Official GMAT mock test review - data availability

Question

Dear all,

I would like to know if it is possible to analyze your timing performance on the official GMAT mock exams provided by mba(dot)com. That is, if there is any way to retrieve question-level timing data for the different test sections, and if questions are categorized by topic.

The only review panel I've seen outlines which questions you answered correctly/incorrectly, but provides no explanation/method for the questions (just the right answer). Is there a way to get the explanation to the questions from mba(dot)com too?

Much appreciated!

PoojanB · Answer

Hi,
official mocks do no provide detailed analysis of ur exam.to check official explanation you might need to copy paste the question and google it.almost all que available on gmat club
hope this helps.

SohGMAT2020 · Answer

No, unfortunately, the official tests do not provide test analytics. That's one of the drawbacks of that platform. However, the explanations can be found on this website. Just google the question and you will get the GMATclub forum link.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi pedrogarcia96,

Unfortunately, the 6 Official GMAC CATs do not offer the 'by-the-question' pacing data that you're interested in. Thankfully, the CATs from Kaplan, MGMAT and Veritas are all 'close enough' to the real thing that they will provide you with a relatively realistic score assessment (assuming that you correctly take the CAT in a realistic fashion) - and those CATs do provide that pacing information.

From this initial post, it sounds as though you are concerned about your overall pacing in the Quant, the Verbal or both, but it's worth noting that pacing problems do NOT exist on their own - they're the results of OTHER problems. A CAT is really a 'measuring device' - when used correctly, it will give you a realistic score and help define your strengths and weaknesses, but it will NOT help you to fix any of those weaknesses. To improve your pacing and raise your scores, you have to learn the necessary Tactics and put in the proper practice and repetitions. The CAT will show you whether your studies are helping you to improve or not. As such, you really shouldn't take more than 1 FULL CAT per week.

Before I can offer you any additional advice for your studies, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied? How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) On what dates did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks and how did you score on EACH (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
4) What is your overall goal score?
5) When are you planning to take the GMAT?
6) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

mufasa96 · Answer

Hey Rich,

Many thanks for the detailed reply.

The reason why I was asking for timing data was to identify in which particular questions I took too long and which ones I rushed through. That way I can find my weaker subject/content areas and develop a more thorough timing gameplan throughout both sections. I do think there is more to a CAT than just the score you get, hence why I was interested.

Your advice would be greatly appreciated, below are my answers to your above questions:

Studies:
1) I have been studying for the past 3 months.
2) I took the Manhattan Prep course, revised from their strategy guides and worked through problems from the Official Guide.
3) CATs: From MPrep (which I found much harder): 1. 620 (Q43, V32) June; 2. 630 (Q44, V32) July; 3. 630 (Q44, V32) August
 From Official GMAT mocks: 4. 730 (Q49, V40) September

Goals:
4) Overall score goal = 730
5) Taking the GMAT for the first time in 1.5 weeks. Planning to re-take again 3 weeks after first time if I do not reach my target score.
6) I am planning to apply in Round 1 next year to enroll in September 2022 (Class of 2024). I am in the process of researching business schools, final list still to be determined.

Many thanks in advance,

Pedro

IanStewart · Answer

You can only use official tests to accurately assess yourself, and to evaluate how well you're pacing yourself. The tests from any prep company (it doesn't matter which) will have built-in biases -- company questions will overemphasize some skills and underemphasize others. So you might do better or worse on a company test than on the real thing, depending on whether you're good at those things the company overemphasizes (and of course the scoring of a company test might not be realistic either). There's also no reason to think company questions will be realistically time-consuming, so you can easily reach incorrect conclusions about how successfully you're pacing yourself, and thus make pacing adjustments you should not be making, if you rely too much on company tests. You can probably see this is true just from your experience, if you compare your company diagnostic test scores with your official one; they're not even remotely close. I've found that's true for many of my students as well; some have similar scores on company and official tests, and some have wildly different scores, on those same company tests.

