MGMAT vs GMAT PREP vs Real GMAT

Hi All,

I have been reading on this site for a while, but this is my first post. I just wanted to see if anyone else had a similar experience. I describe all of my tests below, but here is the summary of the tests I have taken to reference in an easy to read format as others post:

MGMAT1 520 Q29 V32
MGMAT2 620 Q45 V31
MGMAT3 640 Q39 V38
GMAT PREP 1 600 Q44 V29
MGMAT4 580 Q42 V29
MGMAT5 620 Q38 V36
GMAT PREP 2 600 Q47 V25
Actual GMAT 560 Q43 V25

I started prepping for the GMAT in July and took the 9 week MGMAT in person course in Chicago. I also took the GMAT while in undergrad (didn't study at all and got 530). I took the first MGMAT test without any prep and got 520 (Q29, V32). At the end of week 7 I took the 2nd MGMAT test and got 620 (Q45, V31). I was feeling good about my progress with the Quant with a minimal decrease in verbal. SC was really weak so I took 2 weeks and really studied SC. After week 9 I took the 3rd MGMAT test and got 640 (Q39, V38). I was really happy with this progress and a lower quant score was expected since I really spent the whole time studying SC.

My study plan was basically doing the homework from MGMAT including readings and sample problems up to this point. After the course was over I scheduled my exam for 6 weeks after the course (recommended by the MGMAT instructor). I had planned to take a practice test each week leading up to that point. My next practice exam I took the GMAT PREP 1 and got a 600 (Q44, V29). I took this test after a long day at work and figured maybe the long day affected my verbal score since I never scored this low. I didn't review the answers because I wanted to be able to retake this test, so I redid the verbal section only. To my surprise I only got V30. This was really disappointing. I decided a few days later to do MGMAT test 4 and got a 580 (Q42, V29). At this point I figured my verbal was off. I was missing a lot of the CR questions now so I went back and reviewed.

A week later I took MGMAT test 5 and got 620 (Q38, V36). I felt like I was back on track and the next week I took GMAT PREP 2 and got 600 (Q47, V25). I was really happy to get a Q47, but that V25 was so confusing to me. I did the same thing that I did last time with the GMAT PREP and went back and did just the verbal section and I only got V27. This was 1 week before the real test.

I went back and looked at my old MGMAT questions and wondered if I had known the answers before, but don't know or what. As I was reviewing the verbal I realized that MGMAT verbal was very different than GMAT PREP. MGMAT was giving me 4 or 5 assumption questions (only 1 on each GMAT PREP) and 1 or 2 complete the logic CR (4 or 5 on GMAT PREP). At this point it was too late to reschedule so I continued to review and took the GMAT.

Not surprisingly my actual score was 560 (Q43, V25). The verbal felt just like the GMAT PREP and nothing like the MGMAT verbal. The SC was very challenging, the CR was decently challenging and the RC was pretty tough. I thought since I was getting these tough questions that maybe I was doing better than I thought, but this wasn't the case.

Anyway, I just wondered if anyone else had a similar experience of the MGMAT vs the GMAT PREP vs the Real GMAT and what they did to boost their verbal score. SC is still my weakest and verbal overall is pretty weak. My goal score was 700, but I would be happy with a 680+.