Manhatton test difficulty level

Question

Hello friends, I was going through some of the threads and found them very useful. Could anyone help me to analyse my test scores. I am preparing for my gmat since last 2.5 months. Now i have started giving some of the tests as my d-day is approaching. Till now i have given 3 tests. 3 Gmat prep test and one manhatton. Below are my scores: 1 Gmat prep test - 600 (Q-42,V-32) 2 Gmat Prep test - 690(Q-49, V-35) 3 Gmat Prep test - 730 (Q-49, V-40)

I was getting confident about my preperations after the last test. But yesterday i gave another test which i downloaded from manhatton website. I found it comparatively tough and got very low score . Manhatton - 640 (Q-42,v-34) :cry:

. Although i did some silly mistakes in verbal, but level of math i found really far above any OG or gmat prep tests. So could anyone tell me the comparitive level of gmat prep and manhatton test. I mean is it really tough or may be i found it difficult. Also if possible could anyone tell me apart from OG's where we can study for math as i think most of the questions in actual GMAT are lot tougher than are there in OG's. I suppose they can just get you to the level of 48 or at max 49. Where can i get questions for 50-51 level. Thanks a lot in advance. Regards, Manoj

maliyeci · Answer

Almost same happened to me. I did 700-710 on gmatpreps (both 51q). But I did 640 on manhattan gmat 1 and the quant was very bad. The result is 710 with 51 q. I think mgmat is very hard.

Jivana · Answer

Maliyeci,

Even though the MGMAT was tough, would you rate it as useful? What I'm trying to understand is if it's worth spending the energy on MGMAT CATs?

asterixmatrix · Answer

none of the tests apart from GMAT prep are said to be correct indicators...kaplan's algo is said to be weird...mgmat tests maths is said to be tough....so is it that we should only do GMAT prep multiple times??

mrsmarthi · Answer

I haven't taken any other tests other than GMATPrep and MGMAT CAT tests. GMAT Prep Quant portion is bit tricky and if you catch the trick it can be solved in no time. Cannot comment on verbal since it is the hard bin for me.

MGMAT CAT quant difficulty level is way too high. More than trickyness, some hard bin questions involve lot of calculations which normally is NOT tested in GMAT. Verbal is also good. If you have already read MGMAT SC thoroughly, concetps tested for SC questions in CAT are the ones that they expained in the SC book. Overall MGMAT CATs are good for practice, timing and testing your stamina. If one has time, it is worth to take the MGMAT CAT tests.

asterixmatrix · Answer

hmmm...so MGMAT CATs will be good practise...will definitely try them

maliyeci · Answer

I think same as the prev. posts. Only powerprep can be used as a good test apart from gmatprep.

mohater · Answer

I have discussed this with the MGMAT folks.

It is known that the MGMAT exams can be more difficult than the real thing. That being said, many people here have found it as the most representative test provided by a prep company (excluding GMATPrep).

If you read through the MGMAT forums:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/

You will see this complaint come up. I personally found it very representative of the real thing and I scored +/- 30 of my practice tests.

The key with a practice test is two things:

1. How representative it is of the real thing
2. What you can walk away with to better yourself from that test

While the MGMAT is not as good as GMATPrep for #1, it is EXCELLENT for #2 providing the right answer, a detailed explanation (including approach), and WHY the other answers are incorrect.

maliyeci · Answer

I am a quant expert. In all of the gmatpreps and powerpreps and in the real stuff, I did 51q. I saw many of the quant forum questions. But I really failed in mgmat1. Think 51q in all of the other exams (in 800score's exams too) and only 42 or 44 in manhattan. Can you say that this exam is representative?

mohater · Answer

You have to remember, MGMAT is pulling in questions from MGMAT's database. For every test taken, the experience will be slightly (or in your cases extremely) different from the real thing.

For my practice tests in MGMAT (six tests in all) I found both sections to reflect pretty accurately (+/- 30 overall points) how I did on the real thing.

I agree aspects of MGMAT are more difficult. That being said, it's not difficult in a way that will harm someone prepping for the exam given how MGMAT provides results (MGMAT difficulty, approach, explanation and why the other answers are wrong).

It is a practice test made by a prep company, and as such, it won't be ideal when benchmarking it against GMATPrep or the real thing.

I found the MGAMT test, when comparing prep company practice tests, to be the best and the closest to the real thing.

