Dumped by GMAT--Need help

[maheshjoshi25]

All,

Just wrote the GMAT a week ago and scored mere 490( Quant 35,Verbal 23) in fourth attempt.I scored 440,450,460 in earlier attempts.I have been preparing for GMAT for two years.This time I took 8 mock test in last two months and scored in the range of 580( first mock test) to 660 in Manhattan tests and 660 and 750( with some repeats) in official tests.I did the following outside of Mock tests.

1) OG 12,OG 13,Quant review and Verbal review.
2) Powerscore bible for CR
3) Manhattan SC book for SC
4) Advanced GMAT Quant by Manhattan
5) Kaplan 800.

I spent lot of time on review and also maintained a error log.I kept revising the error log every five days.I took all the test in last two months.

Wanted to seek your imputs whether writing GMAT fifth time will be reflected badly for admission even if I improved my score to my target score of 660 to 700.

Would really appreciate your advice.

Regards and Thanks

Mahesh

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry you're having such a struggle with the test.

When you talk about what you did and list your materials - most of your materials are just practice problems. Practice problems are necessary, of course, but they don't teach you how to get better - study guides or classes or other resources do that. The practice problems just let you test yourself on what you already learned.

So item #1 is to get some materials that will actually help you get better. You had that for SC and CR but not for the others. (Yes, our Advanced Quant book is designed to help you get better - but your scores show that you weren't quite ready for that level of study yet.)

Next, your practice tests were higher than your real tests. We need to figure out why. Read this:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ent-wrong/

What factors do you think were involved? The most common factors that lead to big score drops are (1) timing problems, (2) artificially inflated practice scores (eg, you skipped essay + IR, you saw repeated questions, etc), and (3) real-test-day nerves.

If you are able to improve your score to your target range, then that will be a lot better than going in with the 490. They'll see, of course, that it took you 5 tests to get there (vs. someone else who only took it once or twice), but at least you will have the score.

Don't go back in again, though, until you figure out why your practice tests are so much higher than the real thing. You've got to fix whatever those problems are or you risk having a similar outcome next time. So let's start there: what do you think are the major issues leading to the score drops on the real test? (Also, are both Q and V dropping? Or is most of the drop from just 1 section?)

[maheshjoshi25]

Stacey-Thank you so much for your resonse.It is really helpful.

Per below,my quant and verbal score is nearly consistent across all the exams.

Score 490( V 23,Q 35,IR 2),Score-470( V 23,Q 32),Score 440( V 21,Q 29),Score 450( V 23,Q 29).AWA score was 4 across all the exams.

Let me put frankly.I lost my job a year ago .I wrote GMAT three times in last one year.This could be one of the factors.I did face the timing issue in quant section (but not in verbal) in last GMAT exam.While writing the exams,I took GMAT really seriously and thought it is a make or break thing for me.I really slogged through GMAT materials.My preparation has really streched over one year.My basic concepts are really very clear.

Finally,If it is posssible,then please advise for materials as well.

Looking forward to your inputs.Please let me know whether you need further details.

Best regards,

Mahesh

[StaceyKoprince]

Okay, so you did have timing issues on quant. (I'd be willing to bet you probably had some timing issues on verbal as well - almost everyone has timing issues, even though many people aren't aware of them.)

You also had some serious stress going on - you placed so much pressure on yourself that you must have been feeling even more anxiety on test day than you otherwise would have.

Did you take your practice tests under 100% official conditions? I'm trying to get a rough gauge of how far your scores dropped on the real test, so I need to know what could have led to artificial score increases. I'm ignoring the repeat-test scores. On the others, did you do essay and IR, limit yourself to two 8-minute breaks, etc?

You asked about materials. I'm biased. I'm of course going to tell you that I think our materials are the best. :) So what I'll tell you instead is: you need materials that are designed to teach you how to get better at the GMAT - both in terms of the actual content being tested and in terms of how to think through GMAT-format questions. For MGMAT, that would correspond to our strategy guides, our OG Archer program, and our practice tests. (And our classes, of course.) But other companies have these kinds of materials, too, so go do some research and figure out what you think will work best for you - then get those materials.

The two big things we need to talk about are HOW to study and WHAT to study.

WHAT:
all of the material in our strategy guides (or the equivalent if you use someone else's material)

HOW:
Read this entire article, but pay particular attention to the "how to study" section:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -the-gmat/

Then come back here if you have any questions. (And let me know your answer to my questions about the test conditions for your practice tests. I want to figure out whether there's anything you're doing that causes inflated scores and that we can change so that your practice scores more closely reflect what might happen on the real test. We can't, of coures, recreate the anxiety of knowing the real test is the real test, but there may be other things too.)