Need advice - GMAT score reduced

[mujeeb.beg.sahab]

Hi,

I took my 5th GMAT today and received a poor score of 630 (Q 45, V 29).

My previous scores are

1st GMAT = 510 ( year 2008)
2nd GMAT = 550 (Jan 2013, Q48, V19)
3rd GMAT = 620 (Sep 2013, Q43, V32)
4th GMAT = 650 (Jan 2014, Q49, V31)
5th GMAT = 610 (Apr 2014, Q45, V29)

The reason I am more frustrated is because i got 650 in my 4th attempt and this time it got reduced.

I have utilized almost all resources

Manhattan GMAT books
e-GMAT
OG-12

Now, i don't know where to proceed.

Any help/guidance will be appreciated.

I want to acheive the 700+ score but it seems that I am heading in the wrong direction...help needed.

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry that you had a disappointing test experience - although I also want to congratulate for getting yourself from 510 up to 650. That's quite an accomplishment. (The average score increase from official test 1 to official test 2 is 30 points, and after that, the average score increase for repeated tests is 0 points - so you've come a long way!)

How did you feel about the last two official tests? What parts of your experience felt similar? What parts felt different?

What have your timing issues been? (Everyone has some timing issues - the question is just what yours are!)

How did you feel heading into the test? Were you feeling burned out at all? Were you stressed or losing sleep?

How did you do on the essay and IR sections compared to test 4? Did you possibly expend more mental energy on those sections, either because you were trying to get higher scores or because you didn't study or practice those sections at all, and so it cost you more mental energy to do them this time around?

What did you do differently heading into the 4th test vs. the 5th test?

Finally, you mention various book resources that you've used. If you do find yourself hitting a wall at this point, then you may need to find a class or someone to work with to push yourself the last part of the distance. Something to think about.

[mujeeb.beg.sahab]

Thanks Stacey for the reply

GMAT 650 score - I didn't prepared for IR and thus I got 3 in IR. Regarding AWA, I am pretty much comfortable, I got 5.5

In Quant i was pretty much ok, I only guess on 3-4 questions. I got 49 in Quant

In Verbal - I was comfortable in the RC, i got some science specific passages

SC - I was not much confident in answering many SC questions

CR - In CR as well i used to got stuck in two choices

Overall score 31

Exam date - Jan 2014

GMAT 610 (5th Attempt) - To be honest i was pretty much confident this time. I had the 49 Quant score from my previous score. This time in Quant i only practiced official questions from the GMAT paper tests.

In the real exam, i got 4th question a DS question and i was stuck on that...after that i paced the test but i guessed many DS questions and number properties questions :( ...got 45

This time as well, I only prepared one day for IR, and during the test, i was feeling the heat in IR. i again got 3 in IR

For verbal - I was doing fine in SC, but got a difficult RC passage, from timing perspective i am always fine in verbal. For some CR questions i did find some challenges, guessed and moved on.

got 29 this time.

Test date Apr'2014 - Moreover, during this preparation i was overloaded with office work and for 2 weeks i couldn't concentrate on GMAT. I am also counting this as one of the factor.

Also this time i only gave one mock test.

In quant and IR , i did stressed out :(

you mentioned about some class, can you suggest some? I live in Indianapolis, IN...not sure what options are there.

I have again started my preparation

For SC, I am gonna read Aristotle SC grail + Manhattan OG sentence correction companion

For CR, i dont know where to start, I have strated listeing RON's videos (Thurdays)

For RC - I subscirbed WSJ and reading couple of passages daily.

Please advise on the next steps.

Thanks!

[StaceyKoprince]

For CR and RC, you do need some resources that specifically teach you how to answer those kinds of questions. Here are some free resources, but you may also want to look into some books.

CR:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... reasoning/

RC:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... rehension/

If you take a class, it should include study materials (our class includes our books).

I do also think it's a great idea to do some GMAT-like reading every day. Here are some good sources:
http://magazine.uchicago.edu/
http://harvardmagazine.com/
http://sciam.com/

(You can skip Scientific American if you don't have a problem with science passages.)

We don't have any in-person classes in Indianapolis, but we do offer online classes that you can join from anywhere. I have people from all over the world joining my online classes.

You can see a description and schedules here:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/Programs/Complete-Course

We let people sit in on the first class for free, so you can check it out and decide whether you think it's for you. (The only caveat: if that class sells out, then you won't be able to sign up for it; if you like it, you'll have to join a different class section.)

Most companies do offer free intro classes, so check out whatever companies you may have heard of and decide which program you think would be the best fit for you. (I'm biased and of course think our program is the best :) but you're the consumer, so go do your research and decide!)

So that's your next step: do some research and figure out whether you want to join a class. If so, you'll follow that syllabus. If not, you'll need to identify some CR and RC resources and start to put together your own study plan. Let me know what you decide.