Verbal Analysis

Question

This is from another thread. I decided to post separately since it was off the subject of the original thread.

I just took MGMAT CAT 5 this past Saturday, and I got 44V. I got 11 wrong.

Breakdown:
11/15 SC
10/12 RC
9/14 CR

Question Level: # of Questions
300 - 500: 1
500 - 600: 1
600 - 700: 19
700 - 800: 20

Analyze as you wish. The trend I've been noticing in my verbal CAT scores is that RC counts the most in Verbal. Whenever I do well on RC, I do well on the whole verbal section. As you can see my hit rate on SC and CR wasn't all that great. So I think it's worth the time investment to make sure you understand the passages you are reading, understand the questions and answers, etc.

******************************************

Here's another breakdown from MGMAT CAT 4 (42V):

12 total wrong.
11/14 CR
7/12
11/15 SC

Question Difficulty: # of Q's
300 - 500: 2
500 - 600: 4
600 - 700: 7
700 - 800: 28

As you can see, my SC was the same, my CR was better, but my RC was worse in this one. RC counts quite a bit. But I'm surprised to see that I faced many more 700-800 level questions when I was doing worse.

bipolarbear · Answer

I would argue that mgmat's algorithsm are different from gmatprep's in that the questions are more difficult but the scale is much more lenient. i received -2RC, -3CR, -4SC for a V39. It's hard to extrapolate (and maybe useless) gmat verbal from mgmat CATs

whatthehell · Answer

This might be a stupid question but does the difficulty of RC passage depend on how well we do on prior CR and SC questions? Or is it that there are varied level of difficult questions within a single RC passage?

topher · Answer

I don't think it's useless to infer things about GMAT Prep from your MGMAT verbal scores. At the very beginning of my prep I took a cold GMAT Prep diagnostic and got 46Q/37V. A few days later, after reading a little bit, I got 47Q/36V on MGMAT. They are pretty close if you ask me. But from here on out, I am not doing anymore MGMAT CAT's so it's a little irrelevant. Overall it's just good to practice all areas and use several trusted sources.

Av · Answer

topher:

Your scores for GMATPrep and MGMAT may be similar, but the two CATs are scored very differently. Generally speaking, you can miss a lot more questions on an MGMAT CAT. Due to the number of experimental questions on the GMAT, it is possible to get a V44 with 11 errors, but it's not likely. I'm sure you're capable of scoring ~V44 on GMATPrep, but it would be with less errors.

My most recent CAT results 
GMATPrep #1 - V42 (6 errors)
GMATPrep #1 RT - V47 (2 errors)
GMATPrep #2 - V44 (5 errors)

MGMAT #4 - V41 (13 errors) *taken between GMATPrep #1 and GMATPrep #1 Re-take

Verbal is much more sensitive to errors than Quant. Scores ranging from V45 to V49 can probably all be obtained with 2 errors, depending on the difficulty of the questions you get wrong. You definitely don't see this much variation in Quant scores.

topher · Answer

I just took a GMAT Prep CAT yesterday and got 770 (50Q, 44V). I definitely think both math and verbal are harder with MGMAT. And yes, the observation about the # of q's missed corresponding to certain scores differs between MGMAT and GMATPrep. When I got 44V from MGMAT, I missed 11, but yesterday I only missed 4 to get 44V on GMAT Prep.

ugimba · Answer

topher, you look lik eall set for the final exam.. when are you taking the exam?

very impressive verbal scores ... ofcourse your quant is rock solid as well.

all the best.

seofah · Answer

MGMAT CAT runs out of hard questions once you get to CAT5#. You can check this by counting the number of 700+ questions and comparing that with previous MGMAT CATs.

I agree with others' analysis on scoring algorithm - they are different in all test providers. What the likes of MGMAT do is that they first build their algorithm and then compare the score of a sample group with their score on GMATPrep. Then, MGMAT algorithm is calibrated so that, say, the sample group scoring 720 on average on GMATPrep score similarly on MGMAT. Test providers are incentivised to underestimate your score slightly for marketing reasons. My highest score on the first 4 MGMAT CAT was 720.

The calibration of the algorithm results in some interesting things. For example, you might get 13 wrong in MGMAT CAT verbal and score V39, but similar number of wrong questions may result in only V34 in GMATPrep.

topher · Answer

My test is Sep 4th. I wish I had signed up to take the test sooner b/c I think I'm ready. But now I have to keep studying to maintain my level for almost 4 more weeks. Oh well. I've only completed 7 GMAT Club tests, and have only gone through about 1/3 of OG 12, so both of those along with 1000 series will be plenty to occupy me until then.

Av · Answer

Not to derail the conversation, but topher: you are doing a great job! A 99th percentile score is definitely within your reach.

Edit: just saw your new post.

If you can afford whatever the fee is, I'd highly recommend that you move your date forward. I took my test a week later that I should have and it was hard to maintain any motivation to keep refreshing my memory of the subjects.

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