GMAT Prep CAT Verbal More Difficult than MGMAT CAT Verbal?!

Question

Hi Everybody,

Over the last two weeks I have taken 4 Manhattan GMAT CAT Exams in preparation for my test this Thursday. I scored relatively well, however, after taking the two additional GMAT Prep Software Exams (provided by the makers of GMAT), my Verbal scores were much lower. The scores for these six tests are as follows:

1) Q48 V45 (99th for Verbal) - Manhattan GMAT

2) Q49 V45 (99th for Verbal) - Manhattan GMAT

3) Q50 V44 (97th for Verbal) - Manhattan GMAT

4) Q49 V45 (99th for Verbal) - Manhattan GMAT

5) Q49 V40 - GMAT Prep Software

6) Q50 V40 - GMAT Prep Software

I felt that the Verbal section in the Prep Software was much more difficult than Manhattan GMAT's verbal section. I wanted to see if anybody noticed the same thing:

1. Did you feel that the Verbal for the GMAT Prep Software was more difficult than the Verbal Section for Manhattan GMAT's CAT exams?

2. Did you feel that the Verbal section for the GMAT Prep software was more difficult than the actual GMAT exam you took?

Thanks so much for your help. I'm sort of freaking out right now and feel a little misled as I have my test this Thursday. I wanted to check that these two scores are either due to testing anxiety or that the GMAT Prep Software is in fact more difficult. If you did not see a difference in difficulty, your input is also greatly appreciated. Gunning for a 780 (which was my highest practice test) but scored a 730, and 750 on the GMAT Prep software exams (due to the difference in Verbal scores).

Thank so much everybody!

sudish · Answer

Hi orid Firstly, your scores look absolutely wonderful. Great job! :-D

I believe others might have a different opinion, but here's my 2 cents. Now, to answer your questions: 1. I personally felt that the Quantitative section in Manhattan GMAT was more difficult than the Quant section in GMATPrep. The Verbal section was comparable in both MGMAT as well as GMATPrep. I didn't feel there was much of a difference - basically, this depends on how well you are performing in that section. 2. As far as the actual GMAT was concerned, I felt that the Quantitative section was more or less similar to GMATPrep Quant section whereas the Verbal section was definitely more difficult than both GMATPrep and MGMAT (think, this could be because I scored low on Verbal). I was able to eliminate 3 out of 5 answer choices but found it difficult to finally select the correct one on actual GMAT. Hope this answers your questions. I think you are right in saying that the fluctuation in test scores might be due to test anxiety or due to insufficient preparation in a particular area/topic within the Verbal section. You might want to check where exactly did you made mistakes in the section so that you can analyze the area where you need more practice. Hope this helps

Cheers! Sudish

orid · Answer

Hi sudish,

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply to my post and for your input. I also believe that the Manhattan GMAT Quant sections prepared me rather well for Quant. As for Verbal, since I only have today left to study (my test is tomorrow), I'm not sure how much new information I can learn so here is what I came up with:

I think we can agree that time is definitely a constraint for Verbal (and Quant for that matter). Sentence Correction and Critical Reasoning are very detail oriented so I will not change my timing strategy for those, however I plan to approach Reading Comprehension differently. Usually, I take a decent amount of notes when reading the passages and I think that this time spent places extra time pressure not only on Reading Comprehension, but all the other sections as well. When I take the test tomorrow, I will be reading the RC passages in it's entirety, only writing on bullet or so per paragraph. Since usually 2 out of 3 or 3 out of 4 of the RC questions (depending on the length of the passage) make you refer back to the passages ANYWAY, I think that spending 1 - 2 minutes less when reading each passage will relieve some of the time pressure placed on the rest of the test, allowing me to stay more calm and collected as well as to focus on those SC and CR questions that do require a detail-oriented close read. Although this strategy may not improve my RC score, it could make a 1-2 question improvement on my SC and CR scores. Hopefully this will work out.

