520 – 540 -540 GMAT rut after months/years of prep

[MatthewC626]

Looking for some advise on how to get out of this rut. I just completed a test last week that I cancelled in the end due to the low score. Recently came out of a 10 week MGMAT prep course but on game day nothing came together as expected. Any thoughts on how to proceed welcome.

Personal background:
30yo male, native English speaker with 6 years professional experience on 3 continents. Working in a commercial management role for a major shipping company (big ships not DHL or Fedex type shipping). I am targeting European 1yr FT MBA programs outside the global top 10. All the schools I have spoken to have said that with my experience and a good application 650 on the GMAT should be sufficient but obviously a 700 would be safer. Based on my historical GMAT scores I am hoping just to get 650.
International relocations and placements have resulted in large gaps between test times.

GMAT progress to date:
1st attempt June 2014: V32 Q 34 520 AWA 5.5 IR 4 (Submitted score)
Strategy: In retrospect it can only be described as ‘no strategy’ as I basically just went through the Princeton review, did the questions, did some OG questions and kept no error log.
Formal courses: Magoosh only
Textbooks: OG Guide, GMAC practice software and Princeton Review textbook.
Error log: NO
Exam time: 9am. Flying out on an important business trip directly after the exam and stayed in a strange hotel near the airport the night before. Very little sleep. Everything about the 24hrs prior to the exam was stressful.

2nd attempt May 2015: 540 AWA 6 IR 3.5 (submitted score)
Strategy:
This time I focused on content from MGMAT and just worked my way thought the books. I started to consistently score around 600 mark after a month which I was satisfied with since my last exam result was a 520. I would work through all the questions in MGMAT then supplement with questions in OG books. All practice questions were times
Error log: YES
Formal courses: Magoosh online lessons/classes
Textbooks: 5th Generation MGMAT books + OG 12 + OG 12 V review + OG 12 Q review
Practice CATS:
CAT 1: 590 Q39 V32 15th March 15
CAT 2 : 600 Q39 V34 29th March 15
CAT 3: 590 Q37 V34 26th April 15
Exam time: 9am. Night before the exam was dealing with some unpleasant personal news which was dwelling on my mind a lot. Looking at my CATS I was going into the exam thinking at least around 590 which would not have been ideal but at least it showed an improvement on my last attempt. Then of course I see an actual score of 540

3rd Attempt 22 Dec 2015: Q33 V31 540 (cancelled the score)
Strategy: Follow the 9 week MGMAT course and do all extra questions assigned. At end of course use MGMAT Navigator and CAT results to spend 2 weeks focusing on weak areas. I used flash cards which I tried to review every few days.
Hrs per week: 15 – 20
Formal courses: 9 week MGMAT online course
Error log: Yes
Practice CATs: All done under full exam conditions with AWA + IR and accurate break timing:
1st CAT 590 Q 40 V 32 4th October ** Before starting prep again for 3rd attempt**
2nd CAT 590 Q36 V34 25th October
3rd CAT 570 Q38 V 30 8th Nov
4th CAT 580 Q37 V32 29th NOV
5th CAT 650 Q44 V35 10th December (Final cat before exam) NOT MGMAT SOFTWARE USING OFFICIAL GMAT software
Comments on CATS:
Between CAT 1 and CAT 4 I was still working my way through the MGMAT course work. Between the 4th and 5th I focused just on weakness areas and OG questions. I also found I was starting to see the same questions again on MGMAT CATS so switched to official GMAC CAT and saw the big increase. All done under official conditions but at home.
Exam time: 1pm

In summary:
I feel like my baseline ability is somewhere between 590 and 620 on a normal day. I also sense that issue could be stress/anxiety related when it comes to game day which is explaining the huge drop in actual score Vs Practice. So the question is how do I address this? There are obvious improvements that can still made in terms of content and understanding concepts but I feel that without trying to understand and resolving the challenges I am facing on the day all the work will be for nothing. I am also considering whether may lack of understanding of the concepts is adding to my stress on the day because deep down I know my knowledge is not ‘complete’.

I was hoping to make a number of school deadlines on the 8th of January but this is obviously going to have to be pushed back by a month. My plan is now to re-sit at the end of January and spend the next week or two between now and NY trying to put together a detailed 1 month study plan.

Any advice welcome!

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry this test is driving you crazy.

