Looking for feedback on OG diagnostic test

Question

Hello all - I'm new here and looking for a little input on how to interpret the OG diagnostic test. I searched previous posts and didn't find anything that answered my question (or really attempted to, for that matter).

I took the test and scored the following (number of correct followed by rating):

PS: 20 (Excellent) 
  DS: 19 (Excellent) 
  RC: 16 (Excellent) 
  CR: 13 (Above Average) 
  SC: 14 (Above Average)

Now I don't expect this to be translated into a score but I am curious as to how this stacks up. My "Excellents" were on the low end of that spectrum and my "Above Averages" were on the higher end so overall I would say I between Excellent and Above Average (using the OG table). Are these scores about on par with most people who are just starting out or am I behind the pack? I will be doing an actual diagnostic test in the next week or so.

Thanks!

Vibsify · Answer

I don't know about others but for me those are like awesome scores. To start with I guess they couldn't have been better.

Diagnostic is ,mainly to analyze what is your weakness and what you need to work on most. Obviously the excellents also need to be worked on but you do the prep time distribution accordingly. Evidently sc and cr do offer some scope of improvement in your case. Start with them and take the excellent to the upper end of the spectrum.

All the best!
Cheers
Vibsify

GordonFreeman · Answer

Thanks for the feedback! I definitely have a lot of work ahead but your comment is encouraging.

dabral · Answer

@GordonFreeman

I will second what @Vibsify said, if these are your diagnostic scores with minimal preparation, then I would consider them to be excellent(at least for the quant), and you will likely score fairly high with preparation. Most of my students who take the diagnostic test struggle with it, in fact I don't recommend it to most of my students unless they are fairly strong. It makes no sense to demoralize students in the beginning stages of their preparation. The diagnostic tests are on the hard side, at least for the quant section, in some ways too hard to be proper for diagnostic test. If GMAC really wanted to create a proper diagnostic test, then the questions would be in increasing order of difficulty from really easy to hard at the end.

Best wishes,
Dabral

GordonFreeman · Answer

Thanks for the reply! This is all very encouraging. I come from a quantitative background so quant is definitely my strong suit. I'm tentatively planning on taking a scored exam this Sunday so hopefully that goes well....

dabral · Answer

@GordonFreeman

I should probably write a blog post on this. But here are some key things to keep in mind as you prepare to take your first diagnostic test.

1) Do use the free GMATPrep Official Practice Test provided by GMAC which can be downloaded for free from mba.com.

2) The test will be very difficult, be mentally prepared for that.

3) If you encounter a difficult question, be ready to let it go. You can let go at least two or three, especially when you are taking it for the first time. Don't spend an excessive amount of time on any single question, five to six minutes is excessive, it is actually easy to spend six minutes on a question on the GMAT.

4) Get to the end of the exam, meaning answer all of the questions. There is a severe penalty for not completing the test.

5) To keep an eye on your pace follow this procedure, if you have just completed question number 18 in the quant section, then you have 19 questions left, which means you should have roughly 38 mins on the clock(average of 2 minutes per question). If you are far away from the clock, say 32 min, you may have to let go a question or two to balance the timing. Pick questions that look difficult or are on topics that you are not particularly strong, I know this is easier said than done.

This is your first time, but as you practice more, the above habits become easier.

Cheers,
Dabral

GordonFreeman · Answer

Thanks for the tips Dabral. I have heard it's better to save the GMATPrep tests for later on because they are the closest to the real exam of all the practice tests. Why do you suggest otherwise? I currently signed up for the free Kaplan exam on May 20.

I'm definitely well prepared for the mental aspect of the test. I currently work as an actuary so I've been taking exams ranging from 3.5 - 6 hrs in length for the past three years. I'm quick on quant problems but the verbal ones I'll definitely be watching my time. Point 5 is a good one - I'll definitely get a better feel for timing as I do more exams but really appreciate the advice. Thanks again!

