Study and Strategy questions relating to the GMAT.
briangtsmith
Students
 
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Joined: Tue Aug 31, 2010 12:38 pm
 

Manhattan GMAT CAT test

by briangtsmith Wed Sep 01, 2010 1:11 pm

How accurate are these? I scored a 680 (42Q/38V) on my first one...is this weighted easier or harder than the real exam?

Thanks!
StaceyKoprince
ManhattanGMAT Staff
 
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Location: Montreal
 

Re: Manhattan GMAT CAT test

by StaceyKoprince Fri Sep 10, 2010 5:35 pm

Nice! That's a fantastic starting point!

Before we get into the stats, one note of caution: your results are less valid if you do not take the practice tests under official conditions. If you, for example, skipped the essays, took much longer breaks than allowed, used the pause button, or so on, then those things could cause your practice score to be inflated.

If you didn't take it under official conditions, then you should "discount" your score a bit. And make sure you take future tests under official conditions, of course. :)

We continuously track our student practice test scores across the same students' scores on the real exam, and we make sure to keep the "skew" across all students at less than 10 points in either direction. In other words, the test scores do not consistently skew higher or consistently skew lower than official scores. (Though individual students, obviously, may have higher or lower scores.)

The standard deviation of the test is about 50 points (compared to about 30 points on the real test).

If you were to take the official test right now, you would have a 2/3 chance of scoring within 50 points of your practice test score and a 1/3 chance of scoring outside of that range.
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep