Please Help!! Need a better strategy

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Hi:

I completed solving OG 13, 12, 11 and Verbal and quantitative review 2 edition(All Sections). I have no issues solving the problems on paper but I'm not able to repeat the same results in the CAT Exams. I perform very well on paper and very bad in CAT exam.My scores are between 560 and 620. I'm shattered and I don't know how to proceed now. I know the concepts but I'm not able to apply them consistently. While reviewing the exam results I select the correct answer choices with explanations. I'm NOT able to touch 650+. I'm looking forward to 720+ in my final exam but with every CAT exam I'm loosing my confidence. Starting May Every week I've invested more than 50 hrs in learning all the basics and solving the problems.My GMAT exam is scheduled for Sep 13, 2013. My scores are as follows

3/17/2013 Manhattan GMAT CAT1 - 560 (Q45, V22)
7/14/2013 Manhattan GMAT CAT2 - 580 (Q48, V23)
7/14/2013 Kaplan GMAT CAT1 - 600 (Q44, V31)
7/21/2013 Manhattan GMAT CAT3 - 620 (Q45, V32)
8/16/2013 Kaplan GMAT CAT2 - 560 (Q43, V22)
8/18/2013 Princeton Review Free Test - 550 (Q42,V22)

I cannot take my final exams with these scores. Please advise the appropriate strategy also please let me know if Sep 13 is a reasonable date.

Thanks in Advance.

Best Regards,
Prashanthi Chennupati.

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by Jim@StratusPrep » Tue Aug 20, 2013 6:46 am
I think your date is a bit ambitious. The best advice I can give you from what you said is look at the exams and work from the bottom up. I.E. look at the easiest problems you are getting wrong. In all likelihood there are some simple questions you are not getting right. Why is that? Nerves? Lack of Understanding? Silly Mistake?

At that point, dig into the areas that keep popping up and move to the more and more difficult questions.
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by Dan@VinciaPrep » Tue Aug 20, 2013 9:25 am
Hello!
How many times have you done the questions from the OG books and your old practice tests? Have you gone over them just once? Usually when I see someone who has done as many questions as you have, and who hasn't improved enough it is because they haven't reviewed the practice questions that they've done properly. Right after you finish doing some questions it's usually fairly easy to understand your mistakes. However, you need to make sure that you're not doing the same mistakes two or three weeks later. Have you been saving all of your work? You need to so that you can go back and look at what mistakes you've made and what areas you need to work on. When you're going back over your answers make sure that you write down exactly why you got a question wrong and what you can do in the future that would be helpful. This takes a considerable amount of time and will make each question take about 8-10 minutes (2 minutes to do, and 6-8 minutes to review). However, if you really learn from your mistakes you'll find that you'll make a lot more improvement.

Also, if you get the same question wrong a second time you'll need to come back to that question a couple weeks later.

Next, stick to the Manhattan and GMATPrep practice tests and I think your scores will be more consistent.

Finally, you should postpone your exam because it is unlikely that you'll get to where you need to be in a couple weeks.
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