Help: One week to go for GMAT; MGMAT test scores decreasing!

[prakash_anant1]

Help!
I have the actual GMAT coming up in 1 week, and have been taking the MGMAT online tests on a weekly basis. The issue is I seem to be on a negative learning curve, if such a thing is possible.
Below are my test results so far:

Test 1: GMAT.com prep test, 3 weeks back:
Total: 690, Quant 48, Verbal 35

Test 2: Manhattan online GMAT 1, 2 weeks back:
Total: 670, Quant 43, verbal 26

Test 3: Manhattan online GMAT 2, 1 weeks back:
Total: 640, Quant 44, verbal 34

Test 4: Manhattan online GMAT 2, Today:
Total: 610, Quant 44, verbal 31

Ive been studying every day, and have covered most topics with the Manhattan guides as well as practice with the OG.

Don't quite understand why I am progressively getting worse on the exam, despite consistent work towards preparing. Must be my exam taking style? Now, with one week to go, what should I focus on. Any help or suggestions would be greatly valued.
AP

[StaceyKoprince]

It's really important to figure out why this is happening - if you can figure out why, then you may be able to figure out how to reverse the trend. If you don't figure out why, you may want to postpone your test - you should assume that your current scoring range is close to whatever you've been scoring recently. Unless you're okay with that score on the real test, you should give yourself a little more time to figure out what's going on.

Are you burning yourself out? How much are you studying every day? Are you taking other practice tests as well?

Have you changed HOW you're taking the exams? Did you skip the essays on the earlier ones, or take longer breaks than allowed, or something like that - something that might cause your score to be inflated?

How was your timing on those exams? Messing up on the timing can result in a score decrease - has your timing been getting worse for some reason?

Use this article to analyze in more depth, to try to figure out what's going on:

http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/e ... -part1.cfm

This article may also be useful (it was written more for someone who had a big score drop on the real test, but you can still use this for your situation):
http://www.beatthegmat.com/a/2009/10/26 ... went-wrong

After you've done that analysis, come back and post here, and we'll see if we can help you figure out what's going on.

[prakash_anant1]

Thanks for your response.
The last 2 tests I took yesterday and today indicated a bounce back, so I am a bit more relieved. Scores 680 (Q48, V 35) and 690 (Q47, V37). Although this still doesn't get me to my aim: 700 total.

All tests were taken under similar conditions, with strict time keeping. I think the drop in scores has a lot to do with test taking technique.

I still find that getting to the last few questions is a challenge, and have guessed questions 35, 36 & 37 on quant more times than not. Also to actually get back on track with ~2min/question, I have often 'sacrificed' a couple of questions in the middle order. What is the best strategy to do so? (educated guesses?)

Similarly after the last RC on verbal, the final 4 or 5 questions are a desperate rush.

My weakness is DS on Quant. I get more than half of the DS questions wrong under test conditions.

My performance in doing the toughest sections of the OG (starting backwards, with the toughest questions) under timed conditions is much better than my performance in an actual test.

Which indicates to me that the ability to solve these questions is there, it just doesn't come together so well when I am taking a test.

Are the Manhattan tests tougher than the real GMAT, or are they of the same difficulty level?

In the last 3 days, I guess all I can do is practice some questions more with the OG, with special attention to DS. Also, any test taking strategy tips with the above in mind would be very handy and much appreciated.
thanks,
A

[StaceyKoprince]

I still find that getting to the last few questions is a challenge, and have guessed questions 35, 36 & 37 on quant more times than not. Also to actually get back on track with ~2min/question, I have often 'sacrificed' a couple of questions in the middle order. What is the best strategy to do so? (educated guesses?)

No matter how good you get, you will ALWAYS have to guess on some questions (because you'll just keep getting a harder mix of questions). Your only real choice is WHEN to guess. Would you rather choose to guess on the hardest questions as you see them throughout the section? Or would you rather be forced to guess on several questions in a row at the end, even though you might actually be able to do some of them?

The answer is obvious. :) Part of your task is to recognize when a question is too hard - either you're probably going to get it wrong or you're going to lose too much time even if you get it right - and make those questions your guesses.

And, yes, learn how to make educated guesses - that will make your life easier too. Here are a couple of articles on educated guessing (one each for quant and verbal):

http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/07/ ... s-on-quant
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/e ... verbal.cfm

My weakness is DS on Quant. I get more than half of the DS questions wrong under test conditions.

How's your timing on DS? Are you spending too much time on PS and rushing on DS as a result? I see that a LOT - students will tell me DS is a weakness and I'll discover they're only averaging 1m30s on DS questions, so of course they're getting more of those wrong. Meanwhile, they're averaging 2m30s+ on incorrect PS questions. Re-balance the time and DS suddenly gets a lot better. So just check into that to make sure that's not happening to you.

Which indicates to me that the ability to solve these questions is there, it just doesn't come together so well when I am taking a test.

It's harder to do it over 3.5 hours - your brain gets fatigued. It's harder to do it on a computer screen - it's more natural to look at a book flat on your table. If you start from the highest numbers and move down, your questions are progressively getting easier - that's not how the real test works either.

In short, it's harder to take a CAT, period. :)

You're close. Your major potential issue is the timing. You've got to do what I talked about above - recognize the hardest questions for you, and let those ones go, so that you're not forced to guess on some questions that you actually know how to do. It's tough to really solidify that habit in only a few days, but do as well as you can with it! Good luck!