I am on a learning Plateau! Need help to recover!

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I am on a learning Plateau! Need help to recover!

I took a diagnostic with Manhattan GMAT and Kaplan, the scores were very close to each other; around 540, 560! (Very consistent across sections as well 34 Verbal, 34 Quant) ;

But I decided that I will benefit from a training program, and enrolled in a 9 session course. I began seeing the benefit from the course, I truly did. The strategies were interesting and the plan was concise and well structured. I should admit I did not follow it to the 'T' but did a lot of work over the course of the 9 weeks (at least 80 - 100 Hours).

I took a test after 2 weeks and my score dipped to 500, I was told that was common and I ignored it, dint loose sleep over it. Through the prep session my focus was always on Quant as I strongly believed that is my core weak area.

I took a Vertitas Diagnostic after two more weeks got a 500, I was worried now!
I decided consistency is key and took a Kaplan test and got a 440;
I took a Manhattan test (Couldn't manage time at all) did very poorly and stood at 440 again. Seems consistent across multiple algorithms.

I am extremely dejected and see my prep schedule slipping I am no longer confident I can meet the April 11th test date. I am traveling internationally from May and wanted to get this done before then. But with this standard I don't think I am even close.

I don't know how to recover! I work individual sections pretty well, my sentence correction and critical reasoning in my learning attempts are much better than on a mock test. I am loosing focus and need to hear from the experts.

I am scared to take an other test and maybe get a 200! I haven't changed my style of taking the test, no unwanted breaks, no phone calls, quiet room, same scrap book, but its like a different person taking the test!

My target score is between 680 and 720 I was 120 point away from the lower end of the goal when I started and now I am 240 points away! More than a 100% decline in performance, I am confused and on the verge of dropping the idea; Please suggest any recovery tips to turn things around!
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by Osirus@VeritasPrep » Mon Mar 15, 2010 8:59 am
Do you find yourself forgetting information that you studied towards the beginning of your prep? What could be happening is that you are studying so much material that you are forgetting what you are learning. The best cure for this is to constantly review what you learned. I would suggest maybe use the weekend to learn new information, and use the week to just review what you have already gone over. Try that and see how it works for you.
https://www.beatthegmat.com/the-retake-o ... 51414.html

Brandon Dorsey
GMAT Instructor
Veritas Prep

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