HORRENDOUS GMAT SCORES : Magoosh

I’ve seen people post on here saying they had horrible GMAT scores when usually it’s between the 500-800 range. I can’t even hit that. I went from a 310 in November to a 400 in January to a 380 the last day of May. I used MAGOOSH, went over majority of the practice questions & watched the videos MULTIPLE times for 3 1/2 months. I did all the practice & 2 tests on GMAT practice. I understand the concepts, I really do! I have also used Manhattan Prep books as well. Yes, I do have test anxiety which makes it worse honestly. My mind goes blank once I get the test in front of me. I want to take the GMAT just one last time beginning of August. I’m a really good student but these standardized exams get to me. Is there any hope for me? I’ve already spent a LOT of money on material & testing. I could use any advice.

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Go for a better course.
Like Target test prep for Quant.
And Egmat for Verbal.
Also you might want to take it slow. Make notes. Review mistakes as well as correct answers really well.
You will improve your score.

Hello, xodarlindxo. If you are willing to put in the work, you CAN earn a more competitive score. I was flabbergasted when I read this debrief by a studious prepper who went from a verified 250 to a verified 780, the largest improvement I have ever seen. In addition, I would recommend you check out my lengthy and somewhat recent post in a thread on GMAT™ preparation mistakes, not to mention other posts in the thread. When you get an upper hand on both the conceptual and psychological components to the test, and the task becomes more of a game to you than a dreaded (potential) dream-crusher, you will be ready to perform at your best.

Good luck with your studies. Keep at it.

- Andrew
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This person https://gmatclub.com/forum/530-point-gm ... 56872.html worked with TTP

Hi and welcome to GMAT Club!

I think you have a few things going on here.
First of all, the recommended prep time is 3 months. That's not because it is a magic number but rather becuase that's how long your brain retains things. Studying from Nov to June is 7 and that's a bit past the optimal and past the 6-month line when your mind starts losing things, sometimes faster than you can learn them so watch out for that! If you are going for one more shot, I would suggest a sprint/fast race that is 2 months rather than dragging it out.

As to the materials, you have what you need really. Magoosh is one of the slimmer courses designed for faster prep and faster improvement. It looks like you got 90 or so points in Jan and that's great. That's around typical improvement. You don't need more materials per se but you could use better study practices. Here are a few things that come to my mind but you may want to think about your approach:

- Review yesterday's lessons/key points before starting a new day
- Studying at the best time (morning) vs. night after work
- Summarizing what you have learned and potentially making your own notes of each class (I did that. You may have already if you are a really good student)
- Try taking the test without a time limit and see if you can improve your score that way and take out the anxiety. You may be surprised with your result and the speed. I highly recommend it. GMAT Club tests allow you to take them in Study Mode without a hard end time so you can let the clock run out or even hide it completely. You can get them free when you sign up for the MBA Spotlight: https://gmatclub.com/tests_access_for_m ... _users.php or if you subscribe for the YouTube channel: https://gmatclub.com/google_verify.php so no cost there
- It is not common to improve more than 150 points. My 210 point improvement required a change to my study habits, change of my work schedule, change of my social schedule, and complete elimination of TV/computer time. I studied only 2 hours per day in the morning and on the subway doing flashcards/vocab words being a non-native speaker and then at night I read fiction books to improve my SC and RC skills. That gave me 200 points of improvement. 300 points is even more work and there is only one person from TTP that I know of that has officially gone up 500+ points and got a 780 which is insane frankly. I don't think an ordinary person could accomplish that - you have to be truly unique to pull that off.

P.S. Business schools often also accept the GRE. Many find it easier frankly and it is more popular with the native speakers. Something you can potentially consider if you want to.
-BB

xodarlindxo wrote:I’ve seen people post on here saying they had horrible GMAT scores when usually it’s between the 500-800 range. I can’t even hit that. I went from a 310 in November to a 400 in January to a 380 the last day of May. I used MAGOOSH, went over majority of the practice questions & watched the videos MULTIPLE times for 3 1/2 months. I did all the practice & 2 tests on GMAT practice. I understand the concepts, I really do! I have also used Manhattan Prep books as well. Yes, I do have test anxiety which makes it worse honestly. My mind goes blank once I get the test in front of me. I want to take the GMAT just one last time beginning of August. I’m a really good student but these standardized exams get to me. Is there any hope for me? I’ve already spent a LOT of money on material & testing. I could use any advice.

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bb wrote:- It is not common to improve more than 150 points. My 210 point improvement required a change to my study habits, change of my work schedule, change of my social schedule, and complete elimination of TV/computer time. I studied only 2 hours per day in the morning and on the subway doing flashcards/vocab words being a non-native speaker and then at night I read fiction books to improve my SC and RC skills. That gave me 200 points of improvement. 300 points is even more work and there is only one person from TTP that I know of that has officially gone up 500+ points and got a 780 which is insane frankly. I don't think an ordinary person could accomplish that - you have to be truly unique to pull that off.

Well stated, bb. I appreciate the candid take on the matter and the personal experience you have drawn from. (It is easy to sit on a high score and say that you are just naturally gifted.) We now have three posts in the thread that mention that crazy 500+ point improvement, but how many of those stories have you seen since you started the site? I find that performance benchmarking—setting accuracy goals on practice sets of questions, or setting intermediate goals in 50-point increments on practice tests—is often more reliable than seeking the best fill-in-the-blank. As you have said, a lot of dedicated work goes into major point increases, however that work is accomplished (e.g., self-study, online learning module, tutor/teacher/class).

- Andrew
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Just try TTP trial.you Won't regret!

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