Help! Score has not improved.

[galin175]

Hello,

I have been studying the Quant section with the OnDemand Online Course since December 2017. Today in May 2018, my Quant score has not improved at all.
I have been studying every morning for 3 hours and on weekends for 6 hours a day. I have been practicing non-stop with the OG problems. I have taken 5 CAT exams.

Any suggestions what I can do in order to improve my score? Apparently what I have been doing so far is not working.

Thanks!

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry that you haven't seen an improvement in your score yet.

There are typically several major causes—one or more of which may apply in your case. Let's first try to figure out what's going on. Once we do, we can figure out what steps to take to remedy the problems.

First, read this:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... lly-tests/

And this:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -the-gmat/

Think about what these articles say as you go through the below analysis. Here are the major possible reasons why your test scores may not be increasing.

(1) You aren't learning the underlying material well enough to be able to apply it to GMAT-format questions.

When you try Official Guide questions, how do you do? Are you able to answer questions now that you were not able to answer 3 or 6 months ago? In general, the higher-numbered questions in a particular chapter are harder than the lower-numbered questions in that same chapter. Are you able to answer harder questions now than you could answer 3 or 6 months ago?

If you are able to perform well on individual OG questions, then see #2.

If you are struggling to perform on individual OG problems, then you may not be learning the underlying material well enough to be able to apply the concepts to OG questions.

(2) You can answer OG questions, but you take too long. Or you can answer them under average timing conditions when you do only 1 or a few at a time, but when you try to do a whole section, you have more significant timing issues.

Look at your average timing in the practice exams. Here are some common signals for timing issues that can severely impact your score:
— You spend too much time earlier in the section and have to rush (and maybe even guess) on a number of questions towards the end of the section.
--> The GMAT is a "Where you end is what you get" test, so if you are doing this, then your score will always drop at the end of the section...and where you end is the score you get.

— You spend too much time on a small number of questions. You rush or guess on others to make up for it throughout the rest of the exam, not just at the end.
--> This is okay if (a) You don't spend more than about 1 minute above the average timing on a small number of questions and you mostly get those questions right, and (b) You guess quickly on ~4-5 questions that you have identified as much too hard (ie, you're not forced to rush or guess on questions that you actually know how to do).
--> This is not okay, though, if you are mostly missing the questions that you get wrong and then you are making further careless mistakes when you rush on questions that you do know how to do.

— You rush through the whole section, making lots of careless mistakes on things that you do know how to do. Alternatively, even if you aren't rushing, making a lot of careless mistakes will bring your score down.

(3) Everyone has some amount of nervousness when taking one of these exams, but some people have more severe anxiety—to the point that their performance on the test (even a practice test) suffers greatly. Could this be happening to you? Do you feel sick to your stomach or short of breath? Sweaty palms, dizziness, headaches? Do you find that, when you take a test, nothing seems to make sense—but when you look at the questions again afterwards, when the clock isn't ticking, it seems much easier?

Go through your most recent test and OG data to try to diagnose what's going on. Then come back to tell us what you think.

Also: The below article takes you through an in-depth process for analyzing a practice test. You may find that helpful.
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... ts-part-1/

[galin175]

Thank you for your response.

When I try the OG problems I get about 33% correct (when I do 5 at time). I find that most of the time I don't know how to solve the question and I look at the solution to learn how to solve that problem. I am answering more questions than 6 months ago and I feel like I know a little more what I am doing. I better identify the type of questions and relate it to previous similar questions I have seen. However, I am learning a lot from the solutions.

In addition, I do have a timing issue. I spend too much time in the earlier section and have to rush and guess on a number of questions towards the end of the section (usually last 8 questions).

Thank you for your help!

[StaceyKoprince]

If you have to rush / guess on the last ~8 questions in the section, then your test score will not go up much even as you do actually improve. But, from what you've described, you are in fact getting better.

The first thing we need to deal with is time management—and that really comes overall from your business mindset. Re-read the Executive Reasoning article I sent last time and read the below or watch the webinar linked at the beginning:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -the-gmat/

Tell me how your mindset needs to change in order to be able to not run out of time on the last ~8 questions in a section. (Note to you and anyone else reading this: The answer is never "I will learn to work so quickly that I will be able to answer all problems in the given time limit." That is never the strategy. )

And here's everything you need to know in great detail about time management:
blog/2016/08/19/everything-you-need-to-know-about-gmat-time-management-part-1-of-3/

It will take you weeks to work through all of the levels there and get good at the various skills described—but you can do it!

Next, as you mentioned, you're learning a ton from the solutions of the OG problems that you are doing. That's great. At times, I would recommend re-trying problems that you looked at weeks or months ago—so don't just do new problems all the time. You tried something a month ago but you're better now, so let's see whether you have retained what you learned when you first studied that one. I'd do a mix of 40% problems you've already done in the past and 60% new ones for now.

And don't be stressed about the fact that you're missing lots of the OG problems you try. If you told me that you were getting 80+% correct...I'd just tell you that you weren't trying hard enough problems. As you said, when you miss something, you then learn a lot from it—so you want to make sure that the mix of problems you're trying isn't just things that you already know how to do. Ideally, I'd like you to get about 50% right (so that you know you are making progress and don't get demoralized) but also 50% wrong (so that you have something to learn to get better!).

But really—the first / biggest thing is just to fix your mindset, which is leading to your timing problems. Once you do that, you'll see a jump in your score and you'll be excited and ready to plow forward with more study to lift even further!