Wide variation in test scores between Manhattan Prep Tests and GMAC

Not to complicate the issue, vverma1995, but many test-takers find that their official mock scores do fall in line with their eventual test score, provided they take these mocks under realistic test-taking conditions. (Many people skip through the IR and AWA sections, get up from their computer at will, or do not get as nervous when taking mocks as they do when taking the real exam. There are any of a number of factors that can explain a score drop.) There is a reason that just about everybody, tutor and test prep company alike, agrees that the official mocks are the best predictors of an eventual score. If it were as simple as deducting 20-30 points, then these "easy" mocks would not be as highly regarded for exam preparation.

That said, I agree with GMATinsight that many students find Manhattan Prep mocks harder than the real exam. But that does not translate to harder is better. Questions from third parties, even those with an established reputation, often add layers of complexity, especially in more challenging questions, that do not accurately capture the design of official questions—i.e. they can be hard for the wrong reasons. Taking such mocks is often more trouble than it is worth, because you start to doubt yourself, and you may develop certain habits that will not be brought to bear on the real exam.

How does this translate to actionable advice? I would either ditch the Manhattan Prep mocks or use them in a different manner, for supplemental study, rather than taking such mocks at face value. In my view, you have taken two mocks that count so far, and seesawing back and forth between official and unofficial mocks is not going to do you any favors. The more official mocks you take—for the first time, and there are only six such mocks—the greater the degree of reliability in those results.

Best of luck to you in your studies, however you choose to go about them.

- Andrew

Hi Andrew

Thank you so much for your inputs! This certainly helps put things into perspective for me. I do try to keep test conditions as close to the real thing as possible, including giving mocks at similar times to my official attempt, and giving it in my office where I have to be masked throughout, because that's likely to be the case during my official attempt as well, so I do hope that these don't end up being the factors that drag me down.

With regards to the the Manhattan Prep mocks, I was aware that they are harder than the actual exam. There's three main reasons why I am still using them:

- The question category and difficulty level breakdowns help me understand what are the "easy" areas that I'm continuing to struggle with

- Time management is a bit of an issue for me - In both my GMAT Official Mocks, I've had to rush through portions of the exam because I spent too much time on another. I feel that if I can get my body used to getting the "harder" mock down with a minute to spare in the end, it would set me up well for the official attempt

- I am incredibly lazy, and in any period of 3 hours I think about laying down a gazillion times, so I'm hoping they would help me build that mental stamina

My current plan is to take the official mocks every three weeks or so, to check what the results of all the work I've put in over the last few weeks has gotten me and really use that as a yardstick to measure where I am. It was only when I saw such a huge variation in scores that got me concerned. I also read somewhere that GMAT Official mocks 5 & 6 are harder than 1 & 2 and closer to the real thing, which probably contributed to the uncertainty.

Please do let me know if anything stands out as a red flag for you. Once again, thank you so much for your inputs!

P.S. An un-intended benefit of the Manhattan Prep mocks might also be that they keep me from becoming overconfident XD

Hi vverma1995,

The good news is that the official practice exams are the most accurate and you've scored very well on those - nice work! I see that you have gotten your initial question answered, but one thing I'd like to add is that you really should not need to take more practice exams than the 6 offered by GMAC. So, keep up the good work, and let us know how your next test goes.

Hi Scott

Thank you so much for your inputs! I sort of want to hold on to GMAC test 5 and 6 just in case I don't do as well as I hope to on my first GMAT and need to give it again. With that in mind, is there any other strategy you would suggest to simulate the time pressure + resilience that mocks would help me deal with?

Would love to hear your thoughts on this!

there any other strategy you would suggest to simulate the time pressure + resilience that mocks would help me deal with?

You could try creating timed sets in the online Wiley version.

How to score high on the GMAT. Why solving approach is important.

Hi vverma1995,

The official mocks are the most reliable ones as they are believed to be the closest to the actual GMAT exam. If you consistently score around your target score in the official mocks, you are good to go! Of course, you can expect a variation of 20-30 points in the actual exam.

Coming to number of mocks, there is a common myth among students-to take as many mock tests as possible before GMAT. However, that is not something I would suggest. I scored 740 on GMAT by just taking 2 mocks before the test. I recommend that anywhere between 3-6 mocks are enough. Most students don’t exactly understand the role of a mock test.

