Is the scoring flawed?

Question

Hi I have been giving the MGMAT CATs over the last couple weeks and consistently scoring above 700.
The break up of my scores is given in my signature. I was wondering if the scoring algorithm on the verbal is right?
In my MGMAT 2, I had 5 incorrect on my verbal and ended up getting a 45. Yesterday, I got all the Verbal questions right and still got 45?

Is there anything I'm missing here?

Thanks
Sudhir

pike · Answer

Flawed or not flawed.. you are destroying those CATs! It does seem a little strange... you would assume if you didn't get a single question wrong then you should score at the maximum for that section. Although, V45 and V51 are basically the same thing on the bell curve. I wouldn't lose to much sleep over this.

How are you scoring on GMAT Prep CATs?

How are you scoring on GMAT Prep CATs?

sudhir18n · Answer

Yeah, Even thought the scoring is little odd, but I'm happy as long as i'm doing ok. 
I havent given my GMAT prep till now. I plan to give my real gmat in the 2nd week of Aug. So will start the gmat prep around 20th. For the next 7-10 days, the target is gmatclub tests.

BM · Answer

This does seem a bit odd, but remember to consider the difficulty level of the questions as well. That might explain the odd score. For example, a test that only asks lower-level questions might prevent test takers from earning the full 51. The only other option that I can think of right now is that it is indeed a glitch.

The best thing to do, I suppose, is to simply ignore it and continue your studies. You seem to be in great shape so far!

The best thing to do, I suppose, is to simply ignore it and continue your studies. You seem to be in great shape so far!

sudhir18n · Answer

Thanks Bmillan and Pike, Yes, I think I shouldnt thinkmore about the scoring pattern and continue with my studies. But you know , when you see all right answers , I was expecting 800

Anyway , I have generated the assessment report from manhattan website. Its says a different story in terms of difficultly level . I thing is clear , I need to work on on Quant timing. I was rushing on last 12 questions with 9 minutes left .. guessed some 4-5 and somehow worked. I cant be always lucky.

mourinhogmat1 · Answer

Can you explain your preparation so far? Thanks a lot.

abhicoolmax · Answer

First of all, congrats on your great scores and great preparation.

Please help us poor souls by telling us how you managed to attain the following and by giving us some guidance on how to improve.
1. 1:43 min avg in RC with 100% accuracy (Can we know your Strategy please?)
2. 1:16 min avg in CR with 100% accuracy (Any tips you would like to share?)

Thanks and will appreciate if you could spare few mins throwing some light at us.

vinayrsm · Answer

Congrats, Awesome scores ! You are butchering these tests!

I would suggest posting this question on MGMAT forum, if required they will have a look at your results to see if there are any bugs.

Also, as abhicoolmax stated, pls share your tips for RC and CR (along with mentioning the sources used for prep). Thanks!

sudhir18n · Answer

Hi Abhi and Vinay:

RC: I have no particular strategy as such . I read the full passage once and then go back to the passage for specific question. What I feel is that the first read is very important. I need to know what the passage talks and and what does the author want to convey.
My accuracy in OG is 85%-95%, RC -99 -70%, Kaplan -85%

CR: All credit goes to Powerscore CR bible. I strongly feel that CR is only Practice. I did practice few LSAT Questions as well. Try downloading Aristotle LSAT - GMAT CR practice Questions. The most important TIP is understand the flow of sentences and identifying the key words. GMAT does everything to hide the keywords. our aim is to identify those.

