GMAT score of 580 after a year of studying.

[LorendaA597]

I have been studying for the gmat for a year now. I took a practice test and I had a score of 580 .
How can I improve my score effectively?
I had a score of 38 for Quant and a score of 31 for verbal.
From the assessment report of the Quant section, I did poorly with the word problems and number properties.
The algebra wasn’t bad.

From the assessment report of the verbal section, I did poorly in the critical reasoning question. I thought I was okay with sentence correction but I got half of the questions wrong.

I’m using the Manhattan prep Quant and Verbal guide and GMAT official guide 2019.

I’m studying about 5 times a week . I solve questions from the official guide. I also watch Manhattan prep videos.

My weakness in General is quant especially the data sufficiency.
For verbal, it is the critical reasoning section

[StaceyKoprince]

We'd be happy to help you figure out how to improve.

In the "Take a Practice Test" section of our free syllabus, there's a task called Download CAT Review Tracker. Alternatively, if you're using our All The GMAT syllabus (that comes with the purchase of the All the GMAT bookset), you can find the same tracker under Pre Work / Practice Exams.

You can download the tracker to work offline or you can make a copy of it (it's a Google Sheet file). I recommend making a Google Sheet copy, as some of the functionality won't work if you download it into Excel.

Fill it out and do the analysis that it describes (if you haven't done so already). Warning: It's going to take you at least 2 hours per section (Q and V). When you're done, though, you'll have a deep analysis that will help you to know what to do to improve. And then you can share that analysis with us and we'll also help you.

The last part of the analysis has you create what we call your three "buckets":
Bucket 1: Strengths
Bucket 2: Best opportunities for improvement
Bucket 3: Weaknesses

Share those three buckets with us for both the Q and V sections.

It's great that you've gotten to 580—it shows that you've got a solid foundation now across both sections of the test. I'm guessing that you're ready to switch over to the executive mindset that's needed to get into the higher 600s (or even higher). Before you reply, reread the The GMAT Mindset in the Get Started section of the free syllabus. (You can also find similar text at the beginning of your All the Quant and All the Verbal books.)

Next, take a look at this really old blogpost, particularly the section titled Know the Code:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/the-second-level-of-learning-to-take-the-gmat/

How much are you currently training yourself to have that GMAT Mindset? How much is your training focused on learning to recognize the GMAT code, in the way described in that blog post?

There's a decent chance that you've been so focused on learning/relearning all the rules and formulas and steps that you've fallen into the "old-school" mindset: Memorize certain steps or processes and then just spit them back on the test (basically, what we were taught to do for 20 years in school). But that approach will only get you to around the 600 level on the GMAT. Be happy that you haven't gotten that far...and now start to work on the next level of your studies, which is described in that stuff I suggested you read before you reply.

Tell me what you think you need to start doing (or doing differently), based on that reading. I'll give you ideas, too—I just want to hear what you think first.