What have I done wrong :(

[zurich]

Hi,

I am at the brink of despair for my GMAT preparation. I have no idea what I have done wrong. I have done all practised questions from manhattan and Kaplan prep as well as the official guide. I studied around 3-4 hours everyday for the past 3 months. I do CAT once a week. My score was always around 600 and only once it was 650. My exam is in 6 weeks. I need to get 700 to even stand a chance getting in the university. I have no idea why my scores have not improved after so many practices. Any tips and help is greatly appreciated. I am currently living in Zurich. If anyone wants to do a study group together, please ring me up! Thanks a lot in advance.

[[email protected]]

Hi zurich,

While it sounds like you've worked through lots of practice questions, it's not clear what type of 'training' you've gone through. If you can tell me a bit more about your studies so far, then I'll be happy to advise:

1) What specific resources have you used during your studies? When you refer to 'manhattan and Kaplan prep' are you talking about books?
2) What were your scores on each of your CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores)?

3) What School(s) are you planning to apply to?

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

[zurich]

Hi zurich,

While it sounds like you've worked through lots of practice questions, it's not clear what type of 'training' you've gone through. If you can tell me a bit more about your studies so far, then I'll be happy to advise:

1) What specific resources have you used during your studies? When you refer to 'manhattan and Kaplan prep' are you talking about books?
2) What were your scores on each of your CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores)?

3) What School(s) are you planning to apply to?

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

Hi Rich,

Thanks for the reply.
I have worked through the following resources:
1. Kaplan (GMAT Premier 2016, GMAT Math Workbook, GMAT Verbal Workbook)
2. Manhattan (critical reasoning, reading comprehension, sentence correction, integrated reasoning & essay, advanced quant)
3. GMAC OG review 2015
4. Some of Kaplan and manhattan online practice questions (probably only around 150 questions in total for verbal and quant)

Here are my CAT scores:
1. 22/09/15 GMAT Prep app (580, Q44, V26)
2. 13/10/15 Manhattan Prep CAT (610, Q44, V31)
2. 18/10/15 Manhattan Prep CAT (590, Q42, V30)
3. 23/10/15 Manhattan Prep CAT (650, Q43, V36)
4. 30/10/15 Manhattan Prep CAT (610, Q41, V33)
5. 05/11/15 Kaplan CAT (580, Q42, V27)

and I think there are one or two more CATs that I took earlier in free diagnostic tests, the score was around 580.

I am planning to apply to University of Zurich and University of St. Gallen. For UZH, the average last year was 660 and for USG a minimum of 650 is needed. As a foreign applicants, I would need to score higher than those to stand a chance, especially since my bachelor was not in business administration.

For Quant, my weakest topics are probability, number properties and proportions). For verbal, I still need large improvement for all. After working through the prep books, I have tried to apply the strategies taught on the questions. Most of the time, I was able to narrow down the answer to two answer choices, one of which is correct. But unfortunately, I always ended up picking the wrong answer.
Any book recommendations or courses or help of any form is really greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!

[[email protected]]

Hi zurich,

If we ignore the 3rd Manhattan Prep CAT (the 650), your scores are remarkably consistent - they're all right around the 600 level. This means that you do certain things consistently well, but that you also make certain mistakes consistently. With 6 weeks to go before Test Day, you have to raise your scores 100+ points to hit your score goal. That will require some specific work on your part and you'll have to adapt the way that you 'see' (and respond to) GMAT questions.

1) How much time do you think you can study each week up until Test Day?

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

[zurich]

Hi Rich,

I am having problems identifying my consistent mistakes. I have around 30 hours a week to study for it. I can raise it to 40 if it's really needed.

Hi zurich,

If we ignore the 3rd Manhattan Prep CAT (the 650), your scores are remarkably consistent - they're all right around the 600 level. This means that you do certain things consistently well, but that you also make certain mistakes consistently. With 6 weeks to go before Test Day, you have to raise your scores 100+ points to hit your score goal. That will require some specific work on your part and you'll have to adapt the way that you 'see' (and respond to) GMAT questions.

1) How much time do you think you can study each week up until Test Day?

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

[[email protected]]

Hi zurich,

At this point, the 'volume' of work that you do isn't quite as important as the Tactical work that you need to focus on. Given everything that you've described, I think that you would find the EMPOWERgmat Total Score Booster to be quite helpful. Most of our clients complete that Study Plan in well under 2 months, so you could probably complete it in the time that you have. We have a variety of free resources on our site (www.empowergmat.com), so you can 'test out' the Course before setting up an account.

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

[Bara]

The most efficient way to study is to identify not just what you're answering incorrectly, but how you're answering incorrectly. Once you rock what is incorrect form, content or technique, you can engage more succinctly and accurately, then build speed, if needed.

We do evaluations for clients, that does just this, if you're interested I can share more with about this through PM.

Also check out our Sentence Correction book - - it is air tight in what you need to know to succeed on these questions. Here is a link: https://www.amazon.com/Full-Potential-Se ... bara+sapir

Lastly: do you know your reading speed? Increasing your speed will buy you more time to do the most important thing: answer questions correctly! PM if you want more information on this!


Good Luck!

Best,
Bara