in my life so far. 

Before to proceed with my issue, let me jot down some facts about me; in this way you can have a context to better spot my problem.

I am not a native English speaker -Italian is my mother tongue  - and albeit I worked four years in foreign countries such as France, Mexico, Libya, Algeria, and Sudan I did not really need to master English because I was doing an operational job in the oil&gas exploration field, precisely on offshore platforms and well rigs - in that jungle the leadership, technical, and personal skills are more important than an educated language.
Two year ago I changed my career path, looking for a more business related position and today I am in the marketing and product leadership function, still in the oil & gas. One year ago I thought that an MBA is what I need to boost my career toward the business jungle and at February '11 I have started to climb the GMAT mountain - by the way I like free climbing!

I have studied four months before to give my first attempt in June, struggling with the limited time -my job requires me be on a flight for 2/3 of my time- but the result was a poor 580. I didn't surrender and I continued to study harder and harder to prepare my second attempt. I went throughout MGMAT sc, number properties, advanced quant, rc, cr bible, btg forum, og 12 guide, magoosh practice questions and a course with a professional instructor called Bob800 - he is an excellent instructor. 
However, during this study period I never took a full GMAT test. I  took a week of vacation just before the test day, which was Sep 12th, and during this period I did 6 tests whose scores were:

GMATprep 1 670 (Q51; V30)
GMAT rep 2 680 (Q49; V34)
MGMAT CAT 1 650 (Q46; V34)
MGMAT CAT 2 650 (Q45; V35)
GMATprep 1 680 (Q48; V35)
GMATprep 2 710 (Q49; V38)

Average score 670 (Q48; V34)

I had confidence that I would be able to climb the 700 rock, but I failed and I couldn't pass over quote 590 (Q44; V27) ... % decrease vs the average of the simulations 12% (Q(8%); V(20%)).

Now the challenge between me and the GMAT mountain have become a personal matter ... I cannot accept the idea to be stuck at this quote, I must dominate this mountain, reach the top (MY mountain is not the Mount Everest ... thus 700 is the top for me ), and see how the horizon looks like from there.

How can I improve my score? I think to have studied enough for the exam and that the problem is more related to my performance on the test day than to the preparation I have. I have tried to address a couple of week points in my preparation that probably compromised my performance on the test day.

First, I think to have burned out my energy in the preparation week before the exam ... probably I should have been more constant in doing test simulations during each weekend until my score became stable.

Second, I think to have a major weakness in the verbal part, because I experimented a "panic stare" situation during the exam. Indeed I was not even able to understand the meaning of the questions. Probably I should focus more on creating the stamina and becoming comfortable with educated-english reading than on mastering SC rules.

What do you think experts? On the basis of your experience you should be able to recognize the pattern even in this case ... what i was doing wrong.

I plan to schedule the final round in a couple of months. But what to focus on during the next two months?

Thanks,

Emanuele

Experts can you please post some feedback about my issue with this 700 rock? I only rely on this forum to receive support and motivation ...
Thanks

Hi,

If you are aiming for 700+, try improving your quant score first. Being a non native speaker it is difficult to outperform in verbal although you can improve. Push your quant score to 48+. You have posted 4 GMATPrep scores and the last two are probably repeat tests. Even in the first two tests you have scored a 51 and 49 which is a great score. Find out why you went down in the real test. Focus more on Geometry, probability, permutation combination and rates/works which will get you to 50 in quant.

In the verbal section try to push your score to 38+ which will get you a 700+. Try more general reading. It is not enough to know that you are weak in verbal. More important thing is you got to know which types of questions you are making mistakes in which section. So dig deep down to that level. Analyze more using practice tests.

For SC - use Manhattan SC.
CR - Use powerscore it helps you to learn more about how to approach.
RC - General reading + 2/3 RCs a day no matter what. Find out which strategy is easy for you.

See these links on how to improve the verbal section
https://www.beatthegmat.com/need-help-on ... tml#384706
https://www.beatthegmat.com/550-to-720-i ... 72949.html

Make use of practice tests to know which part you are weak. Improve one section each week and see to that the no of mistakes is going down in that particular section. Practice less and review more. Make error log, flash cards for preparation. Review them a lot. If you are solving for 1 hour, your review should be minimum one hour.

Check out these links to get ideas about how to review problems and analyse practice tests.
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2009/10/ ... ce-problem
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2009/09/ ... tice-tests

Give equal importance to all the sections. Try to simulate exam conditions while taking practice tests. Take more practice tests if you have timing issues else make use of it intermittently to evaluate your performance. Hope this helps.

Thanks sam2304, your feedback is helpful and motivating. I have confidence that I will score better the next time ... I will let you know.

Bye bye