Please feel free to ask any more questions.. Will be happy to answer/help

abhicoolmax · Answer

Thanks brother for the tips. I agree with you. I think for native speakers it might be easy to follow some Ninja strategy but most people I think it is most important to read the entire passage and get the gist of the passage fairly well before attacking the questions. I am improving as I practice more. Just ONE quick question: Do you go back to the passage while answering the question? The reason I asked is do take enough notes that you don't need to go back to the passage; rather I should ask what is your strategy on the first read? For CR, yeah now I am feeling very confident. It's all about Powerscore Book + Practice

sudhir18n · Answer

Yes I go back to the passsage because I dont make any notes. But I feel, GMAT designs the qestions in a way that no matter what, we need to refer the passage again .Once you start hitting the 700-800 level questions on RC , most questions mimic CR. the hardest questions at those levels are strenthen , weaken ,infer , assumption types.. 
So no matter what u note down , you will have to refer to the passage. Notes help in main point and what each paragraph talks about. I have nothing against taking notes, but It never worked for me because i just cant write notes in 15 secs and rely only on those to answer

abhicoolmax · Answer

Thanks for your response. I do headline notes - For the 1st para I normally note like 5-10 words and just 2-4 words per para for the rest - this helps me absorb the content and get a big picture. So far it has been working decently. But your are right for tough questions you gotta get back to the passage. I guess as I become good at absorbing the content, I have feeling I should be able to do some or most of the noting in my brain. Hope I can get through the learning process soon and start enjoying the read more, and prepare myself to attack CR types questions more. Thanks!

yogesh1984 · Answer

Woo! man you are outsmarting the MGMAT test! now to the question - it seems to me the level of questions may matter at the level you reaching ... nothing else one make out from such good stats

vinayrsm · Answer

Thanks Sudhir for sharing the tips! and keep up with your performance, you are rocking those MGMAT tests!

vinayrsm · Answer

Hi Sudhir, can you please share whether you are using 75 mins time limit for the Quant section of MGMATs? I looked at your assessment report and it shows that for correct answers (31/37) your time totals to 75+ mins and then you also have 6 wrong answers that add 12+mins. Just curious whether you did this test under timed or untimed condition? Thanks.

sudhir18n · Answer

Yes except the second MGMAT test where set 90 mints on both .. quant took 84 mints ... verbal 63 mints..
other 3 tests have been timed ...

vinayrsm · Answer

The report that you have posted on this thread belongs to your first test or third? As I see zero incorrect for Verbal in that report. Any particular reason why you chose to take Quant section for 90 mins? I am curious because I felt during my MGMAT CAT that several quant questions were doable but will take more than 3 mins, so I decided to guess and move on.

sudhir18n · Answer

Sorry for the confusion Vinay .. I changed my post above.. wrongly written first test.. It was my second test( the very first was a practice test). The last test I wrote had 2 mistakes on verbal, both on RC. Reason for 90 mints on quant : Yes Even I felt that the problems are doable but generally take ~3 mints . I wanted to test whether I can do these problems in an untimed environment. Last test was untimes with Q 50 . I had 10 questions left with 9 mints to spare .. Yes guessed 3/4 out of those and all wrong ...

Is there anything specific you do to tackle these tough ones? Have you tried GMAT prep? Will I be facing the same timing problem on quants even on the Gmat prep and on the real gmat?

vinayrsm · Answer

Thanks for clarifying Sudhir!

I think we should take MGMAT Quant tests results with a pinch of salt. I found a similar question on MGMAT forum and Stacey's answer to it: https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/mgm ... t1053.html

I feel that there are both +ves and -ves of MGMAT Quant test.

+ve is that it does prepare one for any tough problems on the real GMAT esp. if one's target is 750+ because at that level he/she will receive tough problems that most likely cannot be solved in ~2min and should be prepared to make an educated guess and move on. This will allow one to tackle the next question, which might be easier if the previous answer was wrong or even more tough if one got that right. And if it is the latter, then one needs to again try best to make an educated guess using ~1-2 mins and move on to keep the score at 750 level. So, in essence, I think it helps us to prepare well for such a situation.

-ve is that one is not able to do the question under timed condition (because questions require slightly length operation) and that deprives the experience of solving tough question in the real time and gain that learning (such as using method B if A is not working, trying diff things etc). There are many things to try out and learn from during a practice test and that is somehow blocked by having a tough question that is tough primarily due to multiple steps required and not due to conceptual foundation.

From what I have read on forums, you should be doing just fine on GMAT Prep and actual GMAT on quant.

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