MG GMAT questions and GMAT real test

[luc2r4]

Hi Stacey

I wonder if you can help to figure out what happen to the last score I had onthe GMAT
580 Q( 43), V(27) .

Surprisingly, this score is exactly the same than the first test I took ,
the only difference ( in terms of test ) is the fact that I took the last
in another country.

I said it is a surprise to me since I ve been practicing the MG GMAT study guides and CAT exams and the GMAT Prep.

When I made the first MG CAT I scored 590 Q (38) V( 33)
Realizing that Manhattan Gmat Quantitative questions were "more wordy " than prep software ( MG had at least 5 lines per problem while GMAT Prep 1 or 3 at most ) , so
I swithched to GMAT Prep.

Using GMAT Prep , I scored 720 Q( 50) and V(38)
and day before the real test 730 Q( 50) and V(39)

THe huge difference with GMAT PRep and real test is that at my test I had a lot of wordy questions , many of which required more calculations than reasoning. Though after the test, I thought I would score not lower than 640. Any time I practiced I made AWA, breaks and everything simulating real test conditions,
however I had a meager 580 Q( 43), V(27) .

Could you tell me if it is possible that the gmat algorithm could underscore my performance , just because I could have improve at a non normal pace (the gap between my prior test to the last was just one month ).?????

Or is it that test get harder as many times you take the test ?????

though the preparation I had the last time and the higher scores I have got in simulations, the real test proved the contrary.

In fact, I took a MG TEST ( CAT #2 ) under test conditions ( awa included )
and I got 680 Q (44) , V(38). Compared to the last real test , 580 Q( 43), V(27) I can not understand what could happen . Please , let me know if it could be the case of the algorithm itself.

[RonPurewal]

hi -- a couple of things to clarify before we can give a more detailed response.

Using GMAT Prep , I scored 720 Q( 50) and V(38)
and day before the real test 730 Q( 50) and V(39)

that's a pretty big spread from your official score. it's not uncommon to see differences of 60, 80, or even 100 points, but 150 is a very uncommonly large differential.

key question: were these your first two administrations of the gmat prep tests?
if they weren't, then you will have seen repeated questions, and so these scores don't really carry any significance (although the practice and takeaways that you could get from the new questions are still, of course, valuable).

Realizing that Manhattan Gmat Quantitative questions were "more wordy " than prep software ( MG had at least 5 lines per problem while GMAT Prep 1 or 3 at most )

you have somewhat of a point here -- the excess of words in some of our problems is something we're working on at the moment. for the most part, though, this problem is restricted to the quant side; our verbal problems are not significantly longer than their official counterparts.

one consideration of which you should be aware, however, is that you shouldn't be comparing numbers of lines.
one line of text on the gmat prep software contains considerably more words than does one line of text on our software.

--

how was your MENTAL STATE during the exam?

the only explanation that immediately comes to mind mind for such large score differences is that you were either
(1) intimidated by the extreme stress of the exam, or
(2) DISTRACTED during much of the exam.

as for (1), you'll have to give us an honest assessment of this: do you think that you were excessively nervous or stressed during the exam?

as for (2), i think this may have been the primary factor: you may have been so busy thinking about scores, algorithms, and adaptive question trajectories that you may never have been paying more than partial attention to the problems themselves!
the reason i have this suspicion is that you mentioned something about predicting your own score during the official test itself (i.e., "i didn't think i would score lower than 640").
this indicates that you were actually trying to gauge your performance -- and, worse yet, trying to assign a numerical score to that performance -- AS you were actually taking the exam.
allowing yourself to be distracted like that is a recipe for disaster; you MUST pay full attention to the questions during the test administration.
during the test administration itself, you should NEVER think about such things as scores, difficulty levels, algorithms, or adaptive trajectories -- not a single time.
such thoughts can bring no benefit during the exam, and have great potential to distract you away from the task at hand.

if you could give us more information about your mental state during the exam, as well as whether those gmat prep attempts were your first two, we would be able to tell you more.

[luc2r4]

Ohh Ron ,
Thanks very much your response.

I understand why you think anxiety could play against me on the test.
It could destroy anybody. Though , I arrived to the test very confident
because I had really good scores during my simulations .

Yes , I did do the GMAT Prep more than once. It could have inflated my score,
so that is Why I said "I thought my grade would be 640 at least" ( I was sure a 730 would be unlikely )

It is true that if a person gets worry about scores , it affects her performance.
Maybe it was my case , but the difference from my preps 730 to actual score 580 is absurd.

What is most disappointing to me is the fact that I received an identical score to the first one.

I said that MG GMAT are wordy, but it is not bad at all. In fact, questions at my last test were more wordy than any of the GMAT Prep,
so they were more like the questions we see in MG GMAT CATs. Then , I decided to check out how I could perform in other MG GMAT.

I bought the MG GMAT CAT practice test,
to see if my scores would be close to the 580 I ve got in the actual test.

In the MG GMAT CAT 2, I got 680 Q (44) , V ( 38) .....I see that MG GMAT is more challenging in the Quant section, so I wonder how in the I got the = identical 580 Q( 43), V(27) two times.

So Am I wasting my time by enrolling to another GMAT tests ???

I appreciate very much your thoughts, I need to decide if I will take the test in no longer than 2 months , Regards
the

[StaceyKoprince]

Take a look at my response to your other post here:

http://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/has-anyone-had-the-same-gmat-score-twice-t9709.html

Also, it is not the case that your second test score would in any way be determined by your first test score. They don't adjust your scoring based upon the fact that you took it before, nor do they adjust it based on what you scored before.