MGMAT cat - Peer reviewed

[Aragorn]

Dear community, please comment on your views on the mgmat test..here are mine...We can share our experiences and help all new members by using a common threaad...

We face 700-800 level questions faster than real gmat which is good for preparation.
The real gmat questions will not be going from a higher difficulty level to a lower difficulty level instantly as MGMAT do, but we are getting invaluable practice of hard questions in these tests. The easy ones, we will be able to manage with God's will. But for the difficult questions, MGMAT test provides good experience.

Also, gmatprep is a little easier than the real gmat, so mgmat in muopinion is a better test prep software. In the end, you don't want the algorithm to be matched point to point, you only want to score higher.

Gmat Progress tracker: d4dial.blogspot.com

[StaceyKoprince]

FYI - what you see on your score report in terms of difficulty level is not as precise as what the algorithm is actually using. You only see 100-point ranges for difficulty level. The questions are actually rated in 10-point increments. So you might think that your score appears to "drop" 100 points because you go from a 700-800 level to a 600-700 level. But that 7-8 level might've been a 710 and the 6-7 level might be a 690 - you just don't see the data to that level of granularity, that's all.

Also, difficulty level is not the only factor to which the algorithm must respond. It also has to manage the various question types and content areas. Even if you got that 710 level question right, you might get a 690 next if what you need next is, say, a geometry data sufficiency question from the circles sub-category and a 690 level question is the closest one to fit the bill.

:) happy studying!

[Guest 12345]

just observing the various forums and judging from my own experience, I feel like the MGMAT verbal is a lot more ~tricky than the official verbal
MGMAT Relative to Quant, I feel like virtually no one crushes MGMAT verbals (relative to quant) at least on these forums.

- questions are longer resulting in superficially more complex sentences
- sometimes you get nailed for things that have little to do with what the "intent" of the question is (i'm being vague but 650-700 scorers probably know how I feel)
- often stuck with 5 wrong answers but forced to pick the least wrong one
- the verbal is fair, but just not as 'clean' as the official practice questions

I welcome the difficulty+ the MGMAT Quant is great, just wanted to know if anyone else felt that way about the verbal

[Guest]

just observing the various forums and judging from my own experience, I feel like the MGMAT verbal is a lot more ~tricky than the official verbal
MGMAT Relative to Quant, I feel like virtually no one crushes MGMAT verbals (relative to quant) at least on these forums.

- questions are longer resulting in superficially more complex sentences
- sometimes you get nailed for things that have little to do with what the "intent" of the question is (i'm being vague but 650-700 scorers probably know how I feel)
- often stuck with 5 wrong answers but forced to pick the least wrong one
- the verbal is fair, but just not as 'clean' as the official practice questions

I welcome the difficulty+ the MGMAT Quant is great, just wanted to know if anyone else felt that way about the verbal

It's interesting that you posted these comments today. I just finished MGMAT's RC Question Bank and totally bombed it (only got 12 correct). I was quite shocked because I've been quite strong in RC (took GMAT Prep 1 couple days ago and got only 1 RC question wrong and my hit rate from OG is typically above 80%). In my opinion, the MGMAT questions are trickier and many of them have 2 very close choices. I also disagreed some of the answers.

[StaceyKoprince]

I agree that some of our verbal stuff (more on the RC/CR side than the SC side) is not as "clean" as the official stuff. We've actually been doing a lot of research into the two areas - we're going to be updating our questions based on the results and publishing new strategies to deal with RC/CR (and SC, actually!) once we actually get everything written.

The advantage of OG is that the questions are the real thing. The disadvantage is that the explanations are often... poor. So, use our explanations to help you learn, but if you see something you disagree with or think is a little off, don't worry about it - just move on to the next problem. (By the way - I see things I disagree with in OG as well. There are certain questions that just make my blood boil because they have what I think are serious flaws! I think that's just the nature of fuzzy verbal.)

[same guy]

Thanks for the responses
I thought I was going crazy - I scored a 88% on the Official GMAT CAT..... 2 months ago but have been getting and have been getting abused by the MGMAT practice questions.
MGMGAT does a good job of trying to be honest, certainly better than most. It is extremely difficult to make fair, yet tough questions.

I will say that the sentence correction section of the GMAT completely discriminates against non native speakers since (1) no one uses half of the idioms they test, ESPECIALLY not in business (2) the only place you'd run into most of the more tricky idioms would be in a (good) American high school level academic setting....

I'm a native speaker - my parents aren't

[RonPurewal]

I will say that the sentence correction section of the GMAT completely discriminates against non native speakers since (1) no one uses half of the idioms they test, ESPECIALLY not in business (2) the only place you'd run into most of the more tricky idioms would be in a (good) American high school level academic setting....

as an avid reader of admittedly highbrow publications, i'll have to disagree with this one. i have seen almost every idiom appearing in the OG sentence correction problems in print within the last few months, sometimes several times over.

do remember that there is a very strict divide between spoken language and written language; the norms for each one do not AT ALL apply to the other. indeed, if you examine the content of the spoken language you encounter on a day-to-day basis, you are very unlikely to encounter most of the idioms you'll encounter on the gmat sc problems - but you're also very unlikely to encounter any of the strictures of formal written language!

for instance, consider the following structure (an appositive modifier):
my brother, a graduate of the haas school of business, works in san francisco.
you will never, ever, ever hear someone speak a sentence like this out loud, but it is de rigueur in formal writing. the same goes for a great many of the idiomatic expressions and examples of formal diction you may encounter.