Thank you again for your response and paying it forward! :rotate

I talked to my GMAT instructor and he told me that no school in the world will view a 780 (or 800 for that matter) any differently than a 700. I hope it's true! He's been teaching for a couple years now and got a 780 himself so I'm sure he knows what he's talking about.

All the best,

orid

I talked to my GMAT instructor and he told me that no school in the world will view a 780 (or 800 for that matter) any differently than a 700. I hope it's true! He's been teaching for a couple years now and got a 780 himself so I'm sure he knows what he's talking about. All the best, orid

sudish · Answer

Hi orid

All the best for the exam tomorrow. Hope it all goes well.
As far as you do not make major strategy changes on the test day, everything should go fine. As per the changes to strategy you've suggested, reducing the points to just brief bullets on RCs might save some time. 8-)

Hope to hear a debrief from you soon regarding your whole GMAT experience

All the best! :-D

Cheers!
Sudish

Hope to hear a debrief from you soon regarding your whole GMAT experience

All the best! :-D

Cheers! Sudish

roopmathi · Answer

Hi orid,

How did you do in ur real gmat exam.

orid · Answer

Hi Roopmathi,

On the actual test I scored a 49Q and 37V, which came out to a 700. I was pretty disappointed with my Verbal score. I credit my verbal score to three factors:

1) Anxiety: I was so nervous I was literally shaking during the test. But who isn't nervous when taking the GMAT right? While being nervous is no excuse for your score (as everyone is susceptible to it), there is absolutely no question that anxiety does very much affect your performance. I think that confidence and ease of mind is extremely important, especially with Verbal. I've heard from a few of my friends out here in New York (and it seems that everybody out here is taking the GMAT) that they score better the second time, especially on Verbal, because they had already gone through the whole process once and they weren't as, well, scared basically!

2) My Prep: While I prepped for a solid 8 months, 5 out 7 of my practice exams where Manhattan GMAT CAT exams. On these 5 exams I scored between 95-99th %ile on verbal believe it or not. This led me to believe that I was better than I really was! I took the two GMAT Prep exams and scored V40 on both. While they were lower than the MGMAT tests, I still scored a 750 cumulatively on those two exams and felt safe with my performance. Looks like I was wrong!

3) Seating: I sat right next to the door and regret it. I will never make that mistake again. It didn't really bother me with Quant as it is more difficult to "lose your spot" on a Math problem, however it proved significantly distracting when trying to read CR or RC passages. I would recommend to be wary of where you are seated for the test.

All in all, I have room to improve and I will be taking the test again. I discussed some of this in another recent thread I started:

scored-lower-on-the-gmat-than-all-7-practice-tests-125401.html

So what am I doing now? I bought the PowerScore Critical Reasoning Bible and PowerScore LSAT Reading Comprehension guide. I will be taking the test again in mid-February and will report back!

All the best,

Orid

and that I sat right next to the door! Every time someone came in and out it was extremely distracting - not so much for Quant (because it's more difficult to lose your spot as math problems r

vomhorizon · Answer

I took a MGMAT CAT recently (CAT4 took about a week ago) and found the Verbal to quite representative. Most people that have recently taken the GMAT comment seeing an increasing number of long lenghty (underlined) passages in SC especially those that test meaning, and whose Answer choices cannot be split. I got 4-5 SC sentences similar to those described, so the 700-800 level SC passages on MGMAT are quite tough, and representative of what the NEW-GMAT is emphasizing (according to various debriefs and reports). CR tends to have a few choices that are not as clear as GMAT PREP but overall i did not see much difference. RC on MGMAT involves relatively easy passages but with tougher questions (similar to their RC strategy guide - passages at the back). Compared to other prep companies i find MGMAT to be the best when it comes to simulating GMAT PREP. Veritas prep, has CR that is quite dissimilar to GMAT PREP or OG (my opinon) and Kaplan is much tougher (both content and scoring). MGMAT has scored me a bit lower then GMAT PREP (39-40 vs 40-44) and Veritas PREP has scored me a bit lower then MGMAT (37-40). I think the main point should be , whether MGMAT CAT (verbal) adequately tests the question types that show up, and the answer is YES, it does include those long underlined sentences in SC, Boldface CR, and Main Point/Tone of passage in RC.

