Take MGMAT CAT (Quant portion) untimed? Why so hard?

Question

Hey, I just did my 4th MGMAT CAT, and while all my MGMAT Quant CAT's have been extremely difficult, this one really rocked me, timewise. I ended up pausing towards the end to finish up the last 5-6 without guessing and screwing up my score. It seems like the MGMAT was throwing me an inordinate amount of long word problems, many complicated comb/prob problems, and several absolute value + inequality DS problems that required lots of time (testing +/-/fractions).

I'm doing fine on all of the other CAT's—I usually finish GMATClub tests with 10-20 minutes to spare, with minimal errors, and I got a Q50 on my GMATPrep #1 with 2-3 minutes to go. I don't want to end up rushing on the real GMAT, but from everything I've studied (above CAT's + OG Quant, OG12), the problems rarely (if ever) touch the difficulty of half the MGMAT Quant problems I just faced.

Opinions?

kissthegmat · Answer

Yes, I do agree MGMAT tests are very much tough and not real representative of Official problems, though I believe their scoring is quite good.

shrouded1 · Answer

MGMAT is tough, but you can crack its quant using a slightly different technique. In the 5 CATs I gave, I got a mixture of q50 and q51. The main difference in technique I used to conserve time was, unlike other prep test Qs, where I would jot down down notes as I read the question, trying to solve it quickly, in this case the questions are very long sometimes. So read the whole thing first and see what is being asked for. Almost like it was solving a RC question not q word problem. Then once you know what is asked, fish for the relevant info in the question to solve it. Making notes while reading questions just seemed to waste time

Using this technique I could finish the MGMAT CATs with 2min - 10min to spare on the quant section.

Using this technique I could finish the MGMAT CATs with 2min - 10min to spare on the quant section.

Hussain15 · Answer

Just make a habit of complying the below mentioned time schedule. If you are not goning in accordance with it, try to skip some questions by guessing the best possible. I personally overcame my timing problem due to this schedule.

Best of luck!

Attachments

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Best of luck!

shaselai · Answer

keep track of time and yes mgmat quant is hard. but if you want the top scores you gotta do them..

Dawgie · Answer

MGMAT quants harder than GMATClub tests?

kissthegmat · Answer

IMO yes! MGMAT is harder than gmatclub tests. At-least, I felt MGMAT test harder than gmatclub test (I have tried only 1 test of MGMAT and gmatclub)

Hussain15 · Answer

Sorry, but I dont agree.

Firstly, you cant compare a CAT with non-CAT test. Secondly, in one of my MGMAT CAT, I got 20+ (out of 37) questions that were marked 700+ level. So a CAT methodology is quite different. In MGMAT CAT, if one gets first 4 answers wrong, he will get a big number of easy questions, then should he say that MGMAT Tests are quite easy?? IMO, gmat club tests are quite tricky and hard & if in future these will be converted to CAT, these will be quite difficult CAT tests.

shaselai · Answer

i dont think so.. but i do think they have a lot more prob/comb ques though

NewSc2 · Answer

I'm not really asking whether I should try to keep my timing up, I'm more asking whether getting myself up to MGMAT CAT-pacing would be worth it. It seems like they're more relying on difficult/minor tricks that I've seen to be more prevalent on their material than that of the OG or the GMATClub tests.

Case in point, I just finished GMATClub #3 math test, scoring 33/37 right, with about 10 minutes to spare. I got a Q48 on the MGMAT CAT I was complaining about above, but with added time.

gurpreetsingh · Answer

Except Gmatprep, use all other CAT's to build the stamina. Do not worry about the scoring, just try to minimize your mistakes.

Keep your spirits high !!

dokiyoki · Answer

I guess the Real GMAT Q's are not as convoluted as the MGMAT Q's. MGMAT Quant is a bit difficult. Since you are doing well on the GMAT CLUB test and untimed MGMAT CAT, you should do fine on the D-day. Work on building up your stamina.

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Take MGMAT CAT (Quant portion) untimed? Why so hard?

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