Manhattan prep (MGMAT) CAT difficulties as you progress

Question

I've been taking Manhattan prep's CATs as my practice, each spaced between a week or two. With this time given, I've been reviewing the type of questions I get wrong and reviewing my notes so these times I have in between practice exams were not necessarily "down times" to let go of the skills I've built. I saw a bit of progress in my first four exams but now that I'm on my last ones, I've been struggling a lot more than I did in the beginning. Especially with time management, which I suppose have to do with the difficulty of the questions. And consequently my scores in the last two exams are actually a lot lower even though I've had more practice.

Has anyone else seen similar patterns using MGMAT? For those who are more familiar with the different type of practice materials, I want to ask how you felt about Manhattan's questions in comparison to the official ones.

Has anyone else seen similar patterns using MGMAT? For those who are more familiar with the different type of practice materials, I want to ask how you felt about Manhattan's questions in comparison to the official ones.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi daysandhours,

I'd like to know a bit more about these specific CAT results:

1) What were your scores (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores) on each of these CATs?
2) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT (including the Essay and IR sections) each time?
3) Do you have any of the GMAC CATs left?

While the MGMAT CATs might be a little more difficult in spots, they serve as a reasonable estimate of how you would score on Test Day. After reviewing these CATs, how many questions did you find that you got wrong because of a silly/little mistake? In real basic terms, answering too many 'gettable' questions incorrectly is why your score dropped. At higher and higher score levels, the GMAT becomes really 'sensitive' to little mistakes - to hit your goal score (750+, if memory serves), you really can't afford to make any silly mistakes.

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

IanStewart · Answer

I won't comment about specific companies, but on the real GMAT, hard questions are not time-consuming if you see what to do. So if you're finding the hard questions on a company test time-consuming, even though you know how to solve them, it is very probably the questions that are the problem, and not you. You should instead do one of the official tests to see if pacing remains an issue for you. Official tests will also give you a much more trustworthy estimate of your current level - in my experience with students, company tests are good predictors for some people, but very bad predictors for others.

anu0921 · Answer

The company mocks did not prove good predictors for me. After putting in so much effort, my mock scores were hardly anywhere close to my liking.

GMATPrep1 - 660 (Q51 V28) (didn't know there was a penalty for leaving Qs, hence the 28 in verbal)
MGMAT 1 - 670 (Q48 V33)
MGMAT 2 - 680 (Q47 V35)
MGMAT 3 - 690 (Q45 V37)
GMATPrep2 - 700 (Q51 V34)

I somehow knew that I was better than what my scores had to say about me.. and I was not wrong. GMAT 1 - 750

(Q50 V40).

All the hard work paid off in the end!

PS: Do not get disheartened with low mock scores.

(Q50 V40). All the hard work paid off in the end!

PS: Do not get disheartened with low mock scores.

MBATeaCup · Answer

Hi all,

So I am kinda new to this forum but I do need your help/advice.

I have been studying for GMAT for a while now, did all the questions in the OG and redid the ones that I was getting wrong. Before that I took GMAT Prep I test and I scored 630. After all this studying I thought I would take MGMAT CAT I to check what score I would get but for some reason I scored lower. I got 570. I do not understand how I scored lower with more experience than when I had zero experience. One thing to mention though is that I struggled with time management during MGAMT Quant and I had to guess a lot in the end. So would you say MGMAT is more difficult or am I getting worse? Thanks!!!

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

Hi folks,

Having taught the GMAT for years, I find that people's scores can vary for many reasons. Some people score better on our (MGMAT's) CATs than they do on the real test or GMATPrep. Some people have the opposite experience and find the official tests easier. Some people perform similarly on our CATs and GMATPrep and then perform very differently on the test. There is no typical experience, but on the whole our tests are fairly predictive. Even someone who finds the real test a bit easier usually does not see a substantial increase. I can count the students who have reported a 50-point increase from their best CAT on one hand.

Having said all that, it is very common that people will see a dip in their score as they start to get into trouble with timing. If someone is a little shaky on the material during the first few tests, they may have find it easier to let problems go. ("Hmm, I have no idea how to solve this. Let's try the next one.") As people get stronger at the material, they feel that they should be able to get every problem right. This may in fact be true--in theory. However, since the GMAT is an adaptive exam, it adjusts upward in difficulty as you get problems right. If you push yourself on problems and run behind on time, you get "rewarded" with even harder problems. The end result is usually a timeout and a big drop in score.

The key to avoiding this is to remember that holding to time benchmarks and letting tough problems go must be central to your approach, even if you are shooting for a 700+ score. Most folks are going to miss about 40% of the problems, and this doesn't dip much until the very high end. So make peace with the idea that you will miss problems, and you don't have to see your scores drop as you move forward.

jimmy02 · Answer

Hi DmitryFarber,

So can you tell how many questions one can afford to get wrong. Is it correct that one's score depend more on few initial questions than on last ones.

Jimmy

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi jimmy02,

There are a couple of problems with the question that you ask:

First, your questions seems incomplete - "how many questions can you afford to get wrong....?" And what? You haven't defined the 'goal', so it's not clear what you're asking about.

Second, the scoring algorithm on the Official GMAT is far more complex than most people realize, so your score isn't based on the number of correct answers. If you haven't hit your score goal yet on a CAT, then the better question is "how many questions did you get wrong on your CAT that you could/should have gotten correct, but didn't because of a silly/little mistake?" If you can correctly answer all of the 'gettable' questions, then you should be able to hit your score goals.

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

coolrahine · Answer

i , im consistently gettibg 670 plus in Manhattan gmat .My scores are , mgmat -3 (670) , mgmat4 - (740) , mgmat 5 - (700) and today gave mgmat 6 -(730) .my quants is in the range of 50-51 with lowest of 47 . the exam is being given at home and with pauses .Need guidance as to what i should do to improve and wat shud be my timing strategy .

coolrahine · Answer

i , im consistently gettibg 670 plus in Manhattan gmat .My scores are , mgmat -3 (670) , mgmat4 - (740) , mgmat 5 - (700) and today gave mgmat 6 -(730) .my quants is in the range of 50-51 with lowest of 47 . the exam is being given at home and with pauses .Need guidance as to what i should do to improve and wat shud be my timing strategy .

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi coolrahine,

What do you mean what you say that you take the CATs "with pauses?" For the sake of realism, you should only be taking the two 8-minute breaks during your CATs (the same two breaks that you'll have on Test Day). The more that you deviate from the Official Test Day 'rules', the more your scores can be 'off.'

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

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

The simple answer is that most test-takers will get approximately 40% of the questions wrong. This certainly varies--it's possible in theory to get them all right or all wrong, but both of these instances are highly unlikely. If you're approaching the 99th percentile on a section, your accuracy may get closer to 70 or 80%, but it depends on the difficulty of the problems you're missing.

As for order within the test, no, the initial questions are not more important. The "get the first X questions right" advice floating around is inaccurate and dangerous. If you focus too much on getting the initial questions right, you are setting yourself up to crash later in the test. Besides, putting extra time/effort doesn't necessarily help you get more questions right, anyway. As Ian said, GMAT questions shouldn't take a long time (greater than 2 minutes) if you see what to do. Of course, that's a big "if." If you  don't  see what to do, they can certainly take longer. That's why it's so important to let some questions go.

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