Drop in MGMAT Practice Exam Scores

[manthei2]

I can't even tell my friends and family about this as it's so humiliating. I took the real GMAT in April of 2011 and scored a 590, that was after about 3~4 weeks of mild studying. As I'm hoping to get into a top tier program I decided to refocus. I signed for the in-class MGMAT program and felt this would get me to where I need to be. I took the practice exam before the class began and scored a 640, I was thrilled, I thought after a few weeks I'll easily get into the 700s.

So it's week seven of the class and I've done all the homework, all the reading, all the whatever else there is. I felt things were coming along nicely. Then yesterday I took the second required exam and scored a 590! I couldn't believe it, I haven't done a thorough review of the exam because I'm so frustrated and angry. Obviously I need to do so, but I'm hoping that getting this off my chest will be somewhat therapeutic.

I have a 3.1 GPA from an acceptable state school, the funny, or annoying thing is I passed the CPA exam on the first try in 2005. Only approximately 10% of people do that. I can't figure out why I can't crack this exam.

Since I signed up for MGMAT I have access to MGMATs OG Archer which tracks progress on OG 12 questions. In Quant I'm at 79% and an average time of less than 2 minutes. I haven't done many of them twice and frankly I can't remember answers anyway so I don't think it's skewed in anyway. In verbal I'm at 82% with an average time of under 1:30, I don't think I've done any of the verbal questions twice.

Anyway, that's my story, sad but true as it may be....

[terence.battle1]

Well, a lot of people go down their first test after starting the class as the approach to the questions and such need to get worked out. My test scores were 620 pre-course, then a 660, 650, 660 through week 7. Week 8 I hit a 700 and week 9 a 690. On the actual test I just scored a 710 and for reference I find Manhattan quant much more time consuming and confusing than the real gmat math but if you can score well in Manhattan quant you should be set for GMAT quant which is nice. In short, is the timing aspect ok or are you struggling? Are you identifying the traps in the question or just jumping to an answer? If it's on the quant section you should really evaluate the questions and start to notice the patterns and traps. On verbal, well, it's just about understanding the dynamics of the questions and having a sound approach for every type.

[manthei2]

I definitely need to look for the traps in the question. I noticed that I didn't identify them in a few of the questions. Timing wasn't really an issue, I'm pretty good at maintaining a steady pace throughout. The remaining MGMAT exams should help me in getting better at that. I plan on finishing up the course and taking the remaining exams, one a week and then spend the week reviewing the exam. Hopefully I'll be able to score >700 by the August / September timeframe!

[terence.battle1]

You should be ok. I found my biggest issue with quant initially was seeing the question and not really thinking of the trap answers. This is really prevalent with pos/neg type of questions which then get embedded in other question types where the variables are squared and such. For reference I started 1 practice test a week after week 6 through end of course. Then, with three weeks remaining after class before test, I took one a week, reviewed it the following day, then did 15 problem solving, 15 data sufficiency, 10 critical reasoning, 10 sentence correction, and 2 reading comp passages a day the 8 days before my exam. I think this approach helped me a lot as I was essentially doing a mini-gmat everyday and getting constant repitition of the problem types and the traps that were most consistently being tested.

[manthei2]

Thanks for your help! Your strategy seems pretty intense, but exactly what I need!

Chris

[matt.c.stewart]

Terence. I like your idea of doing a mini test per day. How did you select the questions you were going to do? Did you just do it randomly or have a system?

[terence.battle1]

The way I approached it was by opening up the supplemental official guides (green and blue book) and counting the number of each problem type there were. Then I counted backwards and began there. In short, I started on question 33 for SC or something knowing that 10 a day would put me at 113 the last day, etc. So I just did 10 consistent questions (33-42) a day. This approach also kind of built up to the GMAT since the problems are in order of difficulty. So as you review any mistakes you're making each day you should be solidifying your foundation in moving on to the next day and slightly more difficult problems. I personally think this worked great for me as literally, everyday was like doing a mini-gmat and when I saw the problems on the real test, nothing was really surprising. Had I not rushed verbal (finished with 17M left) I think I would of probably finished 730/740 range. Oh well, lesson learned... don't go with empty stomache then eat a granola bar and get a sugar rush between your quant and verbal section :)

[StaceyKoprince]

manthei2, start talking to your teacher! What you're experiencing is not unusual!

A lot of people find no improvement or even a drop in improvement on the 2nd practice test - and when you analyze your test, you'll often find that you had timing problems that messed up your score. You have actually learned lots of stuff; you just haven't learned how to put it all together in a timed situation yet! It's very common.

Okay, so #1, analyze that practice test. This article will help:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/

Next, go through this article:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... anagement/

Also talk to your instructor (after you analyze your test). Get his/her advice on where to focus, etc. And after you've done that analysis, you can also come back and share it here, if you like, and we'll advise you further.

Terence, thanks so much for weighing in. The one thing I'll mention to everyone about Terence's strategy is that the review is the critical piece. If you don't do intensive review, but just do lots of questions and maybe look over the solutions after or fix your mistakes but that's it, then you are not going to learn as well as Terence did. You've got to pick these things apart and understand everything (as Terence was discussing - things like traps, etc.).