Anxiety can definitely be a factor when people are seeing a score drop on the real test. The other major cause is usually timing problems - spending too long on some (usually hard ones that you're mostly going to get wrong anyway), then rushing on others to make up the time and making careless mistakes on problems that you did know how to do.

Another factor, as you mentioned, can be actual skill / content knowledge. If you have holes in your foundation in certain areas, that can definitely bring your score down.

First, you too our course, so you're eligible for a Post Exam Assessment (if you haven't done it already). This is a phone call with an instructor to figure out what happened on test day and come up with a plan to re-take the test. If this applies to you, please send an email to gmat@manhattanprep.com and request the Post-Exam Assessment.

Next, for the anxiety piece, try this:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... mat-score/

Do you have a history of anxiety and underperformance in similar situations in the past? eg, the SAT or other high-stakes tests. Do you experience physical symptoms, such as a racing heart, sweaty palms, dizziness? If so, then you may need to talk to your physician as well.

Regarding your practice tests, the biggest difference on that last practice test was your quant score - it really jumped up. What went so much better on that test compared to your other practice tests? Did you make better decisions about how to spend your time, letting harder ones go (and making fewer careless mistakes on ones you knew how to do)? Did you somehow avoid having long strings of wrong answers (which can really hurt your score)? How did you feel on that test vs. the real test after it? Was it easier to concentrate, etc, on the practice test (since you knew it wasn't the real test)?

The meditation article above can help you with concentration and with mild physical stress reactions. If part of the problem has to do with timing or with holes in foundation, there are other things you'll need to do (and you can discuss those during your PEA, after the teacher with whom you meet has a chance to analyze your practice test results).

If you would also like to analyze your tests (and I recommend this!), then follow the below steps.

First, read these two articles:
http://tinyurl.com/executivereasoning
http://tinyurl.com/2ndlevelofgmat

Think about how what you've been doing does and doesn't match up with that and how you may need to change your approach accordingly.
Then, use the below to analyze your most recent MPrep CATs (this should take you a minimum of 1 hour):
http://tinyurl.com/analyzeyourcats

Based on all of that, figure out your strengths and weaknesses as well as any ideas you have for what you think you should do. Then come back here and tell us; we'll tell you whether we agree and advise you further. (Note: do share an analysis with us, not just the raw data. Your analysis should include a discussion of your buckets - you'll understand what that means when you read the last article. Part of getting better is developing your ability to analyze your results - figure out what they mean and what you think you should do about them!)

I will mention one last thing on the anxiety piece. You will never go into this test knowing every possible thing that they could throw at you. It's not like a school test - where, if you were well-prepared, you really did know everything that was coming. So one thing that may help is to build the mindset that you aren't trying to get to "complete" knowledge. You're just trying to get to "enough to get the score you want" knowledge. (This is true for everyone, even me and my fellow teachers who are going for ridiculously high scores! That is, this doesn't just apply to someone who wants "only" a 650. It's how the test works in general. Expect that they will ask you things that you don't know. Your task is to recognize when you don't know so that you can shrug, pick your favorite letter, and move on.)

It might be worth reading this, too:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -the-gmat/

[MatthewC626]

Hi Stacey,

Thanks for the reply. I have been through the last 4 CAT results in detail and have come up with a list of target areas for each topic and sub topic and ranked them in order of % accuracy with lowest at the top. On the quant there are some stand out issues:
Algebra:
1st Exponents and Roots
2nd Quadratics
3rd Formulas

Geometry
1st Triangles and Diagonals
2nd Coordinate Plane

Number P
1st Divisibility and Prime
2nd Pos + Neg
3rd Combinatorics

Word P
1st Consec integers

FDP
Generall weak across the board and especially damaging in that I am getting a lot of the very easy questions wrong on this topic.

Quant Summary: I noticed the areas I am having the greatest difficulty are also the areas that re most commonly tested so addressing these should go a long way to help my score. In terms of timing I am consistently 20-30s longer for all the wrong questions so although my overall timing is good I am spending too long on wrong questions and not getting out quick enough.

Verbal
Sentence Correction
1st SVA
2nd Pronoun
3rd Comparisons

Critical R
1st Explain Discrepency
2nd Describe Role

RC
1st Passage structure
2nd Main Idea

Verbal Summary: In overall terms I am strongest at SC and it is the RC and CR that is bringing me down. Timing is generally ok except like in quant I am spending 20-30 seconds more on the wrong questions.


