CAT Scores Declining - Help!

[samantha.tucker]

I have been studying for about 2 months now, so far mostly focusing on quant. I have taken 3 practice exams, and each time, my score has gone down! It is so frustrating and I am starting to get nervous. My test date is about 2 months away. When I go over my practice exams and the questions I got wrong, I am usually on the right track and it has gotten much easier for me to understand why I am getting questions wrong, but the time I am putting into study (about 12 hours/week) is not showing up in my score. Is this normal? I am getting about half of the 600-700 questions right and a few of the 700-800 questions correct, so I know I can do it but right now my score is getting farther away from my desire to break 700! Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

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Hi samantha.tucker,

Before I can offer any suggestions, I'd like to know a bit more about your studies so far:

1) How have you scored on each of your CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores)?
2) Did you take the FULL CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?

3) What resources are you using?
4) Which CATs have you taken?
5) When are you planning to take the GMAT?

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

[samantha.tucker]

Hi Rich,

Thanks for getting back to me. To answer your questions:

1) My scores are: Diagnostic, CAT #1 (640: Quant: 38 Verbal: 38), CAT #2 (590: Quant: 38 Verbal: 34) CAT #3 (570: Quant: 37 Verbal: 31)
2) I have not taken a full CAT each time - just verbal and quant.
3) I have been using the manhattan gmat prep guidebooks (So far I have read all of the quant books with the exception of advanced quant, and have been doing additional quant problems both online and from the practice book).
4) I have taken the first 3 CATs on the manhattan gmat prep site
5) I am planning to take it November 25th.

Thanks!