MGMAT Avg Deviation from actual GMAT

[garylyon]

Hi, I'm wondering what is the average or typical range that folks see from their practice tests to the actual GMAT. I got a 640 on my first practice test the other day, after studying book #1 on FDPs. I did poorly on math - guessed on the last 15 questions but left the last question blank (Q -41 V-36). In other words, a bit of time management focus will probably pay big dividends. I'm confident, but I'm wondering what you think are the chances of getting up to 700ish in 5 weeks. I'm not working or in school right now, so I plan to have all 9 books knocked out by July 31, then spend the last 3 weeks doing all the official guide MCQs (I calculated 57/day, perfectly manageable). I just don't want to get my practice scores up to 680, then take the test twice and get a 610 and a 620, because that would totally suck. I understand everyone's different, but there must be somewhat of a normal curve for variances.

[StaceyKoprince]

If you still got a 640 after guessing on the last 15 Qs, then if you fix the timing problems, I'd say you actually do have a shot at hitting 700+ even though the timeframe is pretty short.

Note: I'm assuming that you did NOT get really lucky on those 15 on which you guessed. Did you get most of them wrong? If you got more than about 3 or 4 right, then I retract what I said. :)

The standard deviation from last MGMAT practice test to official test is about 50 points. (The standard deviation on the official test itself is about 30 points.)

Next, don't just sit down and do EVERYthing. Prioritize your study based on your strengths and weaknesses.

Read this:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/09/ ... e-mistakes

Next, analyze your practice test using this:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/

If you'd like, come back here and tell us the results of your analysis. (Note: do share an analysis with us, not just the raw data. Part of getting better is developing your ability to analyze your results - figure out what they mean and what you think you should do about them!)

Read these two timing articles and start doing what they say:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... to-win-it/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... anagement/

Finally, take a look at the How To Study section of this article:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -the-gmat/

[garylyon]

Thanks Stacey.
To answer your question, yes I got 3 correct of those last 15 that I randomly guessed on.
A couple things really stand out at me on the quant section of my first practice test. First, I spent about 50 minutes on 8 questions and got 5 of them correct: 2/4 for 700-800, 3/3 for 600-700, and 0/1 for 500-600. Over 15 minutes was spent on two 700-800 questions that I got wrong! That's quite a bit of wasted time, and I imagine I will do much better on quant just by staying discplined and following the tools in those articles.

As for types of problems, it's difficult to really assess based on just 21 questions that I actually read and tried to solve - since there's like 15 or 16 questions that I randomly guessed on. I'm not going to bother coming up with my own stats based just on the questions I actually got to, but that's what tests 2-6 will be for, since now I will make sure if I end up guessing, it won't be until the last question or 2.

That first test (the 640) was done after studying just Guide 1. After today I will have completed 4 Guides, so I imagine both speed and accuracy will improve, and obviously timing will be the thing I focus on the most when I take my 2nd practice tomorrow morning.

I will let you know how things go tomorrow (Monday).

[garylyon]

Just finished CAT #2 and got a 700 (V- 95%, Q - 70). First test was 640 (V- 81%, Q - 70) about a week ago. One easily controlled factor was my mental fuel tank was full the 2nd time around, whereas CAt #1 I took at 2pm and was already tired. I attribute the improvement in V to that. Improvement in math I attribute to mostly timing. CAT #1 I spent 50 minutes on 8 questions (got 5/8 right), this time around I spent about 28 minutes on 7 questions and was 0/7. The last 4 questions I got just one right, getting the last 2 question wrong, both at 6-700 level, and avg time of just about 1:15. Obviously, big improvement in timing from the CAT #1, but still have plenty of room for improvement. I got 9/19 6-700 level questions correct and 4/12 7-800 correct, which tells me that I don't even need to be getting the most difficult questions right in order to bring my Q up significantly...just need to focus on getting fluent in the topic areas I identify as weak, and then building speed.

One question is...with 4.5 weeks until test day, what kind of general time allocation do you suggest between studying V and Q? I am thinking somethig like 75% Q. Most of my V questions are already in the 7-800 range, which means in relative terms the math skills I need to improve my overall score are more basic than the verbal skills. After going through 3 of the Q guides, I understand every concept as I'm reading it, but now I just need to remember each one and be able to pull it out of my memory bank quickly.

[StaceyKoprince]

Nice - yes, fixing the timing makes an enormous difference!

Confused about one thing - you talk about the "improvement" on quant but your quant score was the same for both (according to what you typed). Or is there a typo there?

Actually, I'm guessing there is a typo and your 640 Q score was lower, because otherwise your verbal jump alone would've lifted you 60 points and that just doesn't seem right. :)

So, good - you still have some work to do on the quant timing, but you are moving in the right direction. Keep going.

Next, yes, given the numbers you just posted, I agree Q is the priority. I'd usually tell people 2/3 to 1/3 but 75% to 25% is fine too.

Keep up the good work and let us know how it goes!