Long error Strings: Another pattern I noticed is that I am getting long error strings. looking at the results this is often what, in one example took me from the 99% at Q6 of a quant test all the way down to the 60th Percentile. I managed to claw my way back to 79 on this specific cat but only to have another 5 question error string and eventually end up with a 66% percentile score... I am personally putting this down to fatigue as timing does not seem to be an issue. Usually the first two errors in the string (especially for Verable) are 700+ questions but then I continue to get the easy ones wrong and sometimes end up all the way down with a 500-600 Q which I inevitably get right but by then have lost so much ground.

I plan on taking the exam in early march to take advantage of a new format pilot that they are running. I plan to do Verbal/Quant/IR an AWA format. My challenge now is to come up with a 6 week study plan. realistically I can achieve about 16hrs a week in prep. Apart from doing a lot of OG questions again and going over the basics I am not sure what I could be doing differently for this attempt. Some changes I will make is only studying in 1hr 15min blocks to help with concentration and stamina.

Any suggestions on how to put together a good plan would be welcome.

Matt

[Black5879]

I have read of someone in the forum who improved from 580 to 710 after 6 attempts over 3 years. I too am stuck at 600 but I just wanted to encourage you on and let's work towards that dream score of ours!

[StaceyKoprince]

Some comments on your topic lists:

Drop combinatorics. You will typically see 0 or 1 on the real test. If you see 2, one is almost certainly an experimental. Better not to study this and just make it a "freebie" (quick guess and move on).

Your last topic listed is FDPs but you mention that this is an "across the board" issue at lower difficulty levels. So start there - especially because certain FDP topics (eg, percents, fractions) cross over into other topics.

You should actually expect to be 20-30s longer, on average, for incorrect answers. Those questions are harder, in general, which equals slightly longer time. What you DON'T want is to be spending significantly longer on any one question. (And, where you can, it's great to be able to recognize much faster that this question sucks and you don't want to do it. )

In SC, comparisons tend to be more commonly tested than pronouns. Adjust accordingly.

CR: the three most common type are Strengthen, Weaken, and Assumption. You'll probably see one each of Discrepancy and Describe Role (boldface), so if you want to choose one of those to just drop entirely / guess immediately, feel free.

Usually the first two errors in the string (especially for Verable) are 700+ questions but then I continue to get the easy ones wrong and sometimes end up all the way down with a 500-600 Q which I inevitably get right but by then have lost so much ground.

Here's what's happening: your doing well, so you get offered a couple of really hard ones, and you get sucked into spending too much time and mental energy. Then, you're tired out for the next couple--and maybe feeling anxious because you probably have a feeling you didn't get the last couple and you're maybe worried you spent too much time--and that just makes it even harder to do well on the next couple even though the difficulty level has dropped.

Arrest that pattern by recognizing that the earlier ones are too hard and letting them go. Then you're more fresh for the later ones and have a better shot.

Oh, so you did get invited to do the pilot? Great. I'll be really curious to hear how that goes.

Okay, so your big study focus is going to be around this (I gave you this last time):
http://tinyurl.com/2ndlevelofgmat

Everything you do is driven by your analysis of individual official problems. Depending on the particular problem / issue, you may need to:
- re-read part of a chapter in a book (regular or Foundations) or re-watch part of a lesson (use Interact, in your online syllabus)
- drill some skills (use Foundations problem sets)
- drill more advanced content skills (use regular strategy guide problem sets)
- look for more efficient solution methods (Navigator, forum / google search)
- look for better educated-guessing methods (ditto)
- create flash cards to learn / drill / memorize something, especially in the "When I see... I'll think / do..." form discussed in the 2nd Level article
- etc

The idea is that this is one long series of analyses. You pick a problem apart to figure out what YOU need to get better based on how this one went, and then you go take action accordingly. That "action" might take 5-10 minutes or it might become a 2-hour review and study session of broader topics. It all depends what you find during your analysis.

You will also need to practice timing / decision-making / mindset among blocks of questions...and once you do that, you go right back into the analysis phase. Make sure that you analyze the whole block first (where did I make good trade-off decisions and where could I have made better decisions? why? how will I know in the moment next time?), then dive into individual questions.

When you feel you've made decent progress since your last CAT (typically 2-3 weeks, though it varies depending on how much quality study you can do), take another CAT, analyze it again to come up with a new list, and then start the whole "analysis and feedback" loop all over again. That's literally the plan (along with the list of specific topics / question types, which you now have)!