GMATPrep vs MGMAT vs Actual GMAT IR?

Question

Hey folks, so far I have taken three practice CATS in all. MGMAT 1 & 2 and GMATPrep 1. I've noticed a disparity in my IR scores and don't know what to gather from it. On both, MGMAT cats, I scored a pathetic 3/8 raw score. Today I took my first GMATPrep cat and scored a 7/8 raw score (I got 8/12 correct). Note, that I have not put in any studying for IR between MGMAT 2 and GMATPrep 1.

My overall impression is that the MGMAT IR section is much, much more difficult than the GMAT Prep or OG13 IR. Now, for those of you who have already taken the GMAT w/IR, how would you rate the difficulty level? Closer to GMATPrep or somewhere in between GMATPrep and MGMAT? What about others? Any opinions?

GMATLA · Answer

Although I have no experienced this because I've not taken both exams, I would always consider the GMATprep a more accurate representation of my score because this test is provided directly by GMAC (the creators of the GMAT). Their practice tests are knows as the most accurate representation of what you would have scored on the GMAT if you'd taken the real thing instead of the practice test on that day.

macjas · Answer

Thanks for the input! I suppose you're right; after all GMATPrep is the closest thing to the actual GMAT tests. It's just funny because for the past month I've been stressing about IR and hoping to make at most 4/8 and then I go and do a GMATPrep and get a 7. I feel much better now and can say in retrospect that the pain I went through doing MGMAT IR questions were worth it, for they make the GMATPrep IR seem so much easer now.

Yekrut · Answer

I'm actually interested in this topic as well. I have taken 6 MGMAT CATs and have consistently scored between 3-5 out of 8 for IR. I have also taken the 2 GMAT Prep CATs and have gotten 8 for IR. I was wondering if anyone who has taken the actual GMAT could comment on the difficulty of IR in comparison to the MGMAT IR and GMAT Prep IR.

Thank you

Thank you

CA88 · Answer

I can't speak for GMATPrep but I found the MGMAT IR section to be much more difficult (and definitely more time consuming) than the actual GMAT IR section. I need to go back and check but I'm pretty sure I got around the same scores as you guys for the MGMAT CATs and I ended up with a 8 on the actual test.

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Posted from my mobile device

ncarbayo · Answer

I have gotten the following results on the IR section on Manhattan CATs:
4-6
6-7
4-6
4-6
2-4
2-4
I have gotten this results in this order. The more I practice the worse I get. I was relieved to find this post, because I was starting to get worried. I have not taken any GMAT prep tests yet, but on the Manhattan Tests I have scored 670, 730, 730, 750, 730, 750. So I have a good level.

aFerdC · Answer

I was actually looking for this information before my test but couldn't find anything concrete. My study plan for the IR involved Magoosh and Manhattan GMAT. After taking the real test, I can tell you the following:

- Magoosh questions were a little bit easier than the real test
- Manhattan questions were much more difficult than the real test.

In regards to MGMAT, I only signed up for the practice CATs and did a few of the IR sections. My score went down each time and I found it a time constraint to get these done. Calculations were quite complex and questions seemed very, VERY detailed. However, the real test IR questions were a lot more manageable and I felt like it was easier to budget time.

Hopefully that helps. Good luck!

lnds1001 · Answer

Just wanted to add my two cents in...

I just took the GMAT and scored 7 out of 8 on IR. On MGMAT, I had been scoring between 3-5. Although, I noticed that MGMAT recently (as of Sept '12) adjusted their IR section, and it is a bit easier now (when I scored ~5).

I would say that GMAT Prep is usually a good predictor for the real test, BUT, for IR, this is probably only true  the first time you take it . I thought that I could go back through these problems and get extra practice (similar to what I did for quant and verbal). However, I found that this falsely boosted my confidence level on this portion of the test. IR problems are infinitely easier the second time around  because they are so memorable . As such, I did not go into the real IR section thinking that it would be a big deal because I breezed through GMAT Prep and got 8's every time. But, do not underestimate the IR. I got some pretty weird (probably experimental) problems that took a good amount of time to make sense of and didn't finish the section in time.

StrivingTurtle · Answer

Guys,

Let me first thank you for making me fee a lot more comfortable with my scores. even I was consistently scoring 4-5 on the MGMAT tests. I always used to run out of time for the last couple of questions. However, my GMAT prep score was much better.

I have a couple of questions. 
On the real GMAT, Roughly how many questions do you need to answer right to get an 8? 
Is there a penalty for not this section too?

Naman_Agrawal · Answer

macjas  even after 8 years your post is savior. I was literally worried after getting a total of 730 and IR 3.8 in MGMAT 4. Thanks for the post now I feel much better

GMATPrep vs MGMAT vs Actual GMAT IR?

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