KyleWiddison · Answer

Some excellent discussion on this thread.

The Manhattan CATs are about as representative as you can get without including questions from Official Guides (prohibited by copyright laws). We recently updated the grading scale to more accurately represent the score you might expect on the GMAT. The CATs are great to practice and benchmark your score, but remember that the most important aspect of the practice exams is to identify your areas of weakness so you can focus your precious study time.

A few cautions: don't become more comfortable with "practice" test questions than with actual "GMAT" test questions, understand that the GMAT is always evolving, and realize that no practice can fully represent the actual test.

People can get in trouble by becoming too comfortable with test questions from test-prep companies. These "practice" questions are invaluable for providing extra practice questions and teaching key GMAT concepts. However, if you don't spend adequate time working on GMAT questions (Official Guides, GMATPrep exams, GMAT Focus, etc.), you will find that these real GMAT questions seem a bit awkward or even harder than what you are used to. That can be a very uncomfortable feeling especially if it happens when are sitting down for the GMAT itself. Throughout your preparation, be sure to include plenty of Official Guide practice (in timed sets of multiple problems). Save the GMATPrep exams for closer to test day but consider purchasing the Question Packs to get some additional practice early in your preparation.

Recognize that the GMAT is always evolving elements of its content. The tested concepts are generally static, but new questions are constantly being created and certain areas of emphasis change over time. The most significant change we've seen recently has been the increased emphasis on Meaning in Sentence Correction. Meaning problems must be practiced, but because this empahsis is relatively new there aren't many good sources of pracitce problems. Many Official Guide problems are still full of idiom issues (which are being de-emphasized) and they lack any real meaning issues. Studying modifier questions and practicing "new" GMAT content (GMATPrep and Question Pack) are good ways to prepare yourself.

Lastly, the GMAT experience will be different than any of your prior practice exams. When you take the real GMAT you will be in a controlled test environment, you will be exposed to experimental questions, and you will be taking the REAL test! This means that your performance on the real test will not always track with your practice exams. You can't mimic the experimental question aspect of the GMAT, but you can make your practice environment as "test-like" as possible. Take your exams according to the timeline of the GMAT. Take all the timed breaks and don't take any extra. Take the exam in a single sitting with all the test parts. Take the exam at the same time of day as your real test (whenever possible). Report your scores to others to give yourself similar test "pressure". Perhaps most importantly, plan to take the exam multiple times, remembering the mandatory 31 day wait period between exams.

KW

Tarang · Answer

Hi Guys,
I need your help in understanding how good a proxy are the MGMAT's scores for the actual GMAT.

In the last three MGMATs I have scored as below

1) Q45 V32
2) Q46 V36
3) Q46 V35

How bad/good are these scores? I am guessing, though not sure, that Quant is not a concern area however Verbal remains a huge block.

Please help.

Thanks

KyleWiddison · Answer

I would be interested to hear from other test takers to see how their scores compare. In my experience working with students, the MGMAT exams are fairly closely aligned with your predicted score on the real GMAT - the MGMAT exams are definitely within the stated margin of error of +/- 50 points. You have some good consistency with the quant, so my confidence in your ability is higher there. The Verbal score still has some variability, which means your expected score would have more variability.

You should take a GMATPrep practice exam as it's the closest approximation you have to your real GMAT score.

Remember that the huge value in the MGMAT exams is to generate assessment reports across multiple exams to see your areas of weakness. You will experience greater score improvement by focusing your studies on your areas of weakness.

KW

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