Economist · Answer

Pretty good post this is. Even I faced the same problem with MGMAT1..was quite unhappy with the results (I am happy to know that even quant experts like maliyeci faced a similar situation..phew! )..However I personally think the concepts are awesome...so if we take it in the right sense, then it is definitely a learning..u never know the same concept or a lighter version of the concept can be tested on the real thing !

Practice practice and practice....if you do bad in a test take it as a positive sign to improve on certain areas( i know its a cliche )

Practice practice and practice....if you do bad in a test take it as a positive sign to improve on certain areas( i know its a cliche )

maliyeci · Answer

After that test, I even bought their "extreme questions set" and this set is very easy when compared with mgmat1. Yes this was a test consisting of questions from a database but it was very upsetting for me to make such big mistakes.

mohater · Answer

You're confusing me now.

Did you make mistakes on the test (test anxiety), or were the questions on the test that much harder?

11MBA · Answer

I know a couple of people who took the MGMAT Prep and didn't do so swell and ended up with 40-60pts higher on the real thing. Better to do practice tests that are harder, I think then ones don't adequately prepare you.

maliyeci · Answer

mgmat1 questions were very hard. Very tricky too.

mdinerstein · Answer

Hi manojee21,

A couple of comments.

First, you should only trust your first two GMATPrep scores. I know this might be discouraging because you scored above your goal on the third exam, but the problem is that GMATPrep is only meant to be taken twice and you could have seen questions on the third test that came up the first two times around due to the limited question pool. This would definitively skew your score UP.

Hence, you should only be looking at the following scores for comparison:
1 Gmat prep test - 600 (Q-42,V-32)
2 Gmat Prep test - 690(Q-49, V-35)
Manhatton  - 640 (Q-42,v-34)

Hence, your score range is between 600 and 690, making the 640 you received on our test about on par with your performance. What's good about your scores is that your verbal performance is fairly consistent - between 32 and 35. The wild card in your score, however, is your quant score. I'd suggest focusing on making fewer careless errors in this section (you are clearly capable of scoring high on the test based on your 2nd GMATPrep test) and then further solidify your verbal skills before test day.

As for extremely challenging math questions, you can try our Challenge Problem Archive. Please note, however, that some of these questions are SUPER difficult and may even be outside the scope of the GMAT. However, they could help you critically think about the math section in a different manner. I haven't been a GMAT Club member long enough to post URLs, but you can visit our website and buy the Challenge Problem Archive in the store.

That's about it - let me know if you have any other questions.

Best,

Michael Dinerstein
Manager of Online Marketing
Manhattan GMAT

asterixmatrix · Answer

right from the horse's mouth.Well then MGMAT maths are good to make one

though the whole topic seems very subjective considering what everyone is aspiring for. Everyone has a choice. As pointed out by Economist however demotivating the test scores can be they can be great to learn from Asterix 49+2 =51. Are you ready to walk the extra mile :?:

ddollins · Answer

this is cool i was wondering this too.

shadow · Answer

i think the MGMAT is a good way to go regardless of how high you want to score. i'd also like to echo the previous posts saying not to put too much stock into your MGMAT test scores. what you're really after is the practice, as well as looking over your score reports at the end.

my GMAT preptest scores were both 730 (taken at the beginning and towards the end of my study cycle), whereas my MGMAT scores ranged from 660- 720. however, buying the MGMAT subject book and getting the 6 free tests was a very good investment, and i'd definitely recommend it to anyone who is thinking of taking the GMAT.

esledge · Answer

This thread caught my eye, so I have to weigh in, too.

As one of the many authors of the MGMAT test questions, I can assure you that we don't deliberately make the questions harder. If anything, we try to mimic the published official questions as closely as we can without infringing! However, there are certainly a few trickier/more-fun-to-write questions in the pool.

When we first launched our tests, we tracked the responses to the questions, and weeded out a lot of problems that (a) everyone got wrong, or (b) took most people way too long. If a question is still in the pool, it is because it has been proven both (a) within the realm of GMAT-required knowledge, and (b) effective at indicating a person's GMAT ability (fyi: we use the official test scores our students report back to us to calibrate the difficulty of each question).

That said, I too find the math section of our tests tough, even though I recognize some of the questions as my own!! I also struggle with the time a little more than I do on the real thing. I think this is due to the fact that the real test has experimental questions mixed in. These are of all difficulty levels, so they effectively give high-ability test takers a break on the real thing! In contrast, if you are a high-performer in Quant, you probably see a greater number of hard problems on our test, which makes for a relatively tough experience even if the individual questions are not unfairly hard.

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Manhatton test difficulty level

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