Study and Strategy questions relating to the GMAT.
LinaS493
Students
 
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Jun 14, 2014 3:08 am
 

what did I do wrong?

by LinaS493 Sat Aug 23, 2014 6:30 pm

I have been using MGMAT Sentence Correction, Foundations of GMAT Verbal, and Advanced GMAT Quant for the past month. However, after all the hard work, (study 2-3hrs after work every night, 20hrs during the weekend). My GMAT score has not improved at all compared to a month ago. My Quant is V45 and my Verbal is V23. There must been something i'm not doing right, but i don't know what it is. Please help.
StaceyKoprince
ManhattanGMAT Staff
 
Posts: 9360
Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:05 am
Location: Montreal
 

Re: what did I do wrong?

by StaceyKoprince Thu Aug 28, 2014 7:26 pm

There are a lot of reasons why your score may not be improving.

It may be the case that you are not studying in an effective way. Can you give me more details about how you used these books?

For quant, the AQ book doesn't teach you mathematical concepts in any systematic way - those are all covered in the 5 quant Strategy Guides. The AQ book assumes you already know all of that material and then tests you on it. Do you know the material in those 5 other books?

For verbal, you've been studying some underlying concepts for RC and CR (via Foundations of Verbal), but what are you doing to learn the actual strategies for doing RC and CR questions? (Again, those are in the main Strategy Guides, but you report using only the SC Strategy Guide.)

Second, it's possible that you have been learning the underlying material effectively, but you have not learned how to apply that material to GMAT-format questions. The article below talks about the difference between learning the facts, rules, and concepts, and actually learning how to answer GMAT-format questions:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -the-gmat/

Third, it's possible that you have learned the above but have not learned how best to take the actual test - which requires a level of strategy all of its own. Read the below; has this been your approach to the GMAT?
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... lly-tests/

After considering all of that, I'd also like you to analyze your most recent MGMAT CAT (this should take you a minimum of 1 hour):
http://tinyurl.com/analyzeyourcats

Based on everything above, figure out your strengths and weaknesses as well as where you think you may be falling short and what you think you may need to do. Then come back here and tell us; we'll tell you whether we agree and advise you further. (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!)
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep