how to understand my performance

[student]

Hi there,

I have taken 4 MGMAT tests so far in last 1 week. I have my exam 5 days from now. I am a little anxious about my performance. My MGMAT scores are
MGMAT 1 -640
2- 660
3 - 670
4 - 730

I have found Quants a little tough on MGMAT tests compared with GMAT Prep and verbal at same level.
Although I have scored 730 in MGMAT4, I am not sure whether I performed better or the questions were easier. I am inclied towards later.

Please advise.

[mdinerstein]

Hi student,

First off, taking 4 tests in the same week is a bit overkill, so I would highly recommend spending more time studying material from the Strategy Guides and doing problems from the Official Guides from here on out. This is because the CATs are designed to assess your ability at a given point during your studies and the Assessment Reports help guide this process. Unfortunately, while ManhattanGMAT maintains a robust CAT pool, the score you receive is not a fully accurate predictor for success on test day. Even the real GMAT exam itself has a 30 point standard error, meaning that if you are a 670 test-taker, you can score anywhere in the range of 640 - 700 and still be at the same level! With that said, the GMATPrep software, because it is released by GMAC, does do a much better job of coming up with your eventual GMAT score. Use your results on that test as a more accurate score predictor and use the Assessment Report results from our tests to guide your studies going forward.

Looking at your scores, it would be safe to say that you are at a 650 - 660 level. Definitely run a few Assessment Reports on the early exams and see which sections need the most help. For a guide to Assessment Reports, check out our Assessment Report Instructions.

Hope this helps!

Best,

Michael Dinerstein
Marketing and Student Services
michael@manhattangmat.com
212-721-7400
800-576-4628

[StaceyKoprince]

Also - no more practice tests! If you keep taking a bunch of tests in the last few days before your real test, all you'll do is tire yourself out! You need to be fully rested for test day.

Re: your question about your test 4 score, the four tests are given in exactly the same way... so it was just based on your performance as you took the test. The scoring is a function of difficulty level, not percentage correct, so you can't simply get a bunch of easy questions and get them all right and get a 730. The difficulty levels would be too low to allow you to be given a 730. (And, of course, if you're getting lots of things right, the questions will get harder, in general.)

I agree that you are most likely in the mid-to-high 600 range at this point. Use your test results (the assessment reports) to figure out what you want to do the same on your official test and what you want to do differently. That should be your focus for your last few days.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes!

[Guest]

Although I disagree with you that one can not get a high score by answering correctly to low weightage questions. For example, I got 730 in my MGMAT 5 while the toughest question displayed to me was assigned score of 690. Probably, I should have listened to your advice on not to write any more tests.

Anyways, I have got a 700 in my exam. I would like to thank the MGMAT team for their support and would recommend MGMAT tests to any of the serious test takers. MGMAT tests give you some good practice that helps you immensely during your real exam.

[mdinerstein]

Congratulations on your score! All the hard work and studying certainly paid off!

Best,

Michael Dinerstein
Marketing and Student Services Associate
michael@manhattangmat.com
800-576-4628
212-721-7400

[StaceyKoprince]

Congrats - that's excellent!