2 Years Studying - Plateauing/Volatile CAT Scores

[4AllTheGold]

It's sad to say but I have been studying off and on since 2011. All in, I estimate that I've studied about 1000 hours. I started with the MGMAT in-person course and scored a meager 430 (Q21/V28) on 6/26/11 at the beginning of my studies. I brought my CAT scores up but they've been quite volatile, scoring as high as 640 (Q39/V38) with a MGMAT CAT on 11/4/11 after studying for 25+ hours/week since that June, but also scoring as low as 510 (Q28/V32) with GMATPrep just 3 days prior. Ultimately, I scored a 580 (Q35/V35) on 11/5/11. I then studied for another 6 months beginning the following summer (2012) while mainly focusing on quant and ended up scoring the same frustrating 580 in December 2012 with a different breakdown (Q42/V28). Before I took the test, I got several CAT scores in the mid 600s, topping out at 660 but also saw a score as low as 590. Then in March of this year, I got back on the wagon and again began to study for this dreadful test. This time, I focused on the OG problems and went through all of them. I took my first CAT exam in 2013 last month and have now taken 3 for the year. Including all tests since 2011, my quant score has never been over 44 and my verbal score has never been over 39 and in most cases, I seem to be only close to one of these peak scores when the other score is much lower.

My scores for this year's tests are even lower than last year's, despite having logged another 400+ hours since last year. They are as follows:

MGMAT 10/19/13 590 (Q40/V32)
MGMAT 10/27/13 620 (Q37/V37)
GMATPrep 11/5/13 580 (Q42/V28)

So I have two problems.

1) I am totally inconsistent and never do well on verbal while also doing well on quant and vice versa
2) Even if I were to get a quant score of 44 and verbal score of 39 on the same test, which would be a miracle, I'd still only get about a 670/680.

Timing has been an issue for me but with tonight's test, I finally stayed on my benchmarks and felt like I did well, so I'm surprised by the meager verbal score of 28. For some background info, I'm a CFA charterholder so I assume I have at least a moderate level of intelligence. I'm also a native English speaker who writes a fair amount at work. Any advice/insight on what you think my problem is and whether there's still hope for improvement would be fantastic. I wanted to apply to top 15 b schools by round 2 but at this point, I'm considering giving up on business school and accepting that not everyone can "beat the GMAT."
Thanks in advance.

Ryan

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Hi Ryan,

Your post provides a great deal of information, and you have properly interpreted much of it. However, there are a few things worth noting and a few questions that still need answering:

Worth noting:
1) Considering your first practice CAT was a 430, you've improved greatly. 700+ is the 90th percentile, thus it's a score that most people CAN'T earn. Maybe you can score that high, maybe you can't. This leads to the next point.

2) "Your way" of doing things leads to inconsistent SECTION results, but your OVERALL results haven't varied too much over the last 2 years. You're scoring just-above-average most of the time. This means that the same general amount of "carelessness" and/or silly mistakes occur each time you take a Test.

3) None of this means that you should be giving up on Business School. You probably won't get into Harvard or Stanford with a 580, but most of the people who apply to Harvard or Stanford with 700s don't get in either.

Now, the questions (and I understand that it might be difficult to answer some of them):
1) What time of day were you typically taking these Tests? Did it vary? Did you ever run out of time and NOT answer any questions?

2) Did you ever skip any of the sections (such as skipping both essays on the old version of the GMAT or skipping the essay/IR on the new version)?

3) Other than the class that you took over 2 years ago, have you received any other "professional" help (re: classes, tutoring, etc.)?

4) Would you consider applying to a Business School if it weren't a Top-15 school? Are you comfortable with the idea that the degree that would contribute the most to your future career goals might NOT come from a highly ranked school?

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

[4AllTheGold]

Hi Rich,

Thank you for your prompt and thorough reply. I agree that I've made good progress and I also agree that if I've acquired more content knowledge without seeing my scores really go up over the last couple years, then one could assume I'm making silly errors. I have made some silly ones on every test for sure, but I'm also pretty detail-oriented so I don't feel I normally make that many. It may be a bigger issue of timing. I'm a perfectionist and have trouble giving up on the harder questions. As I said though, with yesterday's test I didn't have timing issues (or at least I don't think I did) but still botched the verbal section.

As for the questions you had:

1) The time of day varied but most of the time it was in the early afternoon. Yesterday's test was in the late afternoon after working for most of the day. I never run out of time and leave any questions blank but on almost every test, I've either randomly guessed to catch back up to my timing benchmarks or I've tried to speed up and missed a bunch as a result of that.

2) To focus on getting used to the timing, I've generally only done the quant and verbal sections while doing the entire test only a couple times right before the real exam.

3) I have hired a tutor before my 2011 exam and a different tutor before my 2012 exam. Now I live with my best friend who's a tutor so I ask him things almost every night (I'm sure he really likes me a lot for that!)

4) Given that I'm already doing fairly well in investment management and want to stay in investment management, I don't think I want to apply to schools outside the top 15. The reason for going is to get to a bigger firm that manages more money and without a top MBA, I likely won't be able to accomplish that goal. I think in finance especially, as shallow as it is, the school you went to really matters.

Assuming those weren't just rhetorical questions, hopefully that can help to better evaluate where to go from here. Thanks a lot for your help.

Ryan

[[email protected]]

Hi Ryan,

I've sent you a private message.

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