Heartbreaking score on 1st try

[sandeepdhoorh]

On my most recent Manhattan GMAT (12/09/12) I scored 540 (Q36 V29)

Since I was behind on Quant, I studied Math for the next two weeks only and very little verbal. Then I took a GMAC GMAT on December 22nd and scored 530 (Q41 V21).

Good news was that since I studied only math for two weeks, I improved 5 points on Quant. Since my goal was 600 on 1st try, I thought since I have 41 in Quant and 29 in verbal from my Manhattan test, I will study both subjects for few days and take the test on my scheduled date which was December 28th. So I did non stop practice problems from the OG guides for both verbal and quant and I was doing very well to score 600. And then I took the official test on December 28.

The result was highly disappointing. I only scored 430 (Q29 V21)

I scored 420 on my 1st Manhattan CAT exam when I had no clue about GMAT and after 3 months of studying I got 430 on original? Can you provide some advice on what could have went wrong and what can I do to improve? There was no surprise on test day. I mean all the questions in Quant were similar to what I have seen in practice questions or in Manhattan materials. Don't know what happened. Can you offer some words of encouragement along with tips to improve from this heartbreaking score. My goal is to get at least 600 by Feb 10th. Looking forward to your reply.

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry you had a rough test-day experience. You can get better - we just need to figure out what went wrong so we can put together a plan of attack.

There are multiple reasons why your score could have dropped on test day; read this article and let us know which things you think might apply in your case:

http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ent-wrong/

Next, you mentioned that you "did non stop practice problems" for a week before you took your real test. Unfortunately, simply doing practice problems doesn't help you improve a ton - and, if you're doing them "non-stop," you run the risk of burning yourself out before the test day. Also "doing" problems is not actually how you learn - that's just how you test yourself to see whether you learned whatever you tried to learn when you were studying. :)

So we need to talk about what to study and also how to study.

In terms of what to study, I'd like to get some more detailed data on your strengths and weaknesses in order to advise you. Use the below to analyze your most recent MGMAT CAT(s):

http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/

Then come back here and tell us the results of your analysis and what you think you should do based on that analysis. (Note: do share an analysis with us, not just the raw data. 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!)

In terms of how to study, read this article and pay particular attention to the How To Study section (but do read the whole article):
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -the-gmat/

When you were studying, did you have resources that helped you learn the actual content being tested as well as strategies for tackling the different kinds of question types?

Did you spend a majority of your time analyzing problems, and analyzing your own work / thought process? That's where you actually learn how to get better (as discussed in the How To Study section of the above article).

Next, you mention wanting to get a 600 by Feb 10th. That's about 1 month from now. Most people would need more than 1 month to go from 430 to 600 (I know you were scoring higher on practice tests, but the official test score was 430, so we have to consider that the current starting point). Now, it's likely that your actual knowledge is "higher" than 430 but there are other issues bringing your score down (timing, mental fatigue, etc), but those things also take time to fix. Most people do have timing problems, for example, and most people need a minimum of 4-6 weeks to address those problems.

If you do discover that you have timing problems (and, again, something like 98% of test takers have timing problems), make sure to pay special attention to the time management section of the above article.