Mocks should be given to get used to a 3 hr test format, understand how the adaptive test works and identify which section order suits you the most. That’s why I suggest taking 3-6 mocks with gaps of 2-3 days between each attempt. Make sure you try different section orders and see which one suits you the most.

Mocks are not meant to be given for practice. In fact, make sure don’t waste GMAT Prep mocks for practice. They are the closest to the real GMAT, and hence should be saved till the end to gauge where you stand after completing preparation.

Hope it helps!

Have you heard of the GMAC focus quant practice quizzes that you can purchase?

Consider how active you are on the forum. If very, your official scores could be inflated because the official questions would be familiar to you (even if you do not remember them). If not much, then just go with the official scores. That said, you could see quite a bit of variation day to day depending on many factors. So don't fixate on the score you get in any practice test. Instead focus on your mistakes and learn from them so that you don't make those during the actual test.
A practice test has exactly three uses - helps you learn time management, build stamina and identify your weaknesses

Hi GmatTutotKnight,

Thank you for your inputs!

That is actually how I do most of my practice, through timed sets on the online Wiley platform, with a mix of Easy, Medium and Hard questions. I almost invariably end up completing that within ~80% of the allotted time. I have also tried tracking the question split in the last few assessments, and noticed that there's an almost even split between easy, medium and hard questions, so I wonder if I'm only going through it so fast because I'm seeing more easy questions than I am likely to in an adaptive test?

I had not till you pointed it out. Seems super helpful! Since it's 24 questions instead of the 31 like the official GMAT, would you suggest keeping a time limit of 48 minutes instead of the 60 that the test comes with to keep the time pressure realistic?

Hi Karshima!

Thank you so much for your insights. I am very new to, and not particularly active on the forum. I have only recently started looking at the forum questions, but I make it a point to only look at and attempt "non-official" questions. I had no particular reason for doing this, but now that you've pointed out that it could potentially inflate my practice test scores, I'll be sure to be more mindful. Thank you!

ScottTargetTestPrep Are you referring to these? https://www.mba.com/exam-prep/gmat-offi ... e-practice

I would make it as realistic as the actual GMAT. But are you sure they give you 60 minutes for the test on GMAT focus?

I went back and checked, and noticed that they say "under an hour" - I will probably purchase these once I get through the official guide, and could drop an update here once I have more clarity!

Your scores look great!
Do share your prep methods etc. Thanks!

Hi Faith09

I would like to preface this by saying that I'm probably not the best example here, considering that I got my highest score before I'd even touched a book or understood what sections were covered in the GMAT. With that out of the way, here's what I have been doing since:

- Reviewed my 1st GMAT Mock, and gave the diagnostic evaluations that come with the GMAT Offical Guide's online platform - With this I was able to find a few easy wins that I could start my preparation with (eg: I understood what the geometry questions wanted me to do, but I just didn't know the formulas)
- Once I was comfortable about the basics with quant, I started doing the practice question sets on the GMAT Official Guide Online Platform. I started with their "study" mode because it helped me review answers for all questions while I was doing them, so even if I get something right, I know that I'm getting it right for the correct reasons. At this point, I was targeting doing ~30 questions per day, across topics and difficulty levels.
- For Verbal, I have focused mainly on RC and CR till now. I went through a few videos/live sessions for the same by GMATWhiz, GMATNinja and TargetTestPrep. Each of them have amazing, but slightly different, strategies so I settled on a blend that felt most "natural" for me and started practicing the same using the GMAT Official Guide Practice Sets just like I did for quant. With this, my target # of questions per day moved up to ~60 (30 for Quant, and 30 verbal alternating between 20RC + 10CR or 10RC + 20CR)

I am also using the Manhattan mocks for course correction and building my stamina, and the GMAT Official Mock every 3 weeks as a yardstick to measure my progress.

Moving forward, I aim to include SC as a part of my daily routine (I am terrified of this, to be honest), and take up more non-official questions from the GMAT Forum because that gives us access to different perspective on the same problems and I also love the error logs. Based on the feedback from this thread, I am also reevaluating the role Manhattan Prep will play for me - I don't want to give them up because I know how much I need to improve on the time management aspect and performing under pressure, but I am also more aware of the potential for unnecessarily overcomplicating things which may end up having a negative impact on my score.

I am afraid that solving unofficial questions (especially in SC) is not a recommended practice at all.