Vibsify · Answer

the main reason why @dabral asks you to take the gmat prep is because it is as close to the main test as possible. In some cases the mgmat tests have been as far as 100 points from the actual tests. So to gauge your actual level I would second @dabral to take the gmat prep. Secondly you may even reset the gmat prep again n take it. Obviously there would be some repeat questions but not all of them would be repeating. 
Cheers
Vibsify

dabral · Answer

@GordonFreeman

Currently we have four full length official GMAT computer adaptive tests that are as close to the real exam that we can get. Two come from the free GMATPrep Practice tests, and the other two from the Exam Pack 1 extension. I think that is plenty in my opinion, and using one of them to get an initial baseline is not a bad idea. There is no sense in saving them for the end because the whole idea is to get a good sense of what the real exam will be like. For example, when you take one of the GMATPrep tests, it really demonstrates how difficult the real GMAT will be like. In my opinion, it is better to get that experience early on in the preparation, so one can plan accordingly.

In your case, because you are a strong student, it is okay to take the GMATPrep early on, it will be stressful but you will do just fine. Of course, after you prepare for a month or so, your score will go up. In my experience working with students, they typically improve about a 100 points from when they take the GMATPrep initially. To give you an example, I had a very strong student who scored a 630 when he first took the GMATPrep cold. To many that may not seem like a high score, but it is actually a very good score when you are taking it cold for the first time. Taking one of the GMATPrep tests is very stressful and really puts a lot of pressure on students. He scored a 99% on the Verbal, which is very impressive, and a lower score on the quant because he didn't complete the section. So things like that happen. Eventually, he scored a 730 after a month of preparation. I would not recommend you to take the GMATPrep test if you hadn't done as well on the diagnostic test, because in that case GMATPrep would cause more psychological damage than help. This is just my opinion based on experience working with students having a range of abilities.

There are several issues I have with the non-Official GMAT CATs. The first is that the scores are not reliable, so if someone gets a 680, then we are not really sure if that translates to 680 on the real exam. You will see a lot of threads in this forum on this issue. The second is that the style, format, and difficulty level of the real GMAT is almost never captured by any of the commercially available CATs. Some companies go overboard in complicating the problems, to make them seem hard. Others will often have mistakes or ambiguous statements. To be honest none of the companies put in the amount of effort and resources that the test writers do in creating the questions. For example, all of the official GMAT questions are first tested for ambiguity and bias by using them as part of the experimental questions that are administered in the real GMAT.

So that in a nutshell is the logic of recommending official GMAT questions. This will make more sense as you continue your GMAT preparation.

Cheers,
Dabral

AbhiJ · Answer

Clearly when I look at GMAT Prep, the high quality options are very limited, especially in the Verbal section.
You basically have 200 questions of each type: SC/CR/RC, which have official solutions. You have another 400 questions of each type but without official solution.
Out of the 600 questions only 200 questions are above the 75%ile level. Test Prep companies fail miserably in creating GMAT like questions.
Now when you compare LSAT, they have 7000 official problems from which to practice.
Think GMAC is doing this deliberately as they do not want students to score high by pattern recognition only

.

michaelmorono · Answer

Hi GordonFreeman,

I just took the OG Diagnostic cold and got the same excellent/above average breakdown. In fact, our DS, RC, and CR are identical in terms of questions missed.

Anyway, I was wondering how your prep is going and what you find effective/not effective (especially with SC). I'm aware of the issues with assuming that because our OG Diag scores are similar that we learn similarly, but it seems like we have a bit in common. Ex: I work in finance and I'm getting an MS in stats currently and you're an actuary.

I've also heard that we should save the GMAT CATs for last and I have the MGMAT prep books + exams. Did you end up taking the GMAT CAT at the beginning of your studies like this post suggests? Do you think it's made a difference?

Thanks!

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Looking for feedback on OG diagnostic test

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