Manhattan GMAT Tests vs Real GMAT Scores

Hey all, i would suggest to take any unofficial practice test with a pinch of salt. In my case, which is just my personal opinion, i got misleaded into the wrong direction.

I had taken a second attempt at GMAT on 6th November and scored 700. I wanted to improve my score so i targeted a preparation of shorter duration and gave another attempt yesterday.

My strategy was primarily to focus on weak areas and better timing as i always fell short of time near the end. Since i had read multiple reviews of the MGMAT mocks being on the tougher side in quants i assumed it would be a good practice timing per se. I was about to go on a spin.

I bought the tests and scored a 650 on the first mock. English was fine in score but i performed poorly in quants as i had expected. The questions were lengthier so i had to pace up more. I gave it the second time and scored a 670,with slight improvement in quants and same verbal score. Now here is the interesting part. The second time i gave the mock, i had made a point to complete entire section in time, and this gave me a better result than before. When reviewing the answers, i found that i had answered questions numbered from 15to20 wrong in a row. And also, some questions near the end. Still i got a better score than when i was deliberate in solving every question correctly as much as possible. The former doesnt work so well in the GMAT in getting you a good score. In fact if you concentrate on answering correctly since beginning, then you might get a high score, else not.
Hence this was misleading for me in quants.
Yet this is not the most ineresting part. You would remember i said that i was performing consistently in English. Surprise surprise, my english downgraded like anything. It was almost like i was in stone age and just heard about english. On the GMAC mock test i got a ghastly 27.i could not believe myself. And this is just two days before my scheduled exam. Pretending to be unperturbed, i exhausted the last test i had and scored 31. Mind you, the first mock test i had given of GMAC in August, at the very beginning of my prep, i scored 650. And as of 22nd November, i was scoring 580 AND 620 in the same mocks. I gave the GMAT on 23rd and i scored 580.

It makes me wonder if we can make a critical reasoning question out of this. A strengthen question with an option, 'unofficial tests do more harm than good'. But i knew the mods would not entertain an unofficial source here, all the more why you shouldn't as well.

And of course i would have answered this reasoning question incorrectly.

Stick to official guides and tests. Period.

Posted from my mobile device