It's not a good idea to use diagnostic tests to assess how weak or strong you are at individual topics. The sample sizes tend to be far too small, and you need to account for question difficulty, and for how lucky you were if you needed to guess. If you had, say, four Geometry questions on a test, and answered two correctly, that would not be a good performance if the four questions were all easy. But it wouldn't be bad at all if the four questions were very hard. You'll get much more reliable information if you evaluate yourself using larger pools of official questions; if you solve a couple dozen official questions scattered throughout one of the official books (so the difficulty level spans the full range), and do the same for other topics, you'll get much better information than you could from a diagnostic test about what you're weakest and strongest at.

Diagnostic tests are great tools to practice pacing, but when you do that, you're really practicing making time investment decisions. You should be evaluating, perhaps a minute into a question, whether it's a good idea to invest more time in the question, or whether it would be better to take your best guess and move on. In math, it's usually true that if you don't see how to solve a question quickly, you might not see how for hours, so it's important to be disciplined about moving on from the hardest questions on the test (getting those wrong really doesn't hurt much anyway). And when you evaluate your performance on any test, you should look back over those questions you spent longest on, where you did decide to invest a lot of time, to see how well you are making those time investment decisions. If you have trouble recalling, after a test, when you did that, you might just take some very brief notes during the test about where you're spending time, and about where you're quickly guessing.

Your official diagnostic score is excellent, so it sounds like you're in a great position to reach your target (you might already be where you need to be, but you'd want another official test score to reliably gauge your current level). Given your time frame, I'd strongly suggest you use only official practice tests leading up to the real one, since they'll simulate the test you're going to take much more closely than any other test could. Good luck!

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi pedrogarcia96,

Unfortunately, those analytics are not provided. If you have any other questions, feel free to reach out.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi pedrogarcia96,

To start, focusing on the GMAT now - far in advance of when you'll actually "need" your Score - is a smart choice.

The MGMAT CATs are generally regarded as being a little tougher than the Official GMAT, so those earlier CAT results may have been indicative of a higher 'ability level' over the last couple of months. This recent 730 is a good sign, but since it's just one Score (and one that is significantly higher than your prior Scores), we have to be careful about assuming how representative it is of your current skills. Since your Official GMAT is in just 1.5 weeks, you would probably be fine taking 1 more CAT in that timeframe. You should keep in mind that the process of taking (and reviewing) a CAT requires a significant amount of energy and effort - and takes time to 'recover' from. This is one of the reasons why you typically shouldn't take more than 1 CAT per week - and your last CAT should be taken about 1 week before Test Day. The rest of your time should be spent on general study and light review (NO 'cramming') and in the last few days before your Exam, you should try to get some extra rest, so that you can go into Test Day calm, clear-headed and ready to work.

1) Are you planning to take the At-home GMAT or are you planning to take your GMAT at a Test Facility? Have you been taking your CATs in the same 'format' as how you will take the Official GMAT (for example, the section order of the At-home GMAT is "fixed": Quant, then Verbal - with no break in-between, then an optional 5-minute break, then IR)?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Neham406 · Answer

Hi, can anyone please help me understand how representative is the official gmat prep mock test score of actual score? I have taken four tests and in the last two: gmat 3 and 4, scored a consistent 710(q-48,49 range and verbal 37-39, range). Is that reliable or are they easier than actual gmat? There were no repetitive questions for me as i did not complete full OG. I have my test in less than one week so how can i gauge my readiness?

Posted from my mobile device

Posted from my mobile device

IanStewart · Answer

The official practice tests are truly identical to the real test - they use official questions, and the same scoring algorithm and format. So if you've been consistently scoring 710 on official practice tests, that's almost certainly your true level right now. If you perform normally on test day (pace yourself the same way, and you're well rested and not overly stressed), then that's the score you should get, plus or minus a few points because of luck. So if you'd be happy with a 700+ score, it sounds like you're ready to take the real test any time.

The OG book doesn't overlap with the practice tests, by the way, so you can solve all the questions in the official books without compromising the usefulness of the diagnostic tests. If you did want to do any further practice before test day, any questions you haven't seen from the OG are the ones I'd suggest